Category: Missile Command Delta

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The best games of GDC 2025: Blades of Fire, Hotel Barcelona, and more

The annual Game Developers Conference is always an exciting place to check out new and exciting upcoming games. It might not have as many of the AAA heavy hitters as a Summer Game Fest, but the events and appointments surrounding this more developer-focused conference has historically housed games that we’ve gone on to love, such as Viewfinder, Venba, and Animal Well.

This year, I attended my first GDC and played a lot of promising games there. The last couple of years have been rough for the video game industry, and things may get worse before they get better. Despite that, everything I played at GDC 2025 renewed my confidence that there are still many passionate developers working on amazing games that deserve our undivided attention. These nine games stood out enough in particular to make our list of the best games we played at GDC 2025.

Blades of Fire

MercurySteam / Digital Trends

Blades of Fire was certainly the biggest surprise of GDC 2025 for me, as this new project from the developers of Metroid Dread is far from your typical action game. While elements from games like Dark Souls and For Honor can be seen here, a small taste of Blades of Fire’s weapon forging and directional combat got my attention. I had to be very intentional with how I forged weapons and chose to fight enemies, engaging me in a way I hadn’t felt with an action game in quite a while. I always cherish it when games in well-trodden genres aren’t afraid to take bold swings, and Blades of Fire does just that in an original fantasy world that I’m already yearning to return to.

Blades of Fire launches for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on May 22.

Clawpunk

Kittens in Timespace / Digital Trends

While I’m not a cat person, games like Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection and Clawpunk ensured I got my fill of them at GDC 2025. Clawpunk is an action-platformer roguelike where players take control of cats with special abilities and fight through bite-sized, highly destructible levels. It was easy to pick up and play in the middle of a busy conference, and I was left wanting to play more after I had to put the controller down. Games like Stray, A Little To The Left, and even that odd The Game Awards reveal Catly show that there’s quite a demand for games where you control that. Clawpunk could be poised for success if it can entice that crowd to engage with this action-roguelike adventure.

Clawpunk is in development for PC.

The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-

Too Kyo Games / Media.Vision Inc. / Digital Trends

The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- is the first collaboration between Kotaro Uchikoshi, the director of the Zero Escape and AI: The Somnium Files series, and Kazutaka Kodaka, the creator and writer of the Danganronpa games. That match made in heaven results in a tactics RPG/visual novel hybrid that will provide the best of both worlds. It finds a middle ground between Persona and Fire Emblem as a cast of memorable characters with fantastical abilities fight to protect a school from hordes of constantly invading monsters. It has all the charm of its creators’ previous works and has the potential to become a breakout hit.

The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- launches for PC and Nintendo Switch on April 24.

To a T

uvula / Digital Trends

To a T is a new game from Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, and it was absolutely delightful when I played it at GDC 2025. It’s a cute little adventure game about a young child who can’t break out of a “t” shape, and players control them as they go about their daily life and do things like get ready for school. It’s a quirky little experience, but it is also clearly being spun to ultimately be a game with a message about body positivity, with the line “you’re the perfect shape” constantly being reiterated in the game’s main theme song. Yes, it has a main theme song.

To a T launches on May 28 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Shadow of the Road

Another Angle Games / Digital Trends

Owlcat Games is making a name for itself in the CRPG space by not only developing games like Warhammer 40,00: Rogue Trader but also by publishing other promising CRPGs like Rue Valley and Shadow of the Road. I checked out Shadow of the Road at an indie event during GDC, and its choice to embrace feudal Japan’s history and mythology makes it stand out compared to most modern RPGs. Its turn-based combat also looks like a lot of fun, as there are a lot of strategies to be developed with the positioning of units and modifying turn order in your favor. CRPGs are in fashion again following Baldur’s Gate 3, and Owlcat Games seems keen to capitalize on that through titles like Shadow of the Road.

An open alpha for Shadow of the Road is available now on PC.

Hotel Barcelona

White Owls Inc. / Digital Trends

Suda 51 and SWERY’s Hotel Barcelona felt like a fairly straightforward action-platforming roguelike when I first started playing it at GDC, albeit one with a memorable aesthetic inspired by horror movies. Then I died, and the real draw revealed itself. With each new run of a level, players are fighting alongside their past lives. This provides a neat visual effect and opens up new combo opportunities as their attacks still damage enemies. Add in the odd flair that comes with these storied developers, like randomly spawning as bigger than usual during one run, and Hotel Barcelona is offering an extremely creative spin on a well-trodden roguelike formula.

Hotel Barcelona launches for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S this year.

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree

Primal Game Studio / Digital Trends

If you’re a fan of 2D Soulslikes, Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree needs to be on your radar. It expertly translates the difficult, methodical combat FromSoftware’s games are known for into a 2D format and looks great while doing it. Mandragora’s cel-shaded look is quite beautiful, and plenty of flashy and useful magical attacks take full advantage of that. Developer Primal Game Studios promises that the game will be over 40 hours long and feature New Game+ at release, so Mandragora will offer a whole lot of Soulslike to sink your teeth into.

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree launches for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on April 17.

