What’s an Xbox? Microsoft has spent 25 years attempting to reply the query, however for followers, the reply is straightforward: “Xbox” evokes one-eared headsets wired into the reminiscence card slots of huge controllers with breakaway cords. A dashboard with gleaming skeuomorphic blades and avatars adorned in earned equipment. That sound that performs when a hard-earned Achievement lastly pops. “Xbox” means heavy-duty {hardware}. Tactile sensations. Pals connecting for the primary time. And that’s earlier than we even get to the video games.
It might be that the very concept of an Xbox sport is coming to an finish. Microsoft has undeniably shifted its techniques, with a brand new concentrate on multi-platform releases, handheld Xboxes which can be truly miniature Home windows computer systems, and the potential that future Xbox consoles could merely be gaming PCs. So now appears nearly as good a time as any to look again on the total historical past of Microsoft’s console journey and rank the most effective Xbox video games, with assist from our associates at Exterior Xbox, the multimillion-subscriber channel that serves up weekly movies about video video games and video game-adjacent issues
After we say “the most effective Xbox video games,” we imply those that the majority evoke that weighty sense of “Xboxness.” Some are first-party, most are exclusives, and all of them are indelibly tied to the legacy of and fondness for a platform that’s left a large mark on gaming. These are the 100 Greatest Xbox Video games of All Time. We’ll be updating this listing each day with 25 video games at 7am PST/10am ET/3pm GMT from Tuesday, twentieth January to Friday, twenty third January, till primary is revealed.
100. 1 vs. 100
A big-scale, on-line multiplayer sport present, performed in real-time by precise gamers who might win precise prizes? It was a daring concept, and Microsoft’s 1 vs. 100 truly did it. Tailored from the TV present of the identical title, gamers have been randomly dropped into one among three swimming pools every time the present went reside: the Crowd, the Mob, and the One, with the One competing in opposition to the Mob in trivia rounds the place response occasions have been simply as essential an ingredient to victory as the proper reply to the query being requested. Prizes ranged from 80 Microsoft Factors ($1) to a free Xbox Stay Arcade sport, to 10,000 Microsoft Factors ($125). 1 vs. 100 was a real social and technical experiment on the earth of gaming, and here is the factor: it labored! Sadly, it was canceled after two “seasons” and cannot be performed now, but it surely lives on within the reminiscence as among the best and most modern Xbox video games ever made.
99. Conker: Stay and Reloaded
When Microsoft acquired Nintendo’s second-party darling Uncommon for $375 million, the chances have been limitless. One of many first video games Xbox bought from the British studio was Conker: Stay and Reloaded, a remake of N64’s Conker’s Unhealthy Fur Day that added on-line multiplayer. And whereas that aggressive play was fairly enjoyable, thanks partly to the juxtaposition of over-the-top violence and cute characters on display, it was the technological level-up from the N64 authentic that was really gorgeous. The action-platformer was now “fur-shaded,” giving the manes of Conker and his buddies a singular “next-gen” new look. Sarcastically, Stay and Reloaded was truly extra closely censored than Unhealthy Fur Day, however each marketing campaign and multiplayer have been however an effective way to introduce Uncommon to its new Xbox participant base.
98. Prime Spin
Consider it or not, there was a time when EA did not assist Xbox Stay. And so Microsoft began constructing its personal sports activities video games that might benefit from its on-line service, and of these titles, Prime Spin was by far the most effective. It was a tennis sim that includes a profession mode stuffed with real-life execs, however what made Prime Spin memorable – along with its core gameplay being so pitch-perfect, after all – was its on-line play. You’d create your character, construct them up, and take them on-line, pitting your self in opposition to different gamers in ranked matches that, in the event you gained, would transfer you additional up the worldwide rankings. All of it labored completely (and even tied in XSN, in the event you keep in mind that little experiment), and made Prime Spin the most effective tennis sport the Xbox has ever been served up.
