If the best Xbox One games are too expensive, then these are your best alternative. Of course you could just replay something you’ve already got, but don’t worry, we understand the urge to try playing something new. That’s why we’ve got you covered with this list. Read on to see our top picks. If you’re here because you want new Xbox One games for cheaper while you save up for some new hardware, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X restock guide to ensure you get yours fast and for the right price.
What are the best cheap Xbox One games?
If you are looking for some chilled out best cheap Xbox One games, then a puzzler like Snake Pass or Untitled Goose Game might be good for you. Untitled Goose Game is definitely the funnier game, while Snake Pass is a very unique challenge involving learning the ins and outs of snake movement. With smart writing and story to spare, Firewatch and Afterparty will suit players looking for the best cheap Xbox One games focused on narrative. There’s still ways for you to interact, travelling around the game world looking for your next objectives, but these are games that take after books and TV shows rather than the arcadey experiences that initially defined what video games were. For more of a a mix of challenge and story, we’d recommend Hollow Knight or Celeste from the best cheap Xbox One games list. Celeste is all about precision platforming and a very personal story relating to your player character. Hollow Knight is more about exploring the world around you, and upgrading your character’s abilities so you can reach more and more areas and defeat the enemies you find there. Superhot: Mind Control Delete and My Friend Pedro are our picks of the best cheap Xbox One games if you value mechanical depth. You can play these games for hours and hours and still learn how to improve, perfect for gamers looking to climb the leaderboards. If you stock up on the best cheap Xbox One games and find yourself in need of more storage space, you can buy one of the best external hard drives for PS4 and Xbox One.
The best cheap Xbox One games you can buy today
1. Bugsnax
Hunt for rare beasts and tasty treats in Bugsnax, freshly imported to the Xbox after an exclusive spell on rival consoles. Joining a small exploratory force, you’ll be touring Snaktooth Island looking for lost members of the group, solving mysteries and catching lots of Bugsnax with your arsenal of unique traps. You’ll need your wits about you to fill out your collection in full, but it’s easy enough to just take the game’s wacky story in on the way to its delicious denouement.
2. Unpacking
Moving house can be stressful, but there’s a lot of satisfaction to be had in taking your stuff out of cardboard boxes and putting it where it’s meant to be in your new place. That’s the joy that Unpacking captures. You actually move several times over the course of Unpacking, with a story told in the background of the main packing/tidying/rearranging gameplay. Of course you don’t have to concentrate on this if you’re just here for the satisfaction of finding a place for every object, but it gives some extra flavor to keep you motivated to unpack. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
3. I Am Fish
If you enjoyed being baked goods in Bossa Studios’ previous title (I Am Bread), then this time you’ll love being able to take control of a quartet of fish, swimming, rolling and flying their way back to the ocean. With your survival reliant on finding water to breathe, sometimes only provided by a fragile glass fishbowl, you’ll need to take great care in navigating your way to the end of the level. There are environmental hazards and careless humans to avoid too, but a generous system of checkpoints means that one wrong move doesn’t cost you too much progress on your journey to the sea. Available for $19.99/£15.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
4. Knockout City
Dodgeball gets the third-person action treatment with this multiplayer title. Customise your player and then head into a “dodgebrawl” match in a team of three on one of the game’s varied and vivid environments. Your goal is to hit the opposing team with the ball, except you’ve got environmental hazards and power-ups to contend with too. If you don’t fancy paying straight-up, there’s a free version of the game that lets you play up to level 25. However this is a fun and lighthearted multiplayer title that stands out compared to the usual shooter or traditional sports fare. Available for $19.99/£17.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
5. Wilmot’s Warehouse
Make order fulfillment fun with Wilmot’s Warehouse. You start off with a big empty space and some products to organize. Then when you’re ready, you’ll be asked to gather those products to hand off to your colleagues. You’ll then get a delivery of some familiar and some new items, and the cycle begins again. It’s a fairly simple premise but well suited for a meditative solo experience, or one you can complete with a friend in co-op. The game’s a puzzle you get to build yourself, since you’ll quickly realize you need a smart organization system to help you remember where all the products are. The better that system is, the faster you’ll be able to complete your orders, and the more performance stars you’ll earn, allowing you access to various upgrades to you and your warehouse. Available for $14.99/£12.49 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
6. Carrion
