Steam Next Fest February 2026 Edition – Jumping Into 2026

It's that time of year again, as we're back to yet another Steam Next Fest filled to the brim with demos of upcoming games, some of which could be some of the year's biggest games when they finally arrive.

As I have done previously, I've gone through a slew of demos that are available as part of the festival, and curated my findings into a list of a few that I highly recommend you spend some time playing throughout the festival's remaining run time. It's also worth noting that even if you don't catch this list until after the festival is over, it's up to the developers as to whether they want to take their demos down once the festival is over.

That means a lot of the demos that debut at Steam Next Fest will remain available to download and play long after it's over. So if something catches your eye, it's still worth your time to head over to Steam and see if the demo is still there for you to play. That said, if we have an indication from a developer that the demo will only be available for a limited time, I'll be sure to note it.

Before getting into the rest of the list, there are two games I got to check out ahead of their demo releases that I really wanted to take a bit more time digging into. The first was Luna Abyss from Kwalee Labs, and you can check out my preview of that here. The second was Zero Parades: From Dead Spies, the new upcoming game from the Disco Elysium studio, ZA/UM. You can check out my preview of that demo here.

You can add both of those games to this list of recommendations, none of which are placed in any kind of ranking order. The following are just 10 games I've played that are participating in Steam Next Fest that I absolutely recommend you check out.

Steam Next Fest February 2026 Edition

Replaced - Sad Cat Studios - Release Date: April 14, 2026

Starting with a game you've likely heard about, developer Sad Cat Studios' upcoming 2.5D pixel-art platformer, Replaced, has a demo that went live more than a week ahead of Next Fest, so if you already had this game on your radar, chances are you've checked the demo out. If you haven't or have never heard about Replaced before, then you should be sprinting to your Steam account to wishlist this game and add the demo to your library.

Replaced is not only one of the slickest-looking games coming; after getting my first hands-on with it through this demo, I'm extremely happy to say it's also one of the smoothest gameplay experiences. Admittedly, I do wish that your player character moved a little faster in between encounters, but their walk speed could get faster later in the game and is only that slow for the first mission, or there's a sprint function coming that we don't experience in its opening moments.

But that's a nitpick in the grand scheme of things, and while I was a tad disappointed to see it get delayed again recently, that delay could be the thing that resolves those nitpicks. Replaced is one of the most intriguing narrative-driven platformers I've seen in a long time. Yes, I am an absolute sucker for platformers; I'd probably label them as my favourite genre of games, based on how much I enjoy them and how many I've played over the years. But with that experience, I would like to think I've developed a keen eye for which platformers have the sauce, and Replaced certainly seems to have it.

The Eternal Life of Goldman - Weappy Studio - Release Date: TBD

I know I just gushed about one platformer, but I'm going to gush about another. Not since Cuphead have I been so impressed with a game's animation and art style. The Eternal Life of Goldman's cartoon-style storybook-themed game is overflowing with charm and is one of the most striking games I've ever played.

It's not just the visuals, though, that make it worthwhile. Even in the demo, I can already see how the game's platforming mechanics, specifically with how you swap different parts of your cane on the fly to change how you interact with the world, could make for some incredible platforming challenges. I can already see levels where you're paying attention to shifting platforms and environments while also ensuring to swap between appropriate cane parts to successfully make it through to the next section.

My one fear is that everything happening on screen could generate too much visual noise. While a large part of me is frankly still in awe over how impressive the art and animation are, I did have a couple of moments where I couldn't immediately recognize what was in the foreground and what wasn't. I hope that's something that doesn't continue to happen in the full game, or could be cleaned up ahead of launch. Still, I cannot recommend trying out The Eternal Life of Goldman enough. This game had my eye ever since its initial reveal, and even though this is just a demo, I'm happy to see that my first hands-on impression is as impressive as I hoped it would be.

NOTE: Weappy Studio has confirmed that the demo for The Eternal Life of Goldman will be up for a limited time beyond March 2, 2026 (the final date of Steam Next Fest), but has not given a specific date at the time of this publishing.

