The Rain World—a kind of cult-classic survival game—sixty will always be-Xbox Game Pass for an odd-evening surprise! This is a game wherein you play the arduous life of a tiny creature known as a slugcat. This, indeed, got the expected reaction from the Internet-utter anarchy!
The Xbox Game Pass folks announced the news with refreshingly subtle simplicity: “your adventure as a slugcat begins now.” No buildup. No teasers. No… just BAM! There’s Rain World, deal with it. And on an all-natural occasion, folks went literally insane with the responses: all CAPS celebrations and tidbits of all CAPS ridiculing, with keyboard smashing in between (special shoutout to @AssassinWolf73 for that poetic contribution).
@blackswangela commenced this one-limb awkward yell to the void: “YES MICROSOFT🫡” “REALLY? DOES IT REALLY?” That was the mood. Absolute mood. While @f1vepoint was celebrating with all the energy usually reserved for lottery winners: “RAIN WORLD MENTIONED LETS FUCKING BGOOOOO.” And this energy is contagious.
However, the hype was not everywhere. @AlphaBlastX mentioned having “never heard” of the game, which sparked a mini-discussion. @Fdruid countered, dismissing such a statement as “ignorant take” and asserting the cult status of Rain World, whereas @Brandenbur29721 started describing the game: “the game gets good like 5-10 hours in” and gave a big shout-out for the Downpour DLC that triples the content. That’s hardcore.
Conversely, @GDaldine looked at Rain World and claimed, “I hate those games we got like 20 games that look exactly like it.” Bold! @33nikonya33 immediately challenged them with “Have you even played it?”…fair. You can’t dunk on slugcat life without experiencing slugcat life, people.
The Xbox Game Pass social media team certainly seemed to get a kick out of all the madness and replied with remarks such as “a little rain and a little world, can’t go wrong” and “slugcats (obvious).” They even praised @RealTrevStorm for the insightfulness conveyed by the observation that “a slugcat DOES do whatever a slugcat does.” Deep. Quite philosophical.
Rain World is an excellent survival, platformer, and existential dread hybrid game. You’re a small, defenseless creature in a beautiful but grim world where everything-and we mean everything-wants to eat you out. The game has become famous for how renderings of extreme difficulty undermine a player and create an atmosphere of emergent storytelling. It’s the kind of game that either clicks with you immediately or kicks you right out to punch the sun. There is no between.
Now, thanks to Xbox Game Pass, a fresh wave of gamers can experience the joy and trauma of being a slugcat. Will they survive the rain? Will they grasp the lore? Will they start all-caps-twittering about iterators and karma levels? Time will tell. One thing, for sure, is that the arrival of Rain World has stirred a lot of wild energy in the gaming community, and we are down to enjoy every weirdly wonderful second of it.
So grab your controller, exude the inner slugcat, and try not to get eaten in the first five minutes. Good luck. You’ll need it.