In most horror games you’re the disempowered human trying desperately to defeat the monster. In this game you are the monster, and a hideous crimson blob of one at that. Escaping from the facility in which you’ve been imprisoned, you’ll be crawling around the walls and ceilings trying to eat the staff. Consume enough human flesh and you’ll be able to grow larger and gain more powers. You’ll still be vulnerable though, so sticking to the shadows and off the floor will remain an important strategy. The game shares some characteristics with the ‘metroidvania’ genre. That means exploration is another important thing you’ll be doing, using your new powers to access more and more of the complex. That makes for a lot of traveling about, but that just means more tentacle-propelled movement and scared fragile humans to eat. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
7. Lair of the Clockwork God
Two classic genres of games get smushed into one in this platform/point-and-click hybrid. As Ben you’ll be hunting for items to combine with other items to solve puzzles, while as Dan you’ll be jumping around to progress. The two friends are having their own separate adventures but each can help out the other when you hit a dead end. But what is all this in aid of? A silly quest to stop the end of the world multiple times over and to teach a robot how to feel emotion. If you enjoy goofy and satirical humor with plenty of self-aware gags about games, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything that does this kind of writing better. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
8. Superhot: Mind Control Delete
The original Superhot, the puzzle/FPS in which time only progresses as you move or attack, is a great game, but now four years later we have the sequel in the form of Mind Control Delete. It features enhancements like new weaponry and different kinds of environments to play in, but also much bigger changes to the way the game works. You can now play the game in endless mode, to see how long you can thread together kills and dodge bullets, blades and blunt objects. There is also a new range of ‘cores’ to try out; reusable special powers that make huge changes to the way you think about playing. As you progress through a series of levels, you get the chance to upgrade yourself further, making each session more unique than ever. And of course, there is still the game’s strange meta-narrative playing out in the background, providing context if you’re curious about why you’re in this strange black, white and red simulation. Available for $24.99/£19.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
9. Yes, Your Grace
Kings have to make many important decisions every day, particularly when you live in a fantasy world full of magic and monsters. As the ruler of the Kingdom of Davern, you’ll have to juggle the needs of your subjects and your family, making decisions with an ever decreasing quantity of resources. You’ll also be expected to leave your throne to take care of certain matters personally, with a small party at your side to offer assistance. It’ll be impossible to satisfy all sides, particularly when you find yourself in need of help from the nobles in your court or foreign regents, who demand a heavy price in return for their help in the trials to come. And once you’ve picked a side, you can’t just reload a save to try another way to solve a problem. Your choices will stick with you right through to the end of the game, intertwining with each other and driving you towards one of several potential endings to your story. Which of course means you’ll have to play through a few times to see all the potential fates for the kingdom. Available for $19.99/£15.49 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
10. Gang Beasts
You could call Gang Beasts a kind of fighting game, but that makes it sound a lot more serious than it really is. Rather than chaining together special moves in epic and highly competitive matches, you’ll instead be using a series of basic punches and grabs to toss your opponents around the many strange arenas, and hopefully throw them out of the ring or into a hazard to defeat them. It’s a great game to play in local multiplayer since the doughy characters are highly customizable and the gameplay is very simple to get the hang of, plus the situations you’ll find yourselves in help keep things friendly and fun. It’s hard to be mad at losing when your fighter fails to make a jump between two moving trucks and faceplants onto the road, or is suddenly crushed by a passing subway car, since it could just as easily happen to someone else. If you want to team up however, there’s also a mode for fighting gangs of computer-controlled opponents in the style of an arcade beat-em-up. Available for $19.99/£15.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
11. Minecraft Dungeons
If your favorite part of the immensely popular sandbox game Minecraft is diving into dark caves to hunt for treasure to claim and monsters to slay, Minecraft Dungeons distills that experience and builds on it with lots of additional gameplay elements. You’ll find new enemies to battle, new abilities, weapons and upgrades to fight them with, and the option for three other people to join you in a four-player beatdown of skeletons, creepers and the like on your path to take on the ultimate baddie - the Arch-Illager. Unlike normal Minecraft, this is a third-person isometric game, with you looking over the battlefield while you control your character from a distance. It’s similar to games like Diablo, but with the perfect theme to make it a family-friendly experience. There’s still some of the original game’s creativity to enjoy too thanks to highly customizable player characters. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
12. Untitled Goose Game
