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For the past month, we've been running weekly recommendations for the games we are enjoying on Game Pass. This is a chance for us to highlight underrated titles or simply to talk about our favorite games. For this week, however, we need to begin by addressing the elephant in the room: Microsoft's recent anti-consumer updates to Game Pass.

Starting October 1, Microsoft announced a bevy of changes to the service, with the most notable coming to the Ultimate plan — which offers the most games available plus immediate availability to latest releases from Xbox Game Studios. The new price is $30 monthly, increased from $20. As expected, subscribers were not happy, and numerous voices on social media and in comment sections about how they were going to cancel their subscriptions.

This marks the conclusion for the service as the former “best deal in gaming” is no more. Instead, players must consider if $360 a year for the premium plan is worth it to them, particularly when daily expenses gets more expensive.

If you're keeping your subscription, or looking for reasons to keep it active, check out this week's recommendations. They include one of the best Metroidvanias of recent years, a 2025 Game of the Year contender, and a charming role-playing game follow-up. Or, should you prefer to cancel your subscription, refer to instructions on how to change or cancel your membership.

The Lost Crown: A Prince of Persia Adventure

If you do happen to stick with your Ultimate membership, you’re probably going to need additional reasons to justify it. The best case for paying the extra cash is that you’ll now have access to a collection of Ubisoft titles. This provides plenty of Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry games for your monthly payment, but the standout benefit is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

The 2D Metroidvania makes fantastic use of the franchise, taking it back to its platforming roots in a trap-filled labyrinth that’s a exciting to explore. Pair that with exceptionally rich, diverse battle mechanics the genre offers, and you have the recipe for a top-shelf Metroidvania. Pair it with both Hollow Knight: Silksong and The Rogue Prince of Persia and the value becomes clear on three months of your subscription cost.

The Blue Prince Mystery

This investigative puzzle title Blue Prince debuted to impressive numbers and a committed player base on PC platforms, but console adoption was supported initially by membership programs (it also appeared on PlayStation Plus). Player recommendations alongside its ease of access led to the game reach 2 million players.

Checking out a game for a few hours to discover if it's your jam or not is a key advantage of Game Pass, and those seeking immersion in a mystery should check out Blue Prince. You play as the heir to an estate and large inheritance, but provided that you can find the mansion's secret room. The challenge? The mansion's layout is ever-shifting, making Blue Prince a roguelike with fresh clues to discover every day. I've spent a few hours with it and have been gradually uncovering mysteries and puzzle clues surrounding the mystery at the heart of its manor, and I'm curious to see how it develops as I progress further.

The Prince's Edition: Ni no Kuni 2

Is this suggestion Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom just because the edition available on the service is the Prince's Edition version and that makes it tonally consistent with our preceding two recommendations? I'll never tell. What I can share, though, is that Ni No Kuni 2 is delightful follow-up to one of the best JRPGs of all time. Although featuring charming animation-style visuals and focus on younger characters, Ni No Kuni 2 doesn't shy away from heavy topics, beginning with an seeming act of violence on a contemporary metropolis before immediately throwing the main character (a world leader) into an alternate dimension where they end up smack in the middle of a historical power struggle. Compared to the first game, the battles are real-time — resembling a Tales game than a turn-based title — and includes a truly complex and detailed simulation in which you must oversee a realm. While called the Prince's Edition, but it feels more like royal treatment to me.