While Microsoft hasn’t officially announced anything yet, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has made it clear his team is exploring an Xbox handheld console. In a recent round of interviews at GDC, he revealed his design team is currently considering “different hardware form factors” while he plays Xbox games on the Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally, making notes on where the experience doesn’t live up to his expectations.
A handheld device would certainly fit into Xbox’s recent strategy. Since the launch of Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft has been intent on making its games playable on as many screens as possible, including phones, tablets, and smart TVs. A first-party handheld games console would find a home in that ecosystem.
With all that in mind, we’ve searched through the Xbox Game Pass catalog to see what would make for the best Xbox handheld games on day one. What games would play best on a smaller screen, where detail can be lost? What games are easy on the eye, letting you read the world rather than lots of small text in difficult-to-navigate menus? And what games are better for short play sessions that fit into a thirty-minute commute without you having to quit midway into a big boss fight?
Below, we’ve put together a list of the best Xbox handheld games, each showing off what a potential Xbox handheld could do in its best light.
Halo Wars 2
Console-first RTS strategy in Xbox’s most recognizable series
While Halo Wars 2 can be played on a desktop PC, the real-time strategy game was built with consoles in mind. That’s why it’s one of the few games of its genre that could seamlessly transition to a handheld device.
Normally, real-time strategy (RTS) games demand players perform hundreds of actions per minute, pushing them to direct complicated formations of units across wide battlefields, play that demands a mouse and keyboard, but Halo Wars and its sequel were built to be controlled entirely with a gamepad, the camera is closer to the action, and the number of units you command is reduced, but the game is no less difficult for it.
Picking up the action shortly after the conclusion of Halo 5: Guardians, Halo Wars 2 drops you into the middle of a Banished invasion. Taking command of a lightly-armed UNSC battle group, you have to fight your way off-world and back to friendly space. A tightly-designed Halo campaign that you can play in the back of a car on long journeys. Perfection.
Resident Evil 2
Gruesome horror you can take on the bus
High-end handheld consoles, such as the ASUS ROG Ally and Valve’s Steam Deck, are heavy devices; both weigh more than double the Nintendo Switch. That added heft can make playing fast-paced games difficult, particularly for long periods of time, so when it comes to an action recommendation, we’ve gone for something a little slower.
With its remake of Resident Evil 2, Capcom enriched a classic, adding story beats, fleshing out environmental details, and producing some stomach-churning gore. What didn’t change in the remake is that, as engrossing a game as it is, the action is forgiveably slow; in fact, it’s when you rush that you make mistakes, firing your limited ammo over a zombie’s shoulder, rather than into their vulnerable skull.
If you were to take Resident Evil 2 on a long train journey, the only thing you would need to worry about is becoming too engrossed in the horror and missing your stop. That, and the person sitting next to you becoming repulsed with what’s on your screen.
Ori and The Will of the Wisps
A minimalist HUD gets out of the way of this intricate platformer
The Xbox Game Pass catalog is full of great platformers, and it’s a genre that has an established home on handheld devices, but of all the games that would play well on a portable Xbox, Ori and the Will of the Wisps should take the top spot.
For a start, its metroidvania design, which sees you gradually expanding your access to the game’s rich world as you unlock abilities, is perfect for short play sessions. You can drop into the game for a quick ten minutes, solving a knotty puzzle on your commute, just as easily as spending a few hours curled up in bed taking on a difficult boss fight.
But where Ori and the Will of the Wisps stands out over other games is its minimalist styling. The HUD, such as it is, unobtrusively runs across the bottom of the screen in simple bold colors. And, while there is text, it comes rarely, and only then in short sentences and big on-screen text. Developer Moon Studios has made a game that is extremely easy to parse, even when the action gets hectic.
Need For Speed: Unbound
Punchy street racing with a Saturday morning cartoon infusion
Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon may be the obvious choices when it comes to racing games on Xbox. Between them, they cover the simulation and arcade ends of the spectrum, providing luscious races on tracks around the world and hundreds of cars to choose from. But while those games look good, they don’t have the sheer pop and style of the anime-infused Need For Speed: Unbound.
Speed boosts and drifts in Unbound are accompanied by clouds of Saturday Morning cartoon-inspired cel-shaded dust, lightning bolts, and streaks of light. It makes the underground racing scene gloriously punchy. Plus, with its open world and radically different day and night cycles, Need for Speed: Unbound would reward any play session. If you’re short on time, you could simply race around Lakeshore City, scouting out new components to customize your vehicle, or, if you’ve time for more, diving in for a set of races, earning yourself the cash for a new car.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m stuck in traffic on the bus to work and feel the world is a little bit too grey, I know which racing game I’d like to play.
Persona 3 Reload
A rich RPG world designed for small screens
A handheld’s smaller screens can make text-heavy games, such as role-playing games (RPGs), a particular burden on the eyes. As sharp as the Nintendo Switch ports of Baldur’s Gate and Planescape Torment were, playing them on the go became almost impossible for weak-eyed individuals such as myself.
An exception to this rule is the fantastic Persona 3 Reload. While the original games were made for the PSX and PlayStation 2, the series went on to find life on the PSP and PS Vita, and developer Atlus poured all that learning into its later games and remasters. While Persona 3 Reload has a lot of text and menus to navigate, they’ve all been made with smaller screens in mind, making them a breeze to parse.
Persona games are a great fit for handhelds, too, as they’re structured around a high school year. Each day is broken down into chunks based on your classroom schedule and out-of-hours activities, so if you can feel like you have achieved something in a short ten-minute session.
Halo Infinite
Vehicle-heavy action makes this shooter start out from the crowd
Shooter fans are well-catered on Xbox; between Wolfenstein, Gears of War, and Call of Duty, Microsoft’s built or bought some of the best series in the genre. But, when it comes to a handheld device, the platform’s original success story, Halo, can really shine thanks to its large maps and vehicle-heavy action. Unrelenting fast-paced gunfights can become tiring on a small screen, but hopping into a Warthog 4x4 and blasting over the lush hills of a ringworld gives you a rejuvenating reprieve.
Of all the games in the series, Halo Infinite's open-world structure makes it particularly suited for a handheld. While the game does feature long campaign missions, ones you’ll need to settle into for an hour to complete, you’re also free to explore the open plains, finding new equipment and killing grunts as you go.
Plus, while there may be better games for expressing your creative streak - looking at you, Minecraft - you can build new levels and challenges in the Forge editor. Instead of watching Sleepless in Seattle for a third time, you could spend a flight making an assault course for your Warthog. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan can wait; there are hairpin turns to design.
Sea of Thieves
The small screen can only add to the slapstick of the high seas
With a heavy console in your hands, a certain amount of clumsiness can slip into your gaming. Titles that demand pinpoint accuracy from your attacks and timing, such as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, can create frustration, but in a game that is effectively a slapstick humor generator, it’s only a good thing.
In Rare’s co-op pirate simulator, your crew must control all the different parts of your sailing ship, turning the wheel, navigating in the map room, or spotting threats and opportunities from the crow's nest, all of which could be just as easily performed on a small handheld screen. Sure, your aim on the cannons may be less good, but you’ll be just as much of a threat when it comes to boarding enemy ships - even if that danger is more akin to the unpredictable nature of a toddler with a knife than facing down Zoro.
The one downside to Sea of Thieves on a handheld device is that it requires a constant internet connection and, if you play with the voice comms on, the confidence to do a pirate voice in public.
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