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SB Recommends Xbox Games
Microsoft's first game console that was host to Halo LAN parties, 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 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).
Recommended
Breakdown (BC)
boojiboy7: A Japanese developed first-person shooter that focuses on melee combat and locks the player in the first person perspective, similar to Valve games. It turns out to not be a 'great' game, but one with a few really interesting moments that make the generally cheap price worth it.
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.
Cave Story (homebrew port) (Also on: DSiWare, 3DSWare, GP2X, PC, PSP, WiiWare; remade for 3DS)
robotdell: It's free. It's fantastic. It's Cave Story: a “
metroidvania” with true purpose!
TORUMASUTA: The [Xbox port] I played starts getting severe slowdown as soon as you get to the Mimiga Village; the first cave is okay, but I think that's because there's not much going on. Cave Story is such an important game that I wouldn't advertise the existence of the Xbox port out of the fear that the slowdown is still there.
Ymer: Never noticed any of that. One flaw of the port though is that with the default control scheme both switching weapons and the “throttle” button (a pretty broken feature which may crash things) are both mapped to the right trigger which took me a while to figure out.
Galleon
Rudie: The game by the
Tomb Raider 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.
GunValkyrie
Rudie: Fuck. The. Controls.
108: Gun Valkyrie is actually a pretty fucking great game with pretty fucking great controls and pretty heartbreakingly terrible level design.
Cacophanus: [GunValkyrie]is actually genius, once you get past the learning curve for the controls.
tacotaskforce: Some people like Gun Valkyrie. I can't get over how it was designed to be played on a DC pad and never reworked to utilize the Xbox's two thumbsticks.
Chris B:
Gunvalkyrie sounds and looks like a
cave-flyer or a maze game like
Kururin or
Cameltry in principle, where you're not so much trying to reach the platforms and avoid the pitfalls, but to stay aloft and fly through the levels without touching the ground.
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Sniper Honeyviper: Massive open-world stages with very little to do in them. Not as crunchy as Tony Hawk, but the aesthetic is a whole lot better.
Rudie: My problem with it is the game never moves fast enough.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (also on: 360, PC, PS2, PS3, Vita)
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Tulpa: Bad music, clumsy attempts to overcomplicate the gameplay of earlier PDs, one of the few games guaranteed to put me to sleep
Texican Rude: Bosses take way too long to kill and am more likely to die from physical exhaustion than lack of skill.
ghostribbon: Whoa there, chief.
Panzer Dragoon Orta had some pretty decent music.
Anu Orta Veniya is like, one of the the best video game vocal songs.
Phantom Dust (BC)
boojiboy7: A game created with a decent collectible card game as its backbone, but instead of playing cards, the players act out the battle in largely destructible environments that change a fight. Technically backwards compatible on the 360, but there are some framerate issues and occasional lockups. Still worth playing it that way if that's the only way you can.
Rudie: Magic The Gathering: The Movie: The Game.