In the middle of yesterday’s acquisition frenzy, Xbox unveiled its upcoming games for Xbox and PC Game Pass for the rest of January, and it could be one of my favourite lineups yet
There are a few games here that we are already familiar with: IO Interactive’s Hitman trilogy will be available in a neat little bundle, Rainbow Six Extraction and Rainbow Six Siege will be available on PC Game Pass, and stylish sports fighter Windjammers 2 will be available on day one, along with canine photography game Pupperazzi. All five of these will be released on January 20, which appears to be one of the most important days in videogame history right now.
However, some games are nice surprises. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Hour is one of my all-time favourite visual novels. On January 18, Happy Havoc’s Anniversary Edition shadow was released. For its 10th anniversary in 2020, the first game in the Battle Royale/Ace Attorney-style trilogy received improved controls and new gallery features, which is now available on PC. Nobody Saves the World, a goofy dungeon crawler that Jon Bailes termed “very fun” in his review, was released alongside it.
Adventure with top-down action Death’s Door will also be available on Game Pass on January 20. In his review, Luke Winkie gave it an 83, stating that the game was enjoyable “It has the feel of a miniature epic. It’s as if a big entry into an overarching canon—full of idiosyncrasies, humour, and exquisite attention to detail—had been miraculously downsized to fit into a fortnight’s worth of lunch breaks.”
Taiko no Tatsujin, a drumming rhythm game, is maybe the biggest surprise and the one I’m most thrilled about. If you don’t include its presence in Yakuza 5 and the countless ways to replicate it, it’s the first Taiko game to hit PC, and it includes over 70 songs as well as online rated battles. On the surface, it’s a really simple rhythm game, but harder beatmaps will have your fingers quivering from the insane note patterns. Taiko no Tatsujin: The Drum Master will be available on PC Game Pass on January 27th.
As is customary, a few games will be leaving PC Game Pass at the end of the month: Cyber Shadow, Nowhere Prophet, Prison Architect, and Xeno Crisis will all be going on January 31.
