The summer showcases are over for another year, and now that the dust has settled on the chaos of rapid fire announcements, we can finally breathe, take stock, and see how we feel about it all.
These showcases aren't a competition, of course, but if you think that'll stop us declaring the winners, I'm afraid you're very much mistaken. I couldn't resist canvassing the team and finding out which trailers and reveals got us most excited this year—and below, you'll find the 10 that really floated our boats.
A lil disclaimer: yes, we've included games from our own PC Gaming Show, as well as our sister site GamesRadar's Future Games Show. There was loads of great stuff at both, naturally, so we could hardly ignore them—but don't fear a bias, our picks come from across the whole spread of different showcases.
Disagree with our choices? Think we've made some egregious omissions? Sounds off in the comments, and let us know your favourites from this year's showcases.
Now, without further ado, here are the best games of Summer Game Fest 2025.
Ball X Pit
Robin Valentine, Senior Editor: Shown off at Day of the Devs as part of the Summer Game Fest showcase, Ball X Pit's announcement gave me that sinking feeling of looking at something I'm definitely going to lose 100 hours to. Then I played the demo currently available on Steam, and immediately knew it was actually going to be 300.
Smashing Breakout and Space Invaders together into the shape of a fantasy roguelike is just a great core idea, but there are so many creative twists to it too. Earning new balls as you level up, and then fusing them together and evolving them into crazy combos, until you've got a laser-blasting ethereal freezing ghost ball… that's pure satisfaction. And meta-progression being its own city builder where you have to bounce workers off buildings and farms to upgrade and gather resources is a stroke of genius.
Demonschool
Harvey Randall, Staff Writer: I'm big into tactical RPGs—I spent a good week last year absolutely enchanted by Tactical Breach Wizards, for instance. Having kept an eye on Demonschool after playing its demo, I think we've got something really special on our hands.
Demonschool was delayed from its 2024 release date and, per our PC Gaming Show, will be arriving this summer instead. From what I've played, it's a solid tactical RPG—but it's also already bursting with character, genuinely funny quips, and a rock-solid art direction. Everything I've seen of Demonschool tells me it's got the juice, and I'll be eager to hop in once school's out for summer.
Keeper
Tyler Colp, Contributing Writer: Double Fine has always impressed me, even if I haven't gotten around to playing all of its games. The last one I touched was Psychonauts 2 and I think it ruined 3D platformers for me. That game is stuffed with some of the most inventive level design I've seen, from the level made out of teeth to the one that's basically Iron Chef. It all gives me high hopes for Keeper, which looks completely in that same spirit of ambition and creativity.
I'm also into the idea that Keeper's going to be a quiet game with no dialogue. Double Fine already does so much with its visual design that I fully trust them to pull off a game that isn't going to hit you over the head with what's going on. It also suggests there will be quite a lot of open-ended experimentation as you explore the island it's set on, which will hopefully lead to a lot of fun puzzles to solve.
Double Fine still feels like an anomaly in the industry—I will always be ready to go along with whatever kind of ride it wants to take me on.
Firefighting Simulator
Tyler Wilde, US EIC: I'm not being ironic here. It's true that games with "simulator" in their names are sometimes half-hearted jokes, and even if they're sincere they tend to be janky, especially when the simulation in question is of a regular job or activity. And yeah, the co-op trailer for Firefighting Simulator looks janky as hell, and it's hard to tell if the voice lines are supposed to be comedic or not.
But it looks like so much fun to me. And they've got real licensed firetrucks in there. My inner five-year-old may be in control here, but who doesn't think firetrucks are cool?
Mina the Hollower
Shaun Prescott, Australian Editor: Sure, Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight had the advantage of being close to ground zero of the indie explosion, but I revisited it recently and it's as close to perfect as a 16-bit inspired action-platformer can get*, and yes, the pixel art is stunning. It's mostly the allure of the latter that draws me to Mina the Hollower, which abandons sidescrolling for a Zelda-like topdown perspective.
It's clearly styled after the Game Boy Color's 8-bit style, but—as usual—with a modern focus on well-honed, silky smooth controls. There's a free demo on Steam right now (and while you wait for the full release, maybe try Pipstrello and the Cursed Yoyo?).
