9 Best 2021 Video Games You're Not Playing

1. Scarlet Nexus

So far the game with the best combat of 2021, Scarlet Nexus is this year's almost arbitrary "Platinum-style fighter", but with character-swapping power specials, and even better, the ability to thwack enemies upside the head with whatever parts of the environment you can get your mind on.

I say "mind" because I have been waiting for a game that lets you weaponise mind-powers so well, since Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy.

Quick-time events kick in for really brutal finishers like if you decide to telekinetically throw an entire truck at something's face, but Scarlet Nexus' has an awesome world of youngsters taking on interdimensional demons, bolstered by an anime TV series that launched in June.

All that said, and despite this coming from Bandai Namco, Scarlet Nexus' sales have been pretty dire. It's no reflection on the quality of what's here, clearly, but Nexus debuted at no.8 on the UK chart, only to fall to no.27 the week after.

It's come in behind the Switch-exclusive Astral Chain from 2019 in Japan, and appears to be struggling, having only shipped 30,000 copies.

Hopefully Scarlet Nexus can find its footing, because between the combat, twin protagonists, slick performance on next-gen systems and that already overlooked anime, there's a lot to love.