Need For Speed Unbound
Need For Speed/Youtube Screenshot

New Year, new gaming thrills – PlayStation Plus subscribers kick off 2026 with cel-shaded street racing adrenaline, a gorgeously remastered 3D platformer featuring Walt Disney's forgotten first star, and cosy underground mining adventures. Three wildly different genres landed on 6 January and remain claimable until 2 February.​

PlayStation Plus January 2026: Need for Speed Unbound Leads the Charge

Need for Speed Unbound roars onto PS5 as the marquee title, delivering high-octane street racing through Lakeshore City – a sprawling metropolis echoing Chicago's energy. Criterion Games' 2022 entry balances single-player narratives with multiplayer thrills: customise your garage with precision-tuned rides, compete in weekly qualifiers, outrun relentless police, and ascend toward The Grand, the ultimate street-racing championship.​

The game's cel-shaded aesthetic sets it apart, a bold visual departure that critics praised when reviewing its flashy presentation. A$AP Rocky's narrative presence adds hip-hop credibility to the soundtrack, infusing Lakeshore's neon-soaked corners with thumping beats. Heat indices escalate with each race – survive long enough, and law enforcement transitions from nuisance to apex threat, transforming adrenaline into primal cat-and-mouse combat.​

PlayStation Plus January 2026: Oswald's Triumphant Return in Epic Mickey: Rebrushed

Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed marks the Renaissance of Walt Disney's forgotten first creation – Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Purple Lamp's 2024 remaster elevates the original 2010 Wii exclusive with modernised visuals and controls, breathing contemporary sophistication into Warren Spector's vision.​

Oswald's journey deserves context. In 1927, Walt Disney and animator Ub Iwerks unveiled the mischievous rabbit for Universal, launching 26 cartoons. Yet Disney grew resentful – Universal retained ownership whilst he merely created. Frustrated, he conjured Mickey Mouse, his rightfully owned successor. For seventy-eight years, Oswald languished under Universal's thumb until 2006, when Disney CEO Bob Iger orchestrated an audacious trade: sending sports commentator Al Michaels from ABC to NBC Universal in exchange for Oswald's rights and those original cartoons.​

Today, in Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, Mickey ventures to Wasteland – a realm of forgotten Disney characters – wielding paint and thinner to restore beauty or unleash chaos. Crucially, he encounters Oswald, his brother, achieving reconciliation long denied. Players wield artistic agency: brush strokes matter, shapes shift, secrets emerge. For Disney historians and casual gamers alike, this remaster legitimises a character whose redemption parallels the game's narrative.​

PlayStation Plus January 2026: Core Keeper Rounds Out the Trio

Core Keeper, spanning PS4 and PS5, offers cosy mining escapism. One to eight players excavate relics, harvest resources, craft advanced tools, and construct bases in dynamically evolving caverns brimming with 'untold secrets.' It's a hybrid – survival meets sandbox tranquillity, boss-defeating Titans interspersed with animal tending and cooking.​

These three titles launch 6 January; December's roster – Lego Horizon Adventures, Killing Floor 3, The Outlast Trials, Synduality: Echo of Ada, Neon White – expires 5 January. Notably, Sony phased out PS4-exclusive games; January marks the first Essential tier update emphasising PS5 experiences, signalling the company's generational shift.​

Subscribers should act swiftly on December's batch before they vanish, then embrace January's eclectic trinity: racing, platforming nostalgia, and subterranean companionship.​

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