Go Mecha Ball could easily get lost in the sea of excellent Game Pass releases this month and beyond, but it really shouldn't. I've been playing the fast-paced twin-stick roguelike on and off and can safely say that if you're a fan of the genre, and especially entries like Hades and Enter the Gungeon, you don't want to miss this one.
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Friends, it is finally time for me to discourse unto you about my great love of balls. The roots of my enthusiasm go back to pinball machines - both the fancier, arcade variety that transmogrify into e.g. screaming robot skulls when you achieve a high-enough multiplier, and the crappy, play-at-home variety that are basically a canted wooden sheet with some numbers drawn on it. But it wasn't till I embraced the holy medium of videogames that I realised the full potential of balldom.
Initiated, of course, by Sonic the Hedgehog, I descended into a frothing ballpit of ball variations, encompassing everything from the squashy rolling UFOs of Exo One through Katamari Damacy to the overcrowded chutes of Marble World and the spectacle of Overwatch's Hammond clearing out a capture point by means of sheer, delicious torque. I am always up for a game in which you either control or become a ball, and Go Mecha Ball looks like one of the better ones.
Xbox has taken the cover off the next batch of titles coming to Game Pass as January draws to a close and we kick on into February (don’t worry the speed at which time moves scares me too).
Kicking things off today (January 16) - on Cloud, Console, and PC - is Those Who Remain, a psychological horror thriller released back in 2020 by developer Camel 101. As you progress through its story, you'll be exploring the unsettling setting of Dormont, which is “a town in a spiralling split from the fabric of reality, warped by darkness and the deeds of its Citizens”.
Both F1 23 and Turnip Boy Robs a Bank are set to arrive in the service on January 18, with both offering high-octane action, but in quite different ways. The former is only hitting Console and PC, with its main draw being the chance to race an F1 car and see if you can stop Max Vestappen from winning all the time.