For video games, the summer season kicker off with a double-header: the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, smack amid the three-day slew of game reveals that comprise Summer Game Fest (and its surrounding press conferences). But the most exciting games of the summer aren’t all Switch 2 ports or massive studio tentpoles. In fact, it’s the smaller games — the indies and the AA gems — that have captured most of Polygon’s attention.
From a management sim about temperamental clones to an open-world adventure in which you bike your way to saving the world, here are 11 under-the-radar games to watch out for this summer.
Image: 11 Bit Studios
Release date: June 13 (out now!)
Where to play: PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X
How well do you think you would enjoy working with a few radically different versions of yourself? That’s the question Jan Dolski is facing — that, and how he’s going to survive imminent death on a hostile world. In The Alters, Dolski is the sole survivor of a scientific expedition in search of a new element. Through survival and base-building gameplay, he, alongside the alternate versions of himself he brings to life, has to find a solution for survival while contending with how varied his life could have turned out if different choices were made.
Image: Nuntius Games
Release date: July 1
Where to play: Windows PC
BloodRush: Undying Wish is like if Bloodborne met Crank, that offbeat 2006 Jason Statham action flick (stay with me here). It’s a hack-‘n’-slash roguelike where your character is constantly bleeding out during combat. You can increase your blood by killing enemies, so the gameplay is fast and frenetic; you’re constantly dashing around the battlefield like you need adrenaline to survive. So, Crank. BloodRush is a fun time with gorgeous pixel art to boot. Check out a demo on Steam ahead of its early access launch.
Image: Messhof/Annapurna Interactive
Release date: July 23
Where to play: PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X
In Wheel World, you play as a cyclist with the simplest of simple tasks: save the world. (You’ve got this!) With a customizable bike, complete with a ghost head accessorizing it, you’ll pedal and race around an open world as you set out to save it. Originally unveiled as Ghost Bike in 2023 with a somber narrative, Wheel World was rejiggered in fall 2024 with a new title and a lighter tone focused on “the joy and freedom of living around bikes,” developer Messhof wrote in an update on Steam.
Image: The Game Kitchen/Dotemu, Koei Tecmo
Release date: July 31
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
It’s a big year for the Ninja Gaiden franchise. Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, a remaster of 2008’s Ninja Gaiden 2, was surprise dropped earlier this year alongside the reveal of Ninja Gaiden 4, the first new mainline entry in over a decade. Between those releases, fans will also have the chance to play Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, a side-scrolling action-platformer. The Ninja Gaiden series started on NES, so Ragebound takes it back to its roots in a way with its pixel art aesthetic. You can play its Steam demo to get a feel for the challenge of Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, which comes from the developers behind the Blasphemous games.
Image: Reignite Games
Release date: July 31
Where to play: Windows PC
Like in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, wielding time is a core tenet of Panta Rhei, a roguelike that casts you as Phi, who must protect the flow of time. Bend time to solve environmental puzzles as well as to save your skin in combat. Panta Rhei’s art style and orange and violet hues remind me of Annapurna’s excellent Cocoon, so it’s already starting off on the right foot. Get a taste of its roguelike combat via its demo on Steam.
Image: Mas
Release date: Aug. 7
Where to play: Windows PC
Artis Impact follows Arkane and her AI companion, Bot, as they venture through a futuristic world full of murderous AI — and tasty potato croquettes. Its pixel art is great, and the manga-inspired comic panels that function as cutscenes are truly killer. Gameplay will be a mix of turn-based combat and regular life activities, like cooking or earning passive income. It may be set in a post-apocalyptic world, but it’s a cozy post-apocalyptic world.
Image: neoludic games/Skystone Games
Release date: Aug. 7
Where to play: Windows PC
There are two things the world can never have enough of: books and bookshops. In Tiny Bookshop, head to a small coastal town to start your own bookstore. It’s a quiet and cozy game, one that’s divorced from the stress of working retail IRL. Tiny Bookshop instead lets you sit back and recommend great books to customers who’ll buy them up. Decorate your bookshop on wheels to your heart’s content and keep your shelves stocked by purchasing used books from classified ads like it’s 1998 all over again.
Image: Giant Squid
Release date: Aug. 19
Where to play: PlayStation 5, Windows PC
Developer Giant Squid is known for stylish games Abzû and The Pathless, and Sword of the Sea looks to carry that stylish torch forward. Your big, cool sword isn’t needed for combat, but for traversal. Sword of the Sea’s gnarly movement is based on skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfboarding, and you’ll use your Hoversword to ride waves of sand. Over the course of the game, you’ll work to restore an ocean, and then catch its waves. Surf’s up, dude.
Image: Saber Interactive
Release date: Aug. 28
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X
The Knightling ditches swords and maces for a shield as its titular hero’s weapon of choice. It’ll be used in combat Captain America style, of course, but also for traversing the game’s open world via some very sick-looking shield surfing. The Knightling gives off the vibe of a PS2-era platformer with modern-day visuals, and I can’t wait to check it out this August — good thing it’s got a demo on Steam!
Image: Kakehashi Games
Release date: Sept. 3
Where to play: PlayStation 5, Windows PC
Set in an origami world, where seemingly everything has been created via the delicate Japanese craft, Hirogami is an action-platformer. Hiro can fold himself into different transformations, like an armadillo or a frog, to traverse the fragile world and battle digital creatures who are threatening it. Play the demo on Steam to get a feel for Hiro’s origami powers yourself.
Image: Rogue Factor/Nacon
Release date: Sept. 4
Where to play: PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X
Hell is Us wears the aesthetics of a Soulslike without some of the genre’s challenges; enemies stay dead, meaning your corpse runs won’t be as tenuous, and the game places a greater emphasis on exploration than combat. You’re cast as Remi as he enters and explores a war-torn country in search of his parents. Along the way, he encounters more than he bargained for in the way of some creepy enemies, and he’lll wield a big glowing sword to take them down.
