Xbox Game Passadds a lot of games, but if you’re following along with the service, it’s relatively easy to keep track of them. Since the subscription’s biggest value is its library, Microsoft tends to promote new additions as clearly as possible, especially when it comes to day-one releases. It’s occasionally possible for something to get shafted, however, which happened on a couple of levels with the most recent slate of announcements.
Microsoft laid out thelate-May additions to Xbox Game Passin anXbox Wirepost on May 21, highlighting the day-one availability ofMonster Train 2and listing off other newcomers likeTo a TandMetaphor: ReFantazio. It’s a strong line-up, andMetaphoralone could carry the month for JRPG fans. Another batch of additions was shared in a separate blog post, however, and it didn’t even provide the details to note that one of my favorite adventure games of all time is hitting the service.
Zork Is An Xbox Game Pass Retro Classics Highlight
The Adventure Game That Started It All
In addition to the standard array of new games,Xbox Game Pass has also added a new Retro Classics catalog featuring over 50 old-school Activision titles, as explained onXbox Wire.While retro game repackages are all the rage these days, getting a lineup of Activision classics fills some major gaps. TheAtari 50compilation, for example, was notably missing Activision games despite the company having published some of the biggest hits on Atari systems.
The blog post doesn’t detail every included game, leaving anything that didn’t fit into an included screenshot of the game library grid to the imagination. As it turns out,my personal favorite—Zork 1: The Great Underground Empire—snuck in at the tail endof the alphabet. As perhaps the primarygrandfather of the adventure game genre,Zork’s black screen filled only with text can seem rudimentary almost 50 years later, but it can still be every bit as fun as the best games that it inspired.
Zorkis also playable on the computer terminalCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
If you’ve ever playedZork, you’ll probably remember the white house with a boarded front door, where the game sets its scene in a couple of short sentences. If you haven’t, theGreat Underground Empiresubtitle should make it clear thatthe game goes much deeper than its simple introductory setting. Typing in commands like “open mailbox” and “move rug” can quickly move you along, but you’ll soon want to switch to commands like “attack” if you want to avoid death by Grue. It’s shockingly flexible and smart, and you can do a lot if you can keep your bearings.
Retro Classics Are Nice To Have On Xbox Game Pass
Zork Joins Other Greats In A New Environment
Admittedly,Zorkisn’t the mostjaw-dropping Xbox Game Pass addition, asyou can easily play it on a PC through any number of means. It’s cool to see it show up in that ecosystem, however, as its text-based nature has always kept it away from the focus of the console scene despite being a stone-cold classic on PC. I’d like to think that the addition will get a decent chunk of people to try it for the first time, and doing so can be such an illuminating look at where a lot of adventure game DNA originated.
Zorkisn’t the only heavy hitter in the Retro Classics lineup.Pitfall!holds a similarly titanic position in the evolution of platformers, andH.E.R.O.is famous for adding new ideas and dimensions to the same genre.Caesar 2, another game from the PC side of things, has the depth, detail, and engaging gameplay balance to compete with city-builders today. I’d still like to see Activision put out a purchasable package of its classic game catalog akin to its PS1 and PS2 anthologies, butXbox Game Passadding the Retro Classics catalog is the next best thing.
