Xbox’s October 2026 Indie Selects announcement puts six games in the monthly spotlight, pairing Mortal Shell II’s dark fantasy with tactical cat battles, Lovecraftian horror, and gentle puzzle-building.
Each Wednesday, the Indie Select Hub refreshes with a curated collection and four themed spotlights that rotate weekly.
Combat ranges from brutal to tactical
Mortal Shell II removes the traditional stamina gauge, keeping the focus on sustained fights with melee weapons, sidearms, abilities, and executions. Its compact, interconnected world hides dungeons, weapons, upgrades, and new Shells, which can change how players approach combat.
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game brings characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra together in a 2D tag-team fighter built around elemental bending and special moves. Mewgenics takes a different tactical route, sending teams of cats into turn-based runs. Items, skills, and attributes are randomized, while surviving cats can return with scars and mutations that carry into the game’s breeding system.
Horror and quieter adventures round out the picks
The Sinking City 2 is a third-person survival horror game set in flooded 1929 Arkham. Calvin Rafferty searches for a way to save his fiancée, Faye, after a ritual leaves her in a supernatural slumber. Boat travel, puzzles, investigations, and scarce resources shape the trip between districts, while parasitic Slither can move into nearby corpses and bring them back into the fight.
Woodo turns puzzle-solving into assembling wooden dioramas, with players rotating each scene to find and place hidden pieces. Its story follows Foxy, a city girl spending the summer in the countryside, and her friendship with Ben the Frog. The game is listed at $19.99.
Lou’s Lagoon takes a cozier approach to exploration and crafting, sending players between storm-hit islands to gather resources, build, and help with recovery efforts. A glider and seaplane open up travel, while repaired radio towers provide fast travel. It is listed at $24.99. Both Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game and Lou’s Lagoon are marked as Xbox Play Anywhere titles.
Which of October’s six games would you make room for first? Follow along for more on Xbox’s rotating Indie Select spotlights through X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
