7. Bleeding Edge
The Xbox One has an issue with securing high quality exclusive titles, so the acquisition of Ninja Theory (Heavenly Sword, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice) and announcement of Bleeding Edge, a new team-based title, were welcome news. Unfortunately, Ninja Theory’s talents were perhaps best saved for their upcoming Hellblade sequel rather than diverted to create a lackluster, team-based multiplayer title. In our review, we found that the game was “uninspired and boring with only a couple redeeming qualities such as some neat character designs and a robust tutorial.”
6. Pangeon
A roguelike dungeon crawler with retro-styled pixelated graphics sounds like it could be a decent title, but Pangeon proves that a good idea doesn’t mean a good game. While the game features roguelike gameplay, a lack of narrative ambition and overall design condemn the game to failure. The procedural generated environments also inadvertently cause the game to be stale. In our review, we commented on the graphics: “The pixel graphics felt a lot less charming, and a lot more like that one old screensaver with the brick maze they used to have at my elementary school.”
5. Treachery in Beatdown City
Treachery in Beatdown City looks to bring together 16-bit visuals, turn-based combat, and beat-em up combat. This sounds great on paper, but the formula just doesn’t come together by the end of things. It fails in nearly every aspect: story, combat, and design. In our review, we found that “what comes together to create the full package is very underwhelming.”
4. RBI Baseball 20
Despite featuring former NL MVP Christian Yelich on the cover, RBI Baseball 20 is a golden sombrero (a bad thing, in baseball terms). Though the core mechanics of the sport have remained unchanged over the years, RBI Baseball 20 is still unable to get the formula right. With janky animations, barebones options, and a general lack of fun, the game is among the worst of the year so far. In our review, we found that “fielding and hitting both fail to capture any of the enjoyment you’d typically get from either video game baseball, or the real thing, and the animations and character models are shockingly bad for a game released in 2020.”