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--- sb:recommended:xbox [2017/04/08 09:58]
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 {{:fig:recommended:xbox_cat.jpg }} Microsoft's first game console that was host to //[[game:Halo]]// LAN parties, [[company:Sega]] exclusives, and the world's largest first party controller.  Japan ended up getting a smaller controller, which eventually replaced the grizzly bear original in the west.  If you have an original Xbox, it's highly recommended you mod it, either by a softmod or a modchip.  This gives you access to an excellent [[wp>media center]], and many excellent and full speed emulators.
-Many Xbox games are capable of being played on an Xbox 360.  When a game is compatible, it will be noted with a (BC)FIXME((backwards compatability need sto be updated - Bloob)).
+Many Xbox games are capable of being played on an Xbox 360.  When a game is compatible, it will be noted with a (BC).
 ===== Recommended =====
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     * Rudie: Oh man is this game awesome.  I love it.  It is Half-Life 1 done by the Japanese.  It is pretty brutally unfair at points, but I can't help but love everything it does for first person perspective, and that Xen in this game is //Halo//.
     * tacotaskforce: //Breakdown// is a japanese //[[game:Half-Life]]//. It has a lot of flaws, some set-pieces that don't quite work out, and other set-pieces that are fucking fantastic.
+    * Swarm: This game owns. It's a bit of an Xbox sacred cow for those SB folks in da know. I mean, it's basically a Japanese Half-Life and Halo clone, but with an absolutely insane Japanese sci-fi story and totally ludicrous first-person fighting system. Interestingly enough, it actually does a few things that Half-Life 2 would also do, but a year earlier. Things such as driving in large outdoor areas, an AI companion named Alex who accompanies you through most of the game and a bunch of cutscenes that play out within the environment. I recommend playing on Easy if you're just checking out this game to see its insanity. The combat in the game is enjoyable when frustration is at a minimum. There's this move in the game that they never tell you about when you press both triggers to slide into an enemy which stuns them, then immediately pressing the right trigger again sending them flying half way across the room with an uppercut. On Easy this is enough to one-shot kill most enemies and it feels awesome every time you do it.
   ***//Burnout 3: Takedown//** (also on: PS2)
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   ***//Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge//**
     * Tulpa: A nice arcade flight shooter.
+    * Swarm: It's like Disney's Talespin if instead of a bear it starred Nathan Drake from Uncharted. The game gives you a bunch of big maps and lets you do a bunch of missions in them until you move on. Has some nice early levels that have you flying through island caves that it drops way too early. Simplistic but solid gameplay, if you know how to lead targets you'll win every time.
   ***//Deathrow//** (BC)
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   ***//Double S.T.E.A.L. The Second Clash //** (BC?)
     * tacotaskforce: Wreckless only without the sadistic time limits and with bonus missions that are actually kind of fun.
+    * Swarm: As much as I kinda like this game, I have to admit there are only about 5 levels that are great, the rest are kind of a slog. Your crime fighting duo are pretty cute though (ACAB).
   ***//The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind//** (BC) (also on: PC)
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     * Rudie:  The game by the //[[people:toby_gard|Tomb Raider]]// [[people:toby_gard|guy]].  It was supposed to set the world on fire on the Dreamcast.  Then it got delayed to hell and ended up on the Xbox.  It's amazing and heartbreaking in the way a constantly delayed game ultimately is.
     * tacotaskforce: Ghalleon was made by the guy that originally made Tomb Raider, which makes sense, because it is everything Tomb Raider should have been and, at the same time, everything it could never have been.
+    * Swarm: It's like Tomb Raider in that it's way, way too god damned long. Has movement and platforming that feels like nothing before or since, though. The levels are huge, and the game will, at any time, let you jump off the highest point of the map and into the ocean below, with pretty much nothing to do except to reload the game. Pointless, but awesome. You can stop playing after about 3 levels.
   ***//Genma Onimusha//**
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     * Wall of Beef: They did replace the "motion control dat joystick" with a button press, but if they left it in and tried to keep the rest of it the same it would have been a train wreck. The game is a million times fast, with gigantic environments and lots to do. Its hard to stop and motion control that joystick while shooting down a drain pipe at 70 mph over a toxic ocean, while dudes are shooting guns at you.
