The Top 20 Games That Defined the Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 turns 20 years aged today, and truthful what amended clip to look backmost astatine the games that astir defined the console. The 360 was not lone the astir palmy instrumentality Microsoft has ever made, but arguably the astir beloved too. And for large reason: the 2nd Xbox mixed almighty hardware with innovative, boundary-pushing, and risk-taking bundle to powerfulness a memorable procreation that lasted 8 years – longer than immoderate different Xbox truthful far.

I had a front-row spot to the Xbox 360 epoch from commencement to decorativeness during my clip astatine Official Xbox Magazine and past IGN, truthful present are my picks for the apical 20 games that defined the Xbox 360.

20. 1 vs. 100

Released: 2009

One of Microsoft’s boldest experiments successful the Xbox 360 epoch was 1 vs. 100, a unrecorded crippled amusement wherever astir players would beryllium randomly selected to play on successful The Crowd, portion a fortunate 100 would beryllium chosen to beryllium successful The Mob and a azygous idiosyncratic would beryllium chosen arsenic The One.

You had to log connected astatine circumstantial times to play 1 vs. 100; it wasn’t disposable to you anytime you wanted to occurrence it up. Microsoft ran it with a unrecorded big from a workplace successful Seattle. But erstwhile you joined successful for what was virtually assignment gaming, you were rewarded with, successful immoderate cases, real-life prizes specified arsenic Microsoft Points – up to 10,000 for The One if they won, which is the equivalent of $125 – oregon escaped Xbox Live Arcade games.

It was a genuinely unsocial societal gaming acquisition emblematic of the originative risks and online bets Microsoft was taking and making successful the Xbox 360 days, and though I was ne'er selected to beryllium The One, I was successful the 100 erstwhile and won 80 Microsoft Points (aka $1). I cognize that mightiness not dependable similar it was each that worthwhile, but I committedness you it was arsenic engaging and memorable arsenic it was short-lived. My proudest Xbox Achievements are having each 12 of the imaginable 12 from 1 vs. 100, due to the fact that the crippled is gone and, sadly, ne'er coming back.

19. Viva Piñata

Released: 2006

Long earlier Microsoft paid $69 cardinal for Activision-Blizzard, it shocked the satellite by purchasing a controlling involvement successful Nintendo second-party powerhouse Rare successful 2002 for $375 cardinal – the equivalent of implicit $600 cardinal today. Viva Piñata wasn’t the archetypal crippled the workplace made for Microsoft – the fine-but-forgettable Grabbed by the Ghoulies came archetypal successful 2003 earlier Rare dropped 2 coagulated motorboat titles for the Xbox 360 successful 2005: Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero. But its archetypal bona fide deed for Xbox was 2006’s Viva Piñata, a beingness sim successful which you grew and maintained your plot afloat of adorable piñata-fied animals. It spawned a sequel, a Nintendo DS handheld version, and a short-lived animated series. In hindsight, it was up of its time; it would look to person large imaginable to thrive present successful a satellite wherever Animal Crossing is simply a monolithic deed for Nintendo. But adjacent backmost successful the 360 days, it was Rare’s archetypal defining infinitesimal for its caller platform.

18. Lost Odyssey

Released: 2007

No Xbox has ever successfully gained a existent foothold successful the Japanese gaming market, but you can’t accidental that Microsoft ne'er tried. Arguably the company’s biggest propulsion came successful the Xbox 360 era, erstwhile 1 of the biggest overtures made to Japanese audiences by the American behemoth came erstwhile it partnered with legendary Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi to assistance money his caller studio, Mistwalker. The 2 JRPGs Mistwalker created for Microsoft unrecorded connected successful Xbox lore: Blue Dragon, a cartoony escapade with creation by different legend, Akira Toriyama, came first, arriving successful Japan successful 2006 and successful the Xbox’s location marketplace successful the US successful 2007. But it’s the 2nd crippled – the darker, much serious, Unreal Engine-powered, four-DVD epic called Lost Odyssey, that showed the remainder of the manufacture that the Xbox could spell toe-to-toe with Sony and Nintendo successful the JRPG section and wasn’t conscionable a Western RPG powerhouse. No 1 questioned Xbox’s RPG credentials aft that.

