Top 10 Xbox 360 Exclusives

IT’S CHRISTMAS!!! And you know what that means don’t you? It’s time to whip out your wallet and hand over your hard-earned cash for some seriously good games. In this special series of VideoGamer.com Top Tens, we list the best exclusive games for each of the seven major platforms. In our final list, we go out with a bang, bringing you the ten greatest Xbox 360 exclusives. Microsoft’s mean machine has got loads of monstrously good games just gagging to be played. Read on for our run-down of the cream of the crop.

10. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts – 2008

We kick off with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, the follow-up to the classic N64 series of games. When the game was first revealed, its vehicle driving sent many a forum into meltdown. “WE WANT CLASSIC BANJO-KAZOOIE” old school N64 fans cried. As Rare tried to calm the doom-mongers down, everyone else rubbed their hands with glee: Nuts and Bolts is one of the best platformers of this generation. Colourful, slick and accessible, it is for many the 360’s answer to the PS3’s LittleBigPlanet. User-created content is core to the experience; simply making vehicles is good fun, and with the ability to instantly test them out you can sink hours into one creation alone. There is an argument to say Rare hasn’t justified the enormous price Microsoft paid for the developer back in 2002. While the games it makes today haven’t had the same hardcore impact as those of old, they’re no less innovative.

9. Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 – 2008

Bizarre’s addictive retro shooter begins by showing you your high scores and how they compare with those of your friends. What genius! Immediately you can tell how close you are to overtaking that gloating git on Deadline, or how close the gloating git is to overtaking your score on King. But even if Retro Evolved 2 didn’t have such cleverly designed online leaderboards, it’d still be brilliant. The game’s striking vector graphics look lovely in high definition, the banging electro soundtrack’s iPod worthy, and the game modes are varied and addictive. All you’re doing is moving a little ship around a blank space, directing its laser fire and dodging squirming shapes, but oh what fun! Retro Evolved is Xbox LIVE’s best game, and a worthy entry on this list.

8. Project Gotham Racing 4 – 2007

Some people (i.e. idiots like us) were disappointed that the original Project Gotham didn’t feature Batman in any shape or form. Still, we’ve gotten over it now, and PGR 4 is still one of our favourite racers of all time. The Kudos system is one of those great design concepts that stands the test of time, a mechanic that made racing so much more than just a mad dash for first place. PGR 4 stuck to the blueprints that made its siblings so much fun, and then it threw in a load of hyper-slick weather effects; you could even get the game to match its setting to real-world meteorological reports. Michael Fish went mad for this feature. Probably.

7. Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise – 2008

Life sims are so funny. They’re called simulations, but really they’re nothing like real life. If they were, then your garden would be full of piñatas who run amok if not looked after properly. Actually, scratch that. Maybe your garden is full of piñatas, piñatas that have a life of their own, a bit like the toys in that kid’s bedroom in Toy Story. If that’s the case, ignore us. If it’s not the case, know this: Trouble in Paradise is the best life sim on console, and proof that the creative juices are still flowing at UK super developer Rare. It’s a refreshingly original game, packed with interesting ideas and eye-catching gameplay. You must plant seeds, grow plants and decorate your garden, or face ultimate doom. Addictive and pleasant, Trouble in Paradise is a superb tonic to the Xbox 360’s legion of dour kill-em-ups.

6. Dead Rising – 2006

In the middle of the Willamette Mall zombie outbreak, someone gives a handgun to photojournalist Frank West. But woah, hang on a second Frank – do you know how to use one of these things? “Kinda,” he replies with a shrug. “I’ve covered wars, ya know?” It’s a gloriously nonsensical answer – but we don’t care: Frank West is a man after our own heart, a hero who will happily wear women’s clothes as he batters a zombie to death with a plastic lightsaber. He’s a creative, open-minded guy – and Dead Rising is a game for creative, open-minded gamers – as well as those who enjoy a real challenge. It has a few issues, notably a mean-as-hell save system, but it’s also a true original – a sandbox survival horror where a giant parasol is a viable alternative to a pump-action shotgun.

