Max Payne 3 (Xbox 360)
Finally! After what seems like years of waiting, our own personal favourite entry from the excellent Max Payne series is now backwards compatible and anyone who has yet to dive into this one should do so at the earliest possible opportunity.
Max Payne 3 is a super slick and polished action adventure that funnels players through a tightly knit campaign littered with brilliant gunfights and face-offs. The franchise's signature bullet time gameplay is intact here and it's honestly never looked or felt better as you fling yourself in slow motion across rooms, take cover behind obstacles and gun down foes in a series of brilliantly escalating, and evermore absurd, scenarios. This is a breathless, breath-taking action game that you simply have to try for yourself.
Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors (Xbox)
Fromsoftware is a household name at this stage thanks to the huge success of their incredible Dark Souls franchise but back before all that, in the early noughties, they released the Otogi series of games, a couple of excellent hack and slash efforts that fans of the developer, and fans of action games in general should absolutely check out.
We've plumped for the second game in the series here, although both are pretty much equally as good, as it provides tons of gorgeous, refined and unique action that builds upon and adds to everything that was great about its predecessor. Do yourself a favour and go check this one out, it's not just a good FromSoftware game, it's a cracking hack and slash adventure in its own right.
Ridge Racer 6 (Xbox 360)
2005's Ridge Racer 6 might not be the absolute pinnacle of Namco's storied franchise but there's absolutely no doubting that the nitrous-boosting, drift-heavy arcade racing action on offer here is still some top-notch stuff.
With 30 tracks, 130 cars, a lengthy World Xplorer career mode, 14-player online and the series' signature, slide heavy arcade driving action present and correct, this is fast and rewarding racing that you should definitely make an effort to try out.
Red Dead Revolver (Xbox)
Back before Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar San Diego treated us all to the genesis of the series with Red Dead Revolver, an action-packed shooting gallery of a western game that saw the introduction of the dead-eye mechanic that we all now know so well from the epic cowboy adventures Rockstar went on to create.
This isn't a perfect game by any means, your character's movement can be a little clunky, there's nothing in the way of open world or any real narrative to cling onto, but none of that matters when you get down to the shooting here. The duelling and shootouts in Red Dead Revolver are hugely engaging and atmospheric affairs that challenge you to be quick on the draw and make good use of your dead-eye as you gun down gangs of outlaws and face down bosses in tense stand-offs. It may be getting a little long in the tooth by now, but this is still a cracking little arcade action game that's well worth your time.
Timesplitters 2 (Xbox)
The pick of a pretty great bunch of games, Timesplitters 2 serves up more of the series' trademark OTT FPS action, and it's action that's aged remarkably well over the years.
With a great core campaign that sees you assume the roles of a host of different characters, a challenge mode full of sweet side missions and a vibrant and colourful art style, Timesplitters 2 is an excellent first person shooter, and a pretty much perfect sequel to its superb predecessor, that you should add to your Xbox game collection ASAP.
Have we missed your favourite game from the latest batch of backwards compatible titles? Think there's something that should have made the cut and didn't? Let us know below!
Comments 26
@Alduin
And I still can't buy them on Xbox Marketplace. I keep getting an error message. It's been almost 24h since the announcement. You'd think MS was ready for this before the actual 20th anniversary celebrations started.
How many of those games do hold up, as opposed to 'they were great in the naughties'?
Otogi AND Binary Domain listed here?
Talk about some good taste.
@Magabro all of them
Still can’t pick tease up in the UK yet. Anyone know what time they become available. Usually it’s 5pm GMT but still no sign and can’t seem to get much sense out of Microsoft right now.
I played doa5 and 6 but not the other games in the franchise. I was surprised to see they weren’t backwards compatible already but I’m glad they were added so I could try the older games too.
Red Dead Redemption on XSX is nice, even though they did nothing to the framerate. I guess since I really don't mind that I'm good with it. Lol
@PJOReilly Good on you including Ridge Racer 6, but I would actually argue it IS the pinnacle of the series.
I love RR1, Rage Racer, and Rave Racer for nostalgia but I feel RR has never been better than RR6.
Ridge Racer 6 is basically Ridge Racers PSP in HD. Same UI, new boost mechanic, refined handling and drift physics, and some of the same tracks. There's a lot of content, and the gameplay is superb.
I would put Ridge Racers 2 PSP on at least equal footing though, due to the tracks, it has most of the great tracks from Rage Racer and Rave Racer. It's essentially the ultimate Ridge Racer, and is kind of unbelivable that it looks as good as it does, and runs at 60fps on 2004 handheld hardware.
It's not just years of waiting for Max Payne 3, it's almost a decade!
In a generation of remasters, remakes and enhanced editions, it's crazy that Rockstar never bothered to do anything with MP3.
I was happy to see the games they added, but $20x2 for Otogi is high.
So I just ❤ favorite them for some retro sale in the future.
Really disappointing that mortal kombat isn't on the Microsoft store.
@Alduin I installed Max Payne 3 & 50 cent bots from the disk last night but I'm in the alpha skip ahead ring so I assume it will be in the next console update
Binary Domain, well yesss please! Such an overlooked gem!
No love for fighting game fans ? Not one Dead or Alive makes the cut ... 🤷♂️
@jrt87 it is super sensitive alright but damn it holds up well for its age.
Amazing list, couldn’t agree more!
@Raffles Thanks, I'm going to get it after reading your comment 😁.
For all those who keep saying Games With Gold should stop. We now have a list of fresh backwards compatible games for them to pick through. Get ready for chicken little!
@jrt87 Timesplitters 2 always had an overly sensitive crosshair. It's not a "generational" thing. They fixed that problem with Future Perfect. Honestly, 2 is great but Future Perfect is the much better game. Why these writers always overlook #3 is whack. 🤦♂️
@Beermonkey They had to audacity to refer to Chicken Little as a "fan favourite" in their marketing email I received. ROFL 🤣 🤦♂️
@BlueOcean Glad to hear it
If you like arcade racers you won't be disappointed. I also have RR7 on the PS3, and while it has some clear advantages (runs at 1080p60, astonishingly, on the slightly slower PS3 GPU), and new tracks etc, I much prefer 6.
7's colour pallete, new tracks and handling/physics aren't quite up to par with RR6 imo.
@Raffles I only played one RR (the original) on my cousin's PS when I was a kid. If you say 6 is the best I'll get it on Series X! I love arcade racers.
I still can't get RR6.
I’m beginning to wonder if it might be disc only . Still can’t buy it
@norwichred Yeah, i'm afraid it's looking like that one is disc only. A shame!
picked it up form the US store and switch regions to play, bit of a hassle but it works
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