New Games with Gold for January 2021

by Dean Shimabukuro
The January 2021 Games with Gold lineup is here! On Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, confront your childhood fears in Little Nightmares and survive against a horde of zombies to get the scoop of a lifetime in Dead Rising. And for our classic lineup via Backward Compatibility, take on the best fighters in the world in The King of Fighters XIII and utilize newfound powers and hand-to-hand combat in the suspenseful action title Breakdown.

[Christopher]

Are they paving the way to just getting rid of Games with Gold subs?

[darthv72]

Its a pretty solid month. Even though I have most of those (physically) I will still get them all digitally.

[VenomUK]

It definitely seems like Microsoft is saving the big guns for Xbox Game Pass.

[mikeslemonade]

I don’t pay attention with the 2 free games on gold or plus for many years now. They’re too crappy and old for me to bother. Gamepass is where it’s at and if Sony can expand the PS Plus collection . Heck, they should have a premium version of the Plus Collection bundled with PS Now.

[SpeedDemon]

At this point they should just get rid of it, right now they're just giving away money to developers for games that their subscribers either already played years ago or games that few people have interest in, they should just take that money and give back to subscribers in a different way.

[Spikeantestor]

I doubt it. Sony has the same thing with PS+ and even though it's typically not great (on either platform) northern company will abolish it while the other still does it.

[Christopher]

Disagree. PS+ offerings have been much better since GamePass came along overall. It's not always good, but overall, much better. And I'm honestly questioning because I'm not up for GamePass, but I enjoy getting some good options with GWG, but it's just not there lately and they're pulling from ancient content elements that have been on sale many times for as low as $5. Whereas PS+ just got two games from 2020 and Bugsnax same date of release on PS5. I'm sure they'll disappoint, but I do feel like without having that "push PSNow" focus, they're getting more timely games in general that haven't been out and on sale for ages.

[GusBricker]

Wow. Breakdown. I have forgotten all about that game. It's basically a brawler FPS.

[autobotdan]

It was fun just very crazy controls

[autobotdan]

King of Fighters and Breakdown are winners! Well King of Fighters 13 on xbox 360 was very good. Breakdown was kinda decent just crazy controls

I already own KOF13 and Breakdown physical copies but its nice to own digital copies. Fun games

[darthv72]

I like grabbing the digital versions even though I already have them physically as well.

[autobotdan]

darthv72 i will always own the nice physical full color instruction booklets for both Breakdown and KOF13. Those instruction books I have are in very nice near new condition. Its always nice to look at the detail of Breakdown instruction booklet and the kof13 booklet page by page. Now its nice I wont even need to insert the discs

[FloydianAndroid]

I thought little nightmares was a great game personally.

[autobotdan]

Finally some decent good free xbox360/original x games. Its been a while

[franwex]

Little better this, month, but still meh.

[sourOG]

Dead rising 1 👍 still one of my favorites.

[Father__Merrin]

Il take all 4 I like how 2 of them are yours permenantly while the other 2 are worth an install and play

[CrimsonWing69]

Man, this is a good month. Breakdown is one of my favorite original Xbox games.

[Deathdeliverer]

KOF 13 is one of my favorite fighting games ever, little nightmares is cool, and the last two are hard passes. They just tooooo damn old. In fact, as much as I love KOF and little nightmares, they all OLD AS HELL. That’s the major argument with gold the last 🤔 few years? Everything is mfn ancient. This is the best month than they had in a LONG time quality wise. Dead rising is brain dead fun and breakdown is OK, but my goooood. Got any genesis games to add Microsoft? Couple game boy games you worked out a deal for? They literally took a mega dump on gold to make gamepass more attractive. It’s really unnecessary. Gamepass can be good AND so can gold.

[MadLad]

Good month.
Breakdown was that odd, experimental game that just didn't get the attention it deserved when released.

Happy to see it's at least looked as a cult classic today.

[TheColbertinator]

Breakdown is one of the best games on the original Xbox. Very few games apart from Mirrors Edge come close to its uniqueness.