The original Xbox had an impressive catalogue of titles. While people will remember the greats like Halo: Combat Evolved, Psychonauts, Dead or Alive and others, there are many that went under the radar to become cult hits. It’s these titles (the ones few people remember) that deserve another look from Microsoft, and maybe even a sequel for modern consoles. At the very least, a remake would be good. Okay, I’d settle for adding them to the backward compatibility program.
Jet Set Radio Future
Let’s start with an all-time great. Jet Set Radio Future was a phenomenal game on the OG Xbox. It mixed together skating (rollerblades, not skateboards, sorry), graffiti and artwork, and a post-modern, heavily stylized soundtrack. Then there were the visuals, which utilized a cel-shading design not seen in many titles and only really majorly popularized with the Borderlands series. While we are getting Bomb Rush Cyberpunk in 2022, I think there’s room for more DJ Professor K and the GGs.
Voodoo Vince
Voodoo Vince was one of those games you hear about, might play a demo, but never really get fully into. And yet, it remains a cult classic. As for what this game actually is, players take on the role of Vince, a voodoo dole that can inflict pain on himself to kill his foes. It’s a unique mechanic that works well with the cartoonish graphics. Levels would often have a centralized puzzle or idea players would need to work out. Even Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has talked about his love for Voodoo Vince. If the Head of Xbox loves the game, I would certainly hope that we could see it return.
Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
Metal Arms: Glitch in the System might be one of the most underutilized titles on the Xbox. In Metal Arms, the story focuses on Glitch, a droid that has had his memory wiped. As Glitch, it was your job to help your fellow robots fight back against the evil robots and eventually take down their leader.
The game boasted some impressive visuals for its time, with enemy droids exploding into dozens of pieces when killed or bits of the environment being destructible for strategic purposes (or just for fun). With upgradable weapons, an impressive cast of voice actors, and unique multiplayer modes, Metal Arms was a fantastic title that deserves another shot.
Phantom Crash
Ask anyone what their favorite mech game is, and chances are they’ll say one of the few popular titles out there – you know them. But if they happen to say Phantom Crash, you know you’ve got a really refined palate. This game is positively dropping with charm and quirk. The mech pilots and the AIs would engage in massive conversations between matches, which would include plenty of smack-talking.
What really sells the experience though is the gameplay. You could pick from a variety of mech chassis and use that as your foundation, and then proceed to tweak everything about your vehicle. Drop that weight down as low as possible to be more agile and keep that cloaking duration long. Or push the weight higher, risk being slower but become an absolute tank. Strap a laser to your arm or even use a blade that features a dashing attack.
Blinx: The Time Sweeper
I could talk about Blinx: The Time Sweeper until the cows come home, in fact, I might just do that at some point. But for now, I’ll try and keep this succinct. Blinx offered solid platforming puzzles and fused it together with time-manipulation. You could slow down time, rewind it, pause it, and even copy yourself. Each level featured a time limit and tasked players with defeating all of the time monsters in the area before the fabric of space-time dissolved.
What was really critical is how you utilized the time-manipulation to combat the monsters and solve the puzzles. You might come across a bridge that falls apart, so you must rewind time and dash across it before it crumbles again. Or there might be a turret that shoots at you or explosive barrels rolling down a hill that can only be avoided by slowing time down. Even some boss fights required you to think creatively.
While the Blinx did get a sequel on the original Xbox, adding co-op and stealth missions where you play as the evil big enemies, the game never made it to the Xbox 360 era. In fact, very few games from the original Xbox have made it through each generation. Though he might not be Mario, I truly believe Blinx deserves to be brought back and given another chance, especially now that we’ve got truly mind-bending puzzle games out there like Portal and Baba Is You. It’s time to get wild with those time puzzles.
These are but a handful of the Xbox games I’d love to see brought forward into the current generation of gaming. For their time, they really pushed the envelope with their ideas and concepts. And now, some 20 years later, with the advancements of technology and what developers know about game design, I can only begin to imagine what the right teams could bring to these titles.
