Free upgrades available for last-gen players

Publisher 505 Games has announced that its extremely colorful sci-fi shooter Journey to the Savage Planet is preparing to bring ??its day-glo intergalactic action to Gen?-9 platforms PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The Employee of the Month Edition of the 2020 adventure will launch on both platforms February 14, priced at $29.99. Free upgrades will be afforded to current PS4/Xbox One players, so huzzah to that. This edition will feature the previously released Hot Garbage DLC, native or upscaled 4K resolution options, Performance vs. Graphics toggles, and an overhauled Photo Mode. You can check out the full details of the new edition and its features in a new blog post on the 505 Games website.

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Developed by Typhoon Studios, Journey to the Savage Planet presents a messy and light-hearted romp through the stratosphere, as a faithful employee of the Kindred Aerospace corporation explores an uncharted, rainbow-colored planet �ARY-26 �in order to establish whether it would be suitable for human colonization. The protagonist battles alien lifeforms and dodges environmental hazards while cataloging the world and its strange flora and fauna. Savage Planet received mostly positive reviews on release, praised for it??s fun creature design, ?welcoming aesthetic, and satirical edge.

Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition launches February 14 on PS5 and Xbox Series X.

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Including Frostpunk, Journey to the Savage Planet, and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered

Amazon Prime members have nine free-with-their-membership PC games to claim as part of the Prime Gaming December 2021 lineup, and a few of them �most notably Frostpunk and Journey to the Savage Planet �are pretty fantastic. The rest are... okay!

Here's the complete December lineup, which will be claimable starting December 1:

• Frostpunk
• Journey to the Savage Planet
• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered
• Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse
• Tales of Monkey Island Complete Pack
• Football Manager 2021
• Morkredd
• Spellcaster University
• Youtubers Life

Maybe Stubbs the Zombie is more your speed, but I'd highlight the firs??t three names?, easily.

Frostpunk is an engaging yet stressful city-builder that can pull on your heartstrings with dire scenarios to work through, and in a crowded genre, it stands out. Journey to the Savage Planet is a lighter spin on Metroid Prime action-adventuring, and while it's very talkative, it's a blast; there's online co-op, too! As for Hot Pursuit, this is the 2020 remaster.?? I liked the original release fine, but at this point, the poli??ce chases are mostly a blur to me.

In terms of in-game extras, Prime Gaming will have the usual assortment of digital stuff to scroll past until you spot some freebies for games you're actively playing right now and are invested in. Among other offers showing up soon, Fall Guys will have a Prime Gaming Gifty Bundle on November 23, and Genshin Impact will hand out 60x Primogems?, 8x Her??o's Wit, and 5x Bamboo Shoot Soup from November 24 through December 15.

Before the new group of games swaps in, there's still time to claim Prime Gaming's November titles �Control Ultimate Edition, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos among them. (That last one is a Zelda-style roguelite with multiplayer.)

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And trust me, it's pretty savage

In today's contest you can win Journey to the Savage Planet on Steam!

I almost typed out Journey to the Sausage Planet, which would be pretty funny, but not quite accurate. It's Journey to the Savage Planet, and it just hit Steam! That means it's tim??e to give away some copies, because that's what we do best.

Hey hey, I actually played this one! It's a neat little exploration game where you have to determine if planet ARY-26 is fit for human life! Well, not to sp?oil things, but I wouldn't want to live there. You play as a poor space cadet haphazardly dropped onto the planet's surface, with nothing more than a sp??ace suit, laser, and 3D printer to survive. The more you explore, the more resources you get for upgrades such as booster packs, probes, and electric tethers to explore deeper into the unknown depths.

Also, it's genuinely funny and fun! I would kno??w, because I've finally? played something I'm giving away!

?To enter to win your copy, u?se the widget below to leave your name and email address. You can enter daily. Do the bonus entries, yadda yadda yadda, and also comment below telling me what you had for lunch. My wife made biscuits and gravy because we're adults and we live by own our rules, and let me tell you it was DELISH.

We have ten Steam copies to give away; our winners will be drawn next Friday. Be sure to enter over at PC Invasion to double your odds.

Journey to the Savage Planet is available now on Steam.

Dtoid Contest: Win Journey to the Sa??vage Planet on Steam

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Everyone who digs Metroid Prime-style traversal should play it

You know, I recently got to thinking about games that were overlooked in 2020, and whether it was the early-in-the-year release date or the fact that we covered the game quite a bit on Destructoid, I totally forgot about Journey to the Savage Planet. It's a Metroid Prime-lite type of experience – a great one!

