Pirates, Heroes in Galaxies Far Away Among Xbox’s February Gold Games

Honestly, this is a month where the games of last-gen are allowed to shine. Whether that’s a testament to the quality of the legacy games or the shrug-worthy nature of the current-gen choices shall remain up to the individual. Microsoft’s Xbox One offerings for the month of February are limited in their appeal, focused on colorful space-themed multiplayer adventuring and realistic racing simulation. Their Xbox 360 free downloads, however, contain a broader appeal, tapping into humor and nostalgia with a pirate-themed sequel to a previous Games with Gold title and a bold, action-oriented trip into the universe created by George Lucas. Let’s dig into the games.

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Xbox One

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (February 1-28)

Remember the  feeling of watching Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, while fleeing the Empire’s forces, run to their respective guns in the Millennium Falcon and coordinate their laser-shootin’ defense attack against the inbound ships? Well, if you transform the ship into a giant circle with tons of weapons and send it spinning through an onslaught of colorful, chaotic galactic levels full of living enemies, that’s pretty much the experience fueling Asteroid Base’s Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime.  Against hordes of organic and inorganic enemies within its neon-colored visual design, players explore the winding mazes of different levels in search of vulnerable critters to rescue, passing through hostile territory as they unleash attacks upon aggressors.  The controls and ship upgrade systems allow for single-player enjoyment, but the core of Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime comes in having at least one co-op buddy there to jump between the ship’s stations.

Project Cars (February 16 – March 15)

Racing games typically steer in either one of two directions: they can push the pedal to the medal with brisk, breakneck competition, or they control the facets of the racing and make the experience more practical and befitting of a simulation.  Naturally, developers would like to nail both, but one often seems to be prioritized above the other in the creative process, depending on the game’s intentions. Project Cars aims for the latter, focusing its efforts toward providing a broad range of cars and locations to navigate through the game’s realistic controls and responsive physics. Despite the many customization options available, where one can fine-tune the degree of realism and race parameters, some have critiqued the game’s notable lack of car brands and its middling controls as factors that sap Project Cars of some entertainment value.

Xbox 360

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (February 1-15)

Can I just copy and paste some comments here about the first installment in the Secret of Monkey Island remastered series, which has been covered in both November’s Games with Gold rundown and Ben’s Bargains Noteworthy 360 Backwards Compatibility guide? Because just about everything said about the first journey of Guybrush Threepwood applies equally as much to Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. Graphic improvements merge with dedicated admiration for the original tone and intentions of this point-and-click adventure, which occurs some time after Guy’s triumph in the first installment with a literal cliffhanger that begins his new pursuits for the treasure of “Big Whoop”. Humor, puzzle-solving, and thrilling heroics continue to elevate the antiquated play mechanics all these years later, and this remaster from LucasArts ups the ante with reverent artistic updating along with a few new surprises.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (February 16-28)

During the period between the release of the final entry in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Revenge of the Sith, and the first entry in a new saga, The Force Awakens, fans of the beloved franchise had to scramble between books, TV series, and videogames to get their fix for that galaxy far, far away.  The lackluster reception to the prequel trilogy opened the door for other piece of fiction to right a few of its wrongs, something that LucasArts’ Star Wars: The Force Unleashed quite admirably attempts to do. With assistance from George Lucas and his continuity staff, this story of Vader’s conflicted apprentice, Starkiller, once folded into the narrative canon of the Star Wars universe. The novelty of that unfortunately gets weighed down by gaming concerns, notably the linear level design and the power-driven combat’s link to difficulty. This results in an electrifying but unbalanced stab at the universe.

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