February's PlayStation Plus Essential games include Foamstars, Rollerdrome
And there's a two-hour Marvel's Spider-Man 2 trial for Premium subscribers.
With February almost upon us, Sony has revealed the next batch of monthly games it's making available to subscribers of its PlayStation Plus Essential tier - and it's also announced a two-hour trial of developer Insomniac's acclaimed Marvel's Spider-Man 2 for Premium subscribers.
Starting with the games, February's first Essential offering is Foamstars, Square Enix's stylish, Splatoon-esque 4v4 live-service game in which players furiously hose each other into submission with a torrent of slippery soapsuds. It'll be available on both PlayStation 4 and PS5.
Next up is Rollerdrome, from OlliOlli developer Roll7. Set a world ruled by corporations, where the public is kept placated by a brutal blood sport known as Rollerdrome, it sees players donning rollerskates for some high-speed third-person shooting action, where performing tricks restores ammo and bullet-time-style slo-mo can be deployed against opponents.
It's superb stuff - Eurogamer called it "one of the most breathlessly stylish and casually, outrageously cool games you'll ever play" back in 2022 - and it'll be available on PS4 and PS5.
Last but not least is Greedfall developer Spiders' Steelrising, a third-person Soulslike in which players, as one of Marie Antoinette's automaton bodyguards, must track down their maker and stop Louis XVI's army of rogue robots in a heavily reimagined version of 18th century Paris. It's "clumsy, but well-intentioned and ambitious" - as Eurogamer put it in 2022 - and certainly not without its charms. And if it takes your fancy, it hits PlayStation Essential for PS5.
All the above will be available to PlayStation Essential subscribers (as well as Extra and Premium tier members) from 6th February, with an additional perk coming in the form of the Fall Guys Icons Pack - which gives players access to Aloy and Ratchet & Clank skins in developer Mediatonic's knockabout party game.
And, finally, Sony has announced an extra perk exclusively for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers: a two-hour game trial of Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Available from 6th February, it'll give players the chance to experience the opening of last year's enjoyable Spider-Man sequel as both Peter Parker and Miles Morales, with save progress and any earned Trophies carrying over to the full game should you be swayed enough to purchase the whole thing.