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Digital Trends
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
3 new Xbox Game Pass games to play this weekend (May 9-11)
Table of Contents Table of Contents Revenge of the Savage Planet Dredge Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 We are all on the edge of our seats just waiting for Doom: The Dark Ages to unlock on our PCs and consoles, but Game Pass is the gift that keeps on giving. We're barely even a week into the month and we already have a slate of new additions to the service, including a day one title. Whether you're just trying to pass the time this weekend as fast as possible before Doom, or have no interest in that gory shooter and are looking for something a bit different to play before your next upcoming Xbox Series X game comes out, we won't leave you hanging. These are the 3 best new Xbox Game Pass games we know you will love playing this weekend. Revenge of the Savage Planet Just like with its first game, developer Raccoon Logic (formerly known as Typhoon Studios) takes aim at the absurdity and heartless nature of modern corporations and their incompetency with Revenge of the Savage Planet. As a game, this entry opens things up as an open world adventure with crafting and lite Metroidvania elements as you unlock new pieces of equipment. From the jump, this game proudly presents its world as a parody, with your main character waking from a cryopod and watching an orientation video immediately followed by a video laying you off. Similar to High on Life, the gameplay is merely okay here, but it is the world and humor that will win you over. Recommended Videos Revenge of the Savage Planet is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Dredge We can't say we ever imagined a horror game based on fishing, unless we played as the fish, perhaps. Dredge sets you on the dark and dangerous waters off the town of Greater Marrow. Using your dingy little fishing boat, you will go out fishing and salvaging items by completing a little minigame. However, as you venture further out to sea and stay out after dark, panic will rise, you will begin to hallucinate, and monsters from deep below will come to the surface. By trading in your hauls, you can upgrade your boat to go further and stay out longer to catch more deadly game. Besides being a mechanically addicting game despite the stress, there is also a lovely little horror tale to follow. Dredge is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Mobile, and PC. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Dragon Ball fans, it is time to break out your OC and bring them to life. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is the ultimate fanfiction Dragon Ball game where your unique character travels through time to help make sure the events of the story occur as they are supposed to. This includes inserting yourself in all the key battles of the show, from Goku's fight with Radditz through the entire Z saga, but even non-canonical and new story moments that will be a blast for fans who have theorycrafted how hypothetical battles would play out. The gameplay is easy enough to get into as a 3D arena fighter, but has multiple hub areas to explore, NPCs to talk to, almost endless amounts of quests, and a huge multiplayer community that is still going strong. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC.
The Review Geek
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Revenge of the Savage Planet (2025) Game Review – A fun but frustrating sequel
A fun but frustrating sequel Revenge of the Savage Planet is a delightfully bonkers and satisfying sequel to the 2020 action adventure game, Journey to the Savage Planet. Developed by Typhoon Studios, Revenge takes the core elements of what made Journey so appealing and dials that up to eleven, complete with a changed third-person perspective, plenty of crude and satirical humour, and a simple but satisfying gameplay loop. This is, by all accounts, a metroidvania at its heart and the game takes all the usual machinations of that genre, spreads it across four big worlds and encourages players to put on their adventuring hats and go exploring. The hook works surprisingly well, playing out as a hybrid packaged blend of Journey to the Savage Planet's absurdity, Ori and the Will of the Wisps' visual flair and metroidvania structure, and No Man's Sky's freeform exploration. The ensuing result is a game that's a fun little sandbox but also held back by some frustrating inclusions that constantly feel like roadblocks to the core experience. Combat is clunky, stamina (or a lack thereof) is a constant hindrance and busywork collectathon missions feel a bit dull in such a colourful world. Whether you're familiar with the original game or not, Revenge of the Savage Planet is welcoming to newcomers and veteran players alike. Here, you take on the role of an explorer, set out on an interstellar exploration mission after being abandoned by the greedy Alta Global. A corporate take-over has left you in the dark, or more specifically, the dark void of space. So naturally, it's time to take revenge on the company that have abandoned you and expose Alta's dirty secrets along the way. There are themes of capitalism, globalisation and the sheer absurdity of extreme corporatism woven into the fabric of the story, mostly told with little cutscenes or voiced dialogue that chirps up on holograms or back at your Habitat base. The story is basically a footnote though compared to the main bulk of the game, which centers almost exclusively on the gameplay. Your task here is to scan, kill, explore and navigate through beautiful worlds, topped with huge mountains to scale, mysterious caves to traverse and lush fields full of flora and fauna. The world is beautifully realized, with a great use of colour throughout. Everything feels vibrant and alive, with the level design feeding directly into everything. You have the obligatory 'desert world' and 'ice world' but within those footnotes are secret locales and surprises that will catch you off-guard. Whether it be a neon-lit, beautiful cave full of mushrooms deep underground, or a lush area full