This virtual festival of sorts on Steam has been going on forever, but this year, we’ll cover it in ways we’ve never done before. Over the past couple years, we’ve bolstered our staff a bit to put out more content, and this year throughout every Steam Next Fest event, we’ll bring you hands-on impressions for the games that really speak to us.
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Chris Selogy spent some time on the demo for Blossom: The Seed of Life
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Let’s spend the next half hour trying out this demo of Replaced.
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by David Rodriguez
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Nintendo Switch PC PlayStation 5 Previews Steam Xbox Series X |
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22 Feb 2026
As someone that prides himself on being able to recommend new, cool music to my pals, Wax Heads just hits all the right buttons so far.
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Dear me, I was… is a tale of a woman who, through the many chapters of her life, has experienced the different textures of human nature. Through sublime visuals and heartfelt soundtracks, the game plays the role of an interactive story lived through the eyes of someone who is, by all means, a human being.
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by David Rodriguez
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Nintendo Switch 2 PC PlayStation 5 Previews Steam Xbox Series X |
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20 Feb 2026
We’re not particularly starving for roguelites. Now a favorite of indie developers the world over for around a decade, it takes a lot for a new one to stand out among the crowd in gameplay, but also in art style. The ones I usually play tend to be on the brighter, sillier side with levity or at least a sense of humor to balance out the drama a la both Hades games. Armatus dares to be a little different with a dark, apocalyptic take for the setting while retaining a gameplay loop that makes genre fans ravenous.
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God of War: Sons of Sparta was shadow dropped after long being rumored to be in development. As you’d expect, it sent the internet into a bit of a frenzy, but after rolling credits on the game, those who decide to see it through should find a solid story of a much younger Kratos we aren’t familiar with. The problem is seeing it through will require patience likely too demanding of a spartan.
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Imagine my surprise when I got word of Demon Tides, an indie game that intends to recapture that same feeling of thrilling exploration and vibrant world-hopping that Wind Waker and A Hat in Time did. Yeah, it was a no-brainer to dive into this game to see if it hits the mark. And let me tell you, it absolutely does.
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It’s not every day a game has such a profound emotional effect on me, and even less so with pixel art platformers. But Love Eternal is one of the weirdest games I’ve ever played, and in all the most complimentary ways.
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Mario Tennis Fever, at its core, is a great game of tennis. Features this time around add a lot more to the core game than previous titles, and both the online and local multiplayer modes are pretty great. Unfortunately, the lack of quality content makes this hard to recommend to everyone.
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These edition(s) of Rayman come with limitations that will easily be noticed by someone who has played the games on their original platforms and knows what it’s like to journey through the platformer through different accessibility options. “Old is gold” only applies to experiences that are worthy of shining, but not all that glitters is gold.
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by Chris Selogy
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Nintendo Switch PC PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Reviews Xbox Series X |
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16 Feb 2026
Under the Island is presented as a cozy version of that style of action adventure game, which doesn’t really result in the sort of game that comes to mind as a cozy game. It’s more like a Zelda game that isn’t super aggressive to challenge your skills and has a lot of variety to its dungeons to subvert your expectations.
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