5. Crackdown – 2007

Hey you. Yeah you, the one responsible for that ridiculous car ad where Captain Picard insists BMW creates joy. Listen up. This game here, Crackdown, is the real joy creator. “We realised a long time ago that what you make people feel is just as important as what you make,” says Professor X. “At BMW we don’t just make cars, we make…..joy.” No you don’t. Realtime Worlds does. Does your BMW let you scale skyscrapers? Don’t think so. Does it let you leap off of said skyscrapers onto cars? Nah. Does it let you do both of these things in a glorious open world? Nein. Now bog off.

4. Fable II – 2008

God bless Peter Molyneux. He certainly knows how to talk up his projects, but he also knows how to deliver fresh ideas by the dozen. Fable II is the kind of fantasy adventure where you can sack off the main quest in favour of organising a massive bisexual orgy – regardless of the fact that you’re already a serial bigamist. Sure, the central plot has plenty of great moments – as well as the vocal talents of Zoë Wanamaker and Stephen Fry – but it’s the sideshow diversions that really make the game sing: the talking doors, the foul-mouthed gargoyles, and the crowds of people who surround you as your fame (or notoriety) spreads. Fable II slays the Beast of Fantasy Clichés, and it turns its gizzards into some form of novelty hat. It’s also got one of our all-time favourite video game dogs.

3. Forza 3 – 2009

Imagine a kitten receiving a little dose of catnip. Okay, now imagine a kitten in the middle of a catnip factory where every valve and pipe is leaking pure meow-meow goodness into the atmosphere. Now, use your imagination to replace the kitten with a car-loving gamer, and the catnip with some kind of petrol-head equivalent. That’s Forza 3 in a nutshell. It has anything and everything you could ever possibly want from a driving game: over 400 cars, more than 100 different tracks, and the ability to monitor and tinker with absolutely everything – right down to the pressure in each of your tyres. If it were a fragrance, it would be called “Vroom Vroom, by Jean Paul Gaultier”. But it’s not – it’s a video game. And it’s called Forza 3.

2. Gears of War 2 – 2008

There are chainsaws, and then there are chainsaw guns. The muscle-bound Marcus Fenix’s preferred tool of destruction is perhaps the most iconic video game weapon of all time. It’s deadly, devastating, and delightful. And that description works for Gears 2, too. Epic’s Clifford Bleszinski, Gears’ celebrity game designer and official carrier of the chainswaw gun during televised presentations, famously said Gears 2 was “bigger, better and more bad-ass”. He was right. It’s a bloody, no holds barred assault on the senses; a macho, testosterone-fuelled march down blockbuster ally that shoots first and asks questions later. More importantly, it’s altogether more ambitious than the original: Fenix and co’s battle against the Locust often results in epic encounters with hundreds of the mutant monsters on screen at once. Add to this more varied gameplay, addictive multiplayer and stunning visuals, and you’ve got a recipe for one of the greatest shooters of all time.

1. Halo 3 – 2007

Bungie’s masterpiece, Halo 3, is the definitive Xbox 360 exclusive. It arrived on a wave of unprecedented hype, immediately became the most popular game on Xbox LIVE, and totally blew us away. The campaign is a marked improvement on Halo 2’s disappointing, disjointed effort – the graphics are better, the story is cohesive and the levels are memorable. But it is the multiplayer that steals the show. Halo 3’s competitive fragging is incredible. The maps are brilliant and the game modes are plentiful and varied. For fans, Master Chief’s regenerating shield, floaty jumping and super strength gun bucks make it the best console FPS of all time. But what of the non-shooty features? The Forge wrestles control of level design away from Bungie and allows players to tinker themselves. Bungie.net integration provides astonishingly detailed stat tracking, and budding Michael Bays can make their own movies and take their own screenshots and share them with the Halo-loving world. There is no more groundbreaking an Xbox 360 exclusive. Halo 3, and the faceless Master Chief, conquer all.