In a quaint English village, the people are going about their daily business without a care in the world. But you’re a goose, and you can’t sit idly by while there’s opportunities to sow chaos and discord. With your goose abilities of honking, flapping your wings and picking things up with your beak, you’ll have to terrorize the population as you pass through gardens, streets and the local pub. You may need to get through locked doors and gates or run away from braver villagers when they chase you away, but there’s always multiple methods for you to get around and outwit the humans. You’ll have lots of fun ticking off the various tasks on your to-do lists, figuring out how to avoid any pesky humans interfering. The graphics design is simple, as is the piano soundtrack, but it’s well done. The characters are plenty expressive without extra detail, and the soundtrack intelligently blends between different versions of tracks depending on what you’re doing at the time. This may be a short game, but everything works so well you’ll be smiling throughout the whole time you’re playing. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
13. My Friend Pedro
Why are you going on a series of suicidal raids against a bunch of well-armed gangsters? Simple. That floating banana told you to do it. This is a game about stylishly fighting your way through rooms full of baddies in slow motion. To help you out there’s a variety of weapons that you can dual-wield and aim separately, mobility techniques like flips, jumps and dodge spins, plus copious amounts of slo-mo to let you line up your shots and avoid enemy bullets. The story of violent revenge and horrific twists will take you through the game once, but what will keep you coming back is the call of the high-score leaderboard. Linking all of your special moves together, avoiding bullets while filling everyone else with lead will rack up your points and multipliers, giving you a score that you can compare with other players around the world. With every level offering a new scenario with new obstacles and killing opportunities, you’ll not get tired of the cool yet wacky violence that defines the game. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
14. Afterparty
Dying is usually pretty final, except did you know there’s a get-out clause if you can drink Satan under the table? That’s what Milo and Lola, your player characters, have to do to escape their untimely fate. Exploring the surprisingly college-esque underworld, your weapon is a flexible conversation system that builds your relationships with your friends and enemies over time, as you progress on your quest to get invited for a drink-off with Lucifer himself, and a selection of beverages that will power-up your conversation skills. Although Hell still works like you’d expect, with demons torturing the souls of humans, what you don’t know is that after the whistle blows, everyone heads to the bar together to discuss the recent scandals. It’s these scandals you have to resolve in order to get to Lucifer, with the outcome resting on key decisions you make through the game. The writing is super smart, balancing the absurd humor of the situation with the more meaningful interpersonal drama, with both helping draw you towards the end of the game. Afterparty is bursting with character and creativity, and a surprising self-awareness that helps everything hold together. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
15. Burnout Paradise Remastered
One of the most popular racing games ever, only with a new coat of paint to make it more enjoyable on modern systems. Anywhere you drive in this open world leads to a race, whether something as long as travelling from the tops of the hills to the dockyards on the other side of the map, or just a block-long drag race. There’s plenty of different cars to pick from, and many shortcuts to discover as you improve your skills in racing, drifting and taking out your opponents in high-speed crashes. This being the Remastered version, you also get all the DLC EA released for the game, and a fully functional online mode, so you can race through downtown, try dangerous overtakes on a mountain pass, or head over to Big Surf Island to have a go at some stunt driving with friends and rivals alike. There may not be any licensed vehicles to admire or famous tracks to test your skills on, but this game captures the joy of driving fast cars across varied environments, day or night, and the excitement of crashing them into each other or driving them off enormous ramps. Available for $19.99/£19.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
16. Firewatch
In the hot summer months, the state of Wyoming hires volunteers to keep an eye on forest fires. You play Henry, one such volunteer who heads out into the woods to escape his responsibilities back home. With only the voice of Delilah, another volunteer, via walkie-talkie for company, you travel the trails around your watchtower to check that everything is as it should be. However, as a mysterious stalker and the ransacking of Henry’s property proves, it isn’t, and you’ve got to explore the area to find answers. There aren’t any enemies to fight, and the people you do encounter are only done so indirectly or from a distance. This is a game that leaves you alone to walk the forest paths with your thoughts a lot, which may annoy some people looking for a direct challenge, but allows you to experience Henry’s story in a more intimate way, and truly appreciate the isolation of the Wyoming forests. A thoroughly good story topped with some beautiful vistas, this is one that will stay in your thoughts for some time. Available for $19.99/£15.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
17. Unravel
