Talking Point: Which Backwards Compatible Xbox Games Still Hold Up In 2024?

Ninja Gaiden Black & 2, all the Dead or Alive games, Sonic Unleashed/Generations, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon all immediately come to mind.

Best thing Spencer has done for the industry.

F.E.A.R. Just played it again. Great game.

The Gears games.

Currently playing Burnout revenge. Shame servers are down now as that was always a blast.

Above all the Gears trilogy and Red Dead Redemption. Lost Odyssey and fable anniversary are still fine too but cannot say the same about fable 2 that has so much motion blur and bad frame rate that makes it almost unplayable

@BowsersBuddy I have so many times that I just randomly pop back into Max Payne 3. It's so good. Would love to try the multiplayer again

Rayman origins is an underrated game in my opinion. I got it from the game pass deals selection for about 1 dollar, and I was stunned by just how good it looks. The art style and the gameplay hasn’t aged a day, despite the game being from the 360 era. Other games I’ll shout out are Bejeweled 2, all the 360 Halo games and Metal Gear Rising/HD Collection, but there are tons of other ones that still look phenomenal

Asura's Wrath.

@Olliemar28 i love those games. Those were some of my most played on 360. Great games to point out.

Binary Domain. It's not a revolutionary game but it's dumb fun and got FPS boost.

Far Cry 2

For all those who didn't like Far Cry 2, well you're wrong.
You have terrible taste, cause Far Cry2 is brilliant.

Dead Space 1 & 2 hold up pretty well. Even with the remake being better in every aspect, the OG Dead Space still plays better than most contemporary games. Sadly Dead Space 3 did not hold up back when it was fresh, we should all pretend it never happened.

SSX3 representing the OG Box brilliantly. At 4K and 60fps (or is it 120?) it looks brilliant - and not brilliant for an Xbox game, just brilliant full stop. And there are very, very few games from that era that play as well. It hasn't aged a day, and is one of a very small number of games I would describe as being nigh on perfect. I honestly can't recommend it enough. Seriously - give it a go and you'll be staggered that a 20 year old can look and play that well.

Dragon Age Origins with FPS Boost too plays so well on the Series S and holds up really well.

FF13 1/2 and it looks pretty too

@TheBigBlue Origins is so so good. I also recently picked it up, but I had played it back when it first came out. I can’t believe this was a 360 game, it looks incredible and plays even better. Excellent pick!

Lost Odyssey plays phenomenally on backwards comparability

I'm playing max payne 1 & 2 on my series X right now and it plays great. very smooth compared to when i play on my original xbox. I'm also playing the crysis series and it definitely runs better.

Gears of War is pretty good. So is RDR.

Currently playing Earth Defense Force 2025 with my wife, and it is just as fun now as it was back in 2014. Highly recommended if you have someone to play local co-op with

Currently playing Red Dead 1 and it has held up pretty good..

LEFT4DEAD2, DeadSpace1,2,3, NBAJAM OnFire, ...

@CallMeDuraSouka I'll bite. Not its not, 3 is the only good one they made.

Civilization revolution. So much fun

All these great answers but nobody mentions Hexic. That’s my “go to” when a new album drops.

@LX_FENIX that was the last ps3 game I played before I traded up. Only played for a hot minute but it was fun

I'm playing Far Cry 3 at the moment and it's great.

CRIMSON SKIES!!! Bring back this IP please!

@Jonnybekeww 3 was fantastic, despite me wanting rip out Jason Brodys tongue so he could never speak again.

It's a close second

@CaptnDave

I really liked that game and the setting too, it could really use a sequel.

I thought Chorus was a pretty good arcade style flight combat game if you're looking for something similar that's more modern. It's got a space/sci fi setting rather than prop planes but it's a similar mix of capital ship and fighter combat.

Fight night champion, played through the story mode and its still great

@CallMeDuraSouka oh man. My parents brought over a box of my old 360 games and FC2 was among them. I’m looking forward to firing it up! It was one of my favorites from high school.

However, I was so so bummed that The Saboteur isn’t supported on console.

Killer is dead
Shadows of the damned
Spec ops:The line
Driver San Francisco
Dante’s Inferno
All underrated masterpieces that everyone should play.

@AlienigenX I had such a good time playing dante's inferno a few years ago and I generally don't even like hack and slash games.
Still wish they'd made a sequel on dante's purgatory or sth, alas.

The gears games are still great.

Yeah, way too many to list them all. Games I have played over the last few years that I still thoroughly enjoyed with BC? Crisis trilogy, Far Cry 3, Dragons Age Origins, Fight Night Champion, Max Payne 3, Banjo Kazooie, Bioshock Infinite, Brutal Legend, Castle Crashers, Costume Quest 1 & 2, Dues Ex Human Revolution, ES Oblivion, Fallout 3, and the list really does go on and on.

Very few games have I picked up through BC that I didn’t enjoy throughly. Their age and the game play that comes with that is part of the charm.

Max Payne 1 & 2. The level of care and detail put into those epic games outmatched the technology that was available at the time. You can see each bullet leave your gun and hit whatever you're aiming at. Also the first two Tomb Raider reboots. They still look and feel awesome.

