New Super Lucky's Tale
If you enjoyed the classic 3D platform adventure games of years gone by but have become accustomed to the excellence of modern graphics, then New Super Lucky's Tale will deliver on both fronts. First released in 2019, it is an enhanced version of Super Lucky's Tale, which launched back in 2017. It sees players guiding the titular character through many words with the help of an artefact called the Book of Ages.
Your goal is to recover the missing pages that an evil sorcerer named Jinx stole. That means running and jumping through plenty of levels, gathering as many collectables as possible. Alongside 3D areas, there are 2D side-scrolling challenges to complete alongside mini-games, puzzles, and challenging bosses.
New Super Lucky's Tale isn't just a graphical upgrade. It also has brand new levels and a fully rotatable camera. Developer Playful Studios also promises that the controls are much tighter this time around, allowing for a more responsive experience.
My Friend Pedro
My Friend Pedro is a run and gun shooter with platforming elements, developed by Deadtoast and published by the excellent Devolver Digital. It follows the story of a man and his adventures shooting bad guys. A task he carries out because a sentient banana wanted him to. Though the game is predominantly focused on shooting, there are a lot of spectacular jumps to perform.
You see, My Friend Pedro gives you unprecedented control over your weapons and body, meaning you can pull off many awesome moves that look like something taken straight from the Matrix. While spinning through the air, you can line up the perfect shot to take out your foes or aim for a ricochet to kill with style.
To mix the levels up, there are stages where you get involved in a motorbike chase or get tasked with solving a series of physics-based puzzles.
Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition
Ori and the Blind Forest is a beautiful-looking Metroidvania platformer adventure. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it means that there is a big focus on exploration, with various branching paths throughout the game that usually can't be accessed until you obtain specific abilities. In this definitive version of the game, there are two new abilities to master and secret areas to discover.
The story follows Ori's journey to save the forest of Nibel, which is dying following the events of a deadly storm. It sports an absolutely stunning hand-painted aesthetic that makes you want to explore every inch of the game's world. It's also back by a stellar score, so make your play with a good pair of headphones to truly immerse yourself.
If you enjoy your time with Ori and the Blind Forest, then you can immediately jump into its sequel Ori and the Will Wisps, which is also available as part of your Xbox Game Pass subscription.
Spelunky 2
Spelunky 2 is the long-awaited sequel to the popular 2008 release that saw many players losing hundreds of hours exploring the depths of procedurally-generated caverns. This time around, you will take control of Ana, the daughter of Spelunky's protagonist as she travels the moon in search of her missing parents.
As with most sequels, developer BlitWorks has tried to make everything bigger and better in Spelunky 2. There are more areas to discover, traps to deploy and items to use. On top of that, the ways you can interact with these things have also increased, giving you more options than in the original.
You can venture out to the moon on your own or join forces with up to four other players to explore them together. Or, if you're feeling competitive, you can jump into the Arena modes to test your skills against other explorers.
Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition
Much like Ori and the Blind Forest, Hollow Knight is more of an action-adventure with platforming elements thrown in for good measure. It's also a Metroidvania, meaning you can expect to revisit areas multiple times to explore them with new abilities you'll acquire throughout the game.
It takes place in a world filled with insect and bug heroes. It's not as creepy as it sounds, and some of the bug characters you meet along the way are quite cute. That being said, Hollow Knight does have a hauntingly beautiful aesthetic as you're exploring a kingdom that seems to have past its best years some time ago.
The Voidheart Edition of Hollow Knight that you can enjoy as part of your Xbox Game Subscription includes tons of extra content to tackle if you're seeking a tougher challenge. It brings four content packs that add new bosses and additional abilities.