Yarny is a living piece of thread woven into a little creature. The world outside is a large place, but with the help of his stringy form, you will move him onwards on his adventure around charming locations based on the memories of the old woman who created him. The physics-based platforming is engaging, with your movement abilities based on using the threads that make up Yarny to cross gaps and travel upwards and downwards. However, you only have a finite amount of yarn to use, so you’ll have to move carefully unless you want to find yourself tangled up inches before the exit. The story and tone makes it a chilled out and emotionally touching experience. You adventure via photographs around your creator’s house into her family’s memories. You wouldn’t expect a game where the main character has no mouth and only two static eyes to have such a meaningful story to tell, but through the game you’ll observe the levels getting darker and lighter in tone, taking you on a journey that will satisfy fans of good game mechanics and storytelling. Available for $19.99/£14.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
18. Snake Pass
In this puzzle platformer, you play a cute snake named Noodle. Since snakes are not known for jumping around or moving at high speed, you instead progress by slithering your way up, around and along obstacles, with your bird companion Doodle helping lift your long serpent body if you need a little help on your quest to find out who is stealing the jungle’s keystones. The levels require you to collect keys to the exit, before you then make your way out of the level. You’ll quickly learn how to move in a snake-like way, slithering from side to side to move quickly in a straight line and tightening your grip as you climb your way up obstacles. Like other platformers, gravity isn’t your friend, but because snakes can’t jump, it feels like an entirely new concept to deal with. Other hazards like wind and lava are also present, and require you to rethink your normal approach to these dangers. It’s completely unique among other platform games, and this makes it both refreshing and exceptionally challenging. And if you’re a challenge-fiend, you can unlock a speedrun mode to play once you’ve beaten the game. Available for $19.99/£16.24 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
19. Hollow Knight: Void Heart Edition
One of the most beloved ‘metroidvania’ games of this generation is available with all its DLC for an absolute steal of a price. Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition delivers the beautifully bleak and brutally difficult 2D platforming action of the original game, complete with four additional content packs that give you new abilities to master and new bosses to vanquish. The setting is Hallownest, a desolate underground kingdom inhabited by insects, including yourself, but there are few friends to be found. Much of your time will be spent wandering the surprisingly varied environments and fighting enemies, looking for the next boss or a new item that will allow you to explore more and more of the map. If you die, you’ll leave behind some of your currency and magic in a shadow version of yourself, which you’ll have to defeat in a Dark Souls-style corpse run to get your earnings back. If you’re looking for a challenging sidescroller with a stunning art style, engrossing atmosphere and tons of exploration and replayability, Hollow Knight is among the genre’s best. Available for $14.99/£12.49 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
20. Celeste
Celeste is an engrossing 2D sidescrolling platformer that’s as brutal as it is beautiful. Created by the folks behind multiplayer smash TowerFall, Celeste brings the same charmingly pixelated graphics and airtight platforming controls and crams them into a narrative-driven adventure filled with challenging stages to conquer. You’ll be jumping your way up a mountain, using dashes to defy gravity and reach the other end of the level, collecting items as you go. If you are struggling, you can activate the versatile Assist Mode to give you exactly the kind of boost you need. This can be good if you just want to experience the story, which follows your player character Madeleine climbing Celeste Mountain, meeting other travellers while fighting to overcome an internal struggle. While Celeste might make you want to toss your controller on occasion, its serene soundtrack and touching story will keep you around. If you manage to collect enough strawberries through the levels, you’ll be able to unlock the B-Side and C-Side versions of the levels, which ramp up the challenge so you can prove your skills. Available for $19.99/£15.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
21. Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Halo: The Master Chief Collection bundled six Halo games going from the original Halo Combat Evolved to Halo 4, making it a huge bargain for anyone who is new to Halo or wants to get reacquainted with the games. Not only do you get a suite of great sci-fi single-player campaigns, you also get a huge array of multiplayer options. As such, Halo: The Master Chief Collection might not seem cheap but it’s a bargain for the amount of games and content it offers, especially when a mix of those games have new graphics and run better than before. Available for $39.99/£29.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
How to choose the best cheap Xbox One games for you
While we and the gaming community at large all rate these games highly, there are a few factors to consider if you want to pick the ones that’ll suit you best. If you’re looking for more general recommendations, then you can usually go by genre. These descriptions will If you’re unsure about a game, see if there’s a free demo available. This is often the first level or a part of some early levels of a game, and will do the best job of showing you what the games are all about. If you know what you want, but want to save as much money as possible, then you can wait for these cheap games to get even cheaper by waiting for a sale. These come around several times a year, often in conjunction with major holidays, and will see the prices of these games drop even further, letting you either save money or get more games on the same budget.
