When Microsoft entered the console market with its Xbox brand, people outside the company didn’t necessarily have high hopes. Throughout the 1990s, the industry was dominated by Japanese hardware companies like Nintendo, Sega, and Sony. But Microsoft meant business, and its first console effort provided some excellent reasons to give the brand a chance.
One of the best reasons to own an Xbox was undoubtedly Halo: Combat Evolved, with a compelling first-person campaign and a multiplayer mode that kept people busy for dozens or even hundreds of hours. Bungie’s sci-fi epic shifted a lot of hardware units, but it wasn’t the only reason for players to be excited. Here are seven of the best things about the original Xbox that aren’t Halo.
7
Sega’s early support
The Xbox came out during a difficult time for Sega. The company had just ended an unfortunate string of hardware failures that concluded with the death of the Dreamcast, its final console. That platform had offered all sorts of great games, but they didn’t connect with wide audiences because everyone was too focused on the PlayStation 2, which offered a built-in DVD player that made it a particularly attractive prospect.
Microsoft offered Sega a way to present its own vision for a console future without devoting all of its resources to challenging hardware. A string of terrific Sega titles hit the Xbox during its early years, and Microsoft promoted them aggressively, from Jet Set Radio Future to Sega GT 2002 and even more niche affairs like Gun Valkyrie. That support persisted throughout the console’s life, and also produced Panzer Dragoon Orta, one of the very finest games on the system.
6
Burger King’s commercial experiment
Commercial tie-ins weren’t huge news by the time Burger King released a series of three video games near the end of the Xbox life-cycle. They had been around for some time, particularly during the Atari 2600 era. In 1983, Chase the Chuck Wagon even built a game around a dog chasing a wagon, which consumers obtained by sending in UPC labels clipped from bags of Purina dog food.
Burger King brought that convention back with Sneak King, PocketBike Racer, and Big Bumpin’. At the time, Burger King advertised heavily in print and on TV with its creepy “king” character, who featured in each of the games. To get a copy, players paid a small fee while placing an order for a value meal. The games worked on both the original Xbox and the newer 360, a cross-generation wonder that people have largely forgotten.
5
Microsoft’s oddities
Players naturally associate Microsoft with Halo, which it published on behalf of Bungie. Fable, from Lionhead Studios, kicked off another successful franchise that’s scheduled to return early in 2027 with a reboot from Playground Games. But the giant publisher also took chances on less conventional fare during the era.
One such game was Kung Fu Chaos, which offered a parody of ‘70s B-movie chaos. In a slapstick fighting brawler along the lines of Power Stone, players survived perilous environments and talked trash to their opponents until one fighter emerged the victor. The edgy humor doesn’t hold up well today, but plenty of players had fun with it at the time.
Other unusual releases from the time included Phantom Dust, a deck builder with 3D arena battles, and Voodoo Vince. The latter was a platformer featuring a voodoo doll roaming New Orleans. To harm enemies, he had to inflict damage on himself through dangerous maneuvers, like setting himself on fire. Players never knew quite what to expect from Microsoft Game Studios at the time, and it was wonderful.
4
The hard drive
First released on Nov. 15, 2001, the original Xbox missed the ‘90s by only a little bit. As it helped define the 2000s gaming scene, it did so with help from one powerful component: the hard drive.
Players suddenly had a lot of space to store their game saves. They could install them directly to the device, no longer relying on separate memory cards. If they preferred, they could also rip audio CDs to the drive and then play their favorite titles accompanied by their favorite music. You haven’t lived until you’ve played Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball while Creed, Nickelback, and Avril Lavigne croon in the background.
Unlike today, when a required install for a game like Grand Theft Auto 6 can eat up roughly a third of your available space on a PlayStation 5, the original Xbox supported large libraries without flinching. That made it an especially good time to be an Xbox fan.
3
Tecmo’s ninja-fueled revolution
Formerly known as Tehkan, the game publisher that became Tecmo (and later Koei Tecmo) published its first original console game on the Famicom in 1986. Traditionally a Japanese publisher, the company nevertheless made a name for itself in North America, thanks in large part to the classic Ninja Gaiden series.
Unexpectedly, Tecmo threw considerable support behind the Xbox hardware, and with excellent results. Ninja Gaiden (later released in an expanded form as Ninja Gaiden Black) became one of the hardware’s biggest successes. Tecmo also brought over the excellent Dead or Alive fighting game series, which felt like the perfect match for Microsoft’s powerful system. The beautiful environments and the detailed fighters within them provided ample eye candy to remind players that console gaming had come a long way since the 8-bit figures they remembered stomping on turtles only a decade prior.
Graphics were still a huge differentiator, and Tecmo was arguably the era’s developer that did the most to prove the Xbox was a graphical powerhouse.
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2
The bridge between console and PC gaming
Console gaming had a certain feel to it by the time the Xbox arrived, and Microsoft quickly pushed some boundaries. Today, many games release on PC alongside their console counterparts, but that wasn’t the case back in 2001, when Xbox began building bridges across some of the biggest gaps.
On Xbox, we got to see some games that surprised us, like The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and even Sid Meier’s Pirates. Microsoft also published versions of the original Fable across the two platforms, and the role-playing epic felt just right on both. And MechAssault made a big splash when Xbox Live launched, proving the power of the hardware to provide compelling online play experiences.
The Dreamcast deserves credit for making some early efforts in the same arena, but the Xbox stuck the landing. In the process, it set Microsoft up to enjoy the even more successful generation that followed with the Xbox 360.
1
Some Rare triumphs
By the time the Xbox came around, the strong relationship between Rare and Nintendo had soured enough that the time was ripe for someone else to swoop in and acquire the most storied software developer in Twycross, England. Microsoft saw the opportunity and went for it.
Although it has failed to capitalize on the Rare acquisition the way people once thought it might, Microsoft did acquire some early gems in the years before Sea of Thieves. Grabbed by the Ghoulies and Conker: Live & Reloaded both launched on the original Xbox. The latter served as one of the final Microsoft releases on its first console. A remake of the surprisingly vulgar Nintendo 64 classic, it provided not only a visual overhaul of the single-player campaign, but multiplayer modes that kept players busy fragging each other for hours at a time.
Most of Rare’s post-Nintendo triumphs came during the Xbox 360 era, but its earliest efforts on the original Xbox are solid games that hold up reasonably well today. They didn’t exactly set the world on fire, but they’re fun to revisit even now. You can still acquire them on the Xbox Store today, and they’re well worth a look.