Geoff Keighley hosts three big gaming showcases each year. Summer Game Fest is the first one. It just happened on Friday and has slowly taken over for the absence of E3. Next comes Opening Night Live to kickoff Gamescom in Cologne, Germany — which is only a couple of months away. The last one is The Game Awards, which is more like a big year-end gaming showcase disguised as an awards show — each year we get more reveals and less awards (plus, shorter acceptance speeches).
Summer Game Fest is not only a two-hour video game showcase featuring world premieres and fresh looks at upcoming games, it has also become an almost weeklong event full of other showcases and live events. This year’s Summer Game Fest showcase featured near sixty game trailers, with some special guests, and a few short developer interviews.
There were so many games shown during the two-hour presentation, let’s see if I can keep this to a TOP FIVE list (with a couple of Honorable Mentions).
1 | Mouse: P.I. for Hire
We’ve known about this game for some time, but this was the first real gameplay trailer confirming that Mouse: P.I. for Hire is scheduled to come out in 2025. It also confirmed that the great Troy Baker (The Last of Us, Indiana Jones, and all of your favorite video game characters) will be the voice of Jack Pepper.
Ever since our first look at Mouse: P.I. for Hire I’ve been obsessed with the black-and-white, hand-drawn cartoon style of this world. It’s very old school Mickey Mouse shorts meets a detective noir story and I’m here for it.
2 | Felt That Boxing
The start of this trailer reminds me of one of my favorite Off-Broadway Musicals, Avenue Q — the dirty puppet musical with music by EGOT-winning Robert Lopez (Frozen). Once the trailer showed off gameplay it became more of a what if Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! was created by Jim Henson and his legendary team of puppeteers.
I cannot wait to get into some nasty puppet boxing in Felt That Boxing — and what a great name that is for this game.
3 | Out of Words
After playing through the entirety of Split Fiction with my partner earlier this year, I’m already on the lookout for another co-op experience like what Hazelight has to offer (also It Takes Two). Out of Words seems to offer that same working together style of gameplay, but with a stop-motion and more handmade feel.
I’m excited to learn more about this story when Out of Words comes out in 2026.
4 | Scott Pilgrim EX
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game is another big co-op game for us. This was one of the games that started our cooperative beat ‘em up phase. We played through that, TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, the River City Girls games, and a few others. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game is also a fifteen year old game, so I’m sure we’ll see some big changes in the way Scott Pilgrim EX plays.
I also love that Scott Pilgrim EX is a new story in the Scott Pilgrim Universe and the creator, Bryan Lee O’Malley, is on-board to make it special. Scott Pilgrim EX will also feature that same gameplay style and bring along a familiar cast of characters when it comes out in 2026.
5 | Stranger Than Heaven
I’m not completely sure what this game even is, but I’m very intrigued. Last time we saw this game it was called Project Century, but we now know its proper name — Stranger Than Heaven. Geoff Keighley mentioned that our first look at this game took place in a completely different time period, so maybe there will be some sort of time travel feature.
Stranger Than Heaven is the new game from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, creators of the Like a Dragon series of games. This one also has more of a Mafia/L.A. Noire feel, but taking place in Japan if certain historical events may have played out differently. I can’t wait to see what the next trailer has to show us.
Honorable Mention
As a Kickstarter backer of Mina the Hollower (and a huge fan of everything Shovel Knight) I have been patiently waiting for more news on this game. I’m happy we finally have a release date — Halloween, October 31, 2025.
I don’t really play the newer Resident Evil games because they are too spooky for me. I tried out the beginning of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, but I didn’t make it very far. I do appreciate the way Capcom teased us with Resident Evil 9: Requiem. They mentioned that something was coming for the anniversary at a later date, only to show us what it was later on in the night.
Both Guacamelee games are two of my favorite Metroidvanias, so anything new from DrinkBox Studios has earned my attention. It’s a different kind of game, but I will keep an eye on Blighted.
If any Hip Hop group has a reason to make a video game it most definitely is the Wu-Tang Clan. Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver should be interesting due to the groups many members and their love for martial arts, also the music.
The only thing I’m not happy about with this new Deadpool VR game is that it is a VR game — and I don’t own any VR headsets. Neil Patrick Harris as Deadpool sounds amazing. I might have to borrow my nephew’s MetaQuest for this one.
This was another great showcase and there are plenty more games I left out, you can catch the whole Summer Game Fest Showcase right here:
VIDEO GAME BOOK CLUB 