Xbox Live’s Games With Gold for May 2018 are Super Mega Baseball 2, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, Vanquish and all the Streets of Rage series from the Sega Vintage Collection. That’s according to this unlisted (but official) video, spied today by Wario64 and earlier in the week by others.
We’re looking forward to Super Mega Baseball 2, as its predecessor was our Sports Video Game of the Year for 2014. The followup just got a release date — May 1 — (it’s also coming to PlayStation 4 and Windows PC, and it’s $29.99 for them and those who don’t have Xbox Live Gold). So if you have a Gold subscription, you get a brand-new video game with a solid pedigree.
Metalhead’s followup will deliver online multiplayer, whose absence in the first Super Mega Baseball was that game’s only real shortcoming. The sequel also offers retooled player models, which are still stylized but not as cartoony as the original’s. The Ego variable difficulty and “mojo” buff and debuff system, both of which we liked in the original, get a coat of polish also.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain needs little introduction; the 2015 swan song for Hideo Kojima at Konami was one of our top-scoring reviews that year and Kojima’s acrimonious departure from his longtime employer only hardened fans’ appreciation of his final work in that series. The Phantom Pain was previously offered on PlayStation Plus in October 2017.
Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage is also familiar to longtime Sega Genesis fans, but it should be be noted this encompasses all three of the games in the brawler series. The originals launched between 1992 and 1994 and were brought back to Xbox 360 in May 2012; this is backward compatible for the Xbox One, as all 360 Games With Gold are from now on.
PlatinumGames’ Vanquish, originally launched 2010, likewise has a devoted following that should appreciate having it available to the latest hardware. Criticized for a short campaign and low replay value (and no multiplayer), Vanquish still turned heads for its visual polish and rockin’ third-person shooter action. It will be available beginning May 16.
Friendly reminder that The Witness, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Dead Space 2 are currently available through Games With Gold. The Witness and Dead Space 2 are being offered through April 30, with Assassin’s Creed Syndicate available to May 15. That’s a solid lineup of fan favorites, a new offering and big triple-A names straddling the next 39 days.
