Gamescom 2025 is over and in total I played 30 different games, spanning a wide-range of genres and developers and in these five previews I want to highlight my thoughts on each one and if I think they are worth your time. As always, there will be links to the game pages for you to wishlist if something catches your eye, and this time I am also including demo links if you want to try the game yourself.

In this first set of previews I’ll be talking about multiplayer games and games with good vibes. From big names like Nintendo and SEGA to new developers like Dust Games and Denkiworks, I have a mix of fast-paced competetive titles to more slow-paced single player experiences for you all to check out.

Kirby Air Riders

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2
• Release Date: November 20th 2025
• Demo?: No
• Wishlist: Nintendo eShop

Charge, boost, and spin to attack your rivals in Kirby Air Riders, a fast-paced vehicle action featuring Kirby and crew – only on Nintendo Switch 2.

The original Kirby Air Ride is a cult classic but one that I don’t think has aged particularly well. The victim of a troubled development cycle, the original Gamecube title lacked both content and polish, and its one-button gameplay left it feeling both simple and awkward to play. Now, 22 years later, Kirby Air Riders aims to address many of these problems and I think it has for the most part, but based on my time with the game I still have some concerns that existed since the original.

Starting with the positives though: I think the general races are significantly better and more than the original title. The faster pace of the game plays a big part in that but the new vehicle styles and the addition of a special button provides the player with more options in a race and it can be felt for the better. I also enjoy having more than just Kirby to play as. In my time with the game I played as Kirby, Susie and Chef Kawasaki and each felt subtly different to play, in the same way that characters in Mario Kart feel different. 

The big mode of Kirby Air Riders however is City Trial and this is where the majority of the demo took place. Right off the bat, Skyah (the map that City Trials takes place on) is far more varied and easier to navigate than the original. Jump pads, teleports and grind rails make exploring the map easy and speedy. The new ability to hot-swap your vehicles with the Y button, locking on and changing vehicles without the need to get off them, is easily the best new addition to the game as it keeps the pace moving constantly. And visually, Kirby Air Riders borrows a lot from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to add to the exciting atmosphere. But, it also shares some of the problems that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has and the original Air Ride, and this is where my concern lies.

Kirby Air Riders City Trial mode is often more confusing than it should be. All the visual effects, the high speed, the various items and UI elements can lead to the player completely losing where they are in the world and it makes specific decisions harder to pull off. In his presentation, Sakurai advised not going for every power-up and being tactical in your decision making but I have no idea how he manages that as I struggled to not just pick up everything thrown at me. What’s more, I don’t think the game does a great job of letting the player know when events are happening in the world. This may be a side effect of all the chaos, but I found events like Dyna Blade appearing on the map were not properly communicated to me and I just came across the giant bird by accident. In hindsight, I think I only participated in one event per game and that feels too few to me. It makes me think I missed some.

With all that said, I did still enjoy my time with Kirby Air Riders and am looking forward to picking it up later this year. The ability to customise the rules and the additional modes not yet revealed will hopefully alleviate many of my concerns.

Sonic Racing CrossWorlds

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PS4, PS5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
• Release Date: September 25th 2025
• Demo?: Timed open-network test
• Wishlist: Steam Page

Race across land, sea, air, space, and time in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds! Warp through Travel Rings into new dimensions where something new awaits around every twist and turn.

From one racer to another, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds is the latest game in the Sonic Racing series and thanks to the betas many of you reading may have played it already. I had not however and so this was my first experience with the game and it took some getting used to. Despite the many mascot racers out there like Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing, I wasn’t prepared for how different Sonic Racing CrossWorlds would feel but once I got over that initial hump and started to figure out the gamefeel, I found myself having a good time.

The game is a kart racer but one that is clearly taking inspiration from classic SEGA racing games like Outrun. The drifting in particular feels more in-line with an arcade SEGA racing game than any console kart racer and is definitely where most of my crashes came from. Just even slightly touching a wall will cause the player to spin-out and drop rings – a very big difference from other racers. It makes you appreciate steer-assistance more (although I still turned it off at every opportunity).

