• News

19 OG Xbox Games Join the Backwards Compatibility Program

A whole lot of old Star Wars games will be available this month thanks to the back compat program.

Sam Chandler

April 10, 2018 10:00 PM

1

OG Xbox gamers rejoice, because Microsoft has just announced 19 new titles that are coming to the Xbox One’s backwards compatibility program in April. The OG Xbox games will have a staggered release, with some becoming available on April 17th while others will arrive 9 days later on April 26th.

This news comes hot off the press from the second episode of Inside Xbox, a 90 minute show where Major Nelson (Larry Hryb) gathers with other members of the Xbox team to share the latest Xbox gaming news. Original Xbox games coming to back compat wasn’t the only information revealed during the show, new information about Sam Fisher’s inclusion in Ghost Recon: Wildlands surfaced, along with information about Overkill’s The Walking Dead. But you clicked because of the OG Xbox games, so here they are:

Available April 17^th:

• Blinx: The Time Sweeper
• Breakdown
• Conker: Live & Reloaded
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
• Hunter: The Reckoning
• Jade Empire
• Panzer Dragoon Orta
• SSX 3

Available April 26^th:

• Destroy All Humans!
• Full Spectrum Warrior
• Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
• MX Unleashed
• Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory
• Star Wars Battlefront
• Star Wars Battlefront II
• Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
• Star Wars Jedi Starfighter
• Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
• Star Wars Republic Commando

That’s a lot of Star Wars games. Now you can play Star Wars Battlefront 2 instead of playing Star Wars Battlefront 2. Snark aside, this is an impressive list of titles that brings the OG Xbox back compat tally up to 32. While the Star Wars titles will be a lot of people’s first choice, personally, I’m super excited to jump into Blinx: The Time Sweeper as well as Conker: Live & Reloaded. It will be interesting to play Conker, a game that existed on the Nintendo 64, and compare it to Rare's latest title, Sea of Thieves.

These games join the 13 games that were already available since October 2017:

• Black
• BloodRayne 2
• Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
• Dead to Rights
• Fuzion Frenzy
• Grabbed by the Ghoulies
• The King of Fighters Neowave
• Ninja Gaiden Black
• Prince of Persion: The Sands of Time
• Psychonauts
• Red Faction II
• Sid Meier's Pirates!
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

What’s really impressive is that these games will be receiving a digital facelift. During the Inside Xbox video, Bill Stillwell showed off Jade Empire and Star Wars Battlefront 2, showing how these games look on Xbox One. It’s immediately obvious the vast improvement in quality from when Jade Empire launched in 2005 and was running on old tech, to thirteen years later and running on brand-spanking new hardware. As mentioned in the video, playing these OG Xbox games like this is like playing it how we remember them, as opposed to how they actually looked.

Given that there are over 1,000 OG Xbox games, there are still plenty of titles that could be brought to the back compat program in the future. From my modest collection, I’d love to see Burnout 3: Takedown, Jet Set Radio Future, Metal Arms, and Phantom Crash join the program – but music licencing always makes things tricky. Let me know in Chatty what OG Xbox games you’re excited to see running on Xbox One.

Sam Chandler

Head of Guides

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as Head of Guides. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler