In the field of video games, Microsoft has been a direct competitor of Sony almost as long as the latter had begun making consoles. During the heyday of the PlayStation 2, Microsoft had thrown their own hat into the gaming ring with the Xbox, a massively-sized black box that didn’t do much to dent the PlayStation’s profits, but slowly grew a sizeable audience in its own right.
When the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 released, the tide turned in Microsoft’s favor, with the 360’s focus on online gaming and multiplayer-focused hits (as well as a much cheaper price point) resulting in a massive lead that Sony had to spend most of the generation catching up. These days, Sony sits at the top as the clear winner in the war between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, though who’s to say which console will come out king in the next generation, which could start as early as 2019?
One thing that Microsoft has struggled with for three generations is obtaining exclusive games for its console. Even the 360’s biggest hits have been third-party games that were readily available in competitive hardware, while the number of first party hits is even smaller on the Xbox One. That is the purpose of today’s article, which lists some of the greatest (and also lamest) games that were only available on Microsoft’s consoles (some of these games eventually found their way onto PC as well).
30 Good: Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360)
During the Xbox 360 days, Microsoft made an earnest attempt to make their console more appealing to Japan, hiring Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi to create a couple of exclusive RPGs for them.
The results made little dent in Japan but gained a cult following in the West nonetheless.
Lost Odyssey is the most cherished creation, featuring a familiar turn-based mechanic that was beginning to fizzle out of the Final Fantasy franchise, while also featuring an emotional story with a compelling cast and visuals that still hold up to this day.
29 Bad: Blinx: The Time Sweeper (Xbox)
Whenever a new console is released, there is always that one awkward conversation that must be had: what would be a good kid-friendly mascot we could market?
Sonic the Hedgehog spawned decades of pitiful imitators, proving that it takes more than a cuddly main character to sell a game. Blinx’s abilities to manipulate time could have given him the extra advantage, but ask anyone to count the number of games with a functional time reversal mechanic (Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is the only one that comes to mind).
28 Good: Blue Dragon (Xbox 360)
Blue Dragon was the other game Sakaguchi and his studio Mistwalker created exclusively for Microsoft. Whereas Lost Odyssey featured a more realistic look to appeal to Westerners, Blue Dragon went right for Japan’s JRPG jugular with character designs by Akira Toriyama (of Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest fame).
Though not as highly regarded as Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon did earn accolades for its charming visuals and simplistic-yet-satisfying battle system. The game also earned further infamy for its hilariously odd battle themes, which featured cheesy rock music over incomprehensible English vocals.
27 Bad: Bomberman: Act Zero (Xbox 360)
It’s always tragic to see a company butcher one of its beloved properties with a darker-and-edgier reboot that literally no one asked for. Japanese publishers seem to love this trope, no doubt spurred by a poorly conceived attempt to appeal to Western fans.
Bomberman was popular enough with its cutesy aesthetic and addictive gameplay, so it was no surprise to anyone but Konami that this ugly, embarrassing reboot didn’t take. Mercifully, the idea was abandoned with subsequent follow-ups, but this wouldn’t be the only terrible decision made by Konami as time moved on…
26 Good: Sunset Overdrive (Xbox One)
After a generation of gritty brown-tinted military shooters, Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive was a much-needed rainbow of colorful visuals and wacky characters grinding and shooting their way across a zombie-infested city. The game was like one-part bounce castle, another part Sonic Adventure, though despite the critical reception and cult praise, it failed to make any meaningful impact for the Xbox One’s launch.
Fortunately, the tricks Insomniac picked up while making the game led to the mega-hit that was Spider-Man on the PS4.
25 Bad: Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor (Xbox 360)
The original Steel Battalion was such an insane idea that it couldn’t help but garner a cult fanbase: featuring a massive, multi-button controller and an incredibly harsh penalty (“Game Over” means losing your saved game permanently), the game was poison for casuals but beloved by the hardcore.
Capcom, completely oblivious to what made the original such a hit, released a Kinect-exclusive sequel on the 360 that was terrible on all fronts.
It looked bad, it sounded bad (thanks to a ridiculous overuse of profanity) and the unresponsive Kinect controls made it unplayable to boot.
24 Good: Killer Instinct (Xbox One)
After a number of failed fighting games, not to mention a failure of effectively using Rare’s original franchises, Killer Instinct shocked may players by managing to succeed in both areas.
Not only did the game manage to take the goofy 90s aesthetic and characters and somehow make them cool while still keeping them campy, the Free to Play structure was actually well thought-out, allowing budget-minded folks to test out and purchase their preferred characters at a reasonable price.
23 Bad: Ninety-Nine Nights (Xbox 360)
Question: what’s a certain video game genre that is oversaturated and filled with far too many clumsy imitators? If you answered “First Person Shooters,” you’d be correct…but the answer we’re looking for here is “Musou.”
“Musou” refers to games like Dynasty Warriors which feature hundreds of on-screen enemies at a time, which typically lead to lots of button mashing to mow down the bad guy fodder. Ninety-Nine Nights (N3) was an attempt by Microsoft to cash in on the craze (?), and like most Musou knockoffs, the results were a clunky, ugly mess that people rightfully ignored.
22 Good: Gears Of War (Xbox 360)
One of the most influential multiplayer shooters of all time, Gears of War perfected the third person shooting seen in Resident Evil 4 and applied a cover mechanic that was snappy and action-packed.
The series went on to improve the formula with each new sequel, but the first game still has an appropriately dark tone and muted colors that fit the apocalyptic setting better than the brighter and more bombastic sequels (including the Xbox One remake of the original game).
21 Bad: Advent Rising (Xbox)
How many times have publishers tried to shoot for the moon with a single, untested game, hoping it will branch off into a massive multi-game epic?
