From the developers of Guacamelee, Blighted offers a hyper-stylized world of horror that uses vibrant colors and psychedelic tricks to stand out in the dark-fantasy aesthetic most Metroidvanias inhabit. But just because the color palette is vibrant doesn’t mean that this game is without its fair share of horror; in fact, it thrives in that space.
In Blighted, you battle through a psychedelic Western nightmare to reclaim the memories of your people. We went hands-on with Drinkbox Studios‘ latest during the Nintendo Switch 2 Partner Preview, which was held suring GDC 2026.
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The first thing that catches your eye from the Blighted demo setup is the art. Set across from the Studio Ghibli-inspired Hoa 2, Blighted’s vibrant horror Western is, to say the least, unique. While the developers we played with were quick to explain that the lore and visuals from Blighted weren’t inspired by any specific culture, the art direction evokes Mexican and indigenous art and architecture, prioritizing rich color juxtaposed against vile monsters.
The on-site team explained that Blighted’s art director, Augusto “Cuxo” Quijano, who also directed Guacamelee, often draws on Mexican influences to create Drinkbox’s worlds. But Blighted doesn’t just look great; it’s about something even greater.
In Blighted, you play the lone survivor of a village. The last one standing, you’re tracking down the evil Sorcisto, the monster who killed and ate your people. As Sorcisto consumed everything around him, taking their memories and their power for himself, he left the world infected with a deadly Blight.
As the lone survivor of his rampage, you must fight through surreal, hostile environments to defeat powerful bosses and recover the memories of your people, before your own Blight overtakes you. Every boss you defeat and then consume grants you a larger array of powers to bring into each map. Some allow you to retread paths with a new focus and find secrets, all aiding in the Metroidvania feel of the game.
Blighted’s beauty comes from its darkness and embrace of color.
Narratively, however, your path of survival also threatens your future. The more bosses you beat and the more of them you consume, the more blighted you become. While you are starkly against Sorcisto, every choice you make stands to put you closer to who he is.
Blighted’s visual design is gnarly to say the least. It brings body horror and gross visuals to life, making them as gorgeous as they are grotesque. But it stands out because, unlike other metroidvanias and soulslikes that embody dark fantasy in a muddy palette, Blighted embraces bright purples, greens, and reds.
Horror through vibrant colors speaks so loudly to my Mexican heart that I can’t wait to see more. Horror and death and memory don’t have to be visually dark things in grayscale, sepia, or only blues. Drinkbox is highlighting how color can be just as much of an atmospheric builder when done right.
Blighted fits into the Metroidvania bubble with its map design and replayability focus. Truly though, the game is an “isometric action-soulslike,” and that comes through effortlessly in the combat. With a focus on parry and dodging, combat in Blighted is all done with your scythe, which also doubles as a gun.
As mentioned before, defeating different bosses gives you access to specific abilities that are required to move forward through the maps, but also can give the player more ease in different fights. Combat pushes you to adapt two of those elements, with enough variance for skill levels to still have a good time. But combat comes down to chained-together combos and never forgetting the powerful finisher.
The player’s Blight (what you acquire the more you kill and consume) serves as a dynamic difficulty system that constantly changes the enemies, the player, and the world around them. With a meter that fills as you work your way through enemies, this meter allows you to deal more damage, but also impacts the enemies themselves. You do better, the enemies get harder, and so on.
Blighted aims to get the most out of the Switch 2’s coach co-op fans.
Finally, our demo was spent playing Blighted via its local co-op, which made combat a bit easier, but that was just for demo purposes. Upon launch, the game will feature online co-op in addition to local, and the only real difference is that one player plays as a copy of the protagonist, and combat scales with the added player.
Blighted offers players an experience that utilizes the Switch 2’s ease for local co-op play, which is how we played the game. The game’s story may be its biggest draw, but the combat and artistic design make Blighted stand out in a room full of titles, especially where combat challenge is concerned.
Blighted is set to release sometime in 2026 on Nintendo Switch | Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
