In this week’s newsletter: The cat games, 80s kung fu fighters, isometric RPGs and more that our readers lovedDon’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereOur Guardian games of the year list will be live just a few hours after this newsletter lands in your inbox. For me it’s been a year of life-consuming epics (God of War Ragnarök, Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West) balanced out by shorter games with irresistible concepts (Tunic, Pentiment, Neon White, and of course, Immortality, which I still won’t shut up about).
Because I don’t have as much gaming time as I’d like – which, judging from the emails I receive, goes for quite a lot of the grown-ass adults who subscribe to this newsletter – I want to play something nourishing when I get the chance, something that expands my mind or confounds my expectations in some way. I am particularly into games that give me a window into a new world, or into someone else’s experiences. But sometimes I don’t have the mental energy for that, and I just want to play something that makes me happy. I may have spent more total time on Splatoon 3 than almost anything else this year.