     * elvis.shrugged: JSFR...I find hard to recommend. I loved the original JSR, a lot. It's one of my favorite games ever, and JSFR just reeks of "missed opportunity." They took the urgency of the original---the time limits, the arcade-styled scoring system, the cops always chasing you---and replaced it with an exploration game. Hence, there is no urgency. The cops have been boxed in, and can't chase you (!!!). You no longer hurriedly twist the analog stick to create graffiti. In addition to that, the graphics have this very washed out and blurred look compared to the crisp, clean lines of JSR. Even the soundtrack pales compared to JSR's!
+    * Swarm: Way more interesting strictly as an exploration game you can chill out in. Every time I think I'm going to start up a new game and play through the game again, I just end up loading an old save and skating through my favorite levels, admiring the cel-shaded not-Tokyo environments, hanging out in record stores and under glass-roofed shopping strips.
-  ***//Kingdom Under Fire * //**
+  ***//Kingdom Under Fire //**
     * Leau: The two //Kingdom Under Fire// games are great if you like strategy and/or //[[game:dynasty_warriors_series|Dynasty Warriors]]// and also totally cheap. It's one of those games that I'd easily reccomend if only because there isn't much else like it on the xbox.
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   ***//Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure//**
     * extrabastardforumla: //Mark Ecko's Getting Up// still has waggly joystick for graffiti. And it is HILARIOUSLY bad, tripply so if you've ever done any graffiti of your own. But it's a good //[[game:double_dragon_series|Double Dragon]]// style [[genre:belt_scrollers|brawler]].
+  ***//Maximum Chase//**
+    * Swarm: Absolute insanity. You're RICK SUMMER, TRAFFIC COP and you've gotten caught up in some bad shit with some terrorists who are trying to fuck up your car! Hilariously cheesy yet charming, this is the real FMV shit people crave. The game almost doesn't work, but the arcade gameplay is okay enough and the game short enough, for you to laugh your way through 60 minutes of pure bewilderment. They sold this game for $60! In 2003!
   ***//Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance//** (also on: 360, PC, PS2, PS3, Vita)
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   ***//Metal Wolf Chaos (JP only)//**
     * Cacophanus: For the batshit crazy narrative and dialogue, yes. If you want to buy it for actual gameplay then no. On the whole, the [[company:from_software|From Software]] games on Xbox that were helmed by [[people:Masanori Takeuchi|Takeuchi]] should be dutifully avoided (this includes the mindlessly shallow //[[games:otogi_series|Otogi]]// games).
+    * Swarm: //[[games:otogi_series|Otogi]]// but with mechs! It's as insane as you've heard, and quite funny and enjoyable in spite of the average gameplay and "MOST PATRIOTIC GAME EVER" bobo pasted all over the net. It's worth playing just for the fact that the only way you can play this game today is with a softmodded or NTSC-J Xbox, which makes you feel like a true vidcon spelunker.
   ***//Murakumo//**
     * NeoEsZ: Simplistic. You fly through a city fast dodging buildings and fire at a mech. Good in short spurts at best. Cool concept.
+    * Swarm: Flying really fast is fun for about two minutes, then just becomes frustrating. BUT! It's got Heather Morris in it! You know, the girl who played Heather in //Silent Hill 3//?! That's the only interesting part of this game.
   ***//MX Unleashed//** (also on: PS2)
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   ***//Otogi 1+2//**
     * Maztorre: One of the best of the post//-DMC// 3rd person action games (remember when these were 10 a penny for a couple of years?). Lots of personality absent from its peers, and one of the only titles to really push the hardware.
+    * Swarm: [[company:from_software|From Software]] on that Japanese acid-mythology tip, with airborne combo-based combat like out of some god darned //Dragon Ball// manga. Has a great atmosphere with oddly sinister art and music. Wailing on an enemy and sending them flipping across the map crashing through a bunch of destructible buildings is some good shit. Otogi 2 is the better game. It has more mission variety and more generals to play as, plus a whole bunch of unlockables. I played through the entire game again just to unlock a cool outfit for Seimei, your shinto priest lookin' princess badass. Otogi 2 is also one of (if not THE!?) prettiest games on the Xbox.
   ***//Outrun 2//**
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     * ghostribbon: Whoa there, chief. //Panzer Dragoon Orta// had some pretty decent music. //[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdrQWweAOOc|Anu Orta Veniya]]// is like, one of the the best video game vocal songs.
