I received my XBox as a Christmas gift back in 2003. This was more than two years after it had been released, and by then there were many games already available. I actually owned one, D&D Heroes, that I had bought several months earlier. I guess I knew what Santa was bringing me for Christmas that year 🙂
While I didn’t buy an excessive amount of games for the system, I played it fairly frequently for the next 2.5 years and remember enjoying it. Some games, such as Morrowind and the Otogi series were particularly good. But the last game I purchased was in early August of 2006. Since I never had an XBox 360 or an XBox One, that day ended my time as an XBox player.
That is the sum total of my XBox collection (except the console, of course); 38 games for which I spent (in total) only about $450. I very rarely spent full price for an XBox games, and many of them cost me under $10. One of them cost only $5 new and a certain trilogy cost even less:
Those are the three Burger King games released in 2006. They retailed for $4 apiece but I recall there was a deal when you bought all three at once (maybe $10 for the set). They’re simplistic – today they’d be called ‘mobile games’ – and little more than curiosities, but a memorable part of my collection.
These two games are the highlights of my collection:
The Otogi series is a magnificent set of two games set in mythical Japan. Complex and challenging, they are mission-based action games featuring absolutely beautiful graphics, destructible environments and lots of intricate combat. Developed by From Software, both games contain elements that would resurface in the Souls series, and in my opinion these two are important milestones in the history of the action-RPG. They are so good in fact, that these two games along justified the XBox for me. Neither were released for any other console, or have even been rereleased or remastered.
As for strangest game, that award would go to a demo I have of a Magic The Gathering action game from 2003:
Entitled Battlegrounds, this is a terrible RTS-style game where you frantically summon creatures and cast spells to defeat your opponent in real time. There’s no cards, or even decks, and it only has superficial resemblance to an actual game of MTG. While I’ve only got the demo, I obviously wasn’t (and aren’t) impressed enough to buy the actual game!
The final XBox game I ever bought was this one:
Since I had the system out and connected for a bit of nostalgia, and since JJ were visiting, it seemed like a good time for an old fashioned retro gaming tournament! So once again KLS, JBF and myself sat ourselves down and answered the question of who was the superior videogamer. The ‘standard rules’ applied (one game each, no practice, winner goes first on next game) and we – as always – only played games with a score.
Here’s the per-game result:
And here’s the cumulative score result:
It seems I haven’t lost my mojo!
Anyway the XBox has now been boxed back up and returned to ‘deep storage’ where it will remain for at least another decade or so. Unlike almost every other system I own there are no games for the XBox I’ve always been after, so if and when I get it out it will probably just be for another go at Otogi or maybe Solomon’s Key. Who knows if the system will even work then…
Speaking of old games tourneys, we’re off to NH for another visit to Funspot this weekend. Watch this space for photos…