Obviously, a big appeal in this game is the general Sonic-vibe of it all. One thing Sonic Team knows how to do is capture nostalgia and driving through all these classic areas like Metal Harbour from Sonic Adventure 2 and Casino Park from Sonic Heroes got my teenage self smiling. Add in the various different items that harken back across the whole series and the banter between characters before and during races and you just have a generally charming racing game. 

The crossworlds track structure is also really cool. Lap 1 has you go through a track like normal and then lap 2 pulls an Outrun and lets the lead player warp everyone else to a brand new, more chaotic track. Then when players return to lap 3, that original track has now changed in some way. For example, in the museum level all the display pieces have come to life on lap 3 and are now acting as hazards. When you get to the fourth race in every cup, the game takes full advantage of its gimmick by having the player race one lap on all preceding tracks back to back for one long rally race. I found that to be really neat.

My only real issue with the game is that once I did come to grips with the controls, and decided that I much preferred the feel of the Karts to the Hoverboards, that the game was too easy. I was playing on the hardest difficulty level that the demo allowed, Sonic Speed, and I never once felt threatened. Now, it does appear that there is at least one more speed higher than this one, Super Sonic Speed, but that needs to be significantly faster for this game to have even a touch of difficulty in single-player.

Overall though, I am looking forward to this game now, more than I was from just the footage, and I am keen to see what else the game has in the pipeline for post-launch content.

Roombattle

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Windows, Mac, Linux
• Release Date: 2026
• Demo?: Yes
• Wishlist: Steam Page

Wreck, clean, and claim your victory! Roombattle is a 2-6 player family friendly party game where you control an adorable vacuum cleaner equipped with sharp objects and balloons. Customize your vacuum cleaner, fight your friends in chaotic battles and compete in tons of crazy minigames.

At every event I like playing a new couch multiplayer party game and at this show it was Roombattle by Dustgames. The game is essentially Mario Kart’s balloon battle as a fast-paced party game. Players control their own custom Roomba with some kind of sharp object taped to the front of it. Players then fight to get behind the opponent and pop their balloons, with the game ending when only one Roomba is left.

To help with the fight, items can be picked up and used, like an oil slick or dash attack, and the stages themselves have gimmicks that allow you to warp around the map or sneak up on opponents. The environment itself can also be used to the players advantage as, despite being a vacuum cleaner, these Roombas sure know how to make a mess! All objects can be crashed into and sent hurtling across the map, banging into opponents and impeding their ability to escape. By the end of a game, you will end up with a messy, broken stage that any Roomba owner is hoping to see the opposite of.

The game is a lot of fun. The default rules have players compete in three back to back games in one of its three biomes, then a mini-game, and then two final battles in a different biome. For me it was the museum, a balloon popping mini-game and the office stage. There are several mini-games that provide a respite between battles, including a Splatoon inspired one where the player has to ink as much of the floor as possible. These can be played in their own mini-game section from the menu as well, if players just want to take part in these Mario Party-esque diversions.

One feature I quite liked was the use of a battle-royal styled shrinking stage. When a match has gone on for too long, a death zone will appear and slowly get smaller, forcing all players into the same space. This discourages a non-stop game of cat and mouse and forces encounters to take place, which is great for the pacing. 

Overall, Roombattle was a lot of fun to play and I totally see this falling into the same park as something like Boomerang Fu and Gang Beasts, a quick pick-up and competitive game to play with friends, both locally and online.

Resistance 204X

• Platforms: Windows
• Release Date: TBA
• Demo?: Yes
• Wishlist: Steam Page

Street Fighter meets Nidhogg in the best game to introduce fighting games to your friends that don’t play fighting games. Cross the goal to win the match, use the platforms to position yourself strategically, react quickly, KO your opponent, and run as fast as you can. Featuring Rollback Netcode.

The above description of the game is very apt. I stumbled across the game randomly and it really does feel like the fantastic Nighogg game but with far more 2D fighting game mechanics at your disposal including combos, anti-airs, punishments and a life bar. One thing that description doesn’t get across though is how absolutely stylish the game is.

Resistance 204X is pulling from games like Lethal League and Jet Set Radio to present a hyper stylish, cel-shaded anime look with hype impact frames. It really gets the blood pumping and got my friend and I really engaged into its fast, fighting gameplay. It helps that I’m a big fan of Nidhogg – a go-to local multiplayer game at parties and events, so having a new game in this playstyle is exciting. 

