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It’s like playing an intergalactic game of Frisbee. Players pilot a disk-like spacecraft through a series of alien planets, flying through the air using gravity, speed, and momentum. The minimalist sci-fi game is unlike anything I’ve ever played, making for an atmospheric oddity that’s worth your two hours.Įxo One is an elegantly designed game that’s easy to explain, but hard to fully communicate why it’s so engrossing. Game Pass is full of those titles, but it’s about to lose one of its oddest and most alluring titles in Exo One. One thing that I really value about services like Xbox Game Pass and PS Plus is how they give me access to bizarre games I likely wouldn’t pick up on a whim. And don’t forget that you can get 20% off the full game with your Game Pass membership if you feel like continuing it after it leaves. You won’t get to the bottom of what Spelunky 2 has to offer before it leaves Game Pass on July 15, but if you’re curious, now’s the time to dig in and see if you can handle the heat. It’s a tremendously rewarding game, though one that’s built to test your patience with surprising deaths that are as infuriating as they are hilarious. You could pick away at it for well over 100 hours and still never discover some of its hidden routes, secret weapons, and obtuse item interactions that its community has mined for since its launch. While plenty of games follow its 2D action template, Spelunky’s main claim to fame is its wealth of deep secrets that make each run feel entirely different.
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And you also don’t get Spelunky 2, a top-notch sequel that delivers everything that made its predecessor great and more.įollowing the same winning formula, Spelunky 2 is a tough-as-nails roguelike that has players adventuring through randomly generated caves in search of treasures. Without Spelunky, you don’t get games like Hades or Dead Cells. The first game in the 2D series is a groundbreaking roguelike that created the foundation for one of gaming’s most popular genres. If I had to make a list of fundamental video games everyone should play, Spelunky would undoubtedly be on it.
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