97. Binary Area
The Xbox 360 was a treasure chest stuffed with these “7 out of 10s” that you just simply couldn’t put down; these rough-around-the-edges cult classics that saved us greater than entertained for a weekend earlier than we moved on to the following. Binary Area is an ideal instance – a third-person shooter from Yakuza developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, this sci-fi story didn’t play too in another way from established cowl shooters akin to Gears of Battle, however got here with its personal distinctive quirks. Direct management of your squadmates was chief amongst these, with the flexibility to command them in six completely different languages by way of a headset or the Kinect sensor, a enjoyable little gimmick that took benefit of the Xbox’s in the end doomed experiment with its digicam peripheral. Binary Area could have by no means totally reached the heights of its lofty ambitions, but it surely nonetheless finds a spot in our hearts.
96. Metal Battalion
The unique Xbox was a maximalist, brutalist brick of post-Y2K design and Metal Battalion is the purest expression of its dedication to inconvenience. The Capcom-developed mech sport is arguably nothing particular by itself, however the humongous HOTAS horror with which it got here bundled has earned it Xbox immortality. Weighing in at a whopping 17 kilos, boasting three panels, three foot pedals, and industrial-grade divorced dad vitality, Metal Battalion is the online game equal of “rolling coal:” an extreme, magnificent, indulgent peripheral that price $200 in 2002 cash. Xbox is a burly, hefty console that calls for a burly, hefty expertise, and Metal Battalion greater than matches the invoice.
95. Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath
Xbox was a console designed to vary the sport, and so it made sense that the Oddworld sequence shifted course when it arrived on the platform. Munch’s Oddysee noticed the sidescrolling platformer leap into the third dimension, but it surely was 2005’s Stranger’s Wrath that basically reinvented the sequence, delivering a weird gunslinging action-adventure through which you performed a bounty hunter, bringing in targets lifeless or alive, reasonably than saving legions of Mudokons. As Stranger, you’re armed with a crossbow and a bandolier of “Stay Ammunition”, as in, ammo that’s actually alive. Your chatterbox bullets, every an insect or tiny mammal with distinctive skills, flip every hunt right into a tactical showdown with greater than a fistful of excellent laughs.
94. Fuzion Frenzy
It is gritty. It is neon. It is Fuzion Frenzy, an plain traditional for the unique Xbox that is nonetheless enjoyable immediately (in the event you do not stay too lengthy within the Waterfront minigames, that’s). This social gathering sport gem was one of many few native multiplayer video games that virtually anybody might play, no matter their expertise with gaming. Easy but useful choices like practising a minigame earlier than the actual occasion, bots to fill open spots with various ranges of issue, and customized lengths for tournaments made welcoming others to the social gathering even simpler. Its vast span of minigames acted as an ideal introduction to all types of genres, too; from racing to rhythm, to technique, to protection, Fuzion Frenzy has all of it – and a sick visible aesthetic in addition.
93. Misplaced Planet: Excessive Situation
Misplaced Planet: Excessive Situation is an ideal relic from a time when it appeared like virtually each third-party sport that delivered a visible showcase on the Xbox 360 struggled to run correctly on the PS3. Capcom’s mech-suit shooter performed host to some memorable creature design that evoked a few of sci-fi fiction’s best threats, and delivered spectacle that, on the time, was in comparison with video games in addition to regarded as Shadow of the Colossus. Whereas its story could have left fairly a bit to be desired, its motion was well-received, because it took cues from Capcom classics akin to Mega Man and Bionic Commando and modernised them to nice impact. Misplaced Planet: Excessive Situation is under no circumstances a traditional in its personal proper, however is a good instance of a time when, in the event you had the selection to play a multiplatform sport on any console, it will all the time be the 360.
92. Banjo-Kazooie Nuts N Bolts
Nuts & Bolts started life as a remake of the unique Nintendo 64 Banjo-Kazooie sport, earlier than developer Uncommon made the choice to create a very new entry within the sequence for the Xbox 360. An bold undertaking that stretched itself far past its 3D platforming roots, this 2008 sequel positioned an emphasis on constructing autos in a versatile world that could possibly be navigated in many various methods. 15 years earlier than Nintendo experimented with comparable concepts in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Uncommon was arguably forward of the curve when it got here to participant freedom in vast open areas, even when the ultimate product by no means delivered the form of sport of the year-winning high quality that Hyperlink’s adventures have. There’s no denying that Nuts & Bolts was divisive at launch, however its legacy solely grows stronger over time, and it stays the newest entry into the Banjo-Kazooie sequence.
