Summer Games Fest has come and gone. We are now officially into the summer, and the deluge of games is already upon us with some right on the horizon for gamers to enjoy. However, before we move on to what’s to come, let’s take a quick look back at all the awesome games we saw during our time at Summer Games Fest’s Play Days. Thus, let’s dive straight into what we decided were the Top 10 games of Summer Games Fest 2025.
10. Dying Light: The Beast
To start our list is Techland’s return with Dying Light: The Beast. Since the original game came out a decade ago now, Dying Light has become one of the most iconic zombie game franchises there is. The game feels like an evolution of what was there in Dying Light 2, but the developers aren’t touting this as a full sequel even though we see the return of the first game’s protagonist after how that game’s DLC ended with him being captured.
Dying Light: The Beast is a tale of revenge, and the gameplay feels like that. The dark being a scarier time gives more of a need for survival and getting to safety quicker. Then, you have the titular “Beast” powers you can unleash upon enemies turns the game from just a game that has a focus on melee or gun based combat into feeling like you have all the power, and can’t be stopped by anyone. The game has more options than the previous games when how you tackle your objectives. Then, new additions such as weather effecting the enemies being able to hear you or powering up elemental damage will giver players such a wide array of how to play the game over the course of twenty plus hours.
You can check out our full thoughts on the game here.
9. Pragmata
Finally, after disappearing completely for five years, aside from sticky note delays, Capcom brought back Pragmata. At Summer Games Fest, we got to go hands-on with this interesting new sci-fi IP. Pragmata is one of the reasons we here at mxdwn love Capcom. They’re not adverse to going outside the box when it comes to developing games. They don’t just stick to what works, but are willing to take the risks other major publishers/developers are afraid to take in the modern age of gaming.
While the game isn’t doing anything groundbreaking from a moment to moment gameplay sense, the combat is different than anything else out there today. Capcom has somehow combined third person shooting and puzzle mechanics seamlessly. This doesn’t sound like it would work, but Capcom has done it. Doing a puzzle to break an enemy’s armor and be able to do more damage while you are actively moving around and engaging in real time feels intuitive. While we didn’t get to see the more complex puzzles that bigger enemies may provide. Capcom is on to something and Pragmata looks to be something unique in its own way when it relases next year.
You can check out our full thoughts on the game here.
8.SPINE
SPINE is a game we knew very little about before Summer Games Fest. All we knew as that the developers at Nekki had said this game had an emphasis on “gun-fu.” If you have ever seen a John Wick movie, basically imagine the cinematic action those films have turned completely into the game. That’s what “gun-fu” and SPINE is plus add in a little cyberpunk aesthetic.
The game seriously feels like you are playing through an action movie. You are constantly assaulted with loads of enemies that you need to take out. The developers even made a whole new engine to make this game feel as cinematic when it comes to the action. If you are a fan of the Batman Arkham games, you see so much of that franchise’s DNA all throughout the combat. The fluidity of jumping between enemies while fighting feels great and feels very reminiscent to that franchise sans the combo based system. As the first console and PC from them, Nekki is on to something and is sure to be a blast to play once it releases sometime next year.
You can check out our full thoughts on the game here.
7. Marvel Cosmic Invasion
We at mxdwn have a fondness for beat ’em up games, and we played multiple ones over the course of that weekend. Plus, the beat ’em up genre has been one of gaming’s most iconic genres of all time. In the modern age of gaming the fanfare for the genre has waned though. However, despite that, Dotemu and Tribute Games have released some absolutely amazing beat ’em games over the past few years. Now, their next game is right on the horizon with Marvel Cosmic Invasion, and its looking to be another classic in the classic genre.
This game rules. It is such a fun game to play as you get to choose some of your favorite Marvel heroes as well as some lesser known ones. Out of the fifteen playable characters, each players gets to choose two that the are freely able to swap between and perform assist attacks with. We didn’t even know the other player we played with during our time with the game, but to be able to just jump in with someone you don’t know took us back to the arcade when you would just play these games with random people all huddled around the same machine. Marvel Cosmic Invasion invokes that feeling completely and it is great to see a developer treat such an iconic genre with so much love as Tribute and Dotemu do.
You can check out our full thoughts on the game here.
6.Onimusha: Way of the Sword
Oh, look, another game from Capcom that we got to see during Summer Games Fest. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go hands-on with this one like we did with the last one. However, we did get to see a lengthy gameplay demo of Onimusha’s return after nearly two decades. For fans who have been waiting that long, Onimusha: Way of the Sword seems to be everything you have been clamoring for since 2006.
From the get go of seeing it, the game looks like a modern renovation of what Onimusha was way back during its heyday. As someone who first played the series just a few months ago, this game still feels like that. However, the new things this game is implementing looks incredible. From the ability to use the environment to your advantage like redirecting an enemy into a torch which will set that enemy alight or flipping over a table to stop incoming arrows, there looks to be so much you will be able to do in combat. It truly felt like what we were seeing was just scratching the surface as to what the game has in store for players when it releases at some point next year.
You can check out our full thoughts on the game here.
