…and then I slept atop my nest of original Xbox games and felt the spirit of J Allard enter me.
Guys, in the early aughts, I was an Xbox fanboy with a lot of disposable income. The console only existed on this earth for four years, but I ended up collecting about twice as many games on it as I did on my Xbox 360 in half the time. Tha’ts not to say they were all winners by any means, but it was a physically imposing collection of games that I had to manage and ultimately traded out for cash. Never again will I grow a collection that large, at least in a physical format, so let’s see what the haul was like.
1. Halo: Combat Evolved
Because, obviously.
2. Project Gotham Racing
Watching a video of someone racing in Times Square at night in the rain sold me on getting an Xbox.
3. Air Force Delta Storm
I wanted a flying game, had no idea it would get so weird.
4. Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding
A “hardcore” snowboarding game compared to SSX, but well worth the dificulty.
5. Azurik: Rise of Perathia
A large, beautiful game that I got lost in far too much (in a bad way).
6. Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee
My first Oddworld game, beat it and never played it again.
7. The Simpson’s Road Rage
Not a great Simpsons or Crazy Taxi game, but it was all we had.
8. Fuzion Frenzy
Sumo!
9. Blood Wake
Great water technology, not much of a game.
10. NFL Fever 2002
I bought and enjoyed this game unironically. Also: Hail Marys always worked. Always. 128-7 games, forever.
11. Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions
This game was so pretty and played so terribly (platforming with cars, huh?), but it’s kinda what I wanted GTA games to look like. Yeah, even with all the filters.
12. Max Payne
One of my favorite games and the best of the trilogy. Beat it repeatedly.
13. Jet Set Radio Future
Another one of my favorites. Needed better second stick control and more open world components, though.
14. RalliSport Challenge
A fine predecessor to Dirt.
15. GunValkyrie
A cliff-like learning curve and extreme difficulty couldn’t prevent me from enjoying it.
16. Circus Maximus
They don’t make games like this anymore. Rubberbanding facilitated combat, but made any racing advantage feel meaningless.
17. Star Wars: Starfighter – Special Edition
A glitchy, broken shell of what LucasArts achieved with X-Wing and TIE Fighter.
18. Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter
Ditto, but with Jedi.
19. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY edition
I waited so long for this game and picked it up as soon as it was available. Still my favorite TES game.
20. Hunter: The Reckoning
Incredibly fun co-op hampered by aaaaaawful bugs.
21. Gun Metal
Interesting concept, not much to it.
22. Prisoner of War
I would die for another one of these games. What an incredibly innovative and underrated puzzle/stealth game.
23. Dead to Rights
I bought this game just so someone I knew would have an opinion about it. This game required me to invent ways to mash buttons faster.
24. Sega GT 2002
Not a great racing sim by any means, but the first I ever owned.
25. The Thing
I bought it for buying it. I’d never seen the movie and probably played 45 minutes of it total.
26. Quantum Redshift
Gorgeous and fast, I loved this game so much. Doesn’t hold up as well today in the gameplay department, maybe it never did.
27. Blinx: The Time Sweeper
Oh, why did I buy this game? Oh, because it was only capable of existing on Xbox because of the hard drive.
28. Mechassault
My first Xbox Live game. Smashy smashy!
29. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
Really enjoyed this game, but never finished it. Played it again years later and was not nearly as fun. Far too linear.
30. Unreal Championship
Didn’t get into this game until many years after its release.
31. Shenmue II
My roommates got some hours out of it, I did not.
32. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon
Never got the appeal. Missions were seriously five to ten minutes long.
33. Midtown Madness 3
Oh, this game was so much fun. Why can’t Microsoft make fun games like this anymore?
34. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Another crown jewel of the system that didn’t fare as well replaying it years later. Again, incredibly linear.
35. Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter
A space sim that was also a first-person shooter with seamless transitions? Sign me up! Except for the incredible difficult and average gameplay and boring enemies and… it was pretty cool!
