10 best video game hidden gems on PS5, Xbox and Nintendo Switch

Ahead of a potentially big month for overlooked gems, we rundown the best titles from the PS5 generation which deserve a bigger spotlight.

Between Capcom’s Pragmata and Housemarque’s Saros, April 2026 has the makings of a good month for quality games that might not necessarily be the biggest sellers.

There’s every chance Saros will make a big impact after Returnal became a critical darling, or that Pragmata will transcend its obscure premise to be a surprise hit, but both of them have the air of cult status.

There have been plenty of those already over the course of the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch generation, so if you’re in need of a lost gem, we’ve run down some of the best you should catch up with.

Returnal

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We may have mentioned it already in the run-up, but Returnal is worth highlighting twice.

This is developer Housemarque’s best game so far: a bullet hell sci-fi horror shooter, where you play as an astronaut caught in a time loop on an alien planet.

It won our best game of 2021 award and to this day is still the best PlayStation 5 exclusive.

RoboCop: Rogue City

RoboCop’s popularity might be limited to those with memories of the 1987 original film, but few licensed games have captured the essence of an IP quite as well as Rogue City.

This has all you could want from a belated movie continuation, between the pleasing clomps of the cyborg officer’s footsteps to comical side quests and gory boomer shooter thrills.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns

Insomniac’s Spider-Man games might be the most high-profile Marvel titles of the current generation, but there’s an argument that Marvel’s Midnight Suns is secretly the best.

This is a tactical role-playing game from the makers of XCOM, which fuses turn-based battles, deckbuilding mechanics, and a vast cast of Marvel heroes to great effect.

And yet tragically it was a terrible flop.

Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown

This Metroidvania reboot of the Prince Of Persia series may have been widely praised by critics, but it failed to perform commercially – resulting in a scrapped sequel and a disbanded development team.

It’s a huge shame because it’s one of Ubisoft’s best games of the past six years, which really finds its feet after the opening hours.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

We could have swapped this with Vanillaware’s latest game, Unicorn Overlord, but 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is easier to recommend to most people.

It’s part narrative adventure, part real-time strategy, as you jump between 13 high school students in 1980s Japan who are pulled into a futuristic war between mechas and kaiju.

It’s difficult to encompass in a few sentences, but if you’re partial to unique narrative experiences, this is one of the most memorable of recent years.

Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy

We didn’t expect two Marvel titles to appear on this list, but as a straight action adventure game, Guardians Of The Galaxy might be the most surprising sales failure between the two.

The combat might be the weakest element, but the surprisingly great characterisation of the cosmic misfits – and the excellent voice cast – more than makes up for it.

New Pokémon Snap

For years people were asking for a follow-up to 1999’s Pokémon Snap, but it felt like this Switch sequel came and went very quickly when it launched in 2021.

It might be a relatively short experience, but it’s still the most graphically impressive Pokémon game yet and, if you ignore Pokopia, one of the best spin-offs to date.

Banishers: Ghosts Of New Eden

The studio best known for Life Is Strange conjured up a God Of War-esque action role-player with Banishers: Ghosts Of New Eden, and while it didn’t quite live up to its inspirations, it was still a well made adventure with some great narrative chops.

It’s also very easy to find cheap and absolutely worth it if you give it a go.

Astral Chain

PlatinumGames could occupy several spots on this list, but we’re pushing the Astral Chain agenda in the unfounded hope of a Switch 2 Edition, or better yet, a sequel.

This is a stylish action game where you wield tethered creatures called Legions, and packs all the flash and satisfying combo strings of the studio’s best.

Stellar Blade

This stylish action game may have been a hit in Asia, but it still feels overlooked in the West.

If you can bypass the questionable design of its lead character, Stellar Blade is a slick romp with a sophisticated combat system and some intense boss battles.

In the absence of a new Bayonetta or Devil May Cry it’s definitely the next best thing.

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