of rolling hills and a beautiful watering lake, the visuals in Revenge are easily the best parts of the game. You can tell a lot of thought has gone into the design of the worlds and that definitely shows as you play through this one. As I mentioned before, there are four worlds in total and each have individual regions that have their own unique design quirks. In some Worlds, there's an emphasis on exploring vertically, up mountains or floating platforms. Other times, it's a case of moving through lush jungles and avoiding sticky tar lakes. There's a lot to see here, but the general gameplay loop is largely the same across the 15 or so hours you'll spend with this one (more if you intend to get all the achievements!) The main mission involves collecting your gear, which has been scattered across the system. Along the way, you beef out your arsenal so you can progress to different areas, which in turn then allow you to obtain even more tools to aid you on your adventure. This is essentially one big fetch quest, but the game does well to disguise this around the usual metroidvania blockades. Some areas will require backtracking, and there's a keen sense of progression that definitely makes you feel like you're gaining momentum as you play. Alongside this are a number of different missions which all involve collecting items or capturing creatures. If you've ever played a Lego game, the concept feels very similar, but it's hard to shake the feeling that this is just busywork to pad out the run-time. To be fair to Revenge of the Savage Planet, the collectibles aren't just mindless pick-ups and they do help give your character more power. Printer Slurrys found in crates can be used toward upgrading your gear. Orange Goo helps to improve your Health and Stamina, while capturing creatures out in the wild helps to give more options for Upgrades. The weapons and tools you pick up make good use of the environment too, and whether it be a watering hose that extends bulbs into platforms to reach previously inaccessible areas, or a metal fork that doubles up as a tool to break into metallic doorways or extend out hidden platforms. All of these Upgrades are handled over at the Habitat, which is your de-facto base for the duration of the game's play time. You'll be constantly heading back here throughout the adventure, via teleporters found out in the world (and yes there is a mission for finding all of these). Given the amount of time you'll be spending at the Habitat, the game tries to mix things up by adding in a costume changer, a petting zoo and even a computer terminal with emails and the ability to add extra items to decorate your room using Alta Coupons (which are found in crates out in the world). The game keeps up the same comedic wit throughout the adventure, usually broadcast by a little drone computer joining you as you explore the world. However, despite the option to turn down the amount of chatter, it can become grating after a while. There are instances where it becomes completely overbearing, especially during key missions and explaining parts of the story, and the humour itself very much relies on silly slapstick and bathroom jokes. The end credits song, which is basically a satirical tune about using the toilet at work, only exemplifies the tone this one's gunning for. These bathroom jokes extend out to parts of the gameplay too, including monkeys with butts as faces, farting mushroom creatures and more. Some will have a blast with this but others will lean much closer to the satirical corporate humour and for that, we get a good deal of advertisements on the monitors back at the Habitat and a bit of environmental storytelling. Still, it would have been nice to see more of this. The one area that Revenge of the Savage Planet is really let down by though is in traversal and combat. I'm not sure who thought a stamina bar in this game was a good idea but given the vast lengths you'll be running across during your playtime, it constantly takes you out of the experience. You are basically forced into collecting as much Orange Goo as possible to make this bearable, but even then – and especially during the vast distances covered in the fourth world – you will run out of stamina and be forced to walk for a bit. In a sandbox adventure like this, you really want to get the sense of freedom and embrace the wacky zaniness of it all… but you can't do that because you constantly need to stop to catch your breath. The same can be said for combat too. Sure, you can upgrade your weapon to have better cooldown capabilities and more damage, but don't expect to just go in all guns blazing. Your weapon has an overheating mechanic, and you'll need to manage your shots carefully. In fact, early on the better option is just to melee the flying enemies and jump around, at least until you upgrade your weapon. Oh, and the pistol is your only gun in the game too. I can't help but feel the developers missed a trick by not adding more weapons and guns to the game. Having a big rocket launcher to explode parts of the world, or a machine gun that sprays bullets at enemies would have helped make this part of the game shine. As it stands, it's easily the weakest part of the whole experience. There's undoubtedly a lot of content squeezed into Revenge of the Savage Planet and for the most part, the game does a good job of keeping you entertained throughout The extra addition of couch co-op is very welcome and performance wise, the game plays great. I didn't experience any technical issues while playing, and the sound design is generally quite good across the board. The voice acting, for all its comedic highs and lows, remains solid throughout. Revenge of the Savage Planet is a worthy sequel — quirky, packed with content, and often a joy to explore. The colourful worlds and clever metroidvania level design are its biggest strengths, rewarding curiosity with satisfying upgrades and platforming challenges. Unfortunately, a frustrating stamina system and underwhelming combat hold it back from reaching its full potential. If you can look past those flaws, there's plenty of fun to be had here — just don't expect a giant leap forward from the original. All of our videogame reviews are also featured on OpenCritic
