You need to try this new, adrenaline-fueled Xbox Game Pass highlight

It’s going to be a busy year for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. The subscription service is expected to get an influx of high-profile games in 2024.Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 and Avowed are leading the charge, and there’s a good chance that we’ll see a lot of Activision Blizzard games on the service soon. What’s always more exciting to me, though, are the games I’ve never heard of. Some of my favorite Game Pass titles over the year have been left-field indies that I learned about the very day they launched. Call them pleasant surprises.

Xbox Game Pass is already getting one of those games this week. Go Mecha Ball is a new roguelike, twin-stick shooter hybrid that launches on January 25 for both PC and Xbox Game Pass. It’s a wildly creative little action game that makes it the kind of Game Pass curiosity that keeps me subscribed to the service.

Structurally,Go Mecha Ball is a fairly standard roguelike. Players set out on runs, picking up power-ups, clearing waves of enemies in different biomes, and defeating a handful of bosses. Its closest parallel is last year’s Lone Ruin, another straightforward action game from publisher Super Rare Games. But Go Mecha Ball has one key twist that makes it stand out — and it’s right in the title.

Players control a rolling mech that can zip around levels like a speedy pinball. By pressing down a trigger, I can enter ball mode to zip around. And when I press the other trigger, I can bash into enemies to break their shields or knock ammo out of them. That traversal twist creates a fun and fast-paced loop where I’m zooming from enemy to enemy, popping out of my shell just long enough to fire off a few shots or abilities before rolling out of harm’s way. It’s unlike any movement system I’ve played in a roguelike and an immediate delight to control.