36. Tetris Worlds
I wanted Tetris on my Xbox. Sue me.
37. The Simpsons Hit & Run
Much better than Road Rage and now overlooked by history.
38. Star Wars: Clone Wars
Like the movie: average.
39. Crimson Skies
Lots of fun in this game just flying around. Deathmatch in Chicago may have been the most fun multiplayer map ever.
40. Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Rare’s first Xbox game could’ve been really cool, wasn’t.
41. Amped 2
Still my favorite snowboarding game ever.
42. Dance Dance Revolution: Ultramix
It is very hard to play this game on carpet in a small bedroom.
43. Max Payne 2
Technically superior, holistically inferior to the first game.
44. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4
Someone lent this to me and I didn’t understand anything outside of the ‘customize skater’ options.
45. Grand Theft Auto III
A game that took far too long to come to Xbox.
46. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Ditto.
47. Beyond Good & Evil
Lots of people hyped this game, I didn’t see the appeal.
48. Project Gotham Racing 2
Best console game ever made, ironic since I hated it at first.
49. Deus Ex: Invisible War
It was only a fraction of the game Deus Ex was, but we’ve had this discussion before.
50. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3
Played this game non-stop for two weeks, then dropped it cold.
51. Xbox Music Mixer
No idea why I bought this.
52. Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
Another fan favorite that was hyped to high heaven. Again, didn’t see the appeal, was okay. These guys ended up working on StarCraft: Ghost before it was canned.
53. Secret Weapons over Normandy
I don’t even remember buying this game.
54. NFL Fever 2004
I bought this unironically because I enjoyed 2002 so much.
55. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
The game’s multiplayer was a blast until all the hardcore players memorized every facet of all the levels.
56. Ninja Gaiden
Kicked my butt, never made it past Chapter 5.
57. Midway Arcade Treasures
I wanted some old school classics, c’mon now.
58. Pulse Racer
I wanted this critical disaster just for the sake of owning it.
59. Soul Calibur 2
I don’t know why I thought I could get into fighting games, but this wasn’t the way in.
60. Kung Fu Chaos
Maybe I needed friends to play with, but this game got about 45 minutes of play before I shoved it back into its case and never touched it again.
61. Rallisport Challenge 2
They changed the handling far too much from the original, I didn’t enjoy it.
62. Sneakers
Another crazy crappy game, this time from Japan, I wanted for the sake of wanting it.
63. Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus
Me and fighting games, no idea why I keep trying.
64. Thief: Deadly Shadows
I got sick while playing this and had fevered dreams of the Shalebridge Cradle, thankfully only the outside. It was madness.
65. Links 2004
Right? N with a golf game?
66. Top Spin
Never got into the rhythm of this game.
67. Voodoo Vince
Interesting art direction, average platformer.
68. Fable
A mere fraction of what Project Ego was promised to be, never picked up another Fable game again.
69. Star Wars: Battlefront
My favorite game of E3 2004 hindered by small maps and, well, being on a console, I suppose.
70. Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders
A really deep action/strategy game that I enjoyed far more than I should’ve.
71. Halo 2
Because obviously.
72. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Never fell in love with these games.
73. Yager
A beautiful game that only saw limited release in the US until it wound up in the value bin at my store. Bought.
74. Tron 2.0: Killer App
Terrible game with cut corners in production apparent everywhere and only one other person playing on Xbox Live on Christmas day.
75. MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf Limited Edition
Far more bombastic than the original, but didn’t enjoy nearly as much.
76. Outrun 2
A quirkly little addition to my library.
77. Dai Senryaku VII
I have no idea why I wanted this Japanese hex-based military strategy game, but I rushed out to Gamestop late at night to get their display copy.
78. Forza Motorsport
Not as fun as a Project Gotham game, but I needed to see all the cool new technology in action.
79. Breakdown
Terrible.
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