E3 is a wonderfully chaotic week full of big, loud press conferences and hype-fueled announcements for popular franchises and new, original games aiming to be the next big thing. In all the excitement, it’s easy for the smaller games to fade into the background, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t just as awesome and worthwhile as the rest.

Below, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite games from E3 2016 that may have been overlooked.

Absolver

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Absolver

Abzu

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Abzu is a lovely, stylized exploratory journey through the vastness of the deep ocean. The cleverly calculated use of scale, rich colors, and entrancing movement of the bountiful sea life swirling around you all hint at the promise of a wonderful odyssey beneath the waves. – Jared Petty

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Bound

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Bloodstained is Castlevania in all but name, and the sprawling, chunky E3 demo’s monsters, maps, and fluid animation seemed torn straight from the screen of the PlayStation-era masterpiece Symphony of the Night. The playable section at E3 also highlighted a surprisingly-vibrant color palette and an absolutely gorgeous platforming area set aboard a vast wooden sailing ship. – Jared Petty

Developed by Plastic and Sony Santa Monica, Bound is a visually stunning game. Watching the gorgeous world tear apart and put itself back together as you navigate it using mechanics and animations drawn from the world of ballet made it the absolute most unique game I played at E3 2016. – Marty Sliva

Brut@l

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It’s bloody, it’s violent, and it might even teach you a thing or two… okay, maybe not, but Brut@l’s intriguing ASCII-based graphics and loot-drop system add an interesting dimension to this dungeon crawler. Stark black-and-white graphics are punctuated by glowing accents made of text letters embedded on armor, weapons, enemies, and everything else that makes up the game. The ASCII concept isn’t just for show, either, as crafting in the game is all based on letters collected in the dungeons. If all of this sounds too nerdy for you, know that you can always still smash the hell out of skeletons or loose Flaming Thunderstrike arrows into a troll’s face no matter how well you know your ABCs. Read our preview of Brut@l from last year's PSX. – Marc Nix

Corpse Party 3DS

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Friday the 13th

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Corpse Party is a strange, wonderful little horror game, a super-cute Japanese storytelling RPG that suddenly turns bloody, brutal, and downright scary. A small cadre of students struggle to escape an alternate dimension where they are haunted and hunted by mysterious forces. Corpse Party first came to the US several years ago on PSP, but the new 3DS release adds four unique new chapters. – Jared Petty

Setting a team of counselors against Jason in an asymmetrical multiplayer struggle, early peeks at Friday the 13th suggest a conscious fidelity to the series trademark, over-the-top violence and spooky slasher atmosphere. Fear is Jason’s most powerful weapon as he pursues the campers across stages drawn straight from the screen, hunting down the archetypical heroes as they work together to escape, or possibly even to overcome the killer himself. – Jared Petty

Furi

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Furi is a stylish action game that blends intense melee combat with the fast-paced urgency of a top-down shmup. It takes a risk with its structure, centering entirely around boss fights, but based on the two I’ve fought so far, Furi seems like it has plenty of good ideas to work with. You can read more in-depth about this in my Furi preview from April. – Chloi Rad

GNOG

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GNOG is an impossibly-creative puzzle game that vomits color and imagination all over you in the best possible way. You manipulate strange machinations, constantly experimenting in a playful manner to see how the world works, and are continually surprised and joyed by the outcome of your actions. Bonus points: playing this on PS VR is one of the best experiences I’ve had with the upcoming technology. – Marty Sliva