After going there and back again with console ports (including Nintendo Switch), Journey to the Savage Planet is coming to Steam on January 28, 2021. It's been a full year since its Epic Gam??es Store debut.

This game ?is best played in (online-only) co-op, but if you're looking for a solo trip, you won't be disappointed?. The platforming, swinging, and jet-boosting traversal is a lot of fun, and I particularly like the sense of progression as you power up your suit. It has plenty of tricky optional collectibles, too.

Savage Planet doesn't outshine Metroid Prime, but it conjures up many of those fond memories, and with Metroid Prime 4 continuing to take its sweet time, there's a real need for t??his sort of game.

Don't just take it from me – our readers like it too. I still need to play the Hot Garbage DLC sometime.

The post It’s been a year, so Journey to the Savage Planet is coming to Steam appeared first on Destructoid.

It's on the eShop today with a physical Switch edition to follow

Metroid Prime fans are craving something, anything, and I'm here to recommend a game that can scratch the alien-world-exploration itch, at least for a bit, while we wait on Metroid Prime 4 or trilogy news. The Nintendo Switch version of Journey to the Savage Planet released on the eShop today.

You've probably seen one of us mention this game a few times before on Destructoid – we really dig it. You'll like it too if you enjoy expl??oring vertical worlds, scanning creatures ??for your log, collecting items, and upgrading your suit with multi-jumps and a grappling hook, among other traversal abilities.

Journey to the Savage Planet falls on the shorter side depending on your priorities. It's about seven hours if you don't rush, and double that if you want to check off every Science Experiment and track down all 100 life-boosting orange goo-balls. I like to think of it as more of a "Metroid Prime lite."

Once you've? memorized the most efficient routes, you can fly through the story in a few hours.

Along with the digital eShop release, 505 Games and Typhoon Studios are planning to release a physical Switch version of Savage Planet in Europe on June 26, 2020, "with availability in the Americas in the days following as supply cha?in allows." In both cases, the game costs $29.99 – reasonable enough!

The post Journey to the Savage Planet b??rings its Metroid Prime vibes to Nintendo Swi??tch appeared first on Destructoid.

Vacation, all I ever wanted

I wasn't sure we'd get any story DLC for Journey to the Savage Planet, one of my favorite games of 2020 so far, but here it is. Typhoon Studios is releasing Hot Garbage DLC for its platforming adventure.

The trailer debuted on today's episode of Inside Xbox. (The game is coming to Xbox Game Pass too.)

The setup for? this expansion falls right in line with the base game's lighthearted story.

Kindred Aerospace, your questionable employer, now has a waterfront resort on the alien planet DL-C1, but its competitor, Vyper Corp., is dumping toxic waste all over. As a hapless explorer who probably shouldn't have volunteered for space travel, you'll need to deal with t?he mess (and security robots).

Aside from the simple pleasure of combing for secrets in a new zone, you'll also have traversal abilities to unlock – a high point in Journey to the Savage Planet's core game loop. Typhoon Studios?? has already brought up "lead? boots for adventuring underwater, a specialized Kindred suit for traversing toxic areas, an unlimited stamina ability for endless sprinting, and the power of flight (well, sort of)."

Hot Garbage will be $7.99 when it's out first on PC and Xbox One on April 15, 2020. The PlayStation 4 version of the DLC shou??ldn't be far of??f. Based on the price, I'm expecting this to take a couple of hours.

I won't lie, the billboard cracked me up. If you were fond of all the live-action commercials, Hot Garbage is adding more adverts ?for 32-pack abs, a two-headed sp??ace lawyer, and the Monstacrib Extreme.

The post Journey to the Savage Planet’s Hot Garbage DLC is a nice surprise appeared first on Destructoid.

Get off this planet for a while

I played Journey to the Savage Planet back in January, and I'm not being the least bit hyp??erbolic w??hen I say that I know it'll end up as a contender for my favorite game of the year. That's why this may sound counter-intuitive but here goes: I wish I hadn't played it yet.

Journey to the Savage Planet headlines the new class of Xbox Game Pass additions that were revealed on this afternoon's Inside Xbox stream. This weird, charismatic space exploration game is part No Man's Sky and part Metroid Prime. It's breezy enough that it isn't r?eally stressful, but it's engaging enough that it makes the hours melt away quickly. It's the perfect kind of game for wh?en you want to get lost in something else. I'd love it right now if I hadn't already played it.

