Xbox Game Pass Adds Highly Replayable Day One Game Today

The January 25 Xbox Game Pass update is adding a new day-one title in the form of Go Mecha Ball. This hectic indie release promises to add to the already sizable collection of high-quality roguelike games on Xbox Game Pass.

January has been an amazing month for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, with Microsoft's subscription library already adding 11 titles since the turn of the year. Two of those—Turnip Boy Robs a Bank and the massively successful survival game Palworld—have been day-one releases, with Go Mecha Bell now being on the verge of joining that group.

Developed by Whale Peak Games, the twin-stick shooter still hasn't been added to Xbox Game Pass as of this writing, circa 7am ET / 4am PT. That's hardly out of the ordinary for day-one games, whose debuts on Microsoft's subscription service often coincide with their launch times on other platforms. In this particular instance, Go Mecha Ball is scheduled to hit Steam circa 11am ET / 8am PT, so that's plausibly the time when Xbox Game Pass members will be able to start playing it as well.

Go Mecha Ball is yet to be added to Xbox Game Pass as of this writing, circa 7am ET.

The game itself promises an adrenaline-fueled experience starring a mech suit user who can curl up into a ball, hence the name. And while Go Mecha Ball is a twin-stick shooter at its core, its level design and progression come straight from roguelikes, allowing it to offer high replayability. The game also takes a page from the book of the recent Doom titles in that it features an interactive, dynamically generated soundtrack that matches whatever is happening on the screen.

Aside from Go Mecha Ball, Xbox Game Pass is today also receiving the full version of Phantom Abyss, another roguelike that combines first-person action with an Aztec setting and asynchronous multiplayer features. This particular title has already been part of Microsoft's subscription catalog since June 2021, when it entered early access. Compared to that version, the 1.0 build of Pha