     * Another Coma: I thought the form changing was unneccesary, stupid, and not fun. Then I hit the second and third episodes, where it totally began to make sense. You must always be conscious of what form you're in to do well (to survive, even!) Is it heavy handed to assume the player should know what form to be in? Maybe, but this is a [[genre:railshooters|Rail Shooter]] for crying out loud. Even then, form-changing is not always a formula, really. You have to be clever if you want to upgrade the not oft-used but very useful Glide Wing, for instance.\\ I actually loved the approach to boss encounters, coming (rather recently) off of //Zwei//. Every boss battle seems to be constructed from the assumption that the player has A) Finished Zwei and B) thought the final encounter in //Zwei// was the bee's knees. Because just about every serious fight in Orta has that much effort evident in its design. I'll concede that this approach was probably unneccesary for the first couple of episodes, but that never really bothered me. Although the bosses are heavily armored, I realized at around the midpoint of the game that nearly all of them can be defeated before they begin to loop their attack pattern, provided you have become intimate with the capabilities of each form my then. If you haven't, well, you probably spent most of the time in Base Wing.\\ The music, though. It started out good, and then they rewrote the same piece over and over and over until it faded into the background. Oh well!
+    * Swarm: If you can softmod your Xbox to get progressive scan working, this game is beautiful. Flying through the insides of an airship one moment then out into the blue sky, through the clouds and towards the sun is breathtaking. The levels are maybe a bit too long for their own good, though.
   ***//Phantom Crash//**
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   ***//Steel Battalion / Tekki (JP)//**
+    * Swarm: VT Party tonight! VT Party tonight! VT Party tonight! VT Party tonight!!!
   ***//Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse//** (also on: PC)
     * SplashBeats: //Stubbs the Zombie// is perhaps one of the funniest games I've ever played. You play as a zombie intent on destroying a futuristic town in 1950's America. You eat the brains of innocents, they turn into your zombie army, you break things. It's pretty wickedly funny in parts, and runs on the Halo 1 engine, so it's very stable and easy to play.
+    * Swarm:  A bunch of Bungie people left after  //[[game:halo|Halo]]// and made this neat microgame you can finish in about 3 hours. You eat the brains of enemies to build up a zombie posse who then also swarm onto other enemies. You have a bunch of zombie powers including detaching your arm to strategically possess enemies, such as snipers and rocket infantry. Has a neat retro-50s artstyle with remixed 50s tunes. Feels like one of the last games before the 7th gen dark age where you could make a smallish AA game and sell it for $60. A nightmare to get working on PC nowadays, your best bet is the Xbox version.
   ***//The Warriors//** (also on: PS2)
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     * parker: This was the best co-op game I ever played, I hope it gets an HD re-release someday.
     * ChairTax: I seriously spent two whole winter months taking turns in 5v5 and 9v9 brawls with two of my friends. We all had our own custom gangs (mine was "The Grift"), with our own favorite characters, and that customization really elevated the shit-talking and faux stakes. Hell, we'd mythologize our gang members (Vince was my gang leader, but Preston (one of the flash dealers, I think?) was also pretty mean) and build up character-on-character rivalries.\\ Really satisfying baseball bat in that game. Can still hear the knock it makes when you're running full speed, coldcocking people.
+    * Swarm: The epitomy of mid 2000s Rockstar Games, when addition to making murder simulators they were into financing movies and making games based on 70s cult films. //The Warriors// feels like a game only they could of made. It's awesome to just dive (literally) into a group of enemies and start wailing on them. At points of the game there can be like 25 CPU's going at it, just hitting each other with whatever they can get their hands on. Nails the post apocalyptic setting of the film and brings back the cast and soundtrack, and features a pretty good secret Double Dragon clone. Play it on the OG Xbox for 720p widescreen support!
-===== Related links =====
+===== See Also =====
-  *[[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=3531|Any really, really good games for original X-BOX?]] [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=15718|Xbox (original!) recommendations]] - Selectbutton forum threads.
+  * [[https://selectbutton.net/t/a-first-xbox/5420|A first xbox]] - October 2017 forum thread.
+  * [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=3531|Any really, really good games for original X-BOX?]]- March 2007 forum thread.
+  * [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=15718|Xbox (original!) recommendations]] - August 2008 forum thread.