Of course, Journey to the Savage Planet isn't the only Xbox Game Pass title planned in the ?coming weeks -- but it is the soonest arrival. It'll be added this week on April 9. He??re are the rest of the new Xbox Game Pass games that are on the horizon:

• Journey to the Savage Planet -- April 9 (Xbox One)
• Alvastia Chronicles -- April 9 (Xbox One)
• Football Manager 2020 -- Date TBA (PC)
• Alvastia Chronicles -- Date TBA (PC)
• Mistover -- Date TBA (PC)
• Stranger Things 3: The Game -- Date TBA (PC)

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A retro spin on manifest destiny

With a cheeky-titled bit of free DLC, Journey to the Savage Planet subverts the expectations ?for a game's second runthrough. We're all familiar ??with New Game+, where you restart a game while retaining all the upgrades that came as part of going through the first time. Old Game Minus is the opposite of that.

Journey to the Savage Planet'??s Old Game Minus mode is a challenge run for those who are already familiar with the lay of the land in this eccentric and usually-dangerous world. You get three lives to beat the game. If you're playing in co-op, you get three lives to share. Savage, indeed.

There's a bit of a reprieve, though. Every biome has an extra life hidden somewhere among all the eccentric creatures and fauna. They're bobbleheads of Kindred CEO Martin Tweed (and they can be seen in the gallery below.) There's also an extra life hidden "for gamers who know the ultimate retro game secret." That's probably the Konami cod?e, but I haven't tried it to be sure.

If you haven't had your fill of Savage Planet, this mig?ht be a good way to shake it all up. There's nothing new here, because Old Game Minus doesn't actually add any content. It's about finding different and faster ways to assert your dominance over this hostile planet.

Game Update -- Old Game Minus [Journey to the Savage Planet]

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A surprisingly easygoing collectible-filled adventure

It's presumptuous to make this call so early into 2020, but here goes: Journey to the Savage Planet stands a very real ch??ance of being one of my most pleasant surprises in v??ideo games this year.

I came in with little to no expectations – heck, I could barely get the name right – and rea??lly just hoped for a decent little game to break me out of a post-holiday-break malaise. It did the tri??ck and then some.

As I write? this review, I'm seriously considering starting up a th??ird playthrough.

Journey to the Savage Planet (PC, PS4 [reviewed], Xbox One)
Developer: Typhoon Studios
Publisher: 505 Games
Released: January 28, 2020
MSRP: $29.99

Journey to the Savage Planet will look familiar on the surface, and it is – but not necessarily in the way you'd expect. This isn't trying to be No Man's Sky or any ??number of other crafting-centric sci-fi games that might've popped up in your Steam recommendations. It's a story-driven action-exploration game.

As a highly disposable employee of Kindred, the fourth-best interstellar exploration company, you'll survey Planet ARY-26 – a potential new site for humankind – with a scanner and a humble laser pistol.

The story is mainly told through silly live-action videos and even cheesier commercials that play on your ship, the latter of which are a highlight – think Paul Verhoeven's greatest hits. You'll see this stuff whenever you teleport back to base to sift through spam emails or deposit materials used for ability upgrades, but it isn't forced on you. The same goes for your AI companion. I never got tired of her brutally honest commentary while I was out adventuring, but if you do, there's a setting for that.

Above all, this game is designed for people who enjoy mentally mapping out 3D spaces, hunting down fairly-placed hidden items, and using their ever-growing lay of the land to sniff out shortcuts. Journey to the Savage Planet strikes this ideal balance between being open-ended and teeming with possibilities but not overwhelming. There's an inherent joy to your character's mobility, even while backtracking.

If anything, I'd point to Metroid Prime as a point of comparison. This is a leaner, less combative, unabashedly jovial rendition of the GameCube classic. It makes such great use of horizontal? and vertical space, especially once you unlock jump-jets and a grapple beam. You can't take more than a few steps on this world without some strange creature or just-conspicuous-enough collectible drawing your eye.

There's shooting, to be sure, but gunplay isn't the focus outside of a few boss battles. Many of the aliens won't even attack you on sight, and those who do aren't particularly taxing. They help fill the space. You could beat Journey to the Savage Planet without adding any damage boosts or reload-speed buffs to your gun, which I dig. You're just as likely to punt a critter or slap it until it explodes as you are to take aim. That said, you do need to get y??our hands dirty – enemies drop a few crafting currencies.

You'll also need to keep an eye out for alien alloys (which act as skill points) and these funky edible orange blobs that make your explorer more durable. There are a hundred to find, but you don't need to track down every last one to max out your health and stamina – another much-appreciated touch.

The planet is split up into four distinct biomes, each of which is essentially its own stage, and they're further broken down into individual zones with teleporters that link up with each other and your ship. It's ??a super convenient format, one that lends itself well to backtracking and repeat playthroughs. You'll visit snow-capped fields, flowing volcanoes, floating chunks of rock, mushroom caves, and more.