17. Dead Rising

Released: 2006

By default, each crippled released for the Xbox 360 during its archetypal fewer months that wasn’t besides disposable connected the archetypal Xbox – and determination weren’t astir arsenic galore cross-gen games backmost past arsenic determination are present – was an Xbox 360 exclusive, since the PlayStation 3 didn’t merchandise until precocious 2006. Among those exclusives was 1 of the astir memorable zombie games of each time.

Capcom’s Dead Rising, which was produced by Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune, was thing we genuinely hadn’t seen before: a triple-A crippled acceptable wrong a gigantic promenade with virtually hundreds of characters connected the surface astatine immoderate fixed time. And those characters, of course, were zombies. So, truthful galore zombies. (Side note: 1 of the Xbox 360’s astir celebrated Achievements – remember, the console invented those excessively – was the Zombie Genocider Achievement that required you to termination the fig of zombies equivalent to the colonisation of Willamette: 53,594).

Dead Rising was uniquely told connected a timer – you had 3 in-game days to implicit the communicative and, hopefully, flight the Willamette Mall. This resulted successful galore imaginable endings and, thus, ample crushed to replay the campaign. Just arsenic memorable was that arsenic photojournalist Frank West, you could crook conscionable astir thing successful the promenade into a weapon. But you besides earned Prestige Points by taking cleanable pictures of the insanity astir you – which you’d accumulate to level up and person a amended accidental of survival.

Dead Rising was not lone 1 of the defining games of Xbox 360’s archetypal year, but it showed america that the “HD Era” was genuinely susceptible of giving america gaming experiences that we’d ne'er had before.

16. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

Released: 2005

Xbox Live Arcade – the superb indie-turned-small-scale-and-indie crippled publishing programme that offered a curated enactment of bite-sized games connected a play ground (who remembers Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays?) – did arsenic overmuch to specify the Xbox 360 arsenic immoderate triple-A crippled did. The most-downloaded Xbox Live Arcade crippled ever was Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, Bizarre Creations’ unlockable Project Gotham Racing 2 minigame that recovered a 2nd beingness arsenic a day-one debut download connected the then-brand-new XBLA platform. Geometry Wars’s premise was deceptively simple: past arsenic agelong arsenic you tin portion blasting larger and larger waves of encroaching enemies. For a batch of gamers, erstwhile they deliberation of Xbox Live Arcade, the archetypal happening they deliberation of is Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved.

15. Ninja Gaiden 2

Released: 2008

PlayStation whitethorn person had God of War, but Xbox had Ninja Gaiden. The archetypal successful Ryu Hayabusa’s modern revival helped legitimize the Xbox arsenic a viable level for Japanese-developed games, and the Xbox 360-exclusive sequel upped the ante for the much almighty caller console. It brought much weapons, much bosses, and much resolution, present that Ninja Gaiden was successful HD (fun fact, though: the archetypal crippled natively supported widescreen mode backmost successful 2005!). Oh, and it besides served up a full heck of a batch much humor acknowledgment to the caller dismemberment system.

Ninja Gaiden 2’s enactment was acold much convulsive acknowledgment to your caller quality to portion disconnected the arms, legs, and heads from your foes. It lone augmented an perfectly sublime fast-action combat system, adjacent if having each those further pixels couldn’t rather hole the troublesome camera. Sadly, this would beryllium to beryllium bid mastermind Tomonobu Itagaki’s last publication to the franchise, but astatine the time, it asserted the Xbox 360 arsenic the spot to spell for the champion of immoderate genre.

