Riffs on GoldenEye 007, Star Fox and Kingdom Hearts, and other new indie games worth checking out

Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. As ever, we've got some new games for you to check out this weekend, as well as a peek at some upcoming titles.

There's been so much doom and gloom in the video game industry over the last few years (and with good reason, given the many layoffs and studio closures). So, I thought we could get things started on a positive note for a change by celebrating a few success stories.

Nothing's beating Grand Theft Auto VI, but I would not be shocked at all if Meccha Chameleon ended up as the second best-selling game of 2026. It's the biggest indie success story this year so far, having sold more than 20 million copies in just two months. If it keeps up this momentum, it could crack the list of the 50 top-selling video games in history.

Meccha Chameleon is essentially a hide-and-seek party game. Hiding players have a blank canvas of a white humanoid figure to work with. They can paint their character to blend in with their surroundings and try to troll the seekers. That's a great recipe for having fun with friends.

A different kind of party game is doing well too. Machine Party (from Buckshot Roulette creator Mike Klubnika and co-developer GDeavid) is a more violent take on the genre, in which losing a mini-game against your friends can spell a gory demise. It has sold over a million copies since its debut at the end of July, and the developers have just added a couch co-op mode.

Two of the games I covered in last week's roundup are off to a flying start as well. Big Walk reached the 1 million sales mark in six days, while the delightful ReStory saw more than 300,000 sales in its first week.

Agent 64: Spies Never Die

Developer/publisher: Replicant D6
Platform: Steam (Windows)
Price: $21.64, with an 11 percent discount until August 25

Oddly, a bunch of new games that are heavily inspired by '90s/2000s classics arrived all at once. Agent 64: Spies Never Die is a game that very clearly takes its cue from GoldenEye 007. The blocky visuals look pretty similar to those from the Nintendo 64 game. Even the way the weapons sway looks familiar. I love that you can take down an enemy with a karate chop as well. There's split-screen multiplayer and an online option, so you can jump in with friends and switch on settings such as slow bullets and a Big Head mode. Fun!

Solo developer Replicant D6 has been working on Agent 64: Spies Never Die for over five years. It looks like a proper tribute to Rare's all-timer, as well as the likes of Perfect Dark and other first-person shooters from that era. 

Wild Blue Skies

Developer: Chuhai Labs
Publisher: Balor Games
Platforms: Steam (Windows; Steam Deck Verified; demo available), PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox on PC. Coming to Switch this fall.
Price: $15

Here's another sort-of blast from the past in the form of Wild Blue Skies, an on-rails shooter that looks pretty similar to a certain series Nintendo revived recently. This ode to Star Fox has a rad anime-style look and virtual teammates for you to work with, protect and perhaps be entertained by thanks to some banter. I can't imagine any could possibly be as sarcastic as Falco, though.

There are branching paths that should make each playthrough different along with secrets to discover. If you want a modern-day taste of Star Fox and don't have a Switch 2, Wild Blue Skies might fill that gap for you. And yes, it does look like you can do a barrel roll.

Duskfade

Developer: Weird Beluga
Publisher: Fireshine Games
Platforms: Steam (Windows; Steam Deck Verified), PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox on PC, Nintendo Switch 2
Price: $30. The Steam version has a 20 percent discount until August 27

I haven't had much time to play anything this week, at least outside of a few rounds with the rad new Overwatch character. Duskfade is next on my to-play list, though. This is another retro-inspired game that hearkens back to the 3D platformers of the late '90s and early 2000s.

As Zirian, you'll set out on a quest to save your trapped sister and fix time after an eternal night takes hold of the land. You'll battle enemies using a transforming clockwork sword that I'm sure is in no way inspired by Sora's Keyblade.

I dig the look of the colorful, clockpunk world Weird Beluga has built here. The studio wears its influences on its sleeve as well. It's evident from the trailer that the developers are drawing from the likes of Kingdom Hearts, Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank. Seeing the mechanical cuckoo companion for the first time made me smile too. This seems like very much my kind of jam. I can't wait until I have time (ironically enough) to play it.

Agefield High: Rock the School

Developer/publisher: Refugium Games
Platform: Steam (Windows; playable on Steam Deck). Coming to consoles later
Price: Usually $30, with a 10 percent discount until August 19

Here's one last game that has its roots in a much-loved game from a couple of decades ago. I'd been looking forward to Agefield High: Rock the School, a spiritual successor to Bully. It's about a young fella who tries to make the most of his last days of high school after moving to a new town. It's set in the early 2000s, with a pop-punk soundtrack and era-appropriate references. For better or worse, it seemed like catnip to me.

But an IGN preview that dropped last month soured me on the idea of playing this game, as it was described as "unpolished, uninspired and flat." Reviews on Steam and elsewhere this week have been pretty dire as well. That's a bummer. I can't fairly judge Agefield High without playing it myself, but time is short and the games are plentiful, so the negative sentiment around this one makes it easy to skip.