I can't stress enough that Journey to the Savage Planet is also a platforming game – you aren't going to be mindlessly sprinting through vast ??open spaces. There are often multiple paths forward – some intentional, some far less officially sanctioned – and you'll use a growing repertoire of throwable items (like grapple-hook anchors) and abilities (like a ground pound) to proceed to your next waypoint.

It took me around seven hours to beat the game, but then I somehow doubled that amount of time tracki?ng down all the collectibles. I couldn't help myself! The second playthrough was my speedrun attempt (there's a trophy for clearing? it in under four hours), which I finished in just over three.

You might also get extra mileage out of two-player online co-op. As much as cooperative play seems like it'll suit the happy-go-lucky vibe this game is going for, I was fine playing solo. (It's worth mentioning that the creative director previously worked on Far Cry 4 – a series I tend to play alone.)

As a new and (relatively) small team, Typhoon Studios punched above its weight. Certain areas of Journey to the Savage Planet were?n't as fleshed-out as they could've been – absolutely – but the team knew what to prioritize. The core of this game is special, and I think it's going to surprise people.

I do have a few complaints, though – flaws in an otherwise wonderfully fun ??budget-conscious game.

The scanner and bio-sampling tool, in particular, feel routine after a while. You'll catalog creatures and plants (if you ?want) and occasionally scan artifacts to get some additional universe-building bits of backstory, but they aren't super engaging. They're kind of just there. Similarly, the shooting has a simple arcade-like satisfaction initially, but the lack of meaningful progress?ion leaves the gun feeling shallow.

T??he last area – the Spire – is also way too much of a repetitive slog. Even a tiny bit more direction would go a long way and help maintain the pacing leading up to the final encounter. Some of these criticisms might sound pretty damning, but they're more like after-the-fact reflections. I still had a blast.

Journey to the Savage Planet was such a fun way to kick off the decade, and I'm going to bring it up at the end of the year when people inevitably begin asking about the overlooked gems of 2020. If you want something light and breezy with an intoxicating collectibl??e-based feedback loop, here you go.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provi??ded by the publisher.]}

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You don't need any special tools or abilities to crack 'em open

If you're anything like me, you won't want to rest in Journey to the Savage Planet until you've found every collectible. At a certain point, probably in the mop-up phase, ??you'll need to deal with green cubes.

One of the resources in the game – Alien Alloys – can be used to unlock abilities for your adventurer. Most of these precious items are locked inside treasure-chest-like plants, but a rare few are stuck inside gelat??inous green blobs known as Osmotic Cubes. Just how the hell do you crack them ??open?

Yo??u might be tempted to shoot them, kick them, or toss your entire kit of throwable bombs and items their way. No luck. Don't waste your time. An easily-overlooked clue lies in your Kindex database.

The secret to breaking open an Osmotic Cube is to guide it to either Vitality Plants (specifically, their berries) or alien corpses (which drop aluminum, carbon, or silicon). A cube will ??vacuum up these resources until it grows big enough to burst, at which point you'll gain a shiny new Alien Alloy.

Osmotic Cubes won't harm you, but you will need to guide t?hem along using your melee attacks.

You can ??do a light slap for a nudge, or hold the attack button down to charge it up and send the cubes flying forward. In one instance, you might also need to do a running slide kick (just sprint and press the crouch button) to get more distance. These things tend to lodge themselves in les?s-than-ideal places. If that ever happens, you may need to teleport to another area and warp back to reset their location.

When I found my first green cube, I assumed I lacked an upgrade and couldn't deal with it yet. Hopefully this saves you time. I'm still missing a few entries in?? my scanner database and it's driving me nuts.

The post Here’s how to blow up green cubes in Journey to the Savage Planet appeared first on Destructoid.

A new sci-fi adventure from the Far Cry 4 creative director

In the upcoming sci-fi adventure game Journey to the Savage Planet, you'll be shipped off to an alien world by ?the fourth-best interstellar exploration company in hopes of finding a new home for humanity.

Announced on stage at The Game Awards, this project is in production at Typhoon Studios, a team led by Far Cry 4 creative director Alex Hutchinson, and 505 Games. It's "absolutely not" battle royale, which is something that needs to be said for any and all trailers teasing video games in 2018 and b??eyond.

"Launched with high hopes but little equipment and n?o real plan, players are tasked with exploring, cataloging alien flora and fauna and determining if the planet is fit for human habitation."

Journey to the Savage Planet is planned for PC, PS4, and Xbox One next year.

The post The odds are?? against us in Journey to the Savag??e Planet appeared first on Destructoid.