Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. As ever, we've got some new games for you to check out this weekend, as well as a peek at some upcoming titles. There's been so much doom and gloom in the video game industry over the last few years (and with good reason, given the many layoffs and studio closures). So, I thought we could get things started on a positive note for a change by celebrating a few success stories. Nothing's beating Grand Theft Auto VI, but I would not be shocked at all if Meccha Chameleon ended up as the second best-selling game of 2026.

At first, the idea seemed a little absurd, even to me. But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made: If my goal was to understand people who fall in love with AI boyfriends and girlfriends, why not rent a vacation house and gather a group of human-AI couples together for a romantic getaway? In my vision, the humans and their chatbot companions were going to do all the things regular couples do on romantic getaways: Sit around a fire and gossip, watch movies, play risqué party games. I didn't know how it would turn out--only much later did it occur to me that I'd never gone on a romantic getaway of any kind and had no real sense of what it might involve. But I figured that, whatever happened, it would take me straight to the heart of what I wanted to know, which was: What's it like?

At this time of year, we often find ourselves at festive gatherings with people of wildly varying ages and tastes. So, what's the best way to stave off boredom, avoid squabbling and keep everyone entertained over Christmas? One potential solution is a video game or, more specifically, a party video game. But is it possible to download a dancing, singing or fighting game and immediately get everyone, young and old alike, involved? To find out, I invited a bunch of friends and their kids around to my house to test five new party games. Ubisoft's dancing series has been going for more than a decade and has a passionate fanbase.

It's like It Takes Two, but horrible.

Fans of the word game will notice that the rules for the in-person party game are a bit different. In the board game, players take turns coming up with five-letter words -- like "print" or "paper" -- and the other players attempt to guess the word in the fewest number of tries. Like the original game, players will be awarded yellow and green tiles if they use a letter in the correct word. But, unlike the original, players will be competing against each other. Players score points each round for the number of attempts it takes them to correctly guess a word.

We spent 54 hours researching 115 board games and playing 13 top contenders with 18 people to find some of the best board games for adults. In the process, we consulted Wirecutter staffers, surveyed seven game experts and enthusiasts, and interviewed four board game experts: a clinical psychologist and neuroscience researcher turned owner of board game café The Brooklyn Strategist, a ludology professor at Columbia University, a board games and learning researcher at West Virginia University, and the team behind video-series maker The Rules Girl. Board games are for everyone, so we have picks for new gamers, more advanced players, those looking for party or two-player games, and those who prefer cooperative play to competition. This guide is a starting point to find games that are fun, interactive, and challenging, and our picks are a great introduction for anyone looking to get more into games. We didn't include old-school classics (like Monopoly) or challenging enthusiast fare (like Scythe), but our Competition section lists many other notable games. For more ideas, we encourage you to explore board game forums and to visit your local board game café, store, or bar for personalized recommendations based on your skill level and interests. Although our picks are geared toward adults, most are family friendly. If you're looking for board games designed with preschool and elementary-school kids in mind, take a look at our guide to board games we love for kids. We think these intro-level options are some of the best to show new gamers the joys of board games: They require lighter strategy and are quick to learn, but they involve enough exciting decision making to engage adults.

Pretty much anyone who plays video games has fond memories of childhood Christmases; the weeks spent gazing at the coveted new game or console under the tree, awaiting the moment where you could finally unwrap it, escape the family and run away to play. As adults, Christmas becomes a time to share the joy of video games with non-gaming friends (and parents, aunts and cousins). Festive Mario Kart has been a staple in my own household since I was about eight, starting out with me and my brother; now it's my nieces, nephews and little cousins who lead the fun. This year has yielded a few new games to play together, all of which are miles better than charades and none of which will make you resent your Christmas companions as much as Monopoly. If you want to refresh the selection of multiplayer games you'll be playing this year, try one of these.

Amazon's Echo has long let you play little voice-driven games. And at an event today, the company just released an oddball new accessory to go along with the just-announced new Echo speaker. It's called the Echo Button, and it's a tiny Bluetooth remote of sorts that lets you "buzz in" and add a deeper experience to these games. Amazon is positioning this as a simple little gadget intended as more of a "stocking stuffer" than anything else (it comes out this holiday season). If you've ever watched Jeopardy!, you know what we're talking about here -- the Echo can ask a question and you can then "buzz in" and answer before your teammates.

This is part one of our Nintendo Switch review. Expect more aspects of the new video game console to be touched on in the future as more features are rolled out and more content is added. I've spent the past week playing around with Nintendo's new console, the Switch, and there's still tons of things I don't know about it. With early, early hardware reviews like this one, think of it less as a complete review of the product and more as a guide to help you determine whether or not you should go out and buy the Switch at launch. Is this console worth your hard-earned money?

Nintendo representatives scolded me for TV-peeking at least a dozen times during my Monday visit to New York City's Nintendo Store, during which I got hands-on time with 1-2-Switch, a launch title for the company's upcoming Switch games console. That's usually the worst advice anyone playing a video game could receive. But that's not true here, where what's happening on the TV is less relevant than what your opponent's up to in real life. Unlike typical multiplayer games where opponents sit next to one another and stare at their corner of a shared screen, 1-2-Switch games are all about rivals staring into the whites of one another's eyes, trying to anticipate their next move. The result is sometimes awkward and sometimes goofy, but always reliably amusing. In the console-mobile hybrid Switch's case, the differentiating factor is a design that allows the console and controllers to be used in lots of different ways depending on what (and how) you're playing.