A whole lot of GamePass this month, buckle up.

Games completed this month

Guardians of the Galaxy – Xbox Series X

First completion this month was another from the 2022 playlist. I think Guardians of the Galaxy was a bit overlooked when it first came out, probably because of how badly received the Avengers game was. However, I really enjoyed this one. The writing captures the characters well, and it is one of few games where the chatter between the characters doesn’t get annoying. Very much worth playing, and great to see it on GamePass.

Easiest way to play on Xbox, Game Pass* but if you fancy it on another format or generally prefer a physical edition, they’re here on Amazon*

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Life is Strange – True Colors – Xbox Series X

Another game I wanted to try, as I really liked the first Life is Strange and the prequel Before the Storm. However, after not getting into Life is Strange 2, I was a bit reluctant to buy this new one. Was great to see it turn up on GamePass so I could try it, and I’m glad I did. True Colors is much more of a return to the form of the first couple of games and I pretty much played this entire thing over 2 days.

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Boyfriend Dungeon – Xbox Series X

Started this out of curiosity as the premise sounded ridiculous but I’d heard good things on a podcast. It’s part simple dungeon-crawler action rpg, and part dating sim. The people you date also turn into the weapons you use in combat. It’s odd, but surprisingly engaging. I played the whole thing anyway and 100% completed it so…

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Games played during April

Blacksad: Under the Skin – PS4 / PS5

I gave this a go, and will hopefully come back to it. The aesthetic is great but it is a bit clunky to play and the load times are criminal. I’ve moved it onto the faster SSD of the PS5 now but it hasn’t made too much difference really.

Available here* for PS4, Switch and Xbox

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Puzzle Quest 3 – Mobile

I have been spending a bit of time with Puzzle Quest 3, but not sure how long I’ll stick with it. I do enjoy playing bejewelled as combat, and have liked a few of the previous puzzle quest games. My main issue with it is just that I don’t really like playing games on my phone.

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Battletoads – Xbox Series X

Another game I tried on GamePass, and demonstrating the other benefit of the service. This is terrible. Move along.

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What’s been on the arcade?

I played a fair bit of Solar Fox for the ten pence arcade podcast this month, but never really improved at it. Definitely need a solution for 4-way joysticks that doesn’t involve unscrewing my control panel. The new podcast games are a couple of awful submarine based Scramble clones (and I haven’t enjoyed Scramble since I was 5) so I think I’ll give this coming month a swerve. Did play some Bubbles and Robotron 2084 though, still favourites to play on my machine.

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April Pick-ups

Vampire Survivors – PC

Raved about on a number of podcasts, this is an absolute steal at around £2 on Steam. It’s relatively simple to get into, there are a selection of characters and weapons that are pretty much lifted from the Castlevania series, and then you are just in control of moving the character while the weapons attach automatically on a timer. Very addictive and a lot of fun so far.

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Zombie Rollerz – PC

I noticed this was on sale, and as a big fan of Video Pinball games (talked about extensively on the video pinball episode of Maximum Power Up) I picked it up. Short-lived however, as the actual pinball physics felt ‘off’ and the art style and overall presentation really grated with me. This is now the second game I’ve ever refunded from Steam.

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Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch – Nintendo Switch

After I finished Tales of Arise, I’ve been waiting for my little JRPG group to pick the next game. We settled on this, helped along by it going on sale for £8 on the Nintendo eShop. Not far in yet but it seems promising. This is a remastered version of the PlayStation 3 game, which I was intrigued by at the time thanks to it’s Studio Ghibli art, but back then I wasn’t playing JRPGs.

At present it might still be on sale on the eshop, but if it’s back to full price or you’d rather have a physical copy, it’s available here from Amazon*.

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*As usual, these links are affiliate ones, which may earn me a small commission if you buy something.