The 100 Best Xbox Games of All Time (Picks 100-76)

What is an Xbox? Microsoft has spent 25 years trying to reply the question, but for fans, the reply is easy: “Xbox” evokes one-eared headsets wired into the representation paper slots of monolithic controllers with breakaway cords. A dashboard with gleaming skeuomorphic blades and avatars adorned successful earned accessories. That dependable that plays erstwhile a hard-earned Achievement yet pops. “Xbox” means heavy-duty hardware. Tactile sensations. Friends connecting for the archetypal time. And that’s earlier we adjacent get to the games.

It whitethorn beryllium that the precise thought of an Xbox crippled is coming to an end. Microsoft has undeniably shifted its tactics, with a caller absorption connected multi-platform releases, handheld Xboxes that are really miniature Windows computers, and the imaginable that aboriginal Xbox consoles whitethorn simply beryllium gaming PCs. So present seems arsenic bully a clip arsenic immoderate to look backmost astatine the full past of Microsoft’s console travel and fertile the champion Xbox games, with assistance from our friends astatine Outside Xbox, the multimillion-subscriber transmission that serves up play videos astir video games and video game-adjacent things

When we accidental “the champion Xbox games,” we mean the ones that astir evoke that weighty consciousness of “Xboxness.” Some are first-party, astir are exclusives, and each of them are indelibly tied to the bequest of and fondness for a level that’s near a monolithic people connected gaming. These are the 100 Best Xbox Games of All Time. We'll beryllium updating this database regular with 25 games astatine 7am PST/10am ET/3pm GMT from Tuesday, 20th January to Friday, 23rd January, until fig 1 is revealed.

100. 1 vs. 100

A large-scale, online multiplayer crippled show, played successful real-time by existent players who could triumph existent prizes? It was a bold idea, and Microsoft's 1 vs. 100 really did it. Adapted from the TV amusement of the aforesaid name, players were randomly dropped into 1 of 3 pools whenever the amusement went live: the Crowd, the Mob, and the One, with the One competing against the Mob successful trivia rounds wherever absorption times were conscionable arsenic important an constituent to triumph arsenic the close reply to the question being asked. Prizes ranged from 80 Microsoft Points ($1) to a escaped Xbox Live Arcade game, to 10,000 Microsoft Points ($125). 1 vs. 100 was a existent societal and method experimentation successful the satellite of gaming, and here's the thing: it worked! Sadly, it was canceled aft 2 "seasons" and can't beryllium played now, but it lives connected successful the representation arsenic 1 of the champion and astir innovative Xbox games ever made.

99. Conker: Live and Reloaded

When Microsoft acquired Nintendo's second-party darling Rare for $375 million, the possibilities were endless. One of the archetypal games Xbox got from the British workplace was Conker: Live and Reloaded, a remake of N64's Conker's Bad Fur Day that added online multiplayer. And portion that competitory play was rather fun, acknowledgment successful portion to the juxtaposition of over-the-top unit and adorable characters connected screen, it was the technological level-up from the N64 archetypal that was genuinely stunning. The action-platformer was present "fur-shaded," giving the manes of Conker and his buddies a unsocial "next-gen" caller look. Ironically, Live and Reloaded was really much heavy censored than Bad Fur Day, but some run and multiplayer were nevertheless a large mode to present Rare to its caller Xbox subordinate base.

98. Top Spin

Believe it oregon not, determination was a clip erstwhile EA didn't enactment Xbox Live. And truthful Microsoft started gathering its ain sports games that would instrumentality vantage of its online service, and of those titles, Top Spin was by acold the best. It was a tennis sim featuring a vocation mode afloat of real-life pros, but what made Top Spin memorable – successful summation to its halfway gameplay being truthful pitch-perfect, of people – was its online play. You'd make your character, physique them up, and instrumentality them online, pitting yourself against different players successful ranked matches that, if you won, would determination you further up the planetary rankings. It each worked perfectly (and adjacent tied successful XSN, if you retrieve that small experiment), and made Top Spin the champion tennis crippled the Xbox has ever been served up.

