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

Plus, a dog game, a cat game, a sheep game and a Marathon-esque cyberpunk mystery.

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.

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