Denshattack! - Undercorders - Release Date: TBD

Some games you just have to try after seeing them for the first time. That's part of the fun of Steam Next Fest - all the demos are free, and they're demos, so they're short. It's just a taste, and that could be all you ever want from a game, or make you hungrier.

I don't know where I've landed on Denshattack!. I might want more after some time passes, but on first glance and spending some time with the demo, I know that I'm very intrigued by it, especially as an OlliOlli veteran dating back to its original PS Vita days and an original Temple Run enjoyer. Denshattack felt like it was mashing those two games in a brightly coloured anime-style package while turning the speed up to 11, with a nod to Subway Surfer by making you play as an actual train competing against other people who race and do kickflips with trains, just cause it's cool as heck to do, instead of some miscreant running on train tracks.

On paper, and even on first glance, I thought it would instantly click with me. That's not the experience I had, but I've also not been able to stop thinking about it after sitting down with the demo for a lot less time than I spent with some of the other demos on this list. It feels great to play, it's extremely fast, and it's just too weird and fun to ignore.

NOTE: This demo is only available until March 2, 2026.

Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf - Wishfully - Release Date: March 5, 2026

Planet of Lana II is everything I could have hoped it would be. After playing Planet of Lana for the first time in 2024 with its arrival on PS5 and PS4, I walked away from the first game in love with its art style and its touching core characters, but it was far too slow and repetitive. As much as I'm clearly a sucker for narrative-driven platformers, even ones that slow things down with more puzzle platforming like Limbo, Inside, GRIS, and Neva, there just wasn't enough going on in the first game outside of its narrative chops to make it easy to recommend unless you're already tuned to enjoy these kinds of games.

The same cannot be said for Planet of Lana II, even in a demo that takes less than an hour for you to run through different snippets of the game. The puzzle platforming has clearly been given a huge upgrade, and there are a lot of interesting mechanics I'm hoping get combined in unique ways to create more interesting puzzles. If you fall into the same boat as me and generally like these kinds of games but didn't fully click with the first one, this is absolutely a demo you should check out during Steam Next Fest.

Outbound - Square Glade Games - Release Date: Q2 2026

Ensuring that this list isn't just chock full of games where jumping is your main action, Outbound is another game that slows things down in a different way. It is quite literally about survival-crafting your way through a never-ending camping trip after your player-created protagonist decides to drop life in the big city for the open and free outdoors.

It's just you and your camper-van, and at least based on the key art, a dog, at some point. You make your giant caravan your mobile home, and simply enjoy the change of pace and the view. You can play it with up to three other friends, which I'm sure will be a major draw when the game is out in full force. The amount of TLC you can give your camper-van as the game goes on honestly reminds me of Pacific Drive, another driving game that takes a very different turn with its survival-crafting-centred-around-driving approach.

A quick look through the screenshots on its Steam page reveals how much more complex the game gets compared to what you can experience in its Steam Next Fest demo, which is exciting to consider. That said, and I say this with full awareness that part of the point of Outbound is to slow down, it feels like it runs the risk of being too slow. At least for my tastes, and if this even remotely sounds like something you might like, I would still highly recommend giving Outbound a shot.

MOLE - Off Black Creations - Release Date: Q2 2026

Another game that's here to ensure that this isn't just a list of games where you jump, despite that being the front-loaded theme of it, is MOLE. As a fan of psychological horror games, this first-person horror adventure grips you right off the rip, setting up its dark and suffocating atmosphere that makes you feel like you actually need to hold your breath for fear of being caught by something lurking in the dark.

The idea that you're also digging further underground in a giant metal drill adds another layer to its environmental horror, intensifying the suffocating feeling. As scary as horror games set in space or deep underwater can be, there's just something far more tangible and relatable in a game about being deep underground. I also love how it's using its lighting - or more accurately, how it's using darkness - to keep the tension and your anxiety at a heightened level.

