The Best Games To Pick Up During the ID@Xbox Sale

Image: Ghost Ship Games

Xbox has run a pretty neat program over the years called ID@Xbox that promotes independent developers and allows them to publish their games on Microsoft’s console. The program was built off the back of the Xbox 360’s marketplace, which famously became a haven for indie games in the late ‘00s and early ‘10s, such as Bastion and the original Geometry Wars. Xbox remains a powerhouse for indies, thanks in no small part to their frequent releases on the platform’s Game Pass subscription service, which provides access to hundreds of games (many of them indies) on a rolling basis. Now, Xbox is holding a sale on a number of its ID@Xbox titles, and we’ve gone to the liberty of picking out a few games you should pick up. Alternatively, a few of these are available on Game Pass but, in my opinion, the last year has borne out that subscriptions are theft and ownership is the way forward. Without further ado, comrades, the highlights of Xbox’s ongoing sale.

Desert Child is just plain old-school cool. Clearly developed by folks who love Cowboy Bebop, it’s a game in which you vibe out to lo-fi hip hop, race people on hoverbikes in slickly animated sequences, and stop into ramen shops to refuel between bouts. Along the way, you also pick up odd jobs and bounties because despite your skill as a racer, you’re also flat broke. If you want relaxing meditations on the future of the gig economy in an anime-inspired pixel art game that’s short and sweet, you can’t go wrong picking up Desert Child for just $3.

Gang Beasts has been a staple of game nights forever. A party game all about flopping around while duking it out with your friends, Gang Beasts is a certifiable good time, especially if y’all are already feeling a little silly. The joy of Gang Beasts, as well as similar games like Party Animals, is in how messy it is. They’re games built to be taken as jokes, and because of that, they are the easiest to get into. Seriously, suggest this to your game night friends, or throw it on if you’re having a party, and I’m sure it’ll have its fans by the end of the night. You can pick up Gang Beasts for $8 or alternatively check it out on Game Pass.

Do not let Overland’s cute polygonal look fool you, this tactics game is tough. But therein lies the satisfying feeling of triumph that Overland’s so good at producing. Part strategy game, part roadtrip survival sim, Overland is a grueling trek across post-apocalyptic America where subterranean aliens threaten your ability to simply refuel your car, which you need to maneuver to the end of every stage in order to succeed and live to see another day. Because there is such a scarcity of things in the apocalypse, Overland is much more about making the best of a constantly shitty hand than ever growing into some all-powerful brute that wipes the floor with any challenge. It’s a different take on a strategy game that I don’t think got a fair shake when it first came out, but you can fix that by picking up Overland for $8.

Paradise Killer is the only game I’m recommending purely based on the praise of everyone around me. I’ve heard time and time again that this visual novel features some of the best writing of the last few years, and wraps it up in gorgeous character art and a wonderful premise about unraveling the mystery of a serial killer on an island dubbed a paradise. If vaporwave aesthetics and a game I’ve heard is more or less like “if Ace Attorney fucked” rings any amount of bells for you, you might want to get in on Paradise Killer for $6.

 Sable is one of the most gorgeous games I’ve played. Rendered in a completely arresting visual style, Sable is like a pacifist’s 3D Zelda game. You are the young Sable as she embarks on her Gliding, a kind of coming-of-age ritual that members of her nomadic tribe must make at a certain point in their lifetimes. In practice, you spend the game piloting her hoverbike over the most beautiful desert, going from town to town sifting through people’s troubles, and trying to piece together the person that Sable wants to be. At the end of the game, you must pick a mask that’ll communicate to the world what that is. It is one of the most overlooked games of the last few years, it’s endlessly charming, and you can look at it all day and still constantly find new things to be in awe of. Sable is an absolute must-have game and you can pick it up for $8.74.

The Warhammer games have been around forever, but it does feel like they’ve been enjoying a bit of a renaissance of late. A lot of folks are looking forward to the upcoming release of Space Marine 2, which looks great, but if you’re looking for a different speed of game to enjoy with friends, perhaps consider Vermintide 2 and/or Darktide. These cooperative first-person shooters are similar in style to Deep Rock Galactic and Left 4 Dead, though they hew closer to the latter thanks to their mission-based gameplay. Vermintide 2 is a perennial favorite, having been supported for a number of years with free and paid DLC that added new missions and character classes to the dark-fantasy game. If Warhammer’s traditional sci-fi trappings are more your speed like they are mine, Darktide, which released just about two years ago, should be up your alley. Though it started out in a rough spot, Darktide is doing better these days, and the developer behind both has shifted the bulk of its resources to supporting Darktide well into the future. You can pick up Darktide’s imperial edition for $24 and the ultimate edition of Vermintide 2 (packing some hefty paid expansions) for $11.

Enter the Gungeon is just a blisteringly ludicrous game. If you need the elevator pitch beyond that incredible name, here it is: you are a Gungeoneer who must plumb the depths of procedurally generated dungeons filled with enemies themed after guns and bullets—all the while picking up increasingly exotic weapons yourself—in order to find a gun to kill the past. Need I say much more? I will anyways. Enter The Gungeon is a game I’ve never beaten, but one that I’ve frequently enjoyed watching, especially at charity speedrunning events like Awesome Games Done Quick. Seeing everything the game has to offer, including content across numerous free updates, always leaves me craving a return to the gungeon, which has some of the most dynamic gameplay ever seen in a roguelike. It feels good to play and features hilarious gun puns, I don’t know what more you could want from a game. You, too, can become a pun-spewing gungeoneer by picking up Enter the Gungeon for $4.49.