Metro
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Revenge Of The Savage Planet review - the best 3D Metroidvania returns
The sequel to Journey To The Savage Planet is bigger, better, and funnier than the original, as you get to explore multiple alien worlds with friends. 2020's Journey To The Savage Planet was the epitome of a cult hit – a game that was little known before its release, yet was great to play and chock full of personality. In the interim, its developer has been on something of a rollercoaster ride, as demonstrated by the fact it is now called Raccoon Logic rather than Typhoon Studios. But its return for a second bite of savage planetary action shows little sign of that upheaval. Like its predecessor, Revenge Of The Savage Planet is a Metroidvania disguised as a third person action adventure. Structurally, visually and story-wise, it's very much a sequel, progressing logically from the first game and endowed with the same cheery, hyper-colourful palette and endearingly goofy vibe. But it also feels much more polished and honed and considerably meatier, thanks to a welter of side missions and hidden activities – addressing criticisms that the first game was too short. If you're in the mood for a game whose story is utterly frivolous and tongue-in-cheek, with a leavening of gentle satire that pokes fun at the likes of boneheaded influencers and excessive consumption, you'll love Revenge of the Savage Planet. Once again, you're unceremoniously dispatched to an uninhabited planet, where you must establish a base in anticipation of colonisation. But this time around, your deadbeat employer, Kindred Aerospace, has been acquired by the rapacious Alta Interglobal. When you reach your base, you find two messages from Alta, one welcoming you and the next informing you that you've been fired. Most of your gear is scattered around the planet you land on and four neighbouring ones. Each world has a distinctive set of ecosystems, including flora, fauna, and climate. You must explore to find items that will add new abilities and upgrade your attributes, as you return to previously inaccessible areas when you acquire things like a whip, a grapple hook, an underwater scooter, and helmet-filter that allows you to breathe in poison gas-filled areas. Everything in each environment can be scanned and the whip lets you capture alien creatures (some of which must first be stunned) Pokémon-style, which can then be researched by your habitat's computer, often yielding crucial upgrades. There's some varied and inventive puzzling to be done – for example, unlocking crates by spraying metallic goo to create connections between electrified mushrooms. Plus, there's some pretty challenging platforming involved, along with some memorable and challenging boss battles. Tinkerers can 3D print all manner of furniture and appliances to decorate their bases, while the whole game is playable in two-player co-op, either in split screen or online. One of Revenge Of The Savage Planet's many strengths lies in its tactility. Hostile creatures explode in showers of colourful goo, while others detonate after you've aimed a hefty kick at them. Different enemies require wildly different strategies and equipment; for example, green balls of slime filled with eyes can only be defeated by a good spraying with a water gun, which turns them progressively bluer until they melt. Tiny spiky balls are impervious to your blaster but susceptible to your whip. Others have armour which must be whipped or ground-pounded before they will take damage. As you progress, you acquire tanks of differently coloured goo to fire, which must be deployed both against specific enemies and in the cause of puzzle-solving. In lesser hands, Revenge Of The Savage Planet's welter of liquid-shooting guns and gadgets could have ended up as a disjointed mess, but Raccoon Logic has integrated them into a coherent and logical whole – it's definitely one of those games which is way cleverer than it looks. Whether dealing with waves of varied enemies, solving puzzles which can often be arcane but always seem to make a weird form of sense, or returning with a new gadget to a previously explored area and uncovering something new, its maps are packed with activities that are all very satisfying. More Trending And while it's longer than Journey To The Savage Planet, you should still be able to finish it in 20 hours or so, so it isn't one of those games that is intimidatingly long. Its least impressive aspects don't seriously detract from the fun but we did have to undergo a period of grinding before taking down one of the later bosses and sometimes found our drone assistant both a tad annoying and not as helpful as they should have been. The parody adverts piped to your habitat's screen also grate after a while, but at least they can be switched off. This is a well-constructed and cleverly designed game, that refuses to take itself at all seriously. It's genuinely funny, very distinctive in terms of both looks and atmosphere, and offers a pleasing amount of varied and satisfyingly gameplay. Metroidvanias may be a favourite of indie developers but there's still very few 3D examples of the concept, and Revenge Of The Savage Planet really makes you wonder why. In Short: One of the best 3D Metroidvanias ever made, with the same endearing sense of humour as the original but several welcome improvements and a more substantial adventure. Pros: Great gadgets and clever Metroidvania style puzzles and platforming. Genuinely funny at time, with some nicely distinctive visuals. Suite of two-player co-op options are very welcome. Cons: Some forced level grinding and some of the wackier humour can grate after a while – especially the annoyingly unhelpful drone. Score: 8/10 Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and PC*Price: TBAPublisher: Raccoon LogicDeveloper: Raccoon LogicRelease Date: 8th May 2025 Age Rating: 12 *available on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass from day one Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. 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