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title: “The Best Cheap Xbox One Games Of 2022” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-26” author: “Bradley Krone”
If the best Xbox One games are too expensive, then these are your best alternative. Of course you could just replay something you’ve already got, but don’t worry, we understand the urge to try playing something new. That’s why we’ve got you covered with this list. Read on to see our top picks. If you’re here because you want new Xbox One games for cheaper while you save up for some new hardware, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X restock guide to ensure you get yours fast and for the right price.
What are the best cheap Xbox One games?
If you are looking for some chilled out best cheap Xbox One games, then a puzzler like Snake Pass or Untitled Goose Game might be good for you. Untitled Goose Game is definitely the funnier game, while Snake Pass is a very unique challenge involving learning the ins and outs of snake movement. With smart writing and story to spare, Firewatch and Afterparty will suit players looking for the best cheap Xbox One games focused on narrative. There’s still ways for you to interact, travelling around the game world looking for your next objectives, but these are games that take after books and TV shows rather than the arcadey experiences that initially defined what video games were. For more of a a mix of challenge and story, we’d recommend Hollow Knight or Celeste from the best cheap Xbox One games list. Celeste is all about precision platforming and a very personal story relating to your player character. Hollow Knight is more about exploring the world around you, and upgrading your character’s abilities so you can reach more and more areas and defeat the enemies you find there. Superhot: Mind Control Delete and My Friend Pedro are our picks of the best cheap Xbox One games if you value mechanical depth. You can play these games for hours and hours and still learn how to improve, perfect for gamers looking to climb the leaderboards. If you stock up on the best cheap Xbox One games and find yourself in need of more storage space, you can buy one of the best external hard drives for PS4 and Xbox One.
The best cheap Xbox One games you can buy today
1. Bugsnax
Hunt for rare beasts and tasty treats in Bugsnax, freshly imported to the Xbox after an exclusive spell on rival consoles. Joining a small exploratory force, you’ll be touring Snaktooth Island looking for lost members of the group, solving mysteries and catching lots of Bugsnax with your arsenal of unique traps. You’ll need your wits about you to fill out your collection in full, but it’s easy enough to just take the game’s wacky story in on the way to its delicious denouement.
2. Unpacking
Moving house can be stressful, but there’s a lot of satisfaction to be had in taking your stuff out of cardboard boxes and putting it where it’s meant to be in your new place. That’s the joy that Unpacking captures. You actually move several times over the course of Unpacking, with a story told in the background of the main packing/tidying/rearranging gameplay. Of course you don’t have to concentrate on this if you’re just here for the satisfaction of finding a place for every object, but it gives some extra flavor to keep you motivated to unpack. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
3. I Am Fish
If you enjoyed being baked goods in Bossa Studios’ previous title (I Am Bread), then this time you’ll love being able to take control of a quartet of fish, swimming, rolling and flying their way back to the ocean. With your survival reliant on finding water to breathe, sometimes only provided by a fragile glass fishbowl, you’ll need to take great care in navigating your way to the end of the level. There are environmental hazards and careless humans to avoid too, but a generous system of checkpoints means that one wrong move doesn’t cost you too much progress on your journey to the sea. Available for $19.99/£15.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
4. Knockout City
Dodgeball gets the third-person action treatment with this multiplayer title. Customise your player and then head into a “dodgebrawl” match in a team of three on one of the game’s varied and vivid environments. Your goal is to hit the opposing team with the ball, except you’ve got environmental hazards and power-ups to contend with too. If you don’t fancy paying straight-up, there’s a free version of the game that lets you play up to level 25. However this is a fun and lighthearted multiplayer title that stands out compared to the usual shooter or traditional sports fare. Available for $19.99/£17.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
5. Wilmot’s Warehouse
Make order fulfillment fun with Wilmot’s Warehouse. You start off with a big empty space and some products to organize. Then when you’re ready, you’ll be asked to gather those products to hand off to your colleagues. You’ll then get a delivery of some familiar and some new items, and the cycle begins again. It’s a fairly simple premise but well suited for a meditative solo experience, or one you can complete with a friend in co-op. The game’s a puzzle you get to build yourself, since you’ll quickly realize you need a smart organization system to help you remember where all the products are. The better that system is, the faster you’ll be able to complete your orders, and the more performance stars you’ll earn, allowing you access to various upgrades to you and your warehouse. Available for $14.99/£12.49 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
6. Carrion
