Xbox History: The Best Games by Month

Nothing interesting this month for me. February though… :open_mouth:

Just wanted to say that I was a huge NFL 2K fan back in the day but didn’t care for NFL 2K2 all that much. For me, it was 2K3 > 2K5 > 2K1 > 2K4 > 2K2. 2K5 was the best game in the series especially if you were using FlyingFinn’s ESPN NFL 2K5 gamesave editor on PC but I loved 2K3 more.

Indeed, I think my personal favorite is 2K5 as well, but since I’m looking at this month by month I consider it to be the best game released on Xbox in January 2002.

True and im sure you meant to type January 2002 because if not, 2K2 was truly ahead of it’s time. :rofl:

Ha good catch! Edited!

February 2002, a brighter and more varied set of releases on the original Xbox. There are some interesting titles here, but again, when I look back at my time with the games there was really one clear answer:

February 2002

Jet Set Radio Future

JSRF is the definitive edition of JSF, a super interesting roller-skating / graffiti game from Sega with a killer soundtrack. Some of you obviously knew this was coming, and it’s clear why. JSRF was a gem of a game at the time. The look and feel of the game is unique, coming across with so much of that “weird” Sega from the time that I miss today. It’s just funky, cool, and colorful. The soundtrack is one of my favorite of the era, it’s one that I could just cruise around to in the game not really doing much of anything and jam out to.

The gameplay is still something incredibly different than most of what’s out there, and it’s wild to think that a big publisher would take a chance on something like this. Sure, it’s essentially a platformer, and sure it can be unwieldy at times, but skating those lines, grinding, and tagging your target spot was so chill and incredible. I love the world here and the oddball characters. I love that it made rollerblading look somewhat cool, especially when skateboarding was THE THING at the time. So many fond memories of this game, it’s one I’d love to see improved and modernized for a newer generation of gamers as I’m not sure the core gameplay is entirely easy to grasp compared to many modern titles. This one is often very cheap on Steam and other platforms, runs on a potato, so if you’re interested I highly recommend giving it a line around the park.

Shout outs to both Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions (not for being a great game, but for being the first Yakuza game on Xbox) and WWF Raw (because at the time I was still familiar with wrestling storylines and whatnot). JSRF stands tall above these, but they’re worth a mention. Am I missing something here? Is JSRF the best title of February 2002 or do you think another reigns supreme?

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A spiritual successor to JSR is coming and it has the same composer as those games. :fire: His twitter is some of the weirdest stuff I’ve seen lmao guy’s a major shitposter.

What’s the name of the game? I’d be interested to check it out. Are they making it more “modern friendly”?

Really wish they’d make this game backwards compatible someday, I’ve never gotten to play it and I’ve always wanted to.

Do you have a PC? You can grab it on Steam, it runs on mostly anything, and is a decent port overall. It’s not Future, but vanilla JSR I believe but it should be ok.

I’m talking about Future. I already have vanilla JSR on Xbox, since it’s backwards compatible with the 360 port.

March 2002 saw a decent amount of releases and a few genuine bangers on the original Xbox. A tough month choose the best!

March 2002

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3

Recently, the THPS series saw an HD collection of 1+2. While this was amazing to any old Tony Hawk fan, many people wished for a remaster of THPS3 - DLC or otherwise. And for good reason! THPS3 is what some consider the pinnacle of the series. It was an absolutely solid game through and through, providing hours of fun for childhood me.

I remember first playing it on the Xbox and being shocked at just how good it looked compared to the PSX originals. The speed, the levels, the music…this was the type of game I’d bought an Xbox to play. It took what was good about the first two games and seems to do the impossible - enhance them. I spent hours trying to collect all the goodies, find the perfect line, and wrack up the highest score to throw in my friends’ faces. I’ve never been big into skateboarding, which goes to show just how good the Pro Skater series is. It’s just fun, and THPS3 is one of the very best.

