The Xbox 360 is Microsoft’s second console was released in 2005, ahead of both Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii. Microsoft took everything they learned with the original Xbox and improved upon it greatly when creating the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 had many fantastic games like Halo 3 and Fable II, but the console also started some brand new series like Gears of War and Mass Effect.
With the large selection of amazing games, it’s inevitable that some will be glossed over. So, to help shine some light on some games that didn’t get attention in there day, here are 10 lesser-known Xbox 360 games that could use more love.
10 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men Origins: Wolverine coincided with the release of the movie with the same name. While the movie is forgettable, the game is one of the greatest games in which you can control Wolverine. You rip through soldiers with your Adamantium claws, dive from person to person, and build up combos, similar to games like Devil May Cry and God of War.
The game also allows you to wear one of many Wolverine costumes, so you can walk around as Hugh Jackman or classic yellow and blue Wolverine. After a long battle, you see Wolverine’s healing factor in effect as pieces of his body slowly regenerate until he is fully healed again.
9 Prototype
Prototype lets you play as an anti-hero who can run around a large open city. You are a shapeshifter named Alex Mercer who has a variety of abilities from climbing buildings, jumping incredibly high, morphing into different people, turning his arms into weapons, and more.
As Alex Mercer, you must stop an outbreak of Blacklight, which is a plague that turns people into monsters that will begin to kill those around them. Prototype was followed up by a sequel, and it also had some DLC which expanded upon the base game.
8 Red Faction: Guerrilla
Red Faction started off as a series that consisted mainly of first-person shooters set on Mars. The main gimmick of the series has always been the destruction of your surroundings; whether its walls or buildings, you can blow through just about anything.
When the Xbox 360 came around, Red Factions once novel concept that was rather limited at its time could now be fully realized. Red Faction: Guerrilla gives you explosives, a hammer, and many weapons so you can destroy anything and everything in your path with a very sophisticated destruction and physics system.
7 Condemned: Criminal Origins
In Condemned: Criminal Origins, you play as a cop going through creepy places to find serial killers and other outcasts of society. While most first-person games at the time focused mainly on gunfights, Condemned: Criminal Origins focuses more on hand-to-hand combat.
You can pick up a variety of weapons from 2X4s, bats, and pipes and temporarily use them on enemies, though there is the occasional gun with very few bullets. The combat system relies on dodging and blocking your enemies melee attacks and also dealing with them trying to do the same, making for tactical gameplay.
6 Deathsmiles
Deathsmiles is a shoot ‘em up developed by one of the premiere shoot ‘em up developers, Cave. Deathsmiles has a gothic horror style with witches, demons, skeletons, and other things that go bump in the night. As with most of Cave’s shoot ‘em ups, your hitbox isn’t your character but a small orb in the middle of your character.
Where in most shoot ‘em ups you have the ability to fire forward, in Deathsmiles, you can turn your character around and shoot enemies that are approaching from behind. There are multiple playable characters in the game, all with different attacks and specials.
5 Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis
Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis is possibly one of the most unknown Rockstar games in existence. It acted almost like a tech demo, showing off just how great the Xbox 360 could look with, at the time, realistic character models that sweat in a somewhat realistic fashion.
It was also just a fun table tennis game to play with friends. While the game doesn’t look too great today, back when it came out, it was quite the sight to behold and really got people excited for the upcoming generation.
4 Shadows of the Damned
Shadows of the Damned was developed by Grasshopper Studio and Suda 51, the creators of Killer7, Killers is Dead, and the No More Heroes games. Like many of Suda 51’s games, Shadows of the Damned has a very distinct style. There is an excellent use of color while also having a dark atmosphere.
The game centers around a demon hunter named Garcia Hotspur who goes into the City of the Damned to save his girlfriend. The game has a lot of low brow humor with your man gun being called Johnson as well as many other phallic jokes.
3 Shadow Complex
Shadow Complex was a very early Xbox Live Arcade game that was later ported over to other systems with a remastered version. In Shadow Complex, you explore a large facility and find different abilities that help you explore previously inaccessible areas of the facility—in other words, Shadow Complex is a Metroidvania.
However, Shadow Complex was released long before the near-oversaturation of the market when the genre was still essentially dead. The main character was also voiced by Nolan North not long before he was featured in pretty much every single game released in the 2010s.
2 The Darkness
The Darkness stars Jackie Estacado, a mobster who is possessed by an entity known as the Darkness on his 21st birthday. The Darkness manifests itself as two black serpent-like creatures that protrude out of Jackie’s back. The Darkness gives Jackie the ability to throw enemies, create small black holes, and more, as long as he is enveloped by shadows.
You can also summon little demons to come and help you, each with different abilities. At one point in the game, you visit hell, which takes the form of a dark and despicable place reminiscent of the trenches found in world wars.
1 Ninja Gaiden 2
The Ninja Gaiden series started off as a beat ‘em up that was then brought home to the Nintendo Entertainment System as a brutally hard action platformer. Ninja Gaiden had a trilogy on the NES, but the series laid dormant for many years until it was rebooted for the original Xbox.
Ninja Gaiden 2 is a sequel to the Xbox remake and plays rather similarly to it. Added to Ninja Gaiden 2 is the ability to dismember your enemies; you can take off their arms and legs, but they will still attack until you’ve delt the finishing blow or cut off their head.