In most horror games you’re the disempowered human trying desperately to defeat the monster. In this game you are the monster, and a hideous crimson blob of one at that. Escaping from the facility in which you’ve been imprisoned, you’ll be crawling around the walls and ceilings trying to eat the staff. Consume enough human flesh and you’ll be able to grow larger and gain more powers. You’ll still be vulnerable though, so sticking to the shadows and off the floor will remain an important strategy. The game shares some characteristics with the ‘metroidvania’ genre. That means exploration is another important thing you’ll be doing, using your new powers to access more and more of the complex. That makes for a lot of traveling about, but that just means more tentacle-propelled movement and scared fragile humans to eat. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
7. Lair of the Clockwork God
Two classic genres of games get smushed into one in this platform/point-and-click hybrid. As Ben you’ll be hunting for items to combine with other items to solve puzzles, while as Dan you’ll be jumping around to progress. The two friends are having their own separate adventures but each can help out the other when you hit a dead end. But what is all this in aid of? A silly quest to stop the end of the world multiple times over and to teach a robot how to feel emotion. If you enjoy goofy and satirical humor with plenty of self-aware gags about games, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything that does this kind of writing better. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
8. Superhot: Mind Control Delete
The original Superhot, the puzzle/FPS in which time only progresses as you move or attack, is a great game, but now four years later we have the sequel in the form of Mind Control Delete. It features enhancements like new weaponry and different kinds of environments to play in, but also much bigger changes to the way the game works. You can now play the game in endless mode, to see how long you can thread together kills and dodge bullets, blades and blunt objects. There is also a new range of ‘cores’ to try out; reusable special powers that make huge changes to the way you think about playing. As you progress through a series of levels, you get the chance to upgrade yourself further, making each session more unique than ever. And of course, there is still the game’s strange meta-narrative playing out in the background, providing context if you’re curious about why you’re in this strange black, white and red simulation. Available for $24.99/£19.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
9. Yes, Your Grace
Kings have to make many important decisions every day, particularly when you live in a fantasy world full of magic and monsters. As the ruler of the Kingdom of Davern, you’ll have to juggle the needs of your subjects and your family, making decisions with an ever decreasing quantity of resources. You’ll also be expected to leave your throne to take care of certain matters personally, with a small party at your side to offer assistance. It’ll be impossible to satisfy all sides, particularly when you find yourself in need of help from the nobles in your court or foreign regents, who demand a heavy price in return for their help in the trials to come. And once you’ve picked a side, you can’t just reload a save to try another way to solve a problem. Your choices will stick with you right through to the end of the game, intertwining with each other and driving you towards one of several potential endings to your story. Which of course means you’ll have to play through a few times to see all the potential fates for the kingdom. Available for $19.99/£15.49 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
10. Gang Beasts
You could call Gang Beasts a kind of fighting game, but that makes it sound a lot more serious than it really is. Rather than chaining together special moves in epic and highly competitive matches, you’ll instead be using a series of basic punches and grabs to toss your opponents around the many strange arenas, and hopefully throw them out of the ring or into a hazard to defeat them. It’s a great game to play in local multiplayer since the doughy characters are highly customizable and the gameplay is very simple to get the hang of, plus the situations you’ll find yourselves in help keep things friendly and fun. It’s hard to be mad at losing when your fighter fails to make a jump between two moving trucks and faceplants onto the road, or is suddenly crushed by a passing subway car, since it could just as easily happen to someone else. If you want to team up however, there’s also a mode for fighting gangs of computer-controlled opponents in the style of an arcade beat-em-up. Available for $19.99/£15.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
11. Minecraft Dungeons
If your favorite part of the immensely popular sandbox game Minecraft is diving into dark caves to hunt for treasure to claim and monsters to slay, Minecraft Dungeons distills that experience and builds on it with lots of additional gameplay elements. You’ll find new enemies to battle, new abilities, weapons and upgrades to fight them with, and the option for three other people to join you in a four-player beatdown of skeletons, creepers and the like on your path to take on the ultimate baddie - the Arch-Illager. Unlike normal Minecraft, this is a third-person isometric game, with you looking over the battlefield while you control your character from a distance. It’s similar to games like Diablo, but with the perfect theme to make it a family-friendly experience. There’s still some of the original game’s creativity to enjoy too thanks to highly customizable player characters. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
12. Untitled Goose Game
