Microsoft has announced another wave of games coming to Game Pass today, September 26, at its Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2024 Broadcast including classic role-playing games from the Mana franchise.
While it has already announced the two official waves of games coming to the subscription service in September — the former of which included Age of Mythology: Retold and Train Sim World 5 and the latter of which included Wargroove 2 and Frostpunk 2 — this additional drop comes as an unofficial third wave.
Four new additions including Trials of Mana, Legend of Mana, We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie, and All You Need is Help were announced for Game Pass at the Tokyo Game Show broadcast (and you can read about everything else announced here). We've collated these and the previous waves below, so you can check out everything that's come to Xbox Game Pass in September 2024.
Xbox Game Pass September 2024 Lineup
- Age of Mythology: Retold (Cloud, Xbox Series X and S, and PC)
- Expeditions: A MudRunner Game (Cloud, Console, and PC)
- Riders Republic (Cloud, Console, and PC)
- Train Sim World 5 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
- Wargroove 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
- Frostpunk 2 (PC)
- Ara: History Untold (PC)
- All You Need is Help (Console and PC)
- We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie (Console)
- Trials of Mana (Console and PC)
- Legend of Mana (Console and PC)
Age of Empire spin-off Age of Mythology: Retold is a real time strategy game blending beloved Age of Empire roots with vast mythologies from around the world, letting players not only overcome other nations but plenty of monsters too.
Another action packed entry in the long running franchise, Expeditions: A MudRunner Game blends camp and crew management with its core gameplay of exploring mountains and valleys in myriad off-road vehicles. "Expeditions: A MudRunner Game isn’t a replacement for the supremely addictive SnowRunner, but its more untamed wilderness maps make it a worthwhile complementary experience," IGN said in our 8/10 review.
The mountain biking, snowboarding, skiing, and gliding game Riders Republic arrived in 2021 and lets players explore an open world sports paradise either in single player or multiplayer. It also earned an 8/10 in IGN's review, in which we said: "Riders Republic is an excellent, arcadey extreme sports sandbox with bonkers multiplayer events, an impressive open world, and unfortunate server issues."
Train Sim World 5 came to Game Pass upon its launch. "The rails are yours in Train Sim World 5," reads the official synopsis. "Take on new challenges and new roles as you master the tracks and trains of iconic cities across 3 new routes. Immerse yourself in the ultimate rail hobby and embark on your next journey."
Wargroove 2 is Chucklefish’s Advance Wars-style strategy sequel released in 2023. IGN’s Wargroove 2 review returned an 8/10. We said: "Wargroove 2 is still one of the best tributes to Advance Wars out there, and bigger than its predecessor in every way, even though otherwise not much has changed."
Frostpunk 2 is a hotly anticipated city-building survival sequel from 11 But Studios. It also earned an 8/10 from IGN. "Thanks to a ground-up rethinking of its ice-age city builder mechanics, Frostpunk 2's larger scale is less intimate but more socially and politically complex than the original," we said.
Ara: History Untold didn't do quite as well, as the Civilization style game earned just a 6/10 from IGN. "While Ara: History Untold is a visually captivating historical 4X with an interesting underlying economy, it gets bogged down well before the midway point," we said.
All You Need is Help was shadow dropped on Game Pass through the Tokyo Game Show event. It's a cooperative multiplayer game where fluffy, cube-shaped creatures collaborate to reach their goals. Help them solve puzzles with friends.
We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie is a remaster featuring quality-of-life enhancements and new modes such as Selfie Mode and Eternal Mode, five new challenges themed around the story of the young King of All Cosmos, along with all new collectibles to roll up.
A remake of the 1995 classic role-playing game, Trials of Mana arrived in 2020 with revamped graphics and updated quality of life features. "Trials of Mana is a great remake of a 16-bit classic, but its 16-bit roots are often hard to ignore," IGN said in our 8/10 review.
Legend of Mana is a similar release, arriving in 2021 as a remake of the original game from 1999. "A beautiful modern rendering of a PlayStation classic, Legend of Mana retains both the charms and the problems from its initial release," IGN said in our 7/10 review.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