14. Braid

Released: 2008

Odds are, if I accidental the words “Summer of Arcade,” it brings up affirmative memories for you. The yearly promotion was a genius spot of Microsoft selling that sought – successfully, I mightiness adhd – to capable successful the quiescent summertime months that tended to beryllium devoid of large crippled releases with 4-5 weeks of curated dense hitters successful the indie and bite-sized crippled space. The precise archetypal 1 took spot successful 2008, and lad did it ever acceptable the tone! Galaga Legions, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Castle Crashers, and a platformer called Braid from a then-unknown developer named Jonathan Blow. Though smaller successful scope than a accepted big-budget game, Braid had each spot the looks and the brains of 1 acknowledgment to its chiseled painterly artstyle and challenging time-manipulation-based puzzles. If everyone wasn’t paying attraction to Xbox Live Arcade earlier Braid, they definite arsenic heck were after.

13. Crackdown

Released: 2007

It is simply a double-edged sword that the archetypal Crackdown volition possibly everlastingly beryllium thought of archetypal and foremost arsenic The Game That Came With the Halo 3 Beta. But anyone who bought Crackdown conscionable to get a ace astatine playing Halo 3’s multiplayer for the archetypal clip rapidly learned that the candy wrapper tasted conscionable arsenic bully arsenic the candy barroom inside. Crackdown – the brainchild of archetypal Grand Theft Auto creator David Jones – acceptable players escaped wrong a comic-book-esque satellite arsenic a would-be superhero with nary rigid structure. Instead, you had full state to spell anyplace and effort thing successful its Pacific City sandbox. That meant that, yes, you could marque a beeline consecutive for the apical kingpin of 1 of Crackdown’s gangs. You astir apt wouldn’t beryllium almighty capable to instrumentality them down astatine that point, though – you got virtually stronger successful Crackdown by defeating enemies and picking up acquisition orbs of antithetic flavors depending connected however you took them down, specified arsenic with melee combat, successful a vehicle, oregon with a gun. Eventually, you’d beryllium capable to leap gangly buildings successful a azygous bound, assistance cars implicit your caput and propulsion them, and more. In a clip erstwhile determination weren’t a batch of bully sandbox games not named Grand Theft Auto, Crackdown brought thing caller and amusive to the table.

12. Forza Motorsport 3

Released: 2009

Why Forza Motorsport 3 alternatively than Forza Motorsport 2, which was the archetypal introduction connected the Xbox 360? Easy: due to the fact that FM3 is wherever Forza passed Gran Turismo arsenic the champion simulation racing bid successful the world. Visually, the bid ever acceptable the barroom high, and its 2nd thigh connected the 360 kept the pedal to the metallic successful that department. And the car database was ne'er successful question. But what Forza Motorsport 3 added was the Rewind mechanic that allowed you to property Y to reverse the enactment a fewer seconds if you crashed oregon took a crook excessively fast. You could crook it off, of people – Forza Motorsport was ever thing if not customizable – but it added a heavy furniture of accessibility and approachability to what had ever been a beauteous buttoned-up, superior racing sim. The Rewind diagnostic lone added to what I ever called the “soul” of Forza – my vague but I deliberation close mode of describing the joyousness and tone that Forza Motorsport ever brought to players, whereas Gran Turismo, for each its simulation racing brilliance, ever felt more…clinical. Forza Motorsport 3 was Turn 10’s turning constituent wherever the workplace passed the contention and ne'er looked back.

11. Left 4 Dead

Released: 2008

Valve and spouse Turtle Rock Studios (who Valve acquired mid-development) practically started the four-player PvE inclination successful shooters with Left 4 Dead, a brilliant, sometimes scary, and ever replayable co-op shooter that had you proceeding done respective five-level-long campaigns, surviving waves of zombie attacks thrown astatine you by the AI “Director” portion you clamored for each map’s constricted resources, seeking the structure of the harmless country astatine the extremity of each chapter. Its mechanics were elemental but fun, and acknowledgment to the Director’s always-changing placement of communal and peculiar enemies alike, it ne'er rather played the aforesaid mode twice. Plus, moving an full run lone took 60-90 minutes to complete, truthful you and your friends could leap connected Xbox Live, person amusive together, and consciousness similar you accomplished thing by the clip you signed disconnected for the evening. It’s astir quaint to deliberation astir present successful our existent property of long-tail live-service games that effort to support you connected a hamster wheel, grinding to the adjacent unlockable oregon portion of content. But Left 4 Dead some respected your clip and made large usage of it. Many games person since imitated it, but nary person ever topped it.

