Super Meat Boy, Broken Age on tap for PlayStation Plus in October

By Danny Cowan September 30, 2015

PlayStation Plus | Your PS4 games for October 2015

Sony has announced October’s lineup of free PlayStation Plus games, revealing that Super Meat Boy and Broken Age are due to join the program’s Instant Game Collection next month.

Super Meat Boy will make its PlayStation 4 and PS Vita debut as part of the promotion, and service subscribers can redeem downloadable copies free of charge for both platforms throughout October.

Released digitally for the Xbox 360 in 2010, Super Meat Boy is a retro-styled 2D platformer with an emphasis on difficulty. Players traverse dozens of cruelly designed levels filled with instant-kill traps as they quest to rescue Meat Boy’s kidnapped sweetheart, Bandage Girl.

Super Meat Boy was previously featured in the documentary film Indie Game: The Movie, which chronicled the difficulties developers Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes faced in designing and ultimately publishing a small-scale project via Xbox Live Arcade. Next month marks Super Meat Boy‘s first appearance on PlayStation platforms.

Also arriving as a free download next month is Broken Age, a point-and-click adventure game from Double Fine. Directed by The Secret of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle co-designer Tim Schafer, Broken Age is a multi-part epic in which two playable characters each solve environmental puzzles within their own uniquely themed worlds.

Broken Age‘s development was funded via Kickstarter, where it earned $3.45 million in pledges from thousands of backers in 2012. The game originally launched as two separate acts for PC platforms; the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita editions available for free via PlayStation Plus include all previously released content.

Other featured titles in October’s PlayStation Plus lineup include the side-scrolling action game Kung Fu Rabbit (PS3/Vita), 2.5D puzzler Unmechanical Extended (PS4/PS3), rhythm-driven brawler Kickbeat (PS3/Vita), and co-op platformer Chariot (PS3 only). All featured games will be available as free downloads for PlayStation Plus subscribers starting on October 6.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributor

Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…

Gaming

PlayStation boss Jim Ryan is stepping down, with successor yet to be named

Playstation CEO and president, Jim Ryan, stands in front of a blue wall with Playstation button symbols illuminated.

Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Jim Ryan is retiring after 30 years. The PlayStation boss will formally leave his role in March 2024 with a successor yet to be named.

Jim Ryan has been working with PlayStation since 1994 when he joined Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe. Since then, he's become the key figurehead for the PlayStation brand, similar to Phil Spencer's role within Xbox. His most recent success has come from the launch of the PlayStation 5, which has already surpassed a 40 million unit milestone. Today, Sony announced that Ryan plans to retire from the role.

Gaming

PlayStation Plus is getting a major price hike following Game Pass changes

PlayStation Plus art highlighting the essential, extra, and premium tiers.

Sony confirmed that 12-month subscriptions for PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra, and Premium will all see price increases alongside the reveal of September's new Essential games on the PlayStation Blog.
Starting on September 6, 12 months of PS Plus Essential goes up in price from $60 to $80, PS Plus Extra's yearly price increases from $100 to $135, and an annual subscription to PS Plus Premium will rise from $120 to $160.

Sony says it needs to increase the price of all three versions of PlayStation Plus "to continue bringing high-quality games and value-added benefits to your PlayStation Plus subscription service" and that buying a 12-month subscription is still cheaper than subscribing to any of the shorter-term plans over the same period of time. The price hikes comes just a couple of months after Microsoft raised the price of Xbox Game Pass.
When it comes to the games PS Plus Essential subscribers can expect this month, first up is Saints Row, a 2022 reboot of an open-world crime franchise that garnered mixed reviews upon its release. Next is Generation Zero, an open-world sci-fi shooter where players fight evil machines. Finally, those who have not already purchased a version of the MMO Black Desert on PS4 can redeem Black Desert - Traveler Edition, which comes with some additional items; if you have bought a version of Black Desert, you can just redeem the Traveler Item Pack.

Gaming

Sony’s cloud handheld, the PlayStation Portal, will only stream certain games

Astro's Playroom booting up on the PlayStation Portal.

Sony has unveiled the price for its upcoming cloud gaming handheld, as well as an official name for the device: PlayStation Portal. However, one significant caveat to its functionality might sour people's interest in the handheld: It only supports PS4 and PS5 native games that the owner purchased.
PlayStation VR2 games can't be streamed to PlayStation Portal, which does make sense. More bafflingly, though, is the fact that the PlayStation Blog post states that "games that are streamed through PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud streaming are not supported." That means you shouldn't pick up PlayStation Portal expecting to stream some PS3 and PS4 games available through PlayStation Plus Premium to the device. That's certainly an odd omission when it's currently PlayStation's most notable cloud gaming effort.
Although Microsoft is more closely associated with cloud gaming, Sony beat it to releasing a dedicated cloud gaming device. PlayStation Portal was first teased as Project Q during May's PlayStation showcase, but now, a PlayStation Blog post more clearly explains what we can actually expect from the handheld. Most importantly, we learned that PlayStation Portal will cost $200, which puts it underneath the cost of a Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S, and other cloud gaming devices like the Logitech G Cloud Handheld.
As for what you're getting for that price tag, it's essentially a decent screen attached to two halves of a DualSense controller. The controllers on each side share all the functionality of the DualSense, including things like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. In-between is an 8-inch LCD screen that streams games over Wi-Fi at up to a 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. All in all, that's fairly solid for a cloud gaming handheld that is this cheap.
Sony confirmed that the PlayStation Portal will have a 3.5mm audio jack, but also used the same blog post to unveil two new wireless audio options. There's the Pulse Elite wireless headset that features a retractable boom mic and a charging hanger and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds that offer similar audio quality in earbud form.
None of these products are available for preorder or have a specific release date just yet, but they are all expected to launch before the end of the year.