The month of September has brought an unending string of video game releases, with the biggest titles grabbing nearly all the headlines. Marvel’s Wolverine, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave and Control Resonant are just two of several major games that arrived within weeks of one another. Yet these headline acts barely scratch the surface of what has actually come out.
While the big titles took up most of September, smaller indie games slipped through the cracks too. Once you’re done with Fortune’s Weave, these three lesser-known releases offer a welcome break from hacking and slashing. The month brought together cozy puzzle games and an excellent Metroidvania, all worth returning to after a long stretch of intense gameplay.
He Who Watches
The puzzle game He Who Watches rests upon a single concept: solving rooms by striking switches and pushing boxes using your arrow. The catch is that you can step upon any surface, and turn gravity to suit your position. This arrangement sometimes calls for turning the whole room upside down so you can work through puzzles from the ceiling.
A single person built this game entirely on his own, with no help at all, and he goes by the name Bobby Vanden. The comparisons to Portal keep coming up, since the reviewer keeps returning to it as a point of reference for the whole piece. Every puzzle has an answer that holds together, even when they push the player’s patience to the limit. One physics trick stands out as the reason the reviewer says the entire experience is worth paying for.
Woodo
The game functions like a coloring book you can touch, letting players fill in a colorless diorama by putting wooden objects into their proper places. The task isn’t overly complex, yet it feels remarkably calming because of its gentle music and playful sound design.
What stands out most about this game is how it looks. Every corner of it feels like it has been shaped from wood, and the writer kept wanting to reach through the screen and touch every single piece. The tale told here can feel a bit silly at times, but Waldo remains a warm, easygoing escape that suits a quiet day spent indoors.
Well Dweller
Kyle Thompson, who made last year’s lovely Crypt Custodian, has now released Well Dweller, a 2D action game. This week, review aggregate sites like Opencritic have been surprised to find that Well Dweller is currently among the best reviewed games of 2026.
This title applies the Metroidvania format to a fairy-tale world, and it is more accessible than Hollow Knight: Silksong, which stays a punishingly difficult game. Well Dweller provides a more welcoming way in without sacrificing the complexity that delights fans of the genre.
The Order of the List
The ranking presented here is a personal one, not a critical consensus. It reflects the writer’s own sense of what stands out most from the month. Here’s how the three games stack up in that order:
- He Who Watches — the mind-bending puzzle game from Bobby Vanden
- Waldo — the cozy diorama puzzle game
- Well Dweller — the fairy-tale Metroidvania from Kyle Thompson
What to Play Next
If you’ve finished Fortune’s Weave and are looking for something different, the three games above offer a range of options. He Who Watches is the most demanding of the trio, while Waldo is the most soothing, perfect for a quiet evening. Well Dweller sits in the middle, offering a mix of exploration and combat that appeals to fans of classic genre conventions.
If you want to step away from the usual choices, all three options here deserve your attention.
A Month of Big Releases
The month of September brought a heavy schedule of major game launches, with several headline titles leading the conversation. Among these were Marvel’s Wolverine, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave and Control Resonant, both of which drew considerable attention.
| Game | Developer |
|---|---|
| Marvel’s Wolverine | N/A |
| Onimusha: Way of the Sword | N/A |
| Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave | N/A |
| Control Resonant | N/A |
The Quiet Side of September
The big releases dominated September’s headlines, but the month also saw a steady stream of smaller games that flew under the radar. The three titles highlighted here are part of that quieter side of the month.
Anyone looking for a break from the standard fare should look into these. They each deliver their own kind of experience, and together they show the variety on offer during September beyond the usual news.
The Bottom Line
Big-name releases dominated September, making it simple to miss the smaller games that also arrived that month. He Who Watches, Waldo, and Well Dweller are three such titles that warrant a second glance.
Whether you’re looking for a puzzle fix, a relaxing escape, or a new Metroidvania adventure, these three games offer something for everyone. They are the quiet gems of September, and they’re worth tracking down now that the month is almost over.
See the video the story is built around at Polygon.
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