Top 10 Most Underrated Xbox Game Pass Games

Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at 10 of the most underrated games available on Xbox Game Pass. You don’t want to miss out on these hidden gems.

As the name would suggest, this game takes place on a train full of monsters, and it’s your job to stop them by ascending the train’s four floors and reaching a mysterious artifact – called a “pyre” – at the top. It’s a roguelike deckbuilder in the same vein as “Slay the Spire” but hasn’t received quite as much love despite being equally robust. The gameplay loop won’t take you too long to complete, but as you slowly build up your deck and learn the mechanics, you’ll find yourself pulled back to “Monster Train” time and time again.

A horror game with a twist, “Carrion” is a short, indie title that flips the genre on its head: you’re not running away from the monster, now, you are the monster. You start off as a little ball of red tentacles and, as you consume human victims, grow to an extreme size. It’s just as fun and weird as we’ve all come to expect from Devolver Digital, encouraging players to be as violent and brutal as possible in their bid to escape the lab the creature comes from. Taking inspiration from classic, pulp horror movies, Carrion is a great concept that doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Have you ever wanted to be a hole in the ground? If you have, there’s a video game just for you! “Donut County” is a unique game where, yes, you’re playing as a hole. The hole travels around and slowly grows with the more stuff it consumes – the trick is you need to find appropriately-sized objects that the hole can consume while it keeps expanding, eventually destroying everything on the screen. Some of the most original puzzles ever conceived can be found in this incredibly charming indie game. You definitely won’t regret spending a few hours getting to know the hole and its architect.

80’s retrowave has been hugely popular for years, and “Narita Boy” is a game that caters to this nostalgia in its entirety. You’re sucked into the fictional video game “Narita Boy”, learning about the game’s enigmatic creator while fighting the creatures that occupy its VHS-style landscape. Wielding the legendary Techno Sword, you’re treated to beautiful animations and an incredible, pixel art world, tasked with unraveling its mysteries. The combat itself can fall flat from time to time, and it has some of the worst parts of Metroidvania backtracking, but with graphics this stylish and an incredible soundtrack, you’ll forgive “Narita Boy” for its flaws.

One of the first big, Microsoft exclusives to drop during the lifespan of the Xbox Series consoles, “The Medium” has gone sorely unappreciated since its release in early 2021. Developed by Bloober Team, which is quickly becoming one of the biggest names in the horror genre, “The Medium” sees players travel between two different worlds – the real world and spirit world – simultaneously, as a spirit medium named Marianne. It’s definitely a solid horror game that you’ll want to check out if that’s your thing, especially since it’s going to be available on Game Pass probably indefinitely. It may not be a system seller, but if you have Game Pass already there’s no reason not to give it a shot.

One of the best survival horror games of the modern era seems to have, somehow, been completely forgotten by a lot of people. This was lightning in a bottle; an enormous, triple-A horror game based on an existing media property that actually turned out to be outstanding. You play as Amanda Ripley, daughter of the original Ripley, desperately searching for her mother. Not only do you have to contend with the xenomorph itself, but also hostile humans and androids that might be more dangerous than anything else on the station. If you like Ridley Scott’s “Alien” - and who doesn’t? - you’ll love this game.

Do you sometimes get torn between whether you want to play a classic “Zelda” game or go back to building up your farm in “Stardew Valley”? Fret no more, 2018’s “Moonlighter” is a game that scratches both those itches at once. The game’s conceit is that you’re operating a small shop, and you need to venture into dangerous dungeons to collect resources to craft items to sell. Along the way, you’ll get to know the villagers and help them out. But despite these different genres, “Moonlighter” isn’t divided at all; it knows exactly what it wants to be, exactly what its appeal is, and who it’s been made for.

The long-awaited sequel to “American McGee’s Alice”, “Madness Returns” was a worthy successor. Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” has been adapted to death, but this venture was still able to provide a fresh, engaging, and satisfyingly dark take on the old story. Now an adult, Alice Liddell is trying to live a normal life, but her childhood trauma keeps pulling her back to Wonderland, which is under siege from an Infernal Train. And to make checking out this action-platformer even more compelling, when you download it on Game Pass, you’ll actually get the original thrown in too!

A farming simulator with a twist, while you can grow fruits and vegetables, you’ll spend most of your time breeding the titular globs of slime. To acquire slimes, you have to travel into the surrounding areas and suck up wild slimes with your high-tech vacuum cleaner, bringing them back to your farm. From then on, the world is your oyster, one spent crossbreeding slimes with each other to make new ones – being careful not to accidentally make deadly, “tar” slimes – to continually grow your farm. The weirdness and the routine are both major appeals and keep bringing gamers back for more.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few Honorable Mentions:

In This Gorgeous Indie Game, It’s Your Job to Ferry Souls to the Afterlife.

It May Be a “God of War” Clone, But It’s the Best One You Can Play on an Xbox.

Its Controls Might Be Janky, But There’s a Solid ARPG Underneath Them.

Tim Schafer has been a big name in video games for a long time – and, incidentally, his classic adventure game “Grim Fandango” is also on Game Pass – but “Brütal Legend” has been sorely unappreciated since its release. The hype around its all-star cast died pretty quickly, despite the fact it’s a great game. Starring Jack Black as ailing roadie Eddie Riggs, alongside many famous faces from heavy metal history, players are taken to a world drenched in musical aesthetics where different genres are factions at war. “Brütal Legend” is now famous for its unusual gameplay choices, where hack’n’slash combat is mixed with long, RTS segments. It’s not for everyone, but it might be for you, especially if you’re an Ozzy Osborne fan!