As we teeter on the cusp of a brand new month, Microsoft has blown its announcement horn, delighting Xbox Live Gold subscribers with news of May’s Xbox Games With Gold, which this month includes Yoku’s Island Express and Viva Piñata Party Animals.
Available for download from May 1-31, Yoku’s Island Express is a strange but successful platformer and pinball game that Eurogamer’s Christian Donlan liked when it released in 2018, calling it “a treasure to be treasured” wild adventure.”
Next, Inner World: The Last Wind Monk is available for download from May 16th to June 15th. Developed by Studio Fizbin (responsible for last year’s high-profile Minute of Islands), this one is the follow-up to 2013’s acclaimed point-and-click adventure The Inner World, and once again follows young flute adventurer Robert on his quest to save the world.
Xbox – Gold Games May 2022
Meanwhile, Hydro Thunder Hurricane occupies the first of two Xbox 360 titles in May and will be available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers from May 1-15. Released in 2010, it’s the sequel to Midway’s 1999 arcade speedboat racer, Hydro Thunder, which was dubbed a “over-the-ball, stupid over-celebration” video game in Eurogamer’s 7/10 review.
Finally, rounding out Microsoft’s newest series of gold games is Piñata Party Animals, the less-remembered party game from Rare’s much-loved Viva Piñata gardening sim series, available May 16-31 day Xbox Live Gold subscriber.
Eurogamer, developed by Krome Studios, slapped Viva Piñata Party Animals with an abominable 3/10 in 2007, saying: “There is little challenge or strategy, little imagination other than the visuals, which are The effects are all done by others.”