91. Condemned: Prison Origins
We might argue that Condemned: Prison Origins was probably the most underrated of the Xbox 360’s day-one launch video games. A primary-person horror sport with melee fight from the adorned builders at Monolith Productions, it bought scarier and scarier the deeper you pushed into its marketing campaign – and sure, we imply it bought much more terrifying after the memorable division retailer model sequence. As an FBI agent you had a toolbox of forensic instruments to work with, but it surely was extra what you needed to work in opposition to that made this expertise particular – particularly, an impeccably bleak ambiance that heightened the worry that enveloped you as you performed. It stays distinctive amongst horror video games even immediately.
90. Citadel Crashers
Indie video games have grown so ubiquitous that the phrase itself has turn out to be a battleground, however 18 years in the past, “indie” largely meant video games on Xbox Stay Arcade. XBLA was to indie video games as Toonami was to anime: an influential pipeline that reshaped distribution and expanded our concepts of what video games could possibly be and who was allowed to make them. Headlining the inaugural “Summer time of Arcade” in 2008, Citadel Crashers was a colourful, chaotic belt-scroller with fashionable hand-drawn artwork straight from Newgrounds, the anarchic animation scene that might later spawn the likes of Smiling Pals. It set a brand new customary for four-player co-op and helped spark a contemporary beat ‘em up revival alongside fellow XBLA stalwart Scott Pilgrim: The Sport.
89. MechAssault
MechWarrior had lengthy been a sci-fi giant-robot simulation staple on PC. In MechAssault, the BattleTech universe got here to console as a faster-paced, gamepad-friendly model of everybody’s favourite Thirty first-century-set franchise, and it translated fantastically. You continue to bought to pilot all the coolest mechs from the PC sequence, and you can nonetheless goal particular areas of your enemies with a view to disable them or, within the case of a leg takeout, trigger them to fall over and explode. However MechAssault boiled it right down to purely the motion, taking a number of the between-mission simulation gameplay out of the equation. The revised method labored, each within the single-player marketing campaign and within the Xbox Stay on-line multiplayer, the place MechAssault shortly established itself as one of the crucial fashionable video games on Microsoft’s then brand-new, broadband-only on-line gaming service.
88. Peter Jackson’s King Kong
A launch sport for the Xbox 360, Peter Jackson’s King Kong comes from a time when an enormous graphical leap could possibly be seen from only one look at a display. The luxurious jungle of Cranium Island set the stage for a licensed sport that stood tall in an period when many fell flat, because of its comparatively open strategy to degree design, immersive first-person perspective devoid of cluttered UI, and general cinematic presentation that mirrored the ambitions of The Lord of the Rings’ director’s remake. Positive, it’s not fairly as revolutionary to play now, however it’s consultant of a second in time when, very like its lead character, Xbox was about to turn out to be high of the meals chain.
87. Full Spectrum Warrior
Full Spectrum Warrior famously began out not as a for-public-consumption online game, however as a coaching software constructed for the US Military. It is a real-time techniques sport, however in contrast to absolutely anything that got here earlier than or since. Its total premise revolves across the correct positioning of your squad of troopers; it is as much as you to actually put your women and men in place to not simply succeed, but in addition survive, as one mistaken transfer will see only a few bullets shortly wipe out your squad. Pressure is the first emotion you will really feel all through Full Spectrum Warrior’s marketing campaign, however in the easiest and most fulfilling of how.
86. Lifeless or Alive 3
On the time of the unique Xbox’s arrival in November 2001, it was seen as a necessity for a console to launch with a robust combating sport providing, one of the crucial fashionable genres on the flip of the century. In preparation for that, Microsoft moved to acquire exclusivity on Group Ninja’s Lifeless or Alive sequence, which had beforehand appeared on each Sony’s PlayStation and Sega’s Dreamcast. The gamble paid off: Lifeless or Alive 3 immediately turned an enormous hit because of its lush visuals and slick fight, promoting over 1 million copies in its first 5 months alone. It will go on to turn out to be one of many 10 best-selling video games on the unique Xbox console and assist set up the platform’s strong foundations world wide.
