Over the 20-plus years of Xbox’s storied history, we’ve seen many classic games and franchises go astray as tastes and markets change.
It’s been over 20 years since Microsoft first launched the Xbox, so it’s surprising that some of the games and franchises that were once such a big part of the Xbox experience have remained rotten over the years. not. But among them are some bonafide classics that are eagerly awaiting their return to the gaming scene. So let’s talk about some of our forgotten favorites. But we refuse to let go.
crimson sky
Dogfight games aren’t all that common these days, so Ace Combat could easily claim outright dogfight dominance in the top flight of the genre. But a long time ago, Microsoft unveiled an epic dogfight title in the form of Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. FASA Studio is the games division of a tabletop game company that brought other board and role-playing games to the world, such as MechWarrior and Shadowrun. Console and PC players. Crimson Skies is fondly remembered as a true cult classic of his original Xbox era, and fans are sure to love it’s return. The original is backwards compatible with the latest Xbox consoles and still works great in terms of how it plays (and even looks better than expected). By not having more games in this short-lived venture into high-flying boardgame video games, we’re missing out.
blink
Neither of the two Blinx games was necessarily very, it’s always been a franchise with enormous potential, and the major developers at Sega and Sonic were striving to give the Xbox a mascot character similar to Mario or Crash at the time. One of the first games to take full advantage of consoles with internal hard drives, it kept a silent log of gameplay and world state, allowing you to rewind time later to undo specific actions and events. can be changed back to This was an ingenious mechanic that wasn’t possible on other consoles at the time, but the game around it was more frustrating than anything else, and the limited use of control powers each time made some puzzles a matter of trial and error. That changed. Time-bending mechanics have always been clever in games — it worked in the case of Braid — so developer Artoon no longer exists, but another studio is making a game about cats with time vacuum cleaners. I look forward to creating jobs.
true fantasy live online
This one died before it lived, but oh what was it? True Fantasy Live Online, his MMORPG in development for the original Xbox at Level 5, created similar styles to the classic PS2 JRPGs Dragon Quest VIII and Rogue Galaxy, albeit in a single-player experience. This was supposed to be a killer app that would help Xbox break Japan, but Level-5’s somewhat inexperience with online gaming and Microsoft’s lack of experience dealing with Japanese developers Between, the MMO was canceled after a few delays despite apparently being fully playable. Level-5 will never release a game on Xbox (unless you count his Ni no Kuni remaster by QLOC last year). For many, this was a highly anticipated release at the time, and its cancellation meant not only players wanting to try out the game, but the relationships with major Japanese developers Microsoft most needed to gain a foothold. exacerbated the Japan. Considering the big MMOs of the same period and earlier were still in the works, this could have been massive.
project gotham racing
Microsoft has parked some great racing franchises over the years (pour one into the RallySport Challenge), but this one hurts the most. Only in 2007 did Activision acquire his PGR developer Bizarre Creations, which closed four years later. But if a deal with Activision Blizzard goes through and the PGR brand returns to the Xbox, we might be in a position to see some magic happen. It serves as the spiritual successor to Street Racer and was present at the launch of the first two Xbox consoles. Think of them as a combination of his two current Forza subseries. Focused on skill chains and Horizon’s fancy driving, but set on tight urban circuits set in some of the world’s most famous cities. As something halfway between Forza’s Motorsport and Horizon offerings, there’s definitely room for a PGR in today’s market, but who develops it is another matter. It’s unlikely MS pulls Turn 10 or Playground away from Forza to tackle a much weaker brand these days, but with the right team at the wheel, a comeback could be surprising. , if you’re digging into Bizarre Creations, let’s get another Geometry Wars in the meantime. Thank you.
banjo/conker
I’ve grouped those two together to fit in the same box, in that they aren’t really considered the Xbox brand. But now that Rare is part of Xbox Game Studios, they very much are, even if Microsoft doesn’t do much with either. Collectathon 3D platformers like Yooka-Laylee, Super Lucky’s Tale and A Hat in Time have seen something of a revival in recent years, recalling him one of last year’s most popular game types. I’ve seen First party output. But no one is more poised than Microsoft to face Mario’s house with the ability to put his two greatest weapons of the N64 era against Mario. Conker and Banjo have seen minimal Xbox action so far — an OG Xbox remake of Toilet Mouse N64 favorite Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Young Conker demonstrating weird Hololens tech, and weird We’ve seen side-by-side Kraft spin-off Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts XBLA ports of Kazooie and Tooie — and it’s wild that these once-giant characters have fallen into disuse. The most exciting thing about the duo was joining Smash Bros.
1 to 100
An interactive quiz show where Xbox 360 players could compete for real prizes, the playable TV show of the same name was a sensation at the time. The One, out of 100, having scheduled a live event that could be attended whether he was selected as one or not, or as part of the audience, would have been a great idea, even if the concept was perhaps a little further ahead of technology. It was charming. But in the early days of the Xbox One, when there’s enough technology now and the device was all about being an all-in-one multimedia hub, it’s surprising MS didn’t go back to the well with this one. It’s not just a game machine. Rumors swirled about a possible comeback for some time. I would love to see another large-scale interactive game show like this, whether or not the license is tied to the show. It’s like a big jackbox session. No need to deal with the hassle of setting everything up.
phantom crash
It’s a niche choice, but one we stand by and can chuck Quantum Redshift in the same category. In particular, the racer of the future has lost a front-runner after years of seeing little to no from WipEout or F-Zero. But Phantom Crash was a hugely popular game that Microsoft had solidified thanks to big monopolies like his MechWarrior and Steel Battalion (with one of the most ridiculous peripherals ever). It was part of a mecha battle scene. It proved to be a similar game that was more arcade-style and playful, closer to Sega’s Virtual On than Armored Core. The weight and power of these giant machines. It’s not the kind of game that’s likely to hit the mainstream (Guerrilla Cambridge’s flagship PS VR title, His Rigs, was a good take on a similar format, so much so that the studio shut down a year after its release. poor performance). Sadly, it’s more of a pipe dream than anything else.
Lost Odyssey/Blue Dragon
This follows to some extent True Fantasy Live Online, where Microsoft is once again in a position to acquire a big name in Japan for the long term, but it seems to be wasting its chances to have a real impact on the Japanese market. In the early days of Xbox 360, Mistwalker, formed by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, dropped its first two JRPG projects exclusively on Xbox. Partnered with Microsoft. Both Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon (with Dragon Ball artist Akira Toriyama) were well received and are still fondly remembered. Several others joined Nintendo before pivoting to the mobile scene that operates to this day. How could Mistwalker have played out differently if it had stayed on Xbox? How good would it be if a modern rebuild returned to one of these worlds?
What other Xbox games or series would you like to see brought back? Let us know below!
