We’ll probably never know what Little Nightmares 3 would’ve been like if the original team had made it, but at least we’ve got Reanimal

Little Nightmares 1 and 2 were both huge hits – the first sold over a million copies in its first year, and LN2 hit that milestone in just one month. It was a big win for the Swedish team at Tarsier Studios and their publisher, Bandai Namco. But the latest entry, Little Nightmares 3, is being developed by a different studio, Supermassive Games (The Quarry, Until Dawn), while Tarsier has moved to a new project, Reanimal, which just released a demo during this Autumn’s Steam Next Fest. Fans have had mixed feelings about LN3 (its Steam rating is under 50%) but Reanimal demo is getting plenty of love, with over 90% positive reviews so far.

Tarsier’s gritty new nightmare: Reanimal

There’s no official word on why Tarsier didn’t make Little Nightmares 3. Bandai still owns the Little Nightmares IP, but Tarsier kept the rights to all the mechanics and tech behind the games. Looking at Reanimal, it’s pretty clear the devs weren’t done with the series, the new game looks and feels a lot like LN. Fun fact: the Little Nightmares 3 and Reanimal demo even dropped just a few days apart.

Source: Reanimal; Developer: Tarsier Studios

In Reanimal, we won’t see Mono and Six, but the same goes for Little Nightmares 3, which also introduces two new characters, Alone and Low. We don’t actually know the names of the main characters in Reanimal yet, but we do know they’re a brother and sister searching for their missing friends.

Reanimal devs promised a more intense and terrifying journey this time, and you can feel it within just a few minutes. The atmosphere is very thick – LN already had creepy vibe, but there the monsters were mostly childhood-nightmare type creatures. In Reanimal, it’s more mature, with even some gore elements. Maybe that’s why the devs decided to move on from the Little Nightmares series and start something new.

Little Nightmares 3 is rated Teen, while Reanimal is Mature 17+, and it really shows. In Reanimal you can collect masks just like in the LN games, but one of the masks I found… let’s just say it’s far more horrifying than anything from LN. Oh, and you can even fish some seriously freaky things out of the toilet.

Source: Reanimal; Developer: Tarsier Studios

It’s kind of sad that our beloved Little Nightmares series hit some bumps along the way. We’ll probably never know what happened after Six did what she did, or what the third game might have looked like if Tarsier had made it. Little Nightmares 3 isn’t just getting mixed reactions from players – its Metacritic score is also lower than the previous games (check out our review, where we gave it 6.5/10).

But at least, instead of continuing Mono and Six’s story, we now have a brand-new game that looks amazing and scary enough to get us excited. Plus, Reanimal brings something Little Nightmares never did before: couch co-op.

There’s no exact release date yet, but Reanimal is slated for 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and the Switch 2.

Reanimal

February 13, 2026

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• Overview

• Bandai Namco Entertainment
• Tarsier Studios
• horror