97. Binary Domain

The Xbox 360 was a treasure thorax afloat of those “7 retired of 10s” that you conscionable couldn’t enactment down; those rough-around-the-edges cult classics that kept america much than entertained for a play earlier we moved connected to the next. Binary Domain is simply a cleanable illustration – a third-person shooter from Yakuza developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, this sci-fi communicative didn’t play excessively otherwise from established screen shooters specified arsenic Gears of War, but came with its ain unsocial quirks. Direct power of your squadmates was main among these, with the quality to bid them successful six antithetic languages via a headset oregon the Kinect sensor, a amusive small gimmick that took vantage of the Xbox’s yet doomed experimentation with its camera peripheral. Binary Domain whitethorn person ne'er afloat reached the heights of its lofty ambitions, but it inactive finds a spot successful our hearts.

96. Steel Battalion

The archetypal Xbox was a maximalist, brutalist ceramic of post-Y2K plan and Steel Battalion is the purest look of its committedness to inconvenience. The Capcom-developed mech crippled is arguably thing peculiar by itself, but the humongous HOTAS fearfulness with which it came bundled has earned it Xbox immortality. Weighing successful astatine a whopping 17 pounds, boasting 3 panels, 3 ft pedals, and industrial-grade divorced dada energy, Steel Battalion is the video crippled equivalent of “rolling coal:” an excessive, magnificent, indulgent peripheral that outgo $200 successful 2002 money. Xbox is simply a burly, hefty console that demands a burly, hefty experience, and Steel Battalion much than fits the bill.

95. Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath

Xbox was a console designed to alteration the game, and truthful it made consciousness that the Oddworld bid shifted absorption erstwhile it arrived connected the platform. Munch's Oddysee saw the sidescrolling platformer leap into the 3rd dimension, but it was 2005’s Stranger’s Wrath that truly reinvented the series, delivering a bizarre gunslinging action-adventure successful which you played a bounty hunter, bringing successful targets dormant oregon alive, alternatively than redeeming legions of Mudokons. As Stranger, you’re equipped with a crossbow and a bandolier of “Live Ammunition”, arsenic in, ammo that’s virtually alive. Your chatterbox bullets, each an insect oregon tiny mammal with unsocial abilities, crook each hunt into a tactical showdown with much than a fistful of bully laughs.

94. Fuzion Frenzy

It's gritty. It's neon. It's Fuzion Frenzy, an undeniable classical for the archetypal Xbox that's inactive amusive contiguous (if you don't enactment excessively agelong successful the Waterfront minigames, that is). This enactment crippled gem was 1 of the fewer section multiplayer games that conscionable astir anyone could play, careless of their acquisition with gaming. Simple yet adjuvant options similar practicing a minigame earlier the existent event, bots to capable unfastened spots with varying levels of difficulty, and customized lengths for tournaments made welcoming others to the enactment adjacent easier. Its wide span of minigames acted arsenic a large instauration to each kinds of genres, too; from racing to rhythm, to strategy, to defense, Fuzion Frenzy has it each – and a sick ocular aesthetic to boot.

93. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is simply a cleanable relic from a clip erstwhile it seemed similar astir each third-party crippled that delivered a ocular showcase connected the Xbox 360 struggled to tally decently connected the PS3. Capcom’s mech-suit shooter played big to immoderate memorable carnal plan that evoked immoderate of sci-fi fiction's top threats, and delivered spectacle that, astatine the time, was compared to games arsenic good arsenic thought of arsenic Shadow of the Colossus. While its communicative whitethorn person near rather a spot to beryllium desired, its enactment was well-received, arsenic it took cues from Capcom classics specified arsenic Mega Man and Bionic Commando and modernised them to large effect. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is by nary means a classical successful its ain right, but is simply a large illustration of a clip when, if you had the prime to play a multiplatform crippled connected immoderate console, it would ever beryllium the 360.

92. Banjo-Kazooie Nuts N Bolts

Nuts & Bolts began beingness arsenic a remake of the archetypal Nintendo 64 Banjo-Kazooie game, earlier developer Rare made the determination to make a wholly caller introduction successful the bid for the Xbox 360. An ambitious task that stretched itself acold beyond its 3D platforming roots, this 2008 sequel placed an accent connected gathering vehicles successful a flexible satellite that could beryllium navigated successful galore antithetic ways. 15 years earlier Nintendo experimented with akin ideas successful The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Rare was arguably up of the curve erstwhile it came to subordinate state successful wide unfastened spaces, adjacent if the last merchandise ne'er delivered the benignant of crippled of the year-winning prime that Link’s adventures have. There’s nary denying that Nuts & Bolts was divisive astatine launch, but its bequest lone grows stronger implicit time, and it remains the astir caller introduction into the Banjo-Kazooie series.

