Xbox Game Pass Wave 1 Games Unveiled

high on life 2, Menace, xbox game pass

While January may have been a bit of a slower month for Xbox Game Pass, things are certainly picking up in February. Today Xbox has announced the first wave for the month and it includes multiple heavy hitters and a hotly anticipated day 1 release.

Wave 1 February Xbox Game Pass Additions

Final Fantasy II (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – Available Now
Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC) – Available Now
Madden NFL 26 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – February 5
Paw Patrol Rescue Wheels: Championship (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC) – February 5
Relooted (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – February 10
BlazBlue Entropy Effect X (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – February 12
Roadside Research (Game Preview) (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – February 12
Starsand Island (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – February 12
High on Life 2 (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – February 13
Kingdom Come Deliverance (Cloud, Console, and PC) – February 13
Avowed (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – February 17
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, and PC) – February 17

The list is quite a solid list, and highlighted by the day 1 addition of High on Life 2. The hotly anticipated sequel from developer Squanch Games is looking to build upon the success of the first game that launched back in 2022. While the game was a bit hit or miss with critics, most fans seemed to love the game and its talking guns.

The sequel will be without a big part of the first game as Justin Roiland is no longer at the helm over at Squanch. While ultimately for the best it will be interesting to see the games direction without him.

Can High on Life 2 recapture the magic of the first title?

Another day one game for the first half of the month is Menace. Menace will be launching as a Game Preview title which has done well for the games publisher, Hooded Horse, before. Hooded Horse of course is most well known for Manor Lords which launched into Early Access in 2024 and had immediate success. Menace is turn-based tactical RPG in the same vein as the popular XCOM games mixed with the Warhammer series.

We also see the surprise addition of Starsand Island. Releasing February 12th into Game Preview, the life sim RPG has quite a bit of buzz surrounding it.

Starsand Island, a surprise day 1 launch for Game Pass

While we learned about its addition to the service last night, Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is another solid addition. The Pirate themed spin-off of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth was a smaller addition to the long running franchise, at least compared to other Like A Dragon titles, but was still a fantastic game.

The other fairly big addition for the month is Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The Ubisoft published title is joining via the Ubisoft+ partnership that Xbox and Ubisoft signed last year. While not quite the hit Ubisoft was hoping for based on the very popular IP, it still managed to find its share of fans.

We will have to wait a couple weeks to see what they might get for the service in the second half of the month, but for now, February is off to a solid start.