Greatest Xbox 360 Masterpieces, Ranked

The Xbox 360 is officially a retro console, even though it seems like only yesterday that the Red Ring of Death was a thing. While the 2005 launch, because of this controversy, was troubling for Microsoft, they still managed to have a great console life cycle thanks to their console-exclusive deals.

Compared to the Wii and PS3, the Xbox 360 had more variety when it came to first-party and third-party exclusives that still rip to this day, including Lost Odyssey and Halo: Reach. Let’s rank the best console exclusives the Xbox 360 celebrated in its heyday, taking into consideration action, narratives, and set pieces.

10 Viva Piñata

Animal Crossing With Piñatas

Amongst the brutal action RPGs and shooters of the Xbox 360 generation, there was the chill life sim from Rare called Viva Piñata. Players will be given a bleak plot of land to tend, which can attract animals that resemble piñatas. A squirrel, donkey, bird, and so on have exaggerated designs and personalities.

Creating a bog by digging around water or fencing in a grass structure will attract more animals to the garden, but this can also bring more trouble since not all animals get along, plus there are invaders. At times, it can feel more like an RTS than a life sim as there is a lot to manage, but the gameplay loop is addictive once players get into the flow of things.

9 Forza Horizon

Driving Has Found A New Calling

The Forza Horizon franchise has come a long way since the Xbox 360 days, where it began, but this initial entry is still a magical trip to Colorado. Forza Horizon was an attempt to bring more of a story and structure to racing games, giving players access to a music festival that tied into status, which allowed them to enter new events, races, and so on.

There were traditional races on tracks, but the cooler exhibitions allowed players to navigate streets openly or to race helicopters in big matches. While the visuals have certainly aged a bit, Forza Horizon is still one of the best racing games on the Xbox 360.

8 Dance Central 3

Keeping Up With The Beat

Dance Central 3 is the final core game in the franchise on the Xbox 360, and Harmonix pulled out all the stops. There are more songs jammed into the game than the previous two entries, there are more moves to learn, and there is more side content to peruse.

Learning a dance routine is always harder in a Dance Central game than in a game like Just Dance, as the body movement matters more. That said, there’s nothing like a good practice session to get warmed up, followed by sweating to the oldies all in the name of fitness, and it’s still fun alone or in a party setting.

7 The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings

Geralt The Deal Maker

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was the first game in the series to come to consoles, and to this day, it is still console-exclusive to the Xbox 360. The game picks up shortly after the first game, with Geralt recounting his time with a king defending his realm from would-be conquerors.

The rest of the game is action-focused, but dialogue options can alter how the story goes disk. It’s a more linear game than The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but the action-based gameplay, storytelling, and world design of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is still great.

6 Super Meat Boy

A Sloppy Masterpiece

Super Meat Boy was one of the first indie games to make it big on the Xbox 360, which would later receive ports on consoles. As the titular Meat Boy, players had to go into every level expecting to rescue Bandage Girl from Dr. Fetus. At the end, players were rejected by Dr. Fetus and had to move on, sometimes with elaborate boss battles at the end of worlds.

It was a play on rescuing Princess Peach in multiple castles throughout Super Mario Bros., but the pixel-perfect design of Super Meat Boy’s levels made it more challenging and thrilling to complete, between the actual platforming and avoiding traps like spinning saw blades.

5 Gears Of War

A 21 Chainsaw Gun Salute

Gears of War helped refine cover-based shooting mechanics and game design overall for a full generation. The game can now be enjoyed on other consoles, but the original trilogy made its home on the Xbox 360. This first game focused on ex-convict Marcus Fenix getting reinstated into the military to fight back against the new Locust army, who were the alien species of this franchise.

Teaming up with squads made encounters more engaging, along with rushing between cover and the active reload added a thrill to gunplay too. Best of all, sawing through an enemy using the chainsaw rifle was pure bliss.

4 Lost Odyssey

A Reimagining Of Final Fantasy

Lost Odyssey was an exclusive turn-based RPG for the Xbox 360, which is backwards compatible now on Xbox consoles, but nowhere else. It was developed by Mistwalker, which was the father of Final Fantasy’s, Hironobu Sakaguchi, studio after leaving Square Enix. Set in a fantastical world constantly at war, immortals are recruited into the war effort to stop a world-ending future.

The gameplay is fairly standard for a turn-based RPG, but the storytelling is what really sets this game apart decades later, thanks to the writing, characters, and high drama in following immortal beings throughout the ages and the melancholy that accompanies longevity.

3 Mass Effect

Star Wars Crossed With Star Trek

The original Mass Effect started as an Xbox 360 exclusive before getting ported elsewhere at the end of this console generation, but even with the port, this is a fully immersive Xbox RPG for many. Developed by BioWare, this was their chance at creating a Star Wars-like sci-fi universe post-Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and it worked.

Creating a character through Commander Shepard, getting to choose where conversations and the story went, the deep lore for planets and races, and everything in between helped make Mass Effect a memorable universe. The squad-based gameplay, cover shooting, and powers didn’t hurt it either.

2 Fable 2

Shaping The Hero’s Journey

Fable 2 is almost everything the first game promised and then some. The start is slow, giving the player-created character time to grow in their almost Dickensian snowy town, but eventually, the player’s sister gets murdered and sets things in motion. For RPG fans, they were given plenty to interact with, from making friends in town to tackling quests.

They had a whole host of weapons, guns, and magic to fight enemies with in real-time, and their dog companion made the wandering hours through caves and forests more enjoyable. With good and bad choices, and realistic reactions from NPCs, Fable 2’s world of Albion felt more alive than most games on the Xbox 360.

1 Halo: Reach

Going Out With A Bang

Halo: Reach is a crowning achievement for the Halo franchise, not seen since the original game. It managed to tell a compelling and yet predictable story of how the last Spartan unit, outside of Master Chief, held their own against the Covenant on the planet Reach.

The dynamic between Noble Team was compelling, the power-based armor mods made the encounters more exciting, and the weapon variety, accompanied by the franchise’s golden gunplay, made this a great late Xbox 360 gem. The multiplayer was also a solid piece to the puzzle, and overall, this was a great swan song for Bungie regarding the franchise before tackling something bigger: Destiny.