91. Condemned: Criminal Origins

We'd reason that Condemned: Criminal Origins was the astir underrated of the Xbox 360's day-one motorboat games. A first-person fearfulness crippled with melee combat from the decorated developers astatine Monolith Productions, it got scarier and scarier the deeper you pushed into its run – and yes, we mean it got adjacent much terrifying aft the memorable section store mannequin sequence. As an FBI cause you had a toolbox of forensic tools to enactment with, but it was much what you had to enactment against that made this acquisition peculiar – namely, an impeccably bleak ambiance that heightened the fearfulness that enveloped you arsenic you played. It remains unsocial amongst fearfulness games adjacent today.

90. Castle Crashers

Indie games person grown truthful ubiquitous that the connection itself has go a battleground, but 18 years ago, “indie” mostly meant games connected Xbox Live Arcade. XBLA was to indie games arsenic Toonami was to anime: an influential pipeline that reshaped organisation and expanded our ideas of what games could beryllium and who was allowed to marque them. Headlining the inaugural “Summer of Arcade” successful 2008, Castle Crashers was a colorful, chaotic belt-scroller with stylish hand-drawn creation consecutive from Newgrounds, the anarchic animation country that would aboriginal spawn the likes of Smiling Friends. It acceptable a caller modular for four-player co-op and helped spark a modern bushed ‘em up revival alongside chap XBLA stalwart Scott Pilgrim: The Game.

89. MechAssault

MechWarrior had agelong been a sci-fi giant-robot simulation staple connected PC. In MechAssault, the BattleTech beingness came to console arsenic a faster-paced, gamepad-friendly mentation of everyone's favourite 31st-century-set franchise, and it translated beautifully. You inactive got to aviator each of the coolest mechs from the PC series, and you could inactive people circumstantial areas of your enemies successful bid to disable them or, successful the lawsuit of a limb takeout, origin them to autumn implicit and explode. But MechAssault boiled it down to purely the action, taking a batch of the between-mission simulation gameplay retired of the equation. The revised look worked, some successful the single-player run and successful the Xbox Live online multiplayer, wherever MechAssault rapidly established itself arsenic 1 of the astir fashionable games connected Microsoft's past brand-new, broadband-only online gaming service.

88. Peter Jackson's King Kong

A motorboat crippled for the Xbox 360, Peter Jackson’s King Kong comes from a clip erstwhile a immense graphical leap could beryllium noticed from conscionable 1 glimpse astatine a screen. The lush jungle of Skull Island acceptable the signifier for a licensed crippled that stood gangly successful an epoch erstwhile galore fell flat, acknowledgment to its comparatively unfastened attack to level design, immersive first-person position devoid of cluttered UI, and wide cinematic presumption that reflected the ambitions of The Lord of the Rings’ director’s remake. Sure, it’s not rather arsenic revolutionary to play now, but it is typical of a infinitesimal successful clip when, overmuch similar its pb character, Xbox was astir to go apical of the nutrient chain.

87. Full Spectrum Warrior

Full Spectrum Warrior famously started retired not arsenic a for-public-consumption video game, but arsenic a grooming instrumentality built for the US Army. It's a real-time tactics game, but dissimilar conscionable astir thing that came earlier oregon since. Its full premise revolves astir the due positioning of your squad of soldiers; it's up to you to virtually enactment your men and women successful presumption to not conscionable succeed, but besides survive, arsenic 1 incorrect determination volition spot conscionable a fewer bullets rapidly hitch retired your squad. Tension is the superior emotion you'll consciousness passim Full Spectrum Warrior's campaign, but successful the precise champion and astir enjoyable of ways.

86. Dead oregon Alive 3

At the clip of the archetypal Xbox’s accomplishment successful November 2001, it was seen arsenic a necessity for a console to motorboat with a beardown warring crippled offering, 1 of the astir fashionable genres astatine the crook of the century. In mentation for that, Microsoft moved to get exclusivity connected Team Ninja’s Dead oregon Alive series, which had antecedently appeared connected some Sony’s PlayStation and Sega’s Dreamcast. The gamble paid off: Dead oregon Alive 3 instantly became a immense deed acknowledgment to its lush visuals and slick combat, selling implicit 1 cardinal copies successful its archetypal 5 months alone. It would spell connected to go 1 of the 10 best-selling games connected the archetypal Xbox console and assistance found the platform’s coagulated foundations astir the world.

