The Best Original Xbox Game From Every Year The Console Was Alive

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 13, 2024 22 Views 9 Min Read
The Best Original Xbox Game From Every Year The Console Was Alive

Looking back, the original Xbox had the lowest quantity of exclusive titles out of the three big consoles in the sixth generation. There’s nothing wrong with that because quality over quantity matters a lot with the original Xbox.

Featured split image containing screenshots of Psychonauts, Halo 2, and Half-Life 2.

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Although it may not have sold as well as some other consoles, the original Xbox still had an excellent game library.

Many of its exclusives were genre-defining titles in this era, plus certain games that were ported to other systems, like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, were massively inferior on PlayStation 2 and GameCube. Plus, the original Xbox was when consoles started to become more in line with PCs with an internal hard drive and many PC exclusives coming over to the system.

5

2001: Halo: Combat Evolved

The Biggest Shooter In The World At The Time And It Wasn’t On PC

Many people forget now, but the FPS genre was always associated with PC gaming throughout the 90s. It’s where the genre was born and raised, and to the hardcore gaming community, you just weren’t playing an FPS if it wasn’t on PC with a mouse and keyboard. Halo: Combat Evolved changed that and revolutionized the entire industry going forward.

Sure, the campaign and multiplayer were incredible, but the innovations and impact this game made are the reason it’s in the World Video Game Hall of Fame. While the dual stick FPS controller setup was used prior in games like Alien: Resurrection, Halo CE was the first to perfect it and make it feel smooth as butter.

The Xbox controller was so viable it’s no wonder there were professional tournaments in this game. If you went back in time just two years earlier and talked to a pro Quake 3 player, they would never imagine an FPS game having such a high-profile competitive scene on consoles using controllers. That’s how massive of a revolution Halo was.

A Huge Change To The PC And Console Business

There’s a reason why the 90s and early 2000s are generally considered the golden age of PC gaming: most of the biggest games that were coming out and changing this industry were PC exclusive. Porting a PC game to consoles wasn’t a big priority until the success of the Xbox port of Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind.

With the power of the original Xbox, PC developers could realistically port their game to the system, an option that was usually impossible for PS2 and GameCube. Morrowind ended up being critically acclaimed, winning tons of Game of the Year awards, and is still regarded as one of the best RPGs ever made.

What matters here is the sales because the Xbox port ended up being the second best-selling Xbox game at the time, only behind Halo, of course. From this point on, most big PC titles ended up releasing on consoles. Without the success of Morrowind Xbox’s port, incredible games like Thief: Deadly Shadows wouldn’t have been released on Xbox at all.

3

2003: Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic

BioWare’s Breakout Hit

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is still to this day considered one of the greatest Star Wars games and best RPGs in general. While BioWare made the first two Baldur’s Gate titles, with the massive Star Wars IP and the game being on Xbox, Knights of the Old Republic was BioWare’s first big breakout hit, and established themselves as one of the best RPG developers in the world.

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The game can be seen as a little dated today, but the writing, characters, and story still hold up gracefully. It introduced the Old Republic era of Star Wars to many in the fandom, showcasing an awesome new side to the Star Wars world that has continued to be popular within the community.

Kotor also introduced Bastila Shan, one of the most fan-favorite female characters in the Star Wars universe. Out of the three big sixth-gen systems, Star Wars games were best on Xbox, and Kotor is the perfect example.

2

2004: Halo 2

The Perfect Sequel

2004 has to be one of the greatest years in gaming history, with many of the era’s best titles coming out, like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, World of Warcraft, and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. The best Xbox Game of the Year had to be Halo 2, a sequel that exceeded all expectations. Developed under heavy crunch time, Bungie delivered a risky yet beautifully executed sequel that made everyone happy.

The decision not to have Master Chief as the main character could have been disastrous, as seen in the reception to Halo 5. Halo 2, on the other hand, had an incredible lead character in the Arbiter, exploring a new side to the Halo universe that the writers just couldn’t explore with Master Chief.

The overall campaign was bigger and better, adding much more variety in the level design than what you had in Halo 1. The best part of Halo 2 was the online multiplayer, an incredibly fun and ahead-of-the-time experience, changing online console gaming as you know it.

1

2005: Ninja Gaiden Black

A Top Three Action Game

2005 has two real contenders for Xbox’s Game of the Year, and it can go either way. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is one of the best stealth games ever made, while Ninja Gaiden Black is one of the best action games ever made. Action games are more fun, so NGB will get the nod here. NGB has so many things going for it, but two main aspects make this an all-time great.

For one, the combat. The enemies you encounter feel incredibly dynamic, akin to a human player, forcing you to react on the fly. Enemies and bosses actually have a level of defense, so certain moves like Flying Swallow will be blocked a percentage of the time. This makes the combat so much more unique and interesting to play.

The other factor is the difficulty because NGB might be the best example of how to do multiple difficulties right. The higher difficulty modes are completely different, with enemy behavior that’ll eliminate most of the easy strategies you likely used prior.

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