Right now it doesn’t have a whole lot to it beyond the core gameplay and visuals but with more characters confirmed to be on the way, I think we could have another fantastic indie fighting game on our hands, one that stands out through its visual style and gameplay.

OKU

• Platforms: Windows
• Release Date: TBA
• Demo?: No
• Wishlist: Steam Page

Become a traveling monk and embark on a journey towards spiritual growth. Ride the wind across artistic Japanese landscapes as you write Haiku-like poems to capture the beauty of nature and unlock forgotten paths.

Right off the bat, I was drawn to this game’s visual style. It pulls from the same woodblock painting inspiration that Capcom’s Okami did and in practice it is a beautiful game. It is also a game that is beautiful for the soul as players won’t be fighting monsters and exploring dungeons in this title. They’ll be writing poetry.

OKU is a Japanese spatial theory that promotes inwardness and deep thought, and the game OKU aims to capture this feeling through its serene environments and use of player-made poetry. You play as a monk gliding through traditional Japanese environments and picking up as many words as possible for your poems. 

There are platforming challenges that make use of the game’s great feeling movement and these unlock sentence structures for the player to use in their poems. Then at Jizo statues, the player will be tasked with writing a specific poem to advance. It could be a poem that’s about Cherry Blossom Trees and the Ocean, or a poem that follows a Haiku format. It’s then up to the player to find the correct words and string together a short poem from the heart.

Players are given a lot of freedom in how they construct their poems. A poem about a Crane and a Waterfall doesn’t necessarily need to use the word Crane or Waterfall in it. Words like torrent and cascading call to mind waterfalls, and words like elegant can describe a Crane. That game takes this into account to give players a lot of choice in their poetry, which can then be shared online with other players.

OKU is a very cozy game and not something I’ve really played before. It’s definitely one of those ‘experience’ games like Flower and Journey, but given how good those two are I think OKU is one to keep an eye on in the future.

TANUKI: Pon’s Summer

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, Windows, Xbox One
• Release Date: TBA
• Demo?: Yes
• Wishlist: Steam Page

The Tanuki Festival is just a month away, and the shrine is in disrepair. Follow Pon, a well meaning, if a bit lazy Tanuki with a part-time job at the Post Office, as he works to restore the shrine before summer ends. Deliver packages, make friends, and get the shrine ready for the big festival!

Speaking of cosy and Japanese, TANUKI: Pon’s Summer is the first game by Denkiworks, a studio made up from ex-members of the Kyoto based Chuhai Labs and Q-Games and aims to combine the feeling of Tony Hawk games with the quaint Japanese countryside. 

The core gameplay loop has players ride around town on their BMX bike, performing tricks, grinding on rails and making big jumps to not only look stylish but also quickly make deliveries to the residence of this little Japanese town. You see, Pon is a part-time postman trying to earn money to rebuild his shrine. So take on delivery jobs and make that money back before the end of summer!

Pon’s Summer isn’t just about BMX tricks though, there are actually quite a few little games in here that players can unlock by meeting and befriending the residents of the town. In the demo, I came across a retired Sumo wrestler who dreams of reentering the ring one day. And he encourages Pon to take up Sumo, leading to a Punch-Out! Style Sumo mini game where the player dodges palm strikes and pushes the opponent out of the ring. The game promises to be filled with all these little side-games that add some good variety. 

TANUKI: Pon’s Summer, is a charming and chill title where just riding around the town and performing tricks is a lot of fun. If I had one complaint it’s that the compass at the top of the screen is not very helpful in guiding the player to their delivery recipients. It will tell the player if their goal is on a different elevation than they currently are but not how far away it is, leading to situations where I ended up wasting time going to a non-optimal delivery stop on my route, just because it was on the same elevation as me. It made navigating the world a lot more frustrating than I think was intended, so I hope this is fixed before the game’s eventual release.

Preview 1 (multiplayer, cozy) | Preview 2 (horror, adventure) | Preview 3 (RPG) | Preview 4 (platformers, metroidvanias) | Preview 5 (rhythm, roguelite and FPS)