85. Perfect Dark Zero

A sequel to Rare’s deed N64 shooter, Perfect Dark Zero began beingness connected the Gamecube earlier it was ordained arsenic a flagship first-party motorboat rubric for Xbox 360 pursuing Microsoft’s acquisition of the workplace successful 2002. While its improvement was a frantic sprint to conscionable the console’s release, the last merchandise is simply a method stunner of a stylish spy thriller that dazzled aboriginal adopters with glossy visuals and a sprawling multiplayer suite that supported a then-whopping 32 players– the cleanable proving crushed for a caller procreation of Xbox Live. Microsoft was intelligibly strapping the rocket to Joanna Dark arsenic a triple-A franchise candidate, but her bid struggled to find a lane among the Master Chiefs and Call of Dutys that dominated the platform. Even so, Perfect Dark Zero endures arsenic an ambitious, feature-rich motorboat showcase, and aft decades of mendacious starts and improvement hell, it remains the last, champion connection connected an Xbox almost-icon.

84. Panzer Dragoon Orta

Panzer Dragon Orta showed that, adjacent pursuing the precise nationalist catastrophe of the Dreamcast, Sega was a institution inactive consenting to instrumentality risks and experiment. In this case, it meant rewinding clip and returning Panzer Dragoon to its obstruction shooter roots, pursuing a little task into the RPG abstraction with 1998’s Panzer Dragoon Saga. The effect was Panzer Dragoon Orta, an Xbox exclusive mentation of the dragon-riding bid that felt some comfortingly old-school and daringly modern. A beautiful, deceivingly analyzable portion of action, Orta took afloat vantage of the powerfulness of the Xbox to make 1 of the champion examples of the on-rails shooter to date.

83. Rayman Legends

Is 2013’s Rayman Legends the top platformers that Nintendo ne'er made? A personality-packed cartoon world, impeccable power system, sublime level design, and an ever-evolving acceptable of mechanics would reason yes, it's surely successful the running, and that’s adjacent earlier we’ve gotten to the brilliantly bonkers rhythm-based situation level acceptable to a Mariachi set screen of ‘Eye of the Tiger’. Fun solo but perfectly joyous with 3 friends successful tow, Rayman Legends is sofa co-op perfection. Its 120 levels are afloat of surprises and crafted astatine specified a consistently precocious modular that nary sooner bash you deliberation you’ve recovered your favourite signifier than different 1 has travel on to dethrone it. There’s truthful overmuch giddy gameplay stuffed into Rayman Legends that it adjacent spills implicit into its loading screens, themselves huffy scrambles for a bonus bosom during the fistful of seconds earlier each level begins. Beautiful, bountiful, and bouncing with energy, Rayman Legends is arsenic bully arsenic 2D platforming gets, and proved a existent dainty successful the dying days of Xbox’s aureate 360 era.

82. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas

Rainbow Six: Vegas isn't conscionable memorable for being a monolithic leap for the Tom Clancy bid into the next-gen connected the Xbox 360, but for its position shift: arsenic you took screen from gunfire down one-armed bandits and beside doorways, the camera pulled backmost from Rainbow Six's emblematic first-person position and brought it into third-person, settling implicit each Operator's enarthrosis - a instrumentality that would beryllium aboriginal copied by Brothers successful Arms and Deus Ex. Meanwhile, Las Vegas proved to beryllium a gorgeous and memorable mounting for this bold caller introduction successful the series, giving america glitzy shootouts connected casino floors. And multiplayer, already a immense deed connected Xbox Live with Rainbow Six 3, blew up again with Vegas, offering an unparalleled tactical, team-based competitory acquisition online. At the clip of release, we called it “the champion first-person shooter connected the Xbox 360”, and portion it whitethorn not person held onto that crown aboriginal successful the console’s lifespan, it inactive remains a precocious constituent for the genre.

81. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

A crippled with possibly the azygous saddest property of a fastener successful each of games, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons acceptable the template for what manager Josef Fares would spell connected to achieve. A story-first puzzle crippled successful which the game’s 2 playable brothers are controlled by an analog instrumentality each, its astute attack to however you usage an Xbox controller made it an instant under-the-radar deed erstwhile it landed with timed exclusivity connected the 360. Fares would permission developer Starbreeze Studios aft Brothers’ merchandise to acceptable up Hazelight and trade immoderate of the champion co-op games ever released, and portion the likes of It Takes Two and Split Fiction propulsion the bounds of creativity erstwhile it comes to gameplay, thing since has rather packed the communicative punch that this travel of 2 boys trying to prevention their dying begetter does.

80. Titanfall

After a litigious divided from Activision, the co-creators of Call of Duty jumped vessel to EA and formed Respawn, determined to reinvent the online FPS for Xbox and bushed their aged crippled astatine its ain game. 2014’s Titanfall dropped arsenic the disappointing Ghosts near Call of Duty vulnerable, with acrobatic question and wall-running gunfights that made “boots connected the ground” shooters consciousness instantly archaic. While the MOBA-influenced multiplayer featured farming minions and screen-shaking eventual mechs summoned from the sky, the deficiency of a run constricted Titanfall’s impact, and by the clip its multiplatform sequel much than rectified that mistake, it was acold excessively precocious to conquer CoD.

79. The Outer Worlds 2

Obsidian Entertainment has softly go 1 of Microsoft's astir important studios, acknowledgment to its consistently beardown output ever since its 2018 acquisition. Following caller forays into oversized undergrowth successful Grounded and Pentiment’s 17th-century Germany, the Pillars of Eternity developer returned to their roots successful 2025 with not one, but 2 enactment RPGs. Avowed was great, but it was The Outer Worlds 2 that led the battalion and sprinkled immoderate of that Fallout: New Vegas magic onto the foundations of its solid, but not wholly palmy predecessor, producing a importantly improved sequel. With trademark humour powering a sci-fi satire afloat of memorable moments, warring factions, and malleable skills and combat systems, The Outer Worlds 2 is 1 of Obsidian’s champion RPGs to date, and arsenic a result, 1 of Xbox’s.

78. Keeper

Considering Microsoft’s caller past erstwhile it comes to the mishandling of its studios, it feels similar somewhat of a occurrence that we’re fortunate capable to get superb small games similar Keeper from Double Fine. A abbreviated and colourful trip, it takes a humble walking lighthouse and its vertebrate companion connected a travel afloat of puzzles that surprises with each crook and tumble its communicative and characters take. What starts retired seeming truthful elemental steadily reveals its secrets and joys successful a hidden gem that feels similar the nonstop benignant of acquisition Game Pass was created for.

77. Jade Empire

BioWare’s oft-forgotten 2005 RPG is the evolutionary nexus betwixt Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. The Chinese mythology-inspired Jade Empire builds upon the motivation choices of KOTOR, but leaves down its cumbersome D&D-rooted combat successful favour of real-time battles that amended convey the fluidity of martial arts. With its fantastic companions, engaging romances, and richly elaborate archetypal worldbuilding, Jade Empire is precise intelligibly the starting constituent for BioWare’s glittering 360 era, adjacent if its achievements were rapidly eclipsed by Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

76. Gears 5

Where Gears of War 4 reflected galore of the themes of its predecessors, Gears 5 shattered the reflector to instrumentality the COGs into thing bigger. Kait Diaz, JD Fenix, and Del Walker are joined by Marcus Fenix and different acquainted faces successful a communicative that expands the Gears of War lore successful an breathtaking mode arsenic they are pitted against the Swarm's escalated aggression. New combat additions similar Jack's abilities marque for large run gameplay updates without straying excessively acold from the absorption connected fantabulous cover-shooting, and its larger sandbox environments support things caller with optional exploration and, of course, much combat challenges. The iconic, gory messiness of gunplay is besides fantastic successful the assortment of multiplayer modes and Horde. Developer The Coalition enactment the cherry connected apical of this fantastic third-person shooter with the Hivebusters DLC, which features wholly caller characters and a communicative that complements the main campaign. This implicit bundle is easy connected the Xbox One's finest games.

Come backmost time (Wednesday 21st) for picks 75-51!