From cozy puzzles to demon blades: SGF 2026 games

Every new – At Summer Games Fest 2026, new demos offered everything from a quietly unsettling puzzle utopia and a melee-heavy Control sequel to Capcom’s sharper samurai combat, a detective-style Among Us spin-off, and a Star Wars racer from a Criterion-linked studio—plus

Summer Games Fest 2026 didn’t feel like one show so much as a pileup of worlds—cozy. frantic. and occasionally both at once. I bounced between demos that promised mystery instead of mayhem. then immediately got thrown back into the kind of combat where you’re airborne one second and dodging demon attacks the next.

First up was D-Topia, from Annapurna. In muted colors. it looks like a calm puzzle playground. complete with white robots that give off a vibe reminiscent of Portal. The comfort doesn’t last long. The demo starts almost immediately as the protagonist arrives—leaving you to wonder whether he was born there and. more importantly. where everyone even came from. Robots guide you through the facility. explain your role in this utopia. and show off a cute apartment you can customize as you progress.

The game also introduces a visual system switch that lets your character see what others can’t. It becomes a practical tool for spotting issues and communicating with broken robots around the facility. According to the press release. decisions will matter in D-Topia. with storyline implications depending on what you do—or don’t do—within the confines of this muted utopia.

Puzzles begin with the kind of simple block-moving that feels like “1+1” basic arithmetic. but they widen into more complicated problem spaces as you go. There aren’t timers in the early part of the game. Even the downtime has room for play: you can solve extra puzzles as “overtime” to earn extra in-game currency. Players can explore D-Topia themselves on July 14.

Then came Control Resonant, from Remedy, and it felt like a deliberate shift from calm surfaces to powered-up melee. If you’re a lapsed Control player, you don’t need to fully track the original plot to get moving. Jesse Faden—the character you played in Control—is missing. Dylan, her powerful brother, has to find her while battling the mysterious threat called the Hiss.

This time, it’s less about shooting and more about melee. The playstyle quickly reminded me of Devil May Cry: you juggle foes into the air. slam them down. and stack weapon attacks—especially against bigger enemies—until they break. Dylan unlocks paranormal powers early on, including huge leaps, levitation, and high-speed dashes. The demo also suggested a faster start than Control. and the traversal made me think of Super Punch’s Infamous series. The whole experience left me wanting to give Control another chance—maybe even on iPhone.

By the time I reached Onimusha: Way of the Sword. the mood turned sharper again. and the stakes felt more literal: Capcom is pushing a stronger demo as the game edges toward its September 25 release date. Earlier preview footage was one thing. but this larger demo leaned hard into monster fights. exploration. and a combat loop that feels more reactive than the series’ earlier static dread.

The temple recreations are back, but they’re now crawling with creepier monsters that punish mindless sword slashes. The issen counters remain the high-risk gold standard for masters. In the demo I played. though. basic parries and dodges took center stage. speeding up the flow of battle when you wait for the perfect opening and then finish Genma demons.

I found the quickest way to clear enemies wasn’t attacking first—it was resisting the urge, then countering. The demo also introduced two distinct demon arms powered by a gauge that builds up from normal attacks and parries. One option is twin daggers, tied to a health-drain skill that helps you sustain yourself. The other is a wind-powered spear aimed at crowd control. Its area-of-effect slashes were satisfying on their own. and they can even suck in nearby fire sources to amplify damage output.

That power matters because new threats don’t hold back. One boss shown in the demo was Rashogan. described here as a grotesque. fingery enemy capable of sprouting chain-link limbs to hurl trees and fling demon energy your way. Beyond combat. the world felt more consequential and vibrant—more civilians either cowering from the demon invasion or running shops for the protagonist’s benefit. There were also failable side quests and some extra jeopardy to optional fights.

If Onimusha felt like action with teeth. Among Us Story: On Guard felt like a playful detour—still built from familiar pieces. but pushed into a different shape. Developed by Innersloth, it’s framed as part of a broader Among Us push that includes the just-released animated series. The title didn’t quite win me over. but the pitch makes sense: it could be setting up a run of standalone games.

The demo, frustratingly short, arrived during Nintendo’s Switch 2 third-party showcase at SGF. Even in a brief preview. it hit the right tone for a detective-style game where you have to prove your innocence using far more evidence than most of my Among Us defense speeches. You move through familiar spaceship environments, but the demo funnels you into a limited set of interactions and conversations.

The core Among Us fundamentals are still there—brief minigames and sabotage—but they’re repurposed into narrative problem-solving distractions. I’m not sure there’s enough storytelling weight to justify more than one game. yet the demo was genuinely fun as a distraction. There’s no release date yet, but it will eventually launch on PC and Switch.

Racing didn’t get as long of a seat in the demo schedule, but it did catch attention. I played an extended demo of Star Wars Galactic Racer and felt curious. even if I’m not a huge Star Wars fan or a big racing game fan. The key detail was who’s building it: Fuse Games. a UK-based studio founded by former lead developers and co-founders of Criterion Games—the team behind Burnout. A longer preview is coming soon when they’re allowed.

For the rest of the show, the event was busy in the usual SGF way, with plenty of announcements and reveals gathered into a separate compilation by Jessica Conditt—so nothing felt like it was happening in isolation, even when the demos did.

Summer Games Fest 2026 D-Topia Control Resonant Onimusha: Way of the Sword Among Us Story: On Guard Star Wars Galactic Racer Remedy Annapurna Capcom Innersloth Fuse Games gaming demos indie games triple-A