PAX West 2026 - Mouseward: Dark Souls for the N64

Retro games have gotten a ton of recognition and adoration in the last decade, and for good reason. Revisiting and appreciating the pillars upon which the current industry we all love so much is built is a glorious, eye-opening, and satisfying way to experience this medium. That said, the unfortunate truth is many of the games we adored growing up, even some critically acclaimed masterpieces, just haven't aged well.

This has led to the birth of the modern-retro title, a genre that attempts to blend the old and new to make a beautiful gaming smoothie. When done right, these titles invoke a sense of nostalgia and déjà vu while delivering unique, unexpected experiences. From what I played at PAX West 2026, Finite Reflection Studios' new souls-like, Mouseward, may well be the next big title to perfect that particular flavor of smoothie.

My brother, my partner, and I grew up with the Nintendo 64 as our main console for much of our early childhood. While I've seen tons of games write love letters to the original PS1, it's much rarer to find a game that emulates the blocky, low-res, stretched-texture, immediately recognizable N64 look. That's what initially drew us to Mouseward as the game suggestions for PAX flooded our email inboxes. It absolutely nails the N64 aesthetic, from the specific way the polygons are structured on the characters to the skyboxes and overall aesthetic; the game is greater than the sum of its parts.

Mouseward is a hybrid of Souls-like and collecathon that leans much more into the Souls side of things, with the lock-on, dodging, blocking, and parrying we all know and love. One issue I have with Souls-likes is that, despite the formula being tried-and-true, they just don't feel particularly good to play. Mouseward, thankfully, does not have this issue; movement feels fluid and responsive, hitboxes feel fair, and enemy movements are hard enough not to read right away but easy enough to understand.

I really enjoyed the simplicity of the combat and armor system throughout my time with the demo. While I appreciate min-maxing builds in games like Elden Ring, there's beauty in a simple but satisfying combat system. Mouseward balances difficult combat without overwhelming the player with infinite choice, allowing the atmosphere and buttery-smooth controls to shine.

That atmosphere is what really sells Mouseward. Talking to the lead developer, he told me the game's aesthetic is heavily inspired by Brian Jacques' 1986 children's fantasy novel Redfall. For anyone who knows the novel, the parallels are immediately apparent: anthropomorphic animal characters, clad in medieval battlements, set in a grimdark fantasy world, with a tone that is both heavy and hopeful. Mouseward's atmosphere oozes these themes, complemented by the wonderful retro graphics.

Mouseward's nature extends beyond the visuals, as you must use the weapons you discover to solve puzzles and traverse the environment, à la Ocarina of Time. The bow, for example, provides solid damage from a distance and can sever ropes to drop ladders and suspended bridges. Like many games from that era, the levels themselves also respond to what you do, with shortcuts and hidden areas/bosses becoming available the more you explore.

I love the N64, and I adore how much care went into Mouseward to make it feel like a real title from that era developed for modern times. If you love Souls-likes, Banjo-Kazooie, and talking animals fighting with swords and spears, you should wishlist Mouseward on Steam.