Missile Command Delta

13AM Games / Mighty Yell / Digital Trends

Of all of Atari’s recent retro reimaginings, none have caught my eye in the way Missile Command Delta has. While there’s no narrative to speak of in classic Missile Command, Delta reinterprets that classic into a story-driven game that blends first-person exploration and puzzle solving with turn-based tactical combat. Its first personal exploration reminds me of games like The Witness and American Arcadia, while its tough tactical battles reminded me of classics like Into the Breach. Considering developers Mighty Yell and 13 AM Games have a solid track record as indie studios, I have high expectations for Missile Command Delta when it finally releases.

Missile Command Delta will be released for PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch in 2025.

Herdling

Okomotive / Digital Trends

This game from Far: Lone Sails developer Okomotive is the next indie coming for Journey’s crown. Herdling sees players guide an ever-increasing number of animals into the countryside mountains surrounding a pretty dreadful city. While the controls of herding animals from behind took a little getting used to, eventually I fell into Herdling’s rhythm and came to enjoy the calm, beautiful moments that emerged when dashing across the countryside with wild animals that I had named and freed from that dreary city. Like thatgamecompany’s classic Journey, knowing where to go felt intuitive, and the journey immediately began to feel just as important as the destination.

Herdling launches PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S sometime this summer.

Pathfinder: Abomination Vaults

BKOM Studios / Digital Trends

Classic tabletop game Pathfinder has been getting the attention it deserves from the video game space more than ever in recent years. Pathfinder: Abomination Vaults is the latest example, offering up an action RPG experience that doesn’t remind me of just Diablo, but classic hero-based aRPGs I grew up enjoying, like Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Pathfinder: Abomination Vaults will offer straightforward, Diablo-like fun based on a popular Pathfinder Adventure Path. It’ll support couch co-op, too, an increasing rarity nowadays and something that draws me to the game even though I’m not a diehard Pathfinder fan.

Pathfinder: Abomination Vaults will be released in 2025 on Steam.

March 25, 2025
Missile Command Delta is Atari’s boldest retro reimagining yet

Missile Command is up there as one of Atari’s most recognizable franchises alongside the likes of Asteroids or Pong. Its simple missile defense gameplay still holds up today and is still a great deal of fun. There’s also a lot of different ways for those interested to still play it. That’s why Atari made it very clear to The Big Con’s Mighty Yell and Runbow’s 13 AM Games that they needed to think outside the box when reimagining this classic for them as Missile Command Delta.

“There was a list of amazing games from the last 50 years to choose from, and Atari said that if you want to do some of those games, you have to think of something a little bit more outside of the box,” Dave Proctor, executive producer from Mighty Yell told Digital Trends at this year’s Game Developers Conference. “I thought ‘What if Missile Command was like a tactics game?’ and that just broke my brain and I knew we had to do this.”

Missile Command Delta is the latest in a line of Atari reimaginings that includes titles such as Lunar Lander Beyond and Yars Rising. The storied retro game has been reinterpreted for a new adventure that blends first-person exploration and puzzle solving like The Witness with turn-based tactical battles that blend elements from games like Slay the Spire and Into the Breach. I went hands-on with Missile Command Delta at GDC 2025 and found that this concoction of influences creates Atari’s boldest retro reimagining yet.

What’s going on down there?

Mighty Yell, 13 AM Games, and Atari are tight-lipped about the details of Missile Command’s story, which sees the player solving puzzles and defending bases from missile strikes at terminals within a bunker. “I’m not going to say exactly when its set, but I will say it’s about a group of people that are not part of this bunker,” Proctor teased. Stories like WarGames, 10 Cloverfield Lane, and Ender’s Game were cited as influences by Proctor, so Missile Command Delta certainly adds a lot of intrigue to a game that historically had minimal story.

One half of the game is exploring a bunker in first person. I didn’t get to do too much of that during my demo, but Proctor says that there will be dedicated puzzles to solve while exploring. There aren’t too many examples of games that blend first-person puzzle solving with other genres; the closest hybrid game I can think of is the highly underrated American Arcadia. Instead, each half of the gameplay has clear influences.

When exploring the bunker in first-person, Proctor cites The Witness as a major inspiration. For the turn-based battles, Slay the Spire and Into the Breach were the primary points of comparison. When I walked up to a terminal in Missile Command Delta, I had to defend bases in bite-sized tactical battles. Missiles rain down from the top of a hexagonal grid, and if even one hits my bases at the bottom it’s game over.

There are different missiles at my disposal, represented by cards, which I can launch across a certain number of tiles before exploding. If an enemy missile enters an explosion’s area-of-effect, it also blows up. The key to acing Missile Command’s tactical battles is doing this with the fewest number of cards possible by always keeping an eye on the path enemy missiles are taking.

Atari

Like Slay the Spire and Into the Breach, this is a pretty tactical gameplay system where information is clearly laid out to the player so they can quickly react accordingly. And if players “Ace” a terminal, they can learn even more about Missile Command Delta’s mysterious world and lore. This hybrid first-person and turn-based tactics game is a bold swing, which has been the MO for a lot of Atari’s recent retro reimaginings. Still, something about this adventure in particular resonates with me a bit more than those other titles did. Maybe that’s because this reinvention is actually not too far from the core of what makes Missile Command great.

“With Missile Command, the player should always be reacting,” Proctor said when describing how Delta retains the essence of the series. “The player should never be on the offensive; they should always be reacting to information. What is the emotion of that? How does that feel? I think there’s a lot of similarities that came very naturally into the game through the development process.”

Missile Command Delta is in development for PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.

March 20, 2025