* Except that boss rush at the end, which still sucks.
Ninja Gaiden 4
Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: In the Xbox Games Showcase's two minute trailer for Ninja Gaiden 4, the new protagonist wields a giant hammer with a rocket on it to smash dudes to bits, hole-punches chests with the twist of a staff, and most importantly, skewers lesser ninjas on a man-sized drill that spins them so violently their giblets go flying like piñata candy.
I'm such a fiend for this shit I couldn't care less that all the dialogue in the trailer is complete nonsense ("It's my mission, my duty, as a Raven ninja!") or that new hero Yakumo is surely doing all this murdering as a side hustle from his day job as a J-pop boy band singer. If a game lets me Giga Drill Break thousands of bad guys it's already on my GOTY shortlist.
Things have been looking pretty bleak for PlatinumGames for the last few years, so I really hope the studio developing Ninja Gaiden 4 in partnership with Team Ninja is a sign that they've still got it—whoever the "they" is at the studio these days.
Persona 4 Revival
Mollie Taylor, Features Producer: A few games got me giddy during Summer Game Fest, but it wasn't until I saw the stack of televisions in Persona 4 Revival's announcement trailer that I truly popped off.
It did a perfect job of playing into my nostalgia: The first few notes of the menu theme twinkling away as we were shown serene shots of Inaba in all its Persona 5'd glory before launching into the battle theme with Yu running around, no longer imprisoned by the fixed camera angles of Persona 4 past.
Did it show all that much? Well, no, not really, but it didn't have to. Just knowing that my favourite game in the series is getting the Persona 3 Reload treatment is all I needed to know to be totally on board. Honestly, I'm most excited for the likely overhaul to dungeons. They were rad aesthetically in the original, but there's only so many times you can run through the same procedurally generated corridor before the cracks start to show—a refresh would make an enormous difference.
Plus, once this is done, Atlus will have no excuses left to not just get going on Persona 6. Probably. Hopefully.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers
Robert Jones, Print Editor: Am I good at Soulslikes? No. Does Wuchang: Fallen Feathers look like it's going to radically evolve the genre? No. But am I interested in this game for some reason that, right now, is a little beyond my ken? Yes.
Maybe it's the ethereal Ming Dynasty vibes that have been thrown over that core Eden Ring aesthetic? It definitely seems more mystical, colorful, and exciting to me. Or maybe it's the amnesiac pirate protagonist's slick animations that make each duel feel fluid and balletic?
Or, you know, maybe it is because it is confirmed as launching day one on Game Pass, so I'll be able to dip in without risk to my bank account? Yeah, that will likely be it.
Resident Evil Requiem
Elie Gould, News Writer: I think I speak for all Resident Evil fans when I say that I can't believe we all got pranked by executive producer Jun Takeuchi. Telling us to "bear with" for just a little while longer only to reveal Resident Evil 9 moments later in the same showcase had my head spinning and emotions all over the place. But now I've had time to calm down, I can finally just relish in finally getting a new mainline entry. We did it guys! We made it.
The trailer was awesome—everything I wanted from Resi 9. We've got an Ashcroft uncovering shady business again, a return to an ashen, bombed out Raccoon City, and all the signs pointing towards a Leon Kennedy appearance. My hopes are high for Requiem, and while the name may be a slight disappointment (don't get me started), the idea of this game being the end of Leon's trilogy makes me giddy with excitement—both for that story, and for all the possibilities it could open up for the future.
Militsioner
Joshua Wolens, News Writer: A Kafka-esque immersive sim in which you play some schmuck living eternally beneath the baleful gaze of a 50-story tall policeman. What, you need more? You need more words than that?
Fine. So far as I can tell, Militsioner is about busting free of a podunk Russian town without giganto-cop catching wind of what you're up to, and your options are wide and deep. Sneak about, make a break for it, explore for hidden pathways, or cajole and wheedle your way into the good graces of the town's denizens via the game's "Tamagotchi-like" mood system. Does this mean I can simply befriend big-police and decide to settle down for life? I hope so. That's what I want from videogames.
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