@Quickbeamx can you believe they haven't done more with those? I mean even that physics engine is like nothing else today in a third person game! Love Max Payne

Pretty much all of them, the 360 was the last great generation.

Binary Domain, with fps boost.
So underrated.

Honestly, it's harder to decide which games didn't age well because it's generally a case of "it's always been bad" rather than aging bad when it comes to the BC titles (like Escape Dead Island, Call of Juarez The Cartel and Hydrophobia).

I'll pick some games that weren't mentioned (or that I missed):
Catherine (sadly no Full Body on Xbox, this one's still as fun as always), Condemned Criminal Origins (the horror it attempts and combat are still incredibly special and I believe it aged well considering I played it for Halloween last year), Midnight Club LA (it's midnight club it's great), NBA Jam (have a lot of memories playing it with my cousin, playing it again it felt like i was a teenager again; sadly delisted nowadays), Ridge Racer 6 (it's ridge racer it's great) and Saints Row 2 (best SR, no FPS boost sadly but still the best way to play SR2 considering the PC version is broken). Not my only games, just felt they were worth mentioning.
Shout-out to Jade Empire and Panzer Dragoon Orta, how they aged depends on who you ask but it's incredibly cool to have them on Xbox BC.

@Cherip-the-Ripper at the time everybody criticized it because it was a “God of war clone” now that God of war has lost its essence I say it’s time for Dante to make a comeback and bring the mindless old school hack and slash glory back (Nevertheless the other Dante is still doing a great job in that regard)

@Enigk i would love for that game to be available in ALL regions! But I guess the so called “third world countries” are not worthy of a full library of games.

@AlienigenX Bringing up the point of "getting criticized for being a God of War clone", reminded me of another game that I played recently and thought was pretty decent - Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. That one deserves another non-biased chance from fans imo, it was somewhat disliked around launch bc it wasn't what people wanted

Dante's Inferno was the 1st game I played on my Series X, just love it. Others I think are good are GTA 4, Dead Or Alive 3 & 4

@AlienigenX It's unfortunate as even if you got a disc from another region the ending is locked behind DLC. I guess you could change regions but that probably requires too much messing around.

I’m playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords, and that looks and plays well. Plus I have a game manual in the box!

Star wars battlefront 2 with the original xbox cd on my series x.

@AlienigenX I always like seeing Killer Is Dead get some love

No One mentioning Timesplitters? That's a real shame lol

SFIV, Ninja Gaiden Black, Ninja Blade (yeah, I said it lol), Killer is Dead, Alan Wake, Ducktales Remastered, Castlevania SOTN

Lots of great answers. Here's my 5:

-Pacman Championship Edition Dx Plus
-Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
-Fallout New Vegas
-Dragon Age Origins
-Hexic

I prefer the original flawed versions of SotN. I despise the revised audio. Pacman CEDX+ is perfect. Fallout NV is transcendent in its story telling. Dragon Age is an ugly, flawed masterpiece. Hexic is just like...zen.

That's really lot of games. FEAR or Max Payne come to mind quick. But there are way more and a reason I picked up the Series X.

I still regularly go back to shadows of the damned for a replay. It's goofy but I love it. Condemned is also a great title and although the graphics don't hold up as well as red dead, the gameplay is great

Lost Odyssey and maybe Blue Dragon

@clvr
Yep, Timesplitters Future Perfect from OG box still holds pretty well today.
4player split screen fps fun.

@AlienigenX Driver San Francisco is superb. There's quite a decent modding scene on PC for it.

For me it has to be Rockstar Table Tennis - an absolute gem of a game when you get a rally going and still looks good

Gears of war 3 looks like a today AA game

@jesse_dylan lost oddysey? Oh! You mean the REAL FFXIII! Loves that one. Those two games were the reason I bought an Xbox in the first place

@AlienigenX yeah, final fantasy kinda died after 10. Id consider lost odyssey to be the real ff11 even! Blue dragon is definitely not up to the level of chrono trigger, but it’s underrated. I wish they’d both get a remaster at least.

I like replaying the Halo campaigns via 360 original versions. The menus, pause and loading screens are part of the experience.
Other than those I regularly play Mirror’s Edge, Dead Space 2, Splinter Cell and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

Shadow of The Damned
Killer Is Dead
Rayman Origins
Blur
Black
Enslaved
Metal Gear Rising
DOA Ultimate
DOA 3
DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball
DOA 4
Castlevania LoS
Mortal Kombat 9
MK Vs DC Universe
The Orange Box
Portal 2
Blazing Skies
Mirror's Edge
Psychonaughts
Banjo and Kazooie Nuts & Bolts
Jade Empire
Star Wars KOTOR
Perfect Dark Zero
Blue Dragon
Gears of War
Halo Wars

I'm going to be annoyed with myself because I'm sure there are loads more I'll remember as soon as I've posted this.

Quite a few of my favourites of that era had proper Xbox One releases, such as the Halo, Batman and Bioshock series. Even these however have often been improved further for Series X.

BC with the Xbox One was amazing, the performance improvements they have added with the Series X make many better than on the original hardware. Recently I have been going back to a few Xbox classics such as KOTOR and Timesplitters 2, they still play great.

Two things they could improve is make more games compatible (not sure why they drew a line in the sand and said they were stopping). Also make more of them available for sale on the store (ideally at sensible prices).