85. Good Darkish Zero
A sequel to Uncommon’s hit N64 shooter, Good Darkish Zero started life on the Gamecube earlier than it was ordained as a flagship first-party launch title for Xbox 360 following Microsoft’s acquisition of the studio in 2002. Whereas its improvement was a frantic dash to satisfy the console’s launch, the ultimate product is a technical stunner of a classy spy thriller that dazzled early adopters with shiny visuals and a sprawling multiplayer suite that supported a then-whopping 32 gamers– the proper proving floor for a brand new era of Xbox Stay. Microsoft was clearly strapping the rocket to Joanna Darkish as a triple-A franchise candidate, however her sequence struggled to discover a lane among the many Grasp Chiefs and Name of Dutys that dominated the platform. Even so, Good Darkish Zero endures as an bold, feature-rich launch showcase, and after many years of false begins and improvement hell, it stays the final, finest phrase on an Xbox almost-icon.
84. Panzer Dragoon Orta
Panzer Dragon Orta confirmed that, even following the very public catastrophe of the Dreamcast, Sega was an organization nonetheless keen to take dangers and experiment. On this case, it meant rewinding time and returning Panzer Dragoon to its rail shooter roots, following a quick enterprise into the RPG house with 1998’s Panzer Dragoon Saga. The end result was Panzer Dragoon Orta, an Xbox unique interpretation of the dragon-riding sequence that felt each comfortingly old-school and daringly trendy. A ravishing, deceivingly complicated slice of motion, Orta took full benefit of the ability of the Xbox to create among the best examples of the on-rails shooter thus far.
83. Rayman Legends
Is 2013’s Rayman Legends the best platformers that Nintendo by no means made? A personality-packed cartoon world, impeccable management system, elegant degree design, and an ever-evolving set of mechanics would argue sure, it is definitely within the operating, and that’s even earlier than we’ve gotten to the brilliantly bonkers rhythm-based problem degree set to a Mariachi band cowl of ‘Eye of the Tiger’. Enjoyable solo however completely joyous with three associates in tow, Rayman Legends is sofa co-op perfection. Its 120 ranges are stuffed with surprises and crafted at such a constantly excessive customary that no sooner do you suppose you’ve discovered your favorite stage than one other one has come alongside to dethrone it. There’s a lot giddy gameplay stuffed into Rayman Legends that it even spills over into its loading screens, themselves mad scrambles for a bonus coronary heart through the handful of seconds earlier than every degree begins. Stunning, bountiful, and bouncing with vitality, Rayman Legends is nearly as good as 2D platforming will get, and proved an actual deal with within the dying days of Xbox’s golden 360 period.
82. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas
Rainbow Six: Vegas is not simply memorable for being a large leap for the Tom Clancy sequence into the next-gen on the Xbox 360, however for its perspective shift: as you took cowl from gunfire behind one-armed bandits and beside doorways, the digicam pulled again from Rainbow Six’s typical first-person perspective and introduced it into third-person, settling over every Operator’s shoulder – a trick that might be later copied by Brothers in Arms and Deus Ex. In the meantime, Las Vegas proved to be a stunning and memorable setting for this daring new entry within the sequence, giving us glitzy shootouts on on line casino flooring. And multiplayer, already an enormous hit on Xbox Stay with Rainbow Six 3, blew up once more with Vegas, providing an unparalleled tactical, team-based aggressive expertise on-line. On the time of launch, we referred to as it “the most effective first-person shooter on the Xbox 360”, and whereas it might not have held onto that crown later within the console’s lifespan, it nonetheless stays a excessive level for the style.
