Sometimes, when you’re scrolling, looking for something new to play, it’s the classic genre games that call out the most. We’re talking games with simple premises, like bouncing balls off of walls, or jumping on platforms to reach the next ones. But you’ve probably played all of the true classics, and with the vast creativity of indie game developers, surely there are fresh, new takes on these simple formulas.
Look no further than these 3 classic genre games for fresh takes on old favorites, available on Xbox Game Pass. Whether you’re looking for some items to collect, mindless tasks to complete, or taking lucky guesses, these classic genre games will hit the spot for your nostalgia. They’re simple games at their core, but with creative approaches to the basic ideas.
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Ball X Pit
Developer: Kenny Sun
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Classic Genre: Breakout, aka Brick Breaker
Ball X Pit is an addictive take on the classic Breakout, or Brick Breaker genre. At its most simple, it’s a game where you aim a bouncing ball and strive to break targets as they slowly, and then quickly, descend the screen towards you. But Ball X Pit is much more advanced than Breakout was in 1976. For starters, the targets are enemies that fire at you, and you must move around the bottom of the screen, avoiding their attacks.
Each level has two mini-bosses and a final boss, with several increasingly difficult levels that can be sped up for extra challenges and rewards as you clear them. As you slay enemies, you level up your balls, acquire additional ones with various effects, and even combine them for bigger effects. And as you play, you unlock additional characters, each of whom has a different special skill or playstyle, like passing shots through enemies or returning balls to you when they hit the back wall instead of bouncing.
But that’s not all. In between levels, Ball X Pit is also a city-builder. With resources accrued during each run, you purchase and upgrade buildings across your village. Each one adds buffs or mines additional resources as you complete them. But to complete the buildings, you have to launch your playable characters onto the map, just like the balls during the main game, and bounce them off the buildings enough times to complete them. This extra layer of gameplay adds that much more to the constant itch to play just one more round.
Buckshot Roulette
Developer: Mike Klubnika
Publisher: CRITICAL REFLEX
Classic Genre: Russian Roulette
The name of the game says it all. Buckshot Roulette is a multiplayer take on simply playing Russian Roulette. It’s hard to come by a more classic genre than that; or, frankly, too many games doing takes on it altogether. You can play solo or with up to four friends in a morbid game of luck.
It starts straightforwardly. Rather than a classic six-shooter, a 12-gauge shotgun sits on the table. It’s loaded up with a random mix of blanks and live rounds, and you have to guess whether to aim at yourself and pray for a blank, or aim across the table and hope for a live bullet.
One shot doesn’t kill, thankfully, or that would make for a very simple game. When you’re shot, you’re immediately resuscitated until you run out of shocks. You have more revives in each round, but more bullets in the chamber, too. As the rounds go on, you also pull items from a black box. Some let you see the next bullet to be fired, while others handcuff the opponent to skip their turn. For as simple as Buckshot Roulette is, the intensity certainly intensifies as you get deeper into the rounds and closer to winning.
Junkster
Developer: Stormcloud Games
Publisher: Stormcloud Games
Classic Genre: Platformer/Collectathon
There are endless platformers out there. Junkster sets itself apart twofold. First, it feels like a classic Xbox Arcade game. There’s just enough bonus collecting to do to make you spend a little longer in each level, but the rewards are quite classic. You unlock stickers for an in-game sticker book and items to place into dioramas. The rewards are purely for their own sake. They add nothing to the gameplay, only the joy of having the opportunity to play with and admire them.
Second, Junkster’s main gimmick is that you have to collect construction components as your platform to build new platforms and operable robots. The game is very simple, with a relatively clear path forward most of the time. However, if you’re keen on collecting all of the items in each level, you will have to spend a bit of time searching nooks and crannies, or learning how to make the most of your machines. The construction mechanics are pretty novel and would be welcome in more platformers in the future.
For all your classic genre needs and more, check out these 3 games on Xbox Game Pass.
