Xbox Games with Gold March Titles Announced

Xbox Games with Gold have been revealed for March with Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 leading the way. Batman and Castlevania will be available on Sunday while Shantae: Half-Genie Hero and Sonic Generations will be free on March 16. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/25/xbox-march-2020-games-with-gold-trailer"] Batman: The Enemy Within was released throughout 2017 and early 2018. It's a sequel to Telltale's 2016 Batman series, which was one of the free Games with Gold in January. IGN's review of the final episode said, "Telltale’s take on Batman has been nothing if not full of fun twists over its first two seasons, and it sets up an intriguing jumping-off point if there is to be a third." This would ultimately be the last Telltale game fully released before the studio faced closure during the release of their next game. One of IGN's sources familiar with Telltale said, "15 [million] people watched Batman on YouTube – 250k bought it." However, Telltale jumped back with the re-announcement of The Wolf Among Us Season 2 in December. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 came out in 2014. The first Lords of Shadow and the Mirrors of Fate spinoff were both released in Games with Gold throughout 2019. Lords of Shadow 2 is still the last new Castlevania game that has been released. Aside from various collections of older games and an upcoming mobile game, there's no word on the future of Castlevania on console and PC. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=igns-top-25-xbox-one-games&captions=true"] IGN's review of Lords of Shadow 2 said the game, "has taken far too many cues from its contemporaries in an attempt to please as many people as possible. While some of these changes – like going from a linear campaign to a non-linear open world, for instance – proved largely successful, other changes, such as the addition of unseemly stealth sections and an underwhelming modern-day setting, have significantly harmed the final product." Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is the fourth game in the Shantae series that began with a Game Boy Color game from 2002. It's a 2D platformer with colorful, 3D environments where your character transforms into animals and uses her hair to attack enemies. IGN praised the game in its review, where the critic said, "Smart level design, eye-popping colors, and unabashed charm make Shantae: Half-Genie hero a strong action-platformer." Last but not least, Sonic Generations was released in 2011. After weak entries like Sonic '06 and Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic rebounded in 2010 with Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and Sonic Colors. He continued his hot streak in 2011 with Sonic Generations, a celebration of Sonic's history with 2D and 3D stages inspired by most of the main games in the franchise. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2013/06/06/castlevania-lords-of-shadow-2-e3-trailer"] IGN's review says SEGA "finally re-purposed Sonic as a platforming mascot that is, for the first time in ages, wildly definable by its own merits instead of trying to play catch up, tagalong or sorority sister with its mustachio partner in crime." All games are compatible with Xbox One while Xbox 360 owners can only access Castlevania and Sonic. Microsoft says this is $94 in value and 4100 total gamerscore. Be sure to pick up the Xbox One title Call of Cthulhu and the original Xbox game Star Wars: Battlefront (2004). Those games will be free until Sunday. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN.