Google Stadia enters its third month in the wild in January 2020, and with that comes a new pair of Stadia Pro games on offer for subscribers. January 2020's Stadia Pro games are Rise of the Tomb Raider and Thumper.
Rise of the Tomb Raider (available January 1)
The sequel to 2013's reboot from Crystal Dynamics continues Lara Croft's three-part origin story as she finds her footing -- often quite literally -- and morphs into the tomb raider as which players from the nineties would remember her. The sequel takes place largely in snowy Siberia and opens up the game's multi-hub exploration with much bigger areas to trek through than those in its predecessor. The game earned stellar reviews at launch, averaging an 86 on OpenCritic from 107 reviewers. That gives the game its "Mighty" designation here on OC. The Stadia Pro version is the Year One Celebration edition of the game, which includes all of its released DLC, including various cosmetics for Lara and new game modes.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is the middle portion of the series, which was followed by Shadow of the Tomb Raider last year. Might we see that game offered as a future Stadia Pro title too? That may be what Stadia and Square Enix have planned after two Tomb Raider games in as many months.
Thumper (available January 1)
Thumper is ominously described as a "rhythm violence" game and comes from Drool, a two-person studio featuring one programmer, Marc Flury, and one artist and musician, Brian Gibson of the Providence-based noise rock duo Lightning Bolt. The game has seen release on virtually all platforms now following a staggered launch that first saw it hit PC and PS4, including its PSVR version, in Ocotber of 2016. It later came to Switch in May of 2017, Xbox in August of 2017, iOS in January of last year, and finally on Stadia just a few weeks ago. Thumper has also enjoyed a great critical reaction, garnering its own Mighty rating of 84 on OpenCritic from 52 reviews.
As noted, both games will be available for Stadia Pro members during the entire month of January 2020.