10. Limbo

Released: 2010

Though Limbo didn’t travel on until implicit halfway done the Xbox 360 generation, it is nevertheless the standard-bearer for what Xbox Live Arcade was susceptible of. Developer Playdead’s side-scrolling physics-based platformer told the harrowing communicative of a lad who…well, nary one’s rather sure, truly – determination are galore intriguing theories arsenic to what the existent communicative of Limbo is! But what’s not up for statement is that Limbo is astir arsenic adjacent to cleanable arsenic a video crippled tin get successful presumption of mechanics, art, animation, audio design, and polish. (Playdead’s adjacent game, 2016’s Inside for Xbox One, would beryllium to someway beryllium adjacent amended than Limbo, but that’s a communicative for different day.) It was the cleanable rebuttal to movie professional Roger Ebert’s assertion from 3 months earlier Limbo released that video games weren’t and could ne'er beryllium art. Limbo defined Xbox Live Arcade, cementing Microsoft’s already established small-games level arsenic 1 of the precise champion things astir the Xbox 360.

9. Rock Band

Released: 2007

If you were a gamer successful the precocious 2000’s, likelihood are you were either an progressive subordinate successful the plastic-instrument rhythm-game craze that Guitar Hero started, oregon you knew idiosyncratic who was. Developer Harmonix Music Systems built Guitar Hero but past sold it to Activision. That’s erstwhile the developer precocious the exploding genre guardant with Rock Band, a four-player co-op crippled whose multiplayer acquisition is genuinely dissimilar thing other you’ve ever played. A singer, guitarist, bass player, and drummer worked unneurotic to deed the close notes arsenic they came down the enactment highway, genuinely and emphatically delivering a convincing replica of the feeling real-life musicians person erstwhile they play together. Rock Band was genuinely remarkable, not conscionable for its halfway gameplay and multiplayer alchemy, but besides for its committedness to music. Harmonix added to the game’s euphony room with caller songs via DLC every azygous week for eight years, yet adding afloat albums similar Pearl Jam’s Ten, Nirvana’s Nevermind, Rush’s Moving Pictures, Foo Fighters’ The Colour and the Shape, and more. Rock Band whitethorn not person been exclusive to the Xbox 360, but it was nevertheless a defining crippled for the console, lasting retired amongst the adjacent heavier hitters coming up higher connected this database that arrived astatine the aforesaid time.

8. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

Released: 2006

Around 30-60 minutes into the first-person RPG The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, erstwhile you archetypal emerged from the dungeon and into the unfastened satellite for the archetypal time, you spun your quality astir and your jaw dropped. A genuinely next-gen, high-definition satellite was each astir you, and successful it you could spell anyplace and, seemingly, bash anything. That Oblivion dropped truthful soon aft the Xbox 360 launched – conscionable 4 months into the caller Xbox’s lifecycle, and portion PlayStation gamers were inactive stuck connected the PS2 that wasn’t susceptible of thing that looked remotely similar it – lone made Bethesda’s archetypal console-on-day-one role-playing crippled that overmuch much incredible. While the Xbox 360 had a precise bully motorboat lineup, thing astatine the clip (or truly successful hindsight) made you person to bargain the console immediately. Oblivion changed that. You had to get a 360. You had to spot this. And the gameplay lived up to the graphics. Oblivion packed dozens of hours of open-world medieval-fantasy role-playing, spanning galore memorable quests and locations. It was a generation-defining moment.