If you've played as many first-person horror games as I have, then you know it can sometimes be easy for these games to start off strong and fade out as they go on. Obviously, after just playing a demo, it's impossible to know if MOLE will fall in that category. But horror fans should definitely be keeping their eye on this game and check out this Steam Next Fest demo, to say the least.

GRIDbeat! - Ridiculous Games - Release Date: March 26, 2026

GRIDbeat! was one of the initial batch of nine games that publisher Acclaim revealed when it held its big comeback showcase back in September 2025, and it's the only game from that batch that has a demo in this festival, even among the few games from that batch that have already been released.

It's a move-to-the-beat-grid-based game that you can start flying through once you get the hang of how levels work, and the music is engaging enough to keep you head-bopping along while you solve the puzzle of how to clear the path in front of you to the end of the level.

The levels are fairly small and contained, which makes the pacing of getting through them as upbeat as the music. I really enjoyed how the mechanics evolved even in my time with the demo, and I hope the rest of the game only gets deeper from there.

Croak - Woordrunner Games - Release Date: TBD

I know, I know. This list is officially half platformers. But this is arguably the best one (right alongside The Eternal Life of Goldman) if what you're looking for is something that is focused on how you move more than any other mechanic. Also, if it's any consolation, there are platformers I checked out that did not make the list, so these really are just the curated few I really enjoyed.

Croak feels and looks great; I love how it uses spitting out your frog tongue as a way to launch yourself at a wall and bounce off of it, flying in the opposite direction. It's frankly hilarious to look at your frog being so bouncy and cheerful after smacking its face against a wall a hundred times, because I couldn't get a jump right as I adjust to the mechanics. I hope that the level design throughout the full game can match the charm coming off its character design and gameplay mechanics, because if so, this has the potential to be one of the most engaging and fun platformers of 2026.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss - Big Bad Wolf - April 16, 2026

The second first-person horror game on the list, Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is on this list for more than just its spooky strength. There are a lot of investigation mechanics to wrap your head around, but altogether they seem to make the foundation for what could be one of the most interesting detective games out there.

I love how you can pin and keep track of clues, how you sonar out not just for any points of interest around you, but only for specific kinds of items you're looking for. How you only have a certain amount of what are essentially 'action points' to analayze items. For someone else, the manual and minimal approach might be limiting and frusturating, but for me the limits presented a more intriguing gameplay pitch than what you might find in something that is also trying to offer a solid puzzle-solving in a 3D space horror experience.

Now, its real test will be how it balances its horror elements with its puzzle solving. While it took me far too long to solve the opening puzzle, it dawned on me fairly quickly that this game could run into issues where the next 'horror' part won't actually kick in until you've solved what is in front of you, potentially breaking up the pacing in a way that could dramatically impact how you experience the next scene.

It's a 'me' issue that the first puzzle took longer that it probably should, I'm just hoping that the rest of the game will include puzzle sections that are better at weaving in the horror elements.

Armastus - Counterplay Games - Release Date: TBD

Rounding out the list is something unlike the rest of the games here, Armastus. This third-person rougelike shooter from Counterplay Games, the people behind the PS5 launch title Godfall, is pretty much what you would get if you took the gameplay of Returnal and gave it the aesthetics of DOOM: The Dark Ages but set in Paris.

Initially revealed during an Xbox Partner Preview event last year, as someone who loves Returnal, this game instantly caught my eye, and after having played the demo I'm glad it did. Now, as is the case with all of these games, these demos are not the full picture, and there's always a chance these games fall off after the promising potential shown in these demos.

But Armastus feels like it has a solid-enough gameplay foundation that whether the story is able to keep me awake or not, the gameplay certainly will, and so far it feels like a strong blend of third-person shooting and rougelike mechanics. If it's even half as good as Returnal overall, it'll be one of the best games of 2026.

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Those are my Steam Next Fest recommendations for the February 2026 edition of Steam's demo lolopalozza. There are still plenty more demos to check out through the rest of the week as the festival continues, so let us know waht you're enjoying in the comments below.

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