I Think I Already Have Top Pick of 2026.

After playing well over 200 recent games this year, I am officially closing the book on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I feel content with the concluding selections, accepting that a host of stellar titles probably slipped through the cracks. At this point, it's nothing for me to do except relax, take a short break, and possibly go for a nice walk in the— oh no, discovered one more great game. There go my intentions!

A Premature Favorite Surfaces

During my casual gaming time, often set aside for a few oddball curiosities, I've discovered what could be my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that breaks down a traditional dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of significant risk risk and reward. Take this as a hipster's insider tip: If you take pride in knowing about a game before it's cool, give Sol Cesto a try so you can punch a hole in your indie credit card.

A Strategic Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's different from everything I've ever played. The setup is that you need to explore a dungeon, descending floor after floor to find the sun, which has vanished from its world. When you play, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Pick a hero possessing unique attributes and skills, clear floor after floor of enemies, collect some passive buffs (which are teeth), and defeat a few biome bosses. Straightforward, right!

The Unique Gameplay Loop

The way you effectively complete a chamber, however. Every time you start another stage, you're shown a 4x4 grid of boxes. All spaces features a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To proceed, you simply click on one of the four rows, but the exact space you land in is a matter of probability.

You might see a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a 25% chance of hitting any given square in a row.

Then, you'll probabilities change. So do you go for it, or do you opt on a different row first and try to make more cautious selections early? That's the push-your-luck gameplay on display in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing after you develop its rhythm.

Manipulating Probability

The roguelike twist is that your percentages can be shaped through a run by picking up teeth that alter which objects you're drawn toward. To illustrate, you could acquire a perk that will reduce the probability of encountering a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a treasure chest too.

• Developing a strategy is about influencing the statistics as best you can to have a better shot at selecting the optimal square.
• On a particular session, I invested my stat upgrades toward brute force and picked as many teeth possible that would increase my odds of landing on monsters of that variety.
• In another run, I built my character around treasure chests and coupled it with a perk that would debuff nearby foes each time I secured loot.

The customization choices are not endless, but there's enough to experiment with to let you manipulate the odds according to your strategy.

A Persistent Gamble

Naturally, it's still a game of chance. You constantly face the risk that you have an 80% chance to land on the square you want but wind up hitting on an enemy that would eliminate your last bit of health. All selections is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you navigate a level and determine if to press onward or to proceed to the next floor as opposed to pushing your luck.

Tools such as destructive ordnance assist in minimizing the chance, similar to some special skills. One hero's special power, charged after selecting four tiles, enables you to choose a vertical line in place of a horizontal row on a turn. By employing your cards right, you can hold that ability for the right moment to circumvent a perilous selection. There's a shocking amount of nuance in the simple act of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is remaining in its preview phase, and it has at least one more update planned before the complete edition is launched. An additional hero and a fresh guardian are scheduled to arrive before the conclusion of January. The official version may not be far behind, but the game's developers haven't announced a concrete launch day yet.

A Concluding Endorsement

Regardless of when the complete game arrives, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. For the past week, I've been thoroughly captivated with it, discovering its small details and banking my earned gold in each run to unlock a steady stream of permanent unlocks, such as new characters and items purchasable mid-attempt. To this day, I have not reached the bottom, and I get the feeling I will remain working on that task when the official release drops. Sign me up for the complete journey.