A big welcome back to all Loot Happens subscribers. Loot Happens is a weekly newsletter that is emailed and posted on LootHappens.com.
It's important to note that for premium subscribers, game offerings and in-game content, every week is different. Sometimes it's in-game codes, Steam keys, and giveaways, but premium members will always get something special every mailing. We also occasionally get mind-blowing early access or premium games that pay for an entire year's subscription.
Each newsletter is generally structured as Premium Loot > Free Sub Giveaways > Game Feature > Game discounts.
Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: Random
Another random drop! We're adding mystery to our premium subscribers' giveaway once again. This time, we have a group of random games, most of them are indie games with positive reviews and a fan base. But there are some big AAA games in there too. By following the link below, you can claim one of the best free games we have in the database.
It can be anything, from a premium indie game, an old reboot, or an indie that just released this week. Tons of variety as always!
Fell & Sell: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers
Fell & Sell blends fast-paced first-person dungeon crawling with the surprisingly addictive challenge of running your own fantasy shop. Instead of simply buying merchandise from adventurers, you venture into dangerous dungeons and unpredictable forests yourself, battling skeletons, goblins, and other creatures to collect valuable loot and crafting materials. The deeper you explore, the better the potential rewards—but dying means losing everything you haven’t safely banked. Back at your shop, you can craft weapons and armor, arrange furniture that provides combat and sales bonuses, set prices according to supply and demand, and reinvest your profits to expand your business.
With roguelike character builds, risk-versus-reward exploration, crafting, and detailed shop management all feeding into one another, Fell & Sell offers a fun cycle of fighting, looting, selling, and upgrading as you work your way from a modest roadside merchant to a fantasy retail powerhouse.
If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'fell'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours
Forza Horizon 6: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers
Forza Horizon 6 takes Playground Games’ open-world racing series to Japan, giving players a massive playground of dense city streets, winding mountain roads, rural landscapes, industrial districts, and the series’ largest city yet: Tokyo. Starting as a tourist, players work their way into the Horizon Festival, competing in races and challenges while building a collection from more than 550 real-world cars, including plenty of iconic JDM machines.
The game puts a strong emphasis on Japanese automotive culture with Touge battles, car meets, rare aftermarket vehicles, extensive customization, and homes with customizable garages for displaying your favorite rides. Beyond the solo campaign, players can explore and race cooperatively, compete in multiplayer events, create their own experiences with the expanded EventLab and Horizon CoLab tools, and even build freely within a customizable mountain-valley estate. With its combination of arcade-style racing, exploration, car collecting, customization, and an enormous recreation of Japan, Forza Horizon 6 is designed to be the biggest and most ambitious Horizon adventure yet.
If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put '6'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours
Historically Low Prices
This section of Loot Happens tracks historical discounts right now on games and throughout the industry! Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.
These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition [Nintendo Switch]
You must own Skyrim Special Edition to access this content.$59.99 $29.99
WWE 2K26 King of Kings Edition [Nintendo Switch]
Claim the throne with the King of Kings Edition Pack for WWE 2K26.$94.99 $54.99
Featured Game Review: Aniimo
A Familiar Idea With Bigger Ambitions
At first glance, Aniimo is almost impossible to separate from comparisons to Pokémon, Genshin Impact, and the growing wave of open-world creature collectors, but Pawprint Studio has built something considerably more ambitious than a simple imitation. Set across the colorful continent of Idyll, the free-to-play RPG combines creature catching, exploration, real-time combat, multiplayer activities, puzzles, collecting, and even home building into one enormous adventure. Creatures appear according to environmental conditions, weather, special phenomena, and time of day, giving exploration an actual purpose beyond simply clearing icons from a map. The bright landscapes and appealing creature designs make a strong first impression, but it is the number of interconnected systems underneath that presentation that gives Aniimo the potential to stand apart.
Twining Is the Game Changer
The defining feature is undoubtedly Twining, which allows players to merge with creatures they have captured and directly take control of them. Instead of standing behind an Aniimo and issuing commands, you can become it, gaining access to its attacks, movement abilities, and unique skills. Switching forms can completely change how an encounter plays, while creatures capable of flying, swimming, climbing, or performing other specialized actions also open new ways to travel through the world.
Twining is used outside combat as well, allowing players to solve environmental puzzles, reach otherwise inaccessible locations, and even interact with certain creatures in ways a human Pathfinder cannot. It's a clever mechanic because the Aniimo you collect aren't merely additions to a roster—they gradually expand what your character is capable of doing.
Combat Has More Energy Than Expected
Creature-collecting RPGs aren't always known for fast combat, but Aniimo takes a much more active approach. Battles occur in real time, with dodging, positioning, cooldown-based abilities, elemental strengths and weaknesses, special attacks, and direct control while Twined. Your Aniimo can fight alongside your human character, or you can transform and handle the action yourself, which prevents battles from becoming a repetitive cycle of selecting commands from menus. Individual creatures have distinct abilities and roles, encouraging players to experiment rather than simply chase whichever Aniimo has the highest numbers. There are also competitive and cooperative elements, including online PvP, co-op and the three-player PvEvP Egg Heist mode, suggesting that building a strong collection should remain worthwhile well beyond the main story.
Idyll Rewards Curiosity
The open world may ultimately be just as important as the creatures themselves. Idyll is filled with hidden collectibles, caves, environmental challenges, races, puzzles and creatures that only emerge under particular circumstances. Different Aniimo provide traversal options such as gliding, diving and burrowing, making exploration feel connected to the collecting system rather than existing as a separate feature.
The world also includes the floating metropolis of Astra, which acts as a major social hub, while regional progression gives players reasons to continue exploring previously visited areas. It is a particularly good fit for players who enjoy wandering away from the main objective simply to see what is over the next hill, because finding something new can potentially mean discovering another creature, ability or route through the environment.
More Than Catching Monsters
Perhaps the biggest surprise is just how much Aniimo tries to offer away from battling. Players receive a personal RV and can eventually return to their Homeland, where crops can be planted, decorations placed and a personalized living space built alongside collected Aniimo. It creates a welcome change of pace from exploration and combat and gives the creatures another purpose beyond filling out a collection.
Combined with multiplayer interaction, evolving Aniimo, environmental puzzles and the enormous number of creatures and variants to hunt down, the game appears designed as something players can inhabit for months rather than simply finish. That breadth is exciting, although it also creates Aniimo's biggest challenge: with so many systems competing for attention, Pawprint will need to ensure none of them feels shallow or unnecessarily grindy.
A Creature Collector Worth Watching
Aniimo enters an increasingly crowded genre, but it has something many competitors lack: a gameplay mechanic that can genuinely define it. Twining fundamentally changes the relationship between player and creature, transforming collecting from a numbers game into a way of unlocking new combat styles, movement abilities and methods of interacting with the world. Its beautiful presentation, enormous environments and combination of action, exploration, multiplayer and cozy activities make it one of the more intriguing creature-collecting RPGs of 2026.
Bottom Line
The free-to-play structure and long-term progression will ultimately determine how welcoming the finished game feels, particularly once its monetization becomes part of the everyday experience. But based on what Pawprint Studio has shown through its recent builds, Aniimo has the ingredients to become much more than another Pokémon-inspired alternative—it has a legitimate chance to establish an identity of its own.
Aniimo is free to play. However, it is no longer scheduled to release topday. Pawprint announced yesterday that the global launch is September 16, 2026 for PC and consoles and September 23 for mobile
Next Week
Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!
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