Finding Polka

Developer: Lidlocks
Publisher: Parco Games
Platform: Steam (Windows)
Price: Usually $10, with a 20 percent discount until August 25

Finding Polka looks so gosh darn cute. It's a hidden object game in which you search for a pup, who reminds main character Friendy of her childhood dog. She goes on a journey with her current four-legged best pal, sausage dog Jazz, to track down the lookalike after briefly spotting it.

Solo developer Shinnosuke Kumazawa — who made the game as a tribute to his own late dog — created the striking world of Finding Polka with ballpoint pen illustrations. There are mini-games and secrets, and friends to make while on your quest. I don't know when I'll have a chance to play Finding Polka, but I just bought it in the middle of writing this paragraph.

I also love the juxtaposition between this game's visuals and the studio's name, Lidlocks. That's the moniker used in A Clockwork Orange for the device that keeps Alex's eyes open while he's forced to watch propaganda. Lidlocks says it wants to create games that you can't look away from, so the name fits!

Wardogs

Developer: Bulkhead
Publisher: Team17
Platform: Steam
Release date: September 10 (early access)
Price: $40 during early access, which expected to last one to two years

Another game lots of people are interested in has joined the absolutely stacked slate of September releases. Wardogs is a tactical military shooter that can feature up to 100 players in a single round. The main mode is not a battle royale, thankfully. Instead, three teams will battle for control of a 2km-square zone that can spawn anywhere on the large-scale map.

Another core feature is the persistent cash system. You'll spend money on your loadouts and earn more through in-game actions that benefit the team like controlling the zone, bringing teammates back to life and even transporting allies. The cash you have remaining at the end of a match will carry over to the next one. Buildings are destructible and you'll hear all local voice chat, both of which will add to the chaos.

I haven't really played any military shooters since the deeply boring campaign of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III a few years ago. Battlefield 6 hasn't pulled me in either (that game's Top Gun collab goes live next week, FYI). Wardogs seems interesting though, with the cash system adding a compelling wrinkle.

There's plenty of buzz around it too, as more than 800,000 people have added it to their Steam wishlists. A closed beta takes place next weekend, and pre-ordering the game guarantees you a spot. Bulkhead says that if players don't like what they see in the beta weekend, they can request a refund on their pre-order.

Little Kitty, Big City

Developer/publisher: Double Dagger Studio
Platforms: iOS, Android. Already on Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox for PC and Switch
Release window: 2026

I really enjoyed Little Kitty, Big City when I played it a couple of years ago and I'm happy that more folks will get a chance to play it on mobile and tablets later this year. This is a lovely game about a kitty that's trying to get home. But since you have the chance to go on an adventure, why not take the opportunity to explore first?

You can kit out the cat with funky headwear and make friends with other animals. Most importantly, you can become an agent of chaos, just like a real cat! You can knock over plant pots and ruin lots of peoples' days. It's delightful. The mobile versions have a little something extra, a way to bring the cat into the real world using augmented reality.

Tiny Flock

Developer/publisher: No Brakes Games
Platforms: SteamVR, Meta Quest
Release window: 2026
Price: $19

The studio behind Human Fall Flat (one of the best-selling games ever) is back with a virtual reality title. Tiny Flock is a puzzle game in which the aim is to guide a small flock of sleep across each level. No Brakes has built a fully interactive world, in which you'll be able to use any object to help shepherd the sheep to their destination.

There's no set solution for any of the puzzles, so you can be creative in your approach to solving them. You might grab a door to use as a bridge or set off explosions to clear a path. There's support for hand tracking, which could make it easier for you to manipulate the objects. The visuals in the trailer look neatly realized and No Brakes certainly knows how to pull off a physics-based puzzle game, so this could well be the next VR game to catch fire.

What if Single Player Marathon – but it's an Indie Cyberpunk Thriller about political upheaval and ecological collapse instead?

Playtest available through August:
s.team/a/3727200/

#screenshotsaturday #indiegames #gamedev

— Three More Years 🔜 Gamescom (@threemoreyears.bsky.social) 2026-08-09T01:05:18.017Z

A Permanent Echo

Developer/publisher: Three More Years
Platform: Steam (playtest running until the end of August)

Speaking of nifty visuals, A Permanent Echo sure seems to have those too. The art style has drawn comparisons with Marathon, but it's very much not an extraction shooter (a genre that I haven't really found engaging as yet). In fact, there aren't any guns here.

A Permanent Echo is a cyberpunk detective game. As an investigator, you'll scour the memories of a person who's been accused of sabotaging a geoengineering project to get to the bottom of what actually happened.

This looks very cool. While the studio hasn't announced a release date or window, you can get a sense of what this game is all about through a Steam playtest that's running until the end of the month. It features an early chunk of the game that will take about 30-40 minutes to play through.