7. BioShock

Released: 2007

Before BioShock, stories were mostly secondary successful first-person shooters. Sure, determination was Halo, but that was the (wonderful) objection to the rule. BioShock – the brainchild of Ken Levine, creator of the emergent-gameplay classical System Shock 2 – had the extent of a large book, the crippled twist of a memorable movie, and the gameplay to lucifer the precise champion of immoderate enactment crippled connected the market. It was acceptable successful a failed undersea utopia – the metropolis of Rapture – wherever visionary Andrew Ryan’s imagination turned into a nightmare. As players discovered Rapture, they recovered it overrun with creepy monsters arsenic good arsenic funny Little Sisters and their drill-armed, divesuit-wearing protectors, the Big Daddies. It’s not hyperbole to accidental that BioShock elevated video crippled storytelling, and the information that it was initially released arsenic an Xbox 360 exclusive lone helped further specify the 2nd Xbox arsenic a must-have amusement transportation container for your surviving room.

6. Fable 2

Released: 2008

While it wouldn’t beryllium just to accidental that Fable 2 was the Xbox 360’s Zelda, it was a large-scale action-adventure RPG with charm for days and a unsocial effect strategy that would alteration your character’s carnal quality based connected however bully – oregon evil – you chose to be. Fable 2, for the astir part, delivered connected the remaining promises made by renowned decorator Peter Molyneux’s archetypal effort connected the archetypal Xbox. No, you couldn’t works a effect and ticker it turn into a tree, but you could rotation the satellite of Albion with your trusty canine astatine your side, battling Hobbes, leveling up by really doing jobs, and gathering relationships – yes, adjacent romanticist ones – with townsfolk. Player prime was astatine the bosom of Fable 2, making it yet different fantastic and unforgettable role-playing crippled for an Xbox level that, until the 360 came astir (see what I did there?), was known chiefly arsenic a first-person shooter box. There had ne'er been and inactive hasn’t been thing rather similar Fable, and the bid was astatine its champion with Fable 2, its archetypal Xbox 360 entry.

5. Grand Theft Auto 4

Released: 2008

To accidental that the buildup to Grand Theft Auto 4’s merchandise was a large f’n woody would beryllium a colossal understatement. The biggest franchise connected Earth was going next-gen, with a brand-new crippled motor and the powerfulness of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to let for much open-world possibilities than ever before. And portion the erstwhile 3D games had each debuted arsenic PlayStation exclusives, GTA 4 would vessel day-and-date connected Xbox 360. But Microsoft wanted much than that. So they paid done the chemoreceptor for timed exclusivity connected some of GTA 4’s superb enlargement packs: The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony. Then-Xbox brag Peter Moore adjacent announced this monumental get by repeating his Halo 2 merchandise day trick, rolling up his sleeve to uncover a “tattoo” of the Grand Theft Auto 4 logo. Suddenly, the Xbox 360 was the champion spot to play the archetypal next-gen GTA game, and some expansions were truthful bully that I can’t ideate anyone – beryllium it Microsoft penning the cheque oregon players picking up the 360 mentation of the crippled – regretted their choice.

4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Released: 2007

Shout-out to Call of Duty 2, which was a day-one motorboat rubric for the Xbox 360 and genuinely started Call of Duty’s ascent to becoming the biggest non-Grand Theft Auto video crippled franchise successful the world, but Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the 1 that truly sent the bid into the stratosphere. It astir seems silly to accidental now, but earlier Modern Warfare, Call of Duty had lone ever been a first-person shooter acceptable successful World War II. Infinity Ward not lone jumped the timeline forward, but everything else, too. The stellar single-player run was afloat of shocking moments, portion the multiplayer built connected apical of the accelerated time-to-kill the franchise was already known for and paired with immoderate genuinely memorable maps to marque it a must-play. That this deed conscionable aft the juggernaut known arsenic Halo 3 – combined with the effortlessness of connecting with your friends connected Xbox Live – cemented the Xbox 360 arsenic the spot to play multiplayer shooters.

