With the Xbox One soon to head off into the sunset thanks to the arrival of the Series X/S it’s worth stepping back to revisit some of the games that made an impact here during this generation. Not all of them are exclusive but each of them resulted in many hours spent glued to controllers and that’s all that really matters. 🙂

Though I’ve played a lot of “Metroidvania” and platform games over the years they’re not really genres that immediately come to mind when I think of Xbox. But then I’d imagine that might be a common line of thought for people on the platform accustomed to shooters and sports games. However with Dead Cells I found a game that won me over not just with the challenge but also with just how well it plays.

Taking the role of a resurrected prisoner you need to traverse a number of procedurally generated levels taking on enemies and collecting “cells” which you use to unlock more abilities and items. Every death leads you to getting closer to unlocking more items and I’m happy to admit that I’ve died A LOT. With the constant stream of content for the game since release I’ve been surprised with what’s changed but it definitely hasn’t improved my chances of success. Despite my failures I think because of how well the game plays (the controls feel great) you know it’s not the game letting you down it’s your own ability to handle the situation so wanting to have “one more go” comes easily.

I may never actually “win” it but I make sure it has a permanent place on my console’s hard drive just in case I get lucky in one of my runs in the game. When that happens I’ll definitely be making a lot of noise about it! 🙂