Little Nightmares 3 vs REANIMAL 2026
In 2025, prior to the release of either Little Nightmares 3 or REANIMAL, we took a look at both games and tried to predict which game would be better and why. Now that both games have released, let’s take a look at our assessment of both games and give our final decision, which was much closer than I would have predicted.
WHY COMPARE THE TWO?
This comparison makes obvious sense as both games at atmospheric platformers or horror platformers or dark puzzle platformers. Whatever label you want to give to the genre, they are both in the same one. Beyond genre, both games have a much deeper connection, which is Tarsier Studios. The idea for Hunger, which would later be renamed Little Nightmares started in the early 2010’s at the Swedish studio, who eventually found a publishing partner with Bandai Namco. After being acquired by the Embracer group, the IP remained at Bandai, which set the ball in motion for Supermassive to develop Little Nightmares 3 and Tarsier to create the new IP REANIMAL.
LITTLE NIGHTMARES 3 REVIEW THOUGHTS
Little Nightmares 3 is still very much Little Nightmares as the look and feel hasn’t been lost, which is reassuring for those looking for more of what they love. Supermassive have crafted a seemingly untethered, yet equally engaging narrative with a few fresh gameplay ideas that although they don’t fully embrace, provide glimpses of greatness within Little Nightmares 3 and give hope should they continue the series forward past the third entry. It might not move the series forward, but it’s another solid entry in the series.
Unfortunately, that’s also the bad news as Little Nightmares 3 feels overly familiar. Spatial awareness and depth perception continues to be an issue with some puzzles and set pieces and the change in the developer has softened the dark and disturbing nature that the series has become known for.
REANIMAL REVIEW THOUGHTS
REANIMAL is exactly the type of psychological horror that you’d expect from the minds behind Little Nightmares 1 and 2, which is great baseline to start from. What wasn’t expected was just how much a slight perspective change would evolve the experience. Tarsier now have more freedom to greatly increase the scale, broaden their environmental storytelling and even go into darker territory than before. As a result, this epic adventure through hell is much more immersive than their previous work, as REANIMAL shakes up the status quo of the genre.
Despite Tarsier evolving their craft across the board, the puzzles lacked challenge, the set pieces were stunning, but left little margin for error and sadly, the experience ended as it felt like it was just picking up momentum.
SHOULD YOU BUY REANIMAL OR LITTLE NIGHTMARES 3?
REANIMAL is the Little Nightmares 2 sequel that fans deserved, which isn’t aimed at supermassive, but simply indicative of how much horror platformers are engrained in the DNA of Tarsier Studios. Little Nightmares 3 was fun, but it was iterative. REANIMAL feels like much more of an evolution of the formula as it has a familiarity, yet it’s distinctly different.
The gameplay is safe and has a familiarity to it, however, the world they have created in REANIMAL feels much more alive due to the entire experience being much more open and explorable. This perspective change blurs genre lines and greatly increases the environmental storytelling, but where REANIMAL really shines are the set pieces that left my jaw on the floor and the wide swath of breathtaking locations that the adventure takes you.
Both games are far from perfect, but REANIMAL evolved the formula and gave us a fresh setting, making it the clear choice if you are looking for a horror tinged platformer.
