It became a running joke for several years that Xbox didn’t have exclusive games. However, that’s never really been true. The company doesn’t publish or develop as many bangers as Nintendo and Sony, but it isn’t exactly a threadbare cupboard of a back catalog. Of course, most players remember Halo or Gears of War, but there are several underrated Xbox games that many players missed at the time. It’s a shame, too, because many of these games deserved more love and could’ve been the start of a series. The list below isn’t meant to be a ranking of forgotten Xbox games, so don’t get too upset if your favorite is left off the list. Instead, think of this as a way to jog your memory about some of Xbox’s best games.
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Here are six Xbox games you probably forgot.
6) Blinx: The Time Sweeper
Blinx was one of Microsoft’s early attempts to create a mascot similar to Mario or Sonic. It’s a classic action-platformer that stars Blinx the cat, who uses his vacuum cleaner to collect items from around the world. Once you suck up enough time crystals, you’ll gain access to Blinx’s time powers, the game’s standout feature.
Players can reverse time, speed up and slow down time, pause time, and create a clone of themselves using the record feature. You aren’t affected by any of the time controls, letting you work your way through tricky platforming challenges. Blinx did get a sequel, but it barely featured the titular character. Unfortunately, that was the end of the series.
5) Quantum Break
Players are starting to come back around to Quantum Break after seeing Shawn Ashmore return to the Remedyverse in Alan Wake 2. He’s technically playing a different character because Microsoft owns the rights to Quantum Break, but his name is Tim Breaker. It’s about as on-the-nose as you can get.
And Remedy’s experimental mix between a video game and a TV is certainly worth checking out. It has an excellent cast alongside Ashmore, featuring Aiden Gillen, Lance Reddick, and Dominic Monaghan. Plus, it saw Ashmore reunite with Brooke Nevin, which was very important for fans of Nickelodeon’s horrible Animorphs adaptation. It’s not a perfect game, but it’s neat to see Remedy playing with the medium in a way that obviously informed Alan Wake 2.
4) D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die
It would be fair to say that I shouldn’t count D4 because it is an episodic game that ended on a cliffhanger, which the developer has never made good on. That said, this is Swery65 at his strangest. It’s not for everyone, but this wacky detective tale will leave you howling with laughter and wanting so much more.
I’ve often said that if I win the lottery, the first thing I’m going to do is back up the truck to let Swery finish D4, and that’s because this game is so delightful. It’s wild that this was a Kinect game first. Only Swery would decide to do something this weird on that platform. No matter how you feel about D4, you have to respect Swery for the gumption to make this happen.
3) Lost Odyssey
In the mid-2000s, Microsoft wanted to try to reach its Japanese audience with a few new RPGs. Spoiler alert: both of those games will appear on this list. Lost Odyssey is up first, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worse. It is an old-school RPG that uses random battles and traditional, menu-based combat.
Some might think that made Lost Odyssey feel a little dated, but when everything else is this great, it doesn’t really matter. Lost Odyssey looks gorgeous, and the central story is one of the best you can play through on the Xbox 360. It all comes down to the characters you meet, which are well-realized, making it stand out on the platform.
2) Blue Dragon
Blue Dragon is the other big RPG Microsoft published in the 2000s. They had Blinx‘s developer, Artoon, partner with Mistwalker, and brought in Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, to work as the lead artist. Like Lost Odyssey, some reviewers were annoyed at how traditional Blue Dragon is, but if you don’t care about innovation, there’s a great game here.
Of course, the standout feature here is Toriyama’s art. That’s almost always the case when he’s involved. However, the story is also a blast. It’s not the best RPG you’ll ever play, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth checking out. It proved popular enough to get two sequels and an anime adaptation.
1) Shadow Complex
Shadow Complex is a Metroidvania from the team that gave the world Infinity Blade. This Xbox Live Arcade game was one of the best to ever launch on the platform, earning widespread critical and commercial acclaim. As you’d expect from Chair, it looks great and is something you can go back to for dozens of hours.
Unfortunately, Chair put out Infinity Blade a year later and has never gone back to Shadow Complex. We did get a remastered version in 2015, and there were reports of a sequel in 2016, but nothing has ever come from it. Founder Donald Mustard moved into a role as Epic Games’ worldwide creative director that year, and Chair hasn’t released anything since SpyJinx was cancelled in 2020.
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