29: Below, developed by Capybara Games, played on the Xbox One X for approximately 7 hours. Below is cruel. It’s flipping CRUEL. I was hoping for a Zelda-rogue-like, instead it was a Dark-Souls-rogue-like. That should have pissed me off, and, initially, it did. I hated dying from hunger for the first time, I hated dying from a difficulty spike, or a literal spike-trap, etc.. Nevertheless, I kept pushing through and delving deeper into the cavernous abyss because of the stellar soundtrack and art design. The moment to moment—high stakes combat helped me to overlook the survival mechanics that I normally dislike. The interesting atmosphere and cleverly hidden secrets keep me wanting to craft more lanterns and chow down on bat morsels, so I can keep on going. On paper, I should dislike this game... but I don’t. I keep coming back to it, and I can see myself chipping away at it throughout the next few months. Oh, and PSA: it’s on Game Pass, so give it a poke. (I'm going to praising Game Pass a lot in this list, so GET USED TO IT.)