Here's our picks for the best indie games we recommend you play from this past month.11:00, 31 Aug 2026If you're craving a more digestible string of indie hits to play between big, tentpole AAA releases, we've got you covered with the best smaller games we played this month.‌August was the month where all the big AAA releases finally began to arrive, with the likes of The Sinking City 2, Mortal Shell 2, and others making way for an avalanche of top-tiers titles who are trying to avoid the GTA 6-shaped elephant in the room. However, just because the big games began to rain down doesn’t mean there weren’t plenty of indie games to also play. Especially if you’re into roguelites in particular, August didn’t disappoint.‌From shooter throwbacks looking to pay tribute to Bioshock to colourful hack-and-slash roguelites sporting their own personality, here’s our pick of 8 best indie games released in August 2026…‌Ground Zero HeroThe influence of Vampire Survivors continues to infest the indie game airwaves - for better and worse - and this month it arrived in the form of Ground Zero Hero. The difference in Rowan Edmondson’s take on bullet hell survival with auto-shooting, though, is easily the off-kilter and purposely irreverent art style, one that pulls heavily from the likes of The Simpsons and Rick and Morty to make the act of taking down swarms of enemies and acquiring new mutations have a quirkier edge.Ground Zero Hero has some actual substance to go along with the style thankfully, letting you merge dozens of mutations together to let you build massive combos. All in the aid of trying to survive the radioactive wasteland for as long as possible. It’s a familiar formula but one that works, and there’s a decent degree of variety found in every one of Ground Zero Hero’s chaotic runs.Duskfade‌Duskfade is a reminder that you don’t need evolutionary gameplay mechanics to do great things with them. In fact, as a mostly devout love-letter to the old-school era of 3D platformers, there’s nothing particularly ground-breaking about the way you jump, dodge, and bash your way through this clockpunk world ravaged by time. And yet, swinging your key-inspired blade always feels cathartic, the world engaging, and there’s plenty of charm to be found regarding this story about a young hero trying to rescue his sister from the tower at the realm’s centre.If you’re in the mood for a Ratchet and Clank style action-platformer that offers ample reasons to explore, Duskfade is an absolute delight. Punching well above its weight in terms of budget and presentation, it’s a wonderful journey full of collectibles to find, skills to upgrade, and characters to meet - if you can forgive some iffy voice acting.Twisted TowerIf you’re someone like me who’s been left craving a new Bioshock game for well over 10 years, do yourself a favour and check out Twisted Tower. Made in a similar mould in terms of its style, presentation, and the various mascot enemies you’ll be fighting, it’s an Imsim esque shooter that has you traversing the titular amusement park in search of your missing lover. Racing to the top means acquiring enough tickets to power up your weapons and then using them smartly, taking on all kinds of deadly traps in truly twisted fashion.‌While it’s true that Twisted Tower can’t come close to Bioshock’s level of storytelling sophistication, it’s still a valiant attempt at bottling the magic that Ken Levine’s original underwater adventure gave us all the way back in 2007. With plenty of inventive weapons - including a giant wooden mallet - this journey up the Twisted Tower is an eerie ride worth embarking on.Mexican NinjaBy far one of the best indie surprises I’ve played not just this past month, but 2026 in general, Mexican Ninja is a 2.5D roguelike beat-em-up that’s just as barmy as it sounds. You play as the titular warrior, bashing and slashing against an onslaught of gangsters and robots while acquiring randomised Jutsu skills that might see you turn into a hurricane or, just as easily, burn foes away using a fart cloud. Mexican Ninja is just outlandish as it sounds - and is all the better for it.However, much more than just hilarity for hilarity’s sake, developer Madbricks harnesses this crude humour to great strategic effect, letting you construct devastating builds that see you run through swathes of Yakuza gangers and Narcos.Mexican Ninja is some of the most fun I’ve had in a roguelike this year, picking up Absolum’s baton in an all-new direction that is fun, addictive, and full of depth‌Grim TrialsGrim Trials might be yet another one of those top-down roguelites that takes heavy inspiration from Hades, but it isn’t without a few of its own ideas. Chief amongst them is the fact that you play as a Grim Reaper in training, finding out what it means to claim the souls and spirits of demons and the like by going out there and actually doing it in the guise of a repeatable, hack-and-slash adventure.This alone would have been enough to give Grim Trials a stylistic edge over its peers, yet layered on top is the ability to craft your own potions, weapons, and accessories back at your academy base hub, all of which can have a drastic impact on the way you're able to fight out in the field. This encouraged me even more so to jump back into a run and gain all the necessary resources, ensuring that no reaping mission ever quite plays out the same.‌Agent64: Spies Never DieTrying to capture the spirit of Rare’s classic GoldenEye: 007 is nothing new within the indie space, but rarely has a shooter captured it so well as the aptly named Agent64: Spies Never Die. Featuring Nintendo 64 inspired visuals, appropriately floaty shooting mechanics and a split-screen multiplayer mode that lets up to 8 friends duke it out at once, this is a game that serves as a true love letter to the early FPS days.You play secret agent John Walter, chasing after his arch nemesis Dominic Pulp across 14 bombastic missions that sees you explore the likes of skyscrapers, snow-swept bases, and yes, even the odd bathroom or two. It results in an incredibly impressive retro shooter throwback that can be enjoyed either alone or with friends. And even better? There’s absolutely no Oddjob in sight.Reanimal DLC: The Prisoner‌The first of three planned DLC chapters to Tarsier’s incredibly disturbing puzzle-platformer, Reanimal, The Prisoner shadow dropped this month to give players even more reasons to return to its grimdark world. It serves as a parallel story to the main campaign, allowing you to explore a different series of environments that lend further context to how this world came to be.The Prisoner, by nature of being a post-release DLC, might not be doing anything extremely differently to the main campaign, but it still serves as a short-but-sweet coda of sorts that’s primed to offer more than a few jump scares. The prisoner and the soldier’s journey through abandoned malls, junkyards, and such isn’t quite as illuminating as what came before, yet Tarsier does well to leave you aching for what the two further chapters will bring.Special mention - 1000XResist (Nintendo Switch 2)I’ve lost count how many times friends have told me to check out 1000XResist, the narrative-driven, future-set adventure about the end of humanity’s struggle to survive amidst the outbreak of a deadly alien disease. It’s a daring concept as far as video game stories go, yet it’s one that only deepens and grows more gripping the deeper into this visual novel adventure you explore.Article continues belowSaying too much about the tale 1000XResist ultimately spins would be to spoil what is easily one of the best video game narratives out there. I’ll just say that it’s best experienced completely blind, which now Nintendo Switch 2 players can finally do, thanks to a dedicated version that was released this month. If you’re a fan of Yoko Taro’s work or sci-fi worlds primed to make you think, don’t resist what 1000XResist has in store for you.