5. Mixtape
At mxdwn, we are a sucker for the heart wrenching narrative choice games such as the famed Life is Strange series, so when the magical realism of Beethoven & Dinosaur/Annapurna’s Mixtape was first shown in trailer form, we knew we had to be there. Set in an amalgamated era that roughly looks like the ’90s, but could be any of the last 4 pre-Donald Trump as POTUS decades, the story follows teenager Stacy Rockford and her two best friends on their last night together before Rockford moves away to the big city to try become the assistant of a famous music supervisor she admires. The game has a lush soundtrack filled with legends from alternative music, goth and indie rock, including Roxy Music, Devo, Joy Division and more.
The game plays a bit more on the narrative experience-on-a-rail side, rather than the full-on narrative choice that modern classics such as Life as Strange and Oxenfree do. The game opens with the trio skateboarding down a massive hill at top speed. Simple controls allow for a fun experience avoiding cars on their way back to their neighborhood. We then see them rock-and-roll back and forth to important memories as Rockford obsessively soundtracks those moments in true ’90s-era mixtape fashion. There are experiences we saw with Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow and the Toadies as the soundtrack and the experiences varied between headbanging while driving around, escaping the fuzz in a shopping cart and even a hilarious tongue kissing, first kiss mini game. The nostalgia is on full display here and we can’t wait to weep for the world of innocent, fun-loving mischief a la Dazed and Confused when Mixtape releases later this year.
You can read our full thoughts on the game here.
-Ray Flotat
4. Lumines Arise
We here at mxdwn are huge puzzle game fans. When Lumines Arise opened the State of Play prior to Summer Games Fest, fans rejoiced. We got lucky to play the first new entry in almost a decade during a lull in our time during Play Days. I specifically had never played Lumines, but I was so sucked into the design, music and atmosphere that I could have just sat on the couch and kept playing for hours on end.
After doing Tetris Effect back in 2018, crazy it’s been that long, there was no one better you could ask to bring back this beloved franchise. The way the music and visual style the developers bring flows perfectly well into the puzzle design of Lumines. You are just sitting there vibing to the music as you are just in the zone placing pieces and building the blocks bigger and bigger as the line slowly moves across the screen. Enhance knows how to completely suck you into the moment. For those who love puzzle games, this one is definitely going to be something special when it releases later this year.
You can read our full thoughts on the game here.
3. Mouse: P.I. for Hire
One of the most purely satisfying titles we got a chance to experience at Summer Game Fest Play Days 2025 was Fumi Games’ new FPS throwback, Mouse: P.I. For Hire. Mouse follows a classic gumshoe hard-boiled, running-and-gunning detective Jack Pepper as he mows down baddies in ’20s era carnage and glee with one important twist, the games is designed as if a reality existed straight out of the Steamboat Willie-era of early Disney cartoons. Characters move and twist with elongated rubber-house animations and everything sits on a form of twisted 2D perspective. If you could imagine the original Wolfenstein 3D looked like it was rendered as a black-and-white Disney cartoon, you would be right on the money.
The developers on hand promised numerous tropes going back to many of the great moments of classic detective and film noir fiction. One element we did get to witness was a Who Framed Roger Rabbit?-esque mechanic where Pepper gets a turpentine gun (one of the chemicals hand-drawn animators used to use to erase frame they had pained was turpentine) and then promptly eradicates foes into skeletons using it. There was plenty of hard-boiled mean-as-nails dialogue and plenty of environmental secrets to discover. This one sits at the vertex of numerous pieces of beloved fan fiction, and we can’t wait to sit with this one in detail when it comes out later this year.
You can check out our full thoughts on the game here.
-Ray Flotat
2. Resident Evil Requiem
Look at that, we’re three for three with Capcom games. With that, this year truly showed that Capcom is one of the best developers in the business today. Resident Evil Requiem just adds to their repertoire of games as the ninth mainline entry in the esteemed franchise. While we didn’t get to go hands-on with the game, what we saw gave us chills. Touted as Capcom’s darkest symphony, the game lives up to that mantra in the most literal sense.
Resident Evil Requiem throws you into the shoes of the franchise’s newest protagonist, FBI analyst, Grace Ashcroft. From what we saw, Grace will be in for a harrowing journey through the remnants of Racoon City. Just the short glimpse we got to see, Grace awakens strapped upside down to a gurney, and must find a way the creepy hotel she’s currently stuck in. This game shows darkness in a way most games don’t, and even required Grace to find a lighter to be able to see as she made her way forward. This was all before the terrifying new enemy was shown that would pursue her. All the thrills and chills that come with the franchise, seem to be there, and be a possible full return to the horror roots. That’s all on top of being able to play the game in both first and third person to scary yourself in whichever view you want.
You can check out our full thoughts on the game here.
1. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
To end our list, we get to talk about the best game we got to go hands-on with during Summer Games Fest. That being Shinobi: Art of Vengeance. Sega has had its ups and downs with the franchise over the course of its near forty year history, and that’s with the franchise being on ice for almost fifteen years. However, Shinobi is back and probably the best its ever been and it’s something we wholeheartedly cannot wait to play more of it.
From stunning visuals to engaging combat full of stylish moves to levels with tons to discover, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance has it all. We were glued to the screen the entire time we were playing and didn’t want to leave as our time with the game ended. Everything about this game is a visual showpiece. The levels we got to see had such a memorable aesthetic that felt totally different from each other. Then, the combat while some might think is a little basic, how stylized it is from the animations and art when you perform your bigger special moves or executions makes it one of the best looking there is today. Everything shows how much effort Sega is putting into bringing one of their classic franchises back, and in such an incredible way.
You can check out our full thoughts on the game here.