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Games World
Today marks the 10-year anniversary of Microsoft’s original Xbox. To celebrate, we’re bringing back our countdown of the greatest games to ever appear on the console, originally posted in March 2007 – just as the industry was saying a final farewell to the big bulky black box.
Looking through the list, which of these experiences do you remember most fondly, and which had the biggest impact on you as a gamer? How many of our choices do you agree with, and how many of your favorites did we miss? Keep the discussion – and the tribute – going in our comments. Or, for more on Xbox’s anniversary, see our six reasons why it’s the best system of all time.
25. Dead or Alive
Team Ninja | Tecmo | 2001
Buxom beauties (and, we're pretty sure, some male characters too) meet to fight in cosplay heaven in this sassy one-on-one beat 'em-up.
What made it the best?
Didn't you hear us? Girls fighting one-on-one? Dubious teenage fantasy scenario aside, this game was a furious and explosive take on a previously staid genre. With electrified fences around some stages, massive windows to smash your opponent through and multi-tiered fighting arenas, this made all the other fighting games in your collection look dull - and that's why it sent shockwaves that we still feel today.
Xbox's graphical abilities were demonstrated admirably (to the point where Dead or Alive 4 on Xbox 360 doesn't look that much better) and being able to smash your opponent into stalagmites of ice is as cool as... well, ice. Bold, brash and appealing to even the lowest of the lowest common denominators, almost everyone could appreciate something here. Every other fighting game wishes it had more of Dead or Alive 3’s intensity.
24. Doom
id Software | Activision | 2005
The famous shooter franchise returned to relevancy with a dark and jumpy sequel that fit perfectly on consoles.
What made it the best?
Videogames don't often legitimately scare the crap out of us. The survival horror genre loves to build up a vague sense of despair and foreboding, but it's rare when something actually makes your heart leap right up your throat.
Doom 3 was one of the exceptions – carefully calculated to give you seizures, not goose bumps. Monsters don’t creep teasingly on the corners of the screen. They shove their hellishly mutated faces into yours at every possible opportunity and from every possible direction. Was it subtle? No. Was it eventually predictable? Yes. But like a great haunted house, the constant adrenaline rush was enough to keep you going.
Plus, the Xbox version wasn't a mindless port from the PC. A year before the first Gears of War made co-op a near necessity for shooters, Doom 3 added a mode that enabled you to play through modified single player levels with friends.
23. Full Spectrum Warrior
Pandemic | THQ | 2004
A realistic Army simulation, adapted from a program actually used by the US military for training purposes. Uniquely, control was command-based, rather than concentrating on one soldier.
What made it the best?
Full Spectrum Warrior thrived on realism, with gritty, life-or-death gameplay that was highly compelling at the time. You were given two teams of four men to play with, allowing you to strategically plan your approach to each mission. The characters all had names and personalities as well, forcing you to care whether or not they survived a mission. If one fell in battle, he could be carried back to a medic at a set place on the map, adding even more urgency to the proceedings.
Full Spectrum Warrior’s control method has since been incorporated into many standard first-person shooters in which team AI is used, proves what a design leap it really was. Rainbow Six Vegas and Ghost Recon on Xbox 360 and PS3 probably wouldn't have been quite the same if it wasn't for this game.
22. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
Ubisoft Montreal | Ubisoft | 2004
Command an elite squad to rescue hostages and take out terrorists. Typical Clancy fare to be sure, but it was never as fast or exciting as it was here.
What made it the best?
The Xbox played host to over a dozen Tom Clancy games (seriously, go back and count), so why single out Rainbow Six 3? Because, more than any other, it hit that perfect balance between arcadey console action and deliberative PC strategy. Unlike Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell, the action was quick, constant and explosive. While thinking was still very necessary, you're forced to do it in the midst of gunfire... not in the shadows or on tactical maps. But hey, if you do enjoy picking out individual gear and bullets before each level, that’s included too.
Rainbow Six 3 also did an impressive job of emulating multiplayer, a franchise strong point, for folks who didn’t have Xbox Live. The single player campaign's four squad mates not only behaved realistically, they responded to your commands through the headset rather than the TV's speakers.
21. Spider-Man 2
Treyarch | Activision | 2004
A fully-featured Spider-Man simulation that gave players a full-sized mockup of Manhattan to swing around in freely.
What made it the best?
Everyone secretly wants to be Spider-Man, but no game really came close to fulfilling those dreams until Spider-Man 2 came along. Although it's a (really loose) movie adaptation, it was the first game to throw a superhero into a big, open world and just let players mess around with his powers. And until Batman: Arkham Asylum arrived in 2009, it was arguably the best.
That's mostly thanks to developer Treyarch absolutely nailing the feeling of web-swinging, enabling you to latch onto absolutely any surface for free-form Tarzan antics. There's a careful rhythm to doing it right, but once you got the hang of it, you could rocket across Manhattan's skyline with the speed and grace of an Olympic gymnast. The whole experience was a seamless, unbridled rush, coupled with plenty of randomly fun side quests, from pursuing non-movie plotlines to chasing down some kid's lost balloons.
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