In a quaint English village, the people are going about their daily business without a care in the world. But you’re a goose, and you can’t sit idly by while there’s opportunities to sow chaos and discord. With your goose abilities of honking, flapping your wings and picking things up with your beak, you’ll have to terrorize the population as you pass through gardens, streets and the local pub. You may need to get through locked doors and gates or run away from braver villagers when they chase you away, but there’s always multiple methods for you to get around and outwit the humans. You’ll have lots of fun ticking off the various tasks on your to-do lists, figuring out how to avoid any pesky humans interfering. The graphics design is simple, as is the piano soundtrack, but it’s well done. The characters are plenty expressive without extra detail, and the soundtrack intelligently blends between different versions of tracks depending on what you’re doing at the time. This may be a short game, but everything works so well you’ll be smiling throughout the whole time you’re playing. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
13. My Friend Pedro
Why are you going on a series of suicidal raids against a bunch of well-armed gangsters? Simple. That floating banana told you to do it. This is a game about stylishly fighting your way through rooms full of baddies in slow motion. To help you out there’s a variety of weapons that you can dual-wield and aim separately, mobility techniques like flips, jumps and dodge spins, plus copious amounts of slo-mo to let you line up your shots and avoid enemy bullets. The story of violent revenge and horrific twists will take you through the game once, but what will keep you coming back is the call of the high-score leaderboard. Linking all of your special moves together, avoiding bullets while filling everyone else with lead will rack up your points and multipliers, giving you a score that you can compare with other players around the world. With every level offering a new scenario with new obstacles and killing opportunities, you’ll not get tired of the cool yet wacky violence that defines the game. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
14. Afterparty
Dying is usually pretty final, except did you know there’s a get-out clause if you can drink Satan under the table? That’s what Milo and Lola, your player characters, have to do to escape their untimely fate. Exploring the surprisingly college-esque underworld, your weapon is a flexible conversation system that builds your relationships with your friends and enemies over time, as you progress on your quest to get invited for a drink-off with Lucifer himself, and a selection of beverages that will power-up your conversation skills. Although Hell still works like you’d expect, with demons torturing the souls of humans, what you don’t know is that after the whistle blows, everyone heads to the bar together to discuss the recent scandals. It’s these scandals you have to resolve in order to get to Lucifer, with the outcome resting on key decisions you make through the game. The writing is super smart, balancing the absurd humor of the situation with the more meaningful interpersonal drama, with both helping draw you towards the end of the game. Afterparty is bursting with character and creativity, and a surprising self-awareness that helps everything hold together. Available for $19.99/£16.74 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
15. Burnout Paradise Remastered
One of the most popular racing games ever, only with a new coat of paint to make it more enjoyable on modern systems. Anywhere you drive in this open world leads to a race, whether something as long as travelling from the tops of the hills to the dockyards on the other side of the map, or just a block-long drag race. There’s plenty of different cars to pick from, and many shortcuts to discover as you improve your skills in racing, drifting and taking out your opponents in high-speed crashes. This being the Remastered version, you also get all the DLC EA released for the game, and a fully functional online mode, so you can race through downtown, try dangerous overtakes on a mountain pass, or head over to Big Surf Island to have a go at some stunt driving with friends and rivals alike. There may not be any licensed vehicles to admire or famous tracks to test your skills on, but this game captures the joy of driving fast cars across varied environments, day or night, and the excitement of crashing them into each other or driving them off enormous ramps. Available for $19.99/£19.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
16. Firewatch
In the hot summer months, the state of Wyoming hires volunteers to keep an eye on forest fires. You play Henry, one such volunteer who heads out into the woods to escape his responsibilities back home. With only the voice of Delilah, another volunteer, via walkie-talkie for company, you travel the trails around your watchtower to check that everything is as it should be. However, as a mysterious stalker and the ransacking of Henry’s property proves, it isn’t, and you’ve got to explore the area to find answers. There aren’t any enemies to fight, and the people you do encounter are only done so indirectly or from a distance. This is a game that leaves you alone to walk the forest paths with your thoughts a lot, which may annoy some people looking for a direct challenge, but allows you to experience Henry’s story in a more intimate way, and truly appreciate the isolation of the Wyoming forests. A thoroughly good story topped with some beautiful vistas, this is one that will stay in your thoughts for some time. Available for $19.99/£15.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
17. Unravel