3. Mass Effect

Released: 2007

Mass Effect promised players a existent abstraction opera – a trilogy of games wherever your choices would impact your relationships with different characters and pb to your ain unsocial outcomes and endings. Your quality would import into the consequent games successful the promised trilogy, and successful the extremity it would beryllium dissimilar immoderate role-playing crippled you’d ever laid your hands on. And the archetypal Mass Effect – an perfectly visually stunning Unreal Engine-powered epic from the RPG kings astatine BioWare – delivered connected its extremity of the bargain. The Mass Effect beingness felt lived-in, with myriad alien taxon each interacting with each different astatine the Citadel, a galactic hub astatine the virtual halfway of the universe. You played arsenic a antheral oregon pistillate Commander Shepard, a quality who becomes the archetypal of their taxon to beryllium welcomed into the ranks of the Spectres, a radical of abstraction sheriffs fixed unthinkable powerfulness and leeway to support the galaxy. No 1 had ever seen thing similar Mass Effect before, and the information that it came from the aforesaid improvement squad that gave america the original-Xbox-exclusive Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, meant that Xbox genuinely had immoderate of the world’s astir talented RPG developers connected its side.

2. Gears of War

Released: 2006

You cognize a crippled is simply a large woody erstwhile its developers tin inquire Microsoft to treble the magnitude of RAM successful the Xbox 360 earlier the console makes it to marketplace – and Microsoft says yes. Gears of War was possibly the best-looking enactment crippled anyone had ever seen erstwhile it was released conscionable 11 months into the Xbox 360’s lifespan, but it had incredibly weighty third-person cover-based gameplay to lucifer its stunning looks. Gears of War dropped america onto the satellite Sera, into the mediate of a warfare betwixt humans and the Locust, an underground-dwelling alien contention hellbent connected obliterating humanity. Gears of War is simply a warfare story, and portion its Active Reload system, delightfully vicious chainsaw finishing moves with the Lancer rifle, and engrossing team-based multiplayer were each top-shelf, it’s arguably its empathetic characters that secured its spot successful gamers’ hearts. Marcus, Dom, Baird, and Cole – Delta Squad – truly felt similar brothers, and we became emotionally invested successful their wartime journey. It’s nary wonderment Microsoft aboriginal bought the franchise for $2 billion.

1. Halo 3

Released: 2007

The Xbox 360 whitethorn not person had a caller Halo crippled connected time one, but arsenic the remainder of this database has shown, it didn’t request it. Still, erstwhile the time yet came successful September of 2007 for the hugely anticipated Halo 3 to driblet – astir 2 years into the caller Xbox’s beingness – it couldn’t person been a bigger deal. The archetypal Xbox’s Halo 2 had infamously ended connected a cliffhanger, and Halo 3 was built to resoluteness it – throwing plentifulness much hardware horsepower astatine Master Chief successful the process. Story-wise it stuck the landing this time, giving players a satisfying decision that closed the publication connected Bungie’s trilogy, but not earlier Chief told us, “Wake me, erstwhile you request me.”

Meanwhile, multiplayer picked up wherever Halo 2 near off, augmenting the champion online multiplayer infrastructure with Forge, a caller level-editing instrumentality that fto players physique their ain maps. In hindsight, this is wherever Halo peaked successful presumption of success, popularity, taste relevance and impact, arsenic Call of Duty took its spot astatine the apical of the first-person shooter ladder aft the merchandise of the aforementioned Call of Duty 4. But we finished the fight, and the Xbox 360 eliminated immoderate remaining uncertainty arsenic to its dominance successful the games industry.

Those are our picks for the 20 games that defined the Xbox 360. Are determination immoderate you’d similar to add? Leave them successful the comments below, and to the top Xbox console of them all, fto maine say, blessed 20th day and convey you for the countless astonishing memories.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's enforcement exertion of previews and big of some IGN's play Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, arsenic good arsenic our monthly(-ish) interrogation show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, truthful it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him connected Twitter astatine @DMC_Ryan.