Special shout-out to one of my favorite Xbox games, Gunvalkyrie. Another Sega game, it was a ton of fun and something that hasn’t seen a sequel that I truly feel deserves one. Or heck, let’s just get it on Xbox BC! This would have taken the spot, but I can’t deny just how much fun THPS3 was and still is to this day. What would you consider the best of March 2002 on Xbox?

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Great idea for a thread, I wanted to jump in with some memories myself but I am old and need sleep more. Hopefully I can consider some responses over the next day or so.

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I remember that Jet Set Radio was included with the Xbox when my brother bought it. I spent a lot of time on the multiplayer mode, it was huge fun !

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Was it that combo disc that included JSRF and Sega GT? That was an amazing deal for those who got in on it, which I believe also coincided with a $100 price drop. Sheesh!

You know @anon98342452 it wasn’t til I took some time today to appreciate the different launch dates how my suggestions and experiences may complicate things :slight_smile: especially in the opening months…

With that in mind, and in an effort to join in, though I certainly got Tony Hawk’s 3 eventually my game for March 2002 was Halo. I searched my city for a console after work, and it wasn’t til around 23:00 I found one with a copy of Halo and a second controller in Blockbuster as it happens. My friend and I stayed up til 07:00 playing then went back to work, taking the console with us. It wasn’t day one but not long after.

I’d love to hear about your experiences and your preferences as well, I’m sure others feel the same. It adds perspective and color. This was never supposed to just be about me and my list but rather a way for me to contribute to a community that’s pretty great, and a way to spark conversation and appreciation for something other than “acquisitions, exclusives, Xbox needs third person games!” type discussions.

Anyhow, that sounds amazing, was it all worthwhile? I would have camped out if I had to!

April 2002 was a fairly weak month for me for new Xbox releases. A shorter list, one with lesser quality games (imo), there were still a few that were fun to play.

April 2002

Spider-Man

Spider-Man on Xbox!!! Oh…not THAT Spider-Man…well, there was a time way back in the day when our friendly neighborhood hero was swinging around the Xbox platform. Those were the days…I don’t have a ton to say about this Spider-Man, it was sort of a fun “weekend rental” game for me. I enjoyed playing through the campaign and being Spider-Man for a few days, returned the game, and never played it again.

The combat, swinging, and world were all done fairly well for the time. The graphics were pretty good, I mean, there’s just not a whole lot to say here other than it’s an enjoyable game to play through but nothing amazing or groundbreaking. The IP definitely makes this a greater game than the sum of its parts, but sometimes that’s enough, right? Maybe someday we’ll get another Spider-Man on Xbox, but until then I think the IP is in good hands with Insomniac.

Shoutout to both Burnout (almost my pick!) and Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. I like Burnout, but never loved it until 3. Gauntlet was some dumb fun, reminiscent of the old Gauntlet arcade game, but I didn’t find it as enjoyable as Spider-Man. It was a fun one to play with friends, but it was UGLY!

Does anyone have a better pick than Spider-Man? Am I wrong? Looking forward to any comments and discussion.

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Of course, didnt mean to suggest it was “just yours” I was getting all nostalgic reading so far and the (i think nearly) 6 month delay hadn’t even crossed my mind.

I was working in the theatre at the time, and we had considered dropping by the Virgin Megastore as that had a midnight opening but someone had mentioned seeing a pretty long queue, and we’d been working all day so couldn’t be bothered. I’m sure it was a couple of days later I finally got out early to start hunting. It was well worth picking up as we played Halo just co-op for weeks.

Apropos April, (not that we played anything else but Halo) but the choices PAL side were even weaker for us.

From that list I would hard pressed to call one “best” (not that I played all, or even remember those I did particularly well, which is further damnation I suppose). Maybe Crash Bandicoot, we rented that and didn’t turn it off in disgust. Still had JSR Future and Max Payne, so was little reason to try anything else TBH.

Also the end of April 2002 (a mere month after launch) was when MS reduced the price of the console by £100 and early adopters got 2 games and a controller as I recall. Not 100% sure what I picked but I’m sure Amped was one, probably PGR for the other since that was a staple of the crewroom for ages.