thomaswasalone

Earlier today Microsoft posted a press release informing us that five ID@xbox games would be released this week. Two of which, Never Alone and The Jackbox Party Pack, launched Tuesday evening. Thomas Was Alone, Piers Solar and The Pinball Arcade will release tomorrow rounding out the week.

Never Alone was developed in part with the Alaskan Native community and features beautiful arctic landscapes and with Limbo-esque puzzle segments. Our Never Alone review went up earlier this week and Nick Santangelo wasn’t a huge fan, saying “Never Alone exposed me to [the Iñupiat] culture, and I’m thankful for that. Unfortunately, it didn’t do so as part of a satisfying game experience, which makes it impossible to recommend anyone else learn the Iñupiat ways through the same means I did.”

The Jackbox Party Pack is a huge compilation of party games including: You Don’t Know Jack 2015, Fibbage XL, Drawful, Word Spud and Lie Swatter. It is currently available on Xbox One for $24.99.

Thomas Was Alone is a BAFTA-award-winning title previously released on PC. Developed by Mike Bithell, the puzzle platformer utilizes simple geometric shapes with unique game mechanics and wonderful narration to create a true classic. We hope Curve studios’ port of the highly successful PC game does it justice.

Piers Solar is another re-release of a title that was originally a homebrew Sega Genesis product. It pays homage to the 16-bit JRPGs of yesteryear.

The Pinball Arcade, which was previously released on Xbox 360, finally makes it to Xbox One. Focusing on faithful recreations of physical pinball tables, it differentiates itself from Zen’s Pinball FX2. The core emulator is free and players will pay per table with over 25 tables available at launch.

Update: After this story was published, Microsoft tweeted that The Pinball Arcade‘s Xbox One release had been delayed to Wednesday, November 26.

Source: Microsoft