81. Brothers: A Story of Two Sons
A sport with maybe the only saddest press of a button in all of video games, Brothers: A Story of Two Sons set the template for what director Josef Fares would go on to attain. A narrative-first puzzle sport through which the sport’s two playable brothers are managed by an analog stick every, its sensible strategy to how you utilize an Xbox controller made it an prompt under-the-radar hit when it landed with timed exclusivity on the 360. Fares would go away developer Starbreeze Studios after Brothers’ launch to arrange Hazelight and craft a few of the finest co-op video games ever launched, and whereas the likes of It Takes Two and Break up Fiction push the bounds of creativity with regards to gameplay, nothing since has fairly packed the narrative punch that this journey of two boys attempting to save lots of their dying father does.
80. Titanfall
After a litigious cut up from Activision, the co-creators of Name of Obligation jumped ship to EA and shaped Respawn, decided to reinvent the net FPS for Xbox and beat their outdated sport at its personal sport. 2014’s Titanfall dropped because the disappointing Ghosts left Name of Obligation weak, with acrobatic motion and wall-running gunfights that made “boots on the bottom” shooters really feel immediately archaic. Whereas the MOBA-influenced multiplayer featured farming minions and screen-shaking final mechs summoned from the sky, the shortage of a marketing campaign restricted Titanfall’s affect, and by the point its multiplatform sequel greater than rectified that mistake, it was far too late to beat CoD.
79. The Outer Worlds 2
Obsidian Leisure has quietly turn out to be one among Microsoft’s most essential studios, because of its constantly sturdy output ever since its 2018 acquisition. Following current forays into outsized undergrowth in Grounded and Pentiment’s Seventeenth-century Germany, the Pillars of Eternity developer returned to their roots in 2025 with not one, however two motion RPGs. Avowed was nice, but it surely was The Outer Worlds 2 that led the pack and sprinkled a few of that Fallout: New Vegas magic onto the foundations of its strong, however not solely profitable predecessor, producing a considerably improved sequel. With trademark humour powering a sci-fi satire stuffed with memorable moments, warring factions, and malleable expertise and fight programs, The Outer Worlds 2 is one among Obsidian’s finest RPGs thus far, and in consequence, one among Xbox’s.
78. Keeper
Contemplating Microsoft’s current historical past with regards to the mishandling of its studios, it appears like considerably of a miracle that we’re fortunate sufficient to get good little video games like Keeper from Double Nice. A brief and vibrant journey, it takes a humble strolling lighthouse and its hen companion on a journey stuffed with puzzles that surprises with every flip and tumble its story and characters take. What begins out seeming so easy steadily reveals its secrets and techniques and joys in a hidden gem that appears like the precise form of expertise Sport Go was created for.
77. Jade Empire
BioWare’s oft-forgotten 2005 RPG is the evolutionary hyperlink between Knights of the Outdated Republic and Mass Impact. The Chinese language mythology-inspired Jade Empire builds upon the ethical selections of KOTOR, however leaves behind its cumbersome D&D-rooted fight in favour of real-time battles that higher convey the fluidity of martial arts. With its great companions, participating romances, and richly detailed authentic worldbuilding, Jade Empire could be very clearly the place to begin for BioWare’s glittering 360 period, even when its achievements have been shortly eclipsed by Mass Impact and Dragon Age.
76. Gears 5
The place Gears of Battle 4 mirrored lots of the themes of its predecessors, Gears 5 shattered the mirror to take the COGs into one thing larger. Kait Diaz, JD Fenix, and Del Walker are joined by Marcus Fenix and different acquainted faces in a narrative that expands the Gears of Battle lore in an thrilling manner as they’re pitted in opposition to the Swarm’s escalated aggression. New fight additions like Jack’s skills make for excellent marketing campaign gameplay updates with out straying too removed from the concentrate on wonderful cover-shooting, and its bigger sandbox environments hold issues contemporary with elective exploration and, after all, extra fight challenges. The long-lasting, gory mess of gunplay can also be improbable within the number of multiplayer modes and Horde. Developer The Coalition put the cherry on high of this improbable third-person shooter with the Hivebusters DLC, which options solely new characters and a narrative that enhances the principle marketing campaign. This whole bundle is definitely on the Xbox One’s best video games.
Come again tomorrow (Wednesday twenty first) for picks 75-51!
