In Blue Twelve Studios’ postapocalypse, people are gone and cats are left to roam the neon-lit ruins. Stray, a puzzle platformer the place gamers management an orange tabby traversing a cyberpunk world, is easy in its strategy: You are a lost cat. You can meow and scratch and be endlessly annoying, all whereas sporting a cute little backpack. Not having thumbs is difficult. But what’s ostensibly a homecoming story is a surprisingly emotional one, pertaining to themes like inequity and existentialism. There’s a sure loneliness to its world and its silence that units Stray aside. 

Plus, being a cute cat is actually enjoyable. I can’t stress that sufficient. 

Tunic

Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS4/5, Xbox Series X|S, PC

Tunic is heavy on old-school Legend of Zelda vibes. There’s little rationalization to be present in its ethereal world, which as a substitute challenges gamers to kind their journey with few clues. As a (very cute) fox, gamers will enterprise deep into woodlands, dungeons, and extra, fixing puzzles and battling foes whereas forging a path ahead.

The sport is a pleasure to discover. You’ll have some clear aims—one of many first is to retrieve a sword hidden away, for instance—and it’s even attainable to complete your entire sport in below an hour. Speed isn’t the purpose, nonetheless. It’s unlocking every new secret that the sport’s intelligent design holds. Tunic isn’t large or bombastic, like a lot of 2022’s different video games. It’s peaceable. Sit again, get pleasure from its dreamy soundtrack, and check out to determine the way you missed that highway throughout your first look.

Vampire Survivors

Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC, iOS, Android

Luca Galente’s Vampire Survivors is 2022’s sleeper hit. While its preliminary early entry interval brought on little fanfare, the sport lastly discovered its foothold early this yr, adopted by its full launch within the fall. 

The sport seems undeniably low-rent—suppose visuals befitting of a Super Nintendo—and fairly easy in its gameplay. You have a weapon and hordes of monsters to kill with it. A deceptively simple premise rapidly offers approach to chaos because the tempo reaches screen-full-of-monsters ranges of frenzy. As you stage up, you’ll be able to select upgrades to make runs a little bit simpler however no much less hectic. 

Vampire Survivors is an ideal sport to choose up and rapidly play, although it may be onerous to place down. Best of all, it launched for cellular units simply this month.