And how many times did such lofty plans ever succeed?
Advent Rising was planned to be the first of an epic trilogy, featuring a story written by Orson Scott Card, a fully orchestral soundtrack, and even a promotional sweepstakes promising a million-dollar prize. Suffice to say, the series began and ended with one mediocre game and the million dollars was replaced with a couple of free games given to the winner instead.
20 Good: Fable II (Xbox 360)
The legacy left by Peter Molyneux will undoubtedly focus more on his empty promises rather than his grand ambitions. While many of his projects failed to deliver even half of his conceptual ideas, Fable II is still regarded as a worthy experience worth checking out.
The Fable series would only go down from there, with their last project canceled and no apparent plans to resurrect the brand, leaving this game the one shining gold nugget under a mountain of over-hyped rubble.
19 Bad: Guilty Gear 2 Overture (Xbox 360)
Guilty Gear 2 Overture is yet another example of a Japanese studio needlessly messing with an established formula, though, in the case of this unfortunate sequel, it was the actual gameplay that was altered rather than the art style.
Turning a gorgeously animated 2D fighter into a sinfully ugly 3D action/strategy hybrid did not sit well with fans. Even though the series eventually went back on track, the stench of Overture remained, as the sequels would heavily reference the events of that game in the ongoing story (which to this day was never ported or re-released, besides on PC).
18 Good: Alan Wake (Xbox 360)
Remedy’s love letter to Stephen King and David Lynch still holds up as one of the most unique horror games in recent years, where the strongest weapon against the supernatural shadow forces is a flashlight and other light sources.
The game also had a unique narrative that treated every mission like a TV episode, complete with cliffhangers and unique end credits.
It’s a shame that years of attempts to make a sequel have yet to yield any results, no matter how eager the studio is to continue the story.
17 Bad: Kabuki Warriors (Xbox)
In what would be the first of an unfortunate number of poorly-conceived fighting games created as an Xbox exclusive, Kabuki Warriors was an utter embarrassment compared to established fighting game hits like Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat.
The game was so bad that reviewers at the time were particularly savage, including Edge Magazine giving it a 1 out of 10 score, the first instance ever in the publication’s history. The game earned the distinction as one of the worst video games of all time, though in all honesty, you’re not likely to find anyone who even remembers this unremarkable embarrassment.
16 Good: Crackdown (Xbox 360)
Crackdown was truly an idea ahead of its time, taking the typical open world mission structure still prevalent today while imbuing players with super-powered abilities and movements.
Similar to The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Crackdown’s playable Agents possessed heightened jumping ability and car-lifting strength, in addition to a bevy of firearms that would make normal criminals cower in fear. The second game proved to be a big disappointment, but the long-delayed Crackdown 3 will hopefully adhere closer to the original’s satisfying superhero antics.
15 Bad: Dino Crisis 3 (Xbox)
During this period in videogame history, Capcom had this bizarre idea about releasing sequels of many of their established IPs as exclusives to a specific console. Nintendo’s GameCube system played host to several Resident Evil games, including the highly acclaimed Resident Evil 4.
Sales-wise, this was a huge blunder by Capcom that they later corrected by porting the games elsewhere.
Dino Crisis 3 was another exclusive, this time for the Xbox, but even hardcore Dino Crisis fans weren’t missing this one. Dinosaurs in Space is an obviously cool concept, but the mediocrity of the final product squandered that concept and left the series dormant to this very day.
14 Good: ‘Splosion Man (Xbox 360)
If there’s one thing that Microsoft can take credit for discovering first, it’s the power of Indie games. The Summer of Xbox was an annual event in which the 360 would host a series of downloadable titles that received numerous praises and helped kickstart many independent careers.
‘Splosion Man was one such game, featuring a hilarious theme about a self-exploding man who could use his ability to solve puzzles and take out foes in a quirky 2D platformer. The follow-up title, Ms. Splosion Man, wasn’t quite as well received, nor was the quirky-yet-clumsily played Comic Jumper.
13 Bad: Drake Of The 99 Dragons (Xbox)
While Kabuki Warriors was a bad game that faded into obscurity, Drake of the 99 Dragons is a title so recognizably awful that several YouTubers (including a recent profanity-laden video by The Angry Video Game Nerd) love to bring it up as a showpiece, much like a circus freak gawked at by a horrified crowd.
A comic book aesthetic gone wrong, gunplay that is ineffectual, and controls so bad that characters can barely stand up straight, Drake of the 99 Dragons is an affront on all fronts.
12 Good: Cuphead (Xbox One)
Cuphead was one of those revolutionary ideas that makes most people smack their heads and ponder why they didn’t think of it first. A 2D Contra-inspired platform shooter that takes the specific art and animation from the classic genre of old-timey cartoons like Popeye and Looney Tunes, Cuphead was an ambitious and frequently delayed project, but the final results had paid off as one of the most critically acclaimed exclusives in Xbox history.
An upcoming expansion DLC that introduces a third (and female!) playable character is looking to deliver the same gorgeous animation and frustrating (in a good way) gameplay.
11 Bad: Azurik: Rise Of Perathia (Xbox)
Sometimes, it’s easy to tell what kind of game you are in for just by reading the title. One could guess that Azurik: Rise of Perathia was some kind of ugly-looking fantasy game featuring bow staffs and sashes, and they would be right on the money.
Perhaps if the game’s titular blue-skinned pointy-eared protagonist had come out during the craze of Avatar (the James Cameron movie, not the cartoon), it would have fooled some people into spending their money. Otherwise, this is yet another obscure, odd-looking and oddly named bomb.
