Umm, better late than never I guess? A friend of mine asked for a list of my Xbox 360 recommendations along the lines of my very personal PlayStation Store picks from 2021. So I had a look back at my Xbox history early yesterday morning as I was sitting in a hospital bed recovering once again from my terrible health condition. Finally on the mend, I thought it’d be best to share it here too while there’s at least a little time left to check these things out. Unfortunately, few of them have received a deep discount in recent weeks but for those interested in some last-minute offbeat recommendations and nostalgia, here we go.
Disclaimer: I tried to cover all the bases on availability while pulling this together but I am still in recovery mode and a little loopy. Several of these are backward compatible but some might be available elsewhere and I just missed it
The Dearly Departed
First up I’m pouring one out for all the wonderful, weird, and long-lost Xbox 360 experiences. These are the things that always come to mind when I think of Xbox 360 and are some of the earliest inspirations for this very site. 1 vs 100, Karaoke, Game Room, Dashboard apps like the one from L’Oreal where your profile had to be female-aligned, the annual “Best of XBLA” voting apps, all the dedicated music game storefronts. The Blades interface, new Dashboard refreshes (for better and worse), and the entire Xbox Avatar experience.
It was one of those time-and-place things, an era that we could never recreate and, sadly, isn’t likely to happen again. Anyways, onto the games you can actually still get, in no particular order.
The Games You Can Still Get
TotemBall – FREE
Free but with the requirement that you actually own an Xbox Live Vision Camera because this was an early foray into motion-controlled gaming on Xbox 360, more in line with what Sony was doing with Eye Toy on PlayStation 2. I don’t remember it working well or being much fun but, hey, lookit me on the screen controlling this weird totem guy!
Aegis Wing – FREE
This one is on many, many lists already but it’s free (and backward compatible) and I love that it was a small indie creation from within Microsoft back when the indie scene was just starting to blossom on consoles.
The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai – $0.99
Super happy to see that all of the remaining Ska Studios titles on Xbox 360 managed to get a price cut just before the deadline but the original is the only one that I was into.
Rez HD – $9.99
Yes it’s available on newer platforms but this was the first time I’d touched the game since the Dreamcast release and it’s become one of those Xbox 360 touchstones for me.
Pac-Man: Championship Edition – $9.99
I think you can still get most of this experience in other releases but the original one, for me, is where the hype started and stopped! C.E. DX+ is also still available and quite good but that original release is what really sticks in my memory.
Doritos Crash Course – FREE
Another freebie, it’s not as good as the Doritos-centric (and delisted) Dash of Destruction but it’s still a fun-enough Wipeout-style platformer. It’s got Avatars and the Doritos branding just makes it all the sillier.
Wreckateer – $9.99
A tower-toppling, Angry Birds-like, Kinect powered puzzler. It isn’t all that exciting and a little slow and clunky (hey, thanks Kinect controls) but it still sticks with me. It was also one of the few titles to feature Avatar Famestar, a meta layer of unlockable junk which is sadly inaccessible now. The game remains playable despite it thankfully.
Blade Kitten – $4.99
Blade Kitten is also on Steam (and even cheaper there) but it hit consoles first and is another one of those early small-team platformers that stood out to me at the time. It probably doesn’t hold up quite as well as in my memories but it’s got a special place in the Xbox 360 ventricle of my heart.
Costume Quest – $14.99
It’s an indie classic, a feel-good RPG romp of referential material and, most importantly, spooky fun Halloween vibes. It’s backward compatible too and readily available on Steam and Epic Games Store as well.
‘Splosion Man – $9.99
Safe and secure on backward compatible Xboxes, I initially thought it was about to be lost and started losing my mind. What a classic though, madcap Looney Tunes energy, precision platforming, and that donut song. Ms. Splosion Man and Comic Jumper are also very good.
‘A World of‘ and ‘A Kingdom for‘ Keflings – $9.99 each
Also backward compatible but I’m not sure if they support your Xbox Avatars on newer consoles. Whichever way you grab them, they’re some of the original no-risk, chill vibe, farm/craft strategy games that everybody loves nowadays. Total 360 era nostalgia for me.
Kinect Fun Labs – FREE
I thought Kinect Fun Labs was completely inaccessible but with a little arcane technomancy Random Gamer Riven has found a method to get the lab and at least 12 of its add-ons running today. From him:
- On the Xbox 360, search (don’t browse) for ‘Kinect Fun Labs’ and complete the download
- Bring up the Guide menu
- Navigate to ‘Games & Apps’ tab
- Select ‘Recent’
- In Recent menu, RB twice to select the third ‘All’ tab
- Scroll down to ‘Kinect Fun Labs’
- Press ‘A’
Now the real fun begins. Fun Labs has to patch on launch and may timeout after sitting for a few minutes. If it goes into “offline” mode you can still check out the diversions that it launched with or restart the whole process and try again. Once it’s updated be aware that each of the add-ons has to run a patch too and may crash as it does. Restart the entire process and with luck you may be able to finally play stuff like Mars Rover Landing, Air Band, Mutation Station, I Am Super!, and more.
You can search for and try to claim some of these items on the Marketplace website ahead of time and then skip to the listed steps above on the console. It may or may not save you some time. If this sounds fascinating at all you might want to prioritize the Fun Labs. With so many known issues it’s one of the first things I’d expect to just up and stop working sooner rather than later.
Worth A Browse Before They’re Gone
The Avatar Store
There once was a time where you could watch your own Avatar try on branded clothing and play with virtual tchotchkes right on the web. The store is still there with thousands of clothing and accessory items to browse and buy but unfortunately the live preview is gone. Even if you sign in it seems to disappear but you can still see some truly amazing things like a bag of Skittles, an AES protein shake, and the entire #trending category of unlicensed references to all the greatest viral dances and memes from the 2010s. Think Wrecking Ball, fidget spinners, Pineapple Apple Pen, and Turn Down For What.
Themes & Gamerpics
Sadly you can’t even see a tiny preview of these on the web and you’ll have to search or slowly browse through the Xbox interface to find them. But for nostalgia’s sake there’s nothing that hits harder than the Reese’s peanut butter cup Halloween themes, the annual New Year’s themes, and so, so, SO many branded gamerpics, all soon to be lost. Fortunately XboxGamer.pics is doing a fantastic job of chronicling the gamerpics in a modern searchable form. I’m not sure if anyone is cataloging the themes which could be a real loss for us eye candy lovers out there.
Well that turned out to be loads more work than I expected. I’m going back to this uncomfortable hospital bed and watching reruns of ‘The Food that made America’ until I’m discharged.