8 Video Games That NEVER Got Their Due

4. Recore

How expected should we be, to go back and see if a busted launch game ever got any better? I don't think we should at all, but sometimes there are meaningful fixes and overhauls applied to titles that flopped, and they're absolutely worth another look.

Step forward, another Xbox One game, Recore, whose "Definitive Edition" was another name for "the one we actually finished".

With a fourth mech that was half-implemented now available and the game's back third not being a series of barren maps, it lets you focus on the positives: An awesome story written by Halo's Joseph Staten, and some cool gameplay ideas from Mega Man co-creator, Keiji Inafune.

While pretty short and with only a few level biomes, Recore's platforming is still tight enough, and auto-targeting combat puts the impetus on movement. A push n' pull tether system has you extracting coloured orbs from enemies, that you then feed back into your own mechs, matching colour types and sidekick attacks to do the most damage.

Recore still won't blow anyone away, but its final state - also on Game Pass - is a HELL of a lot better than when we started in 2016.