Yarny is a living piece of thread woven into a little creature. The world outside is a large place, but with the help of his stringy form, you will move him onwards on his adventure around charming locations based on the memories of the old woman who created him. The physics-based platforming is engaging, with your movement abilities based on using the threads that make up Yarny to cross gaps and travel upwards and downwards. However, you only have a finite amount of yarn to use, so you’ll have to move carefully unless you want to find yourself tangled up inches before the exit. The story and tone makes it a chilled out and emotionally touching experience. You adventure via photographs around your creator’s house into her family’s memories. You wouldn’t expect a game where the main character has no mouth and only two static eyes to have such a meaningful story to tell, but through the game you’ll observe the levels getting darker and lighter in tone, taking you on a journey that will satisfy fans of good game mechanics and storytelling. Available for $19.99/£14.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
18. Snake Pass
In this puzzle platformer, you play a cute snake named Noodle. Since snakes are not known for jumping around or moving at high speed, you instead progress by slithering your way up, around and along obstacles, with your bird companion Doodle helping lift your long serpent body if you need a little help on your quest to find out who is stealing the jungle’s keystones. The levels require you to collect keys to the exit, before you then make your way out of the level. You’ll quickly learn how to move in a snake-like way, slithering from side to side to move quickly in a straight line and tightening your grip as you climb your way up obstacles. Like other platformers, gravity isn’t your friend, but because snakes can’t jump, it feels like an entirely new concept to deal with. Other hazards like wind and lava are also present, and require you to rethink your normal approach to these dangers. It’s completely unique among other platform games, and this makes it both refreshing and exceptionally challenging. And if you’re a challenge-fiend, you can unlock a speedrun mode to play once you’ve beaten the game. Available for $19.99/£16.24 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
19. Hollow Knight: Void Heart Edition
One of the most beloved ‘metroidvania’ games of this generation is available with all its DLC for an absolute steal of a price. Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition delivers the beautifully bleak and brutally difficult 2D platforming action of the original game, complete with four additional content packs that give you new abilities to master and new bosses to vanquish. The setting is Hallownest, a desolate underground kingdom inhabited by insects, including yourself, but there are few friends to be found. Much of your time will be spent wandering the surprisingly varied environments and fighting enemies, looking for the next boss or a new item that will allow you to explore more and more of the map. If you die, you’ll leave behind some of your currency and magic in a shadow version of yourself, which you’ll have to defeat in a Dark Souls-style corpse run to get your earnings back. If you’re looking for a challenging sidescroller with a stunning art style, engrossing atmosphere and tons of exploration and replayability, Hollow Knight is among the genre’s best. Available for $14.99/£12.49 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
20. Celeste
Celeste is an engrossing 2D sidescrolling platformer that’s as brutal as it is beautiful. Created by the folks behind multiplayer smash TowerFall, Celeste brings the same charmingly pixelated graphics and airtight platforming controls and crams them into a narrative-driven adventure filled with challenging stages to conquer. You’ll be jumping your way up a mountain, using dashes to defy gravity and reach the other end of the level, collecting items as you go. If you are struggling, you can activate the versatile Assist Mode to give you exactly the kind of boost you need. This can be good if you just want to experience the story, which follows your player character Madeleine climbing Celeste Mountain, meeting other travellers while fighting to overcome an internal struggle. While Celeste might make you want to toss your controller on occasion, its serene soundtrack and touching story will keep you around. If you manage to collect enough strawberries through the levels, you’ll be able to unlock the B-Side and C-Side versions of the levels, which ramp up the challenge so you can prove your skills. Available for $19.99/£15.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
21. Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Halo: The Master Chief Collection bundled six Halo games going from the original Halo Combat Evolved to Halo 4, making it a huge bargain for anyone who is new to Halo or wants to get reacquainted with the games. Not only do you get a suite of great sci-fi single-player campaigns, you also get a huge array of multiplayer options. As such, Halo: The Master Chief Collection might not seem cheap but it’s a bargain for the amount of games and content it offers, especially when a mix of those games have new graphics and run better than before. Available for $39.99/£29.99 at Microsoft Store (opens in new tab)
How to choose the best cheap Xbox One games for you
While we and the gaming community at large all rate these games highly, there are a few factors to consider if you want to pick the ones that’ll suit you best. If you’re looking for more general recommendations, then you can usually go by genre. These descriptions will If you’re unsure about a game, see if there’s a free demo available. This is often the first level or a part of some early levels of a game, and will do the best job of showing you what the games are all about. If you know what you want, but want to save as much money as possible, then you can wait for these cheap games to get even cheaper by waiting for a sale. These come around several times a year, often in conjunction with major holidays, and will see the prices of these games drop even further, letting you either save money or get more games on the same budget.
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