What do you consider the "golden age" of your gaming history? By "golden age", I'm referring to any point in your personal gaming history in which you were truly happy and content with gaming as a whole. As you've read from the title of this blog, the Xbox 360 is my personal golden age.
I remember getting my original white Xbox 360 console for Christmas from my dad and it came with that Lego Indiana Jones/ Kung-Fu Panda pack-in game. I immediately sold that and got Dead Rising and Burnout Paradise. I really enjoyed everything that that console had to offer. There was always something awesome to play, something great releasing in a few months, and so many cool evolutions that the UI would go through and cool features that would be added.
This month the members of the SuperPod Game Club are playing through Sonic '06 - a game that, for whatever reason, is not backwards compatible on Xbox Series X/S. In order to play the game I've had to dig up my old Xbox 360 and OH MAN, am I so glad that I did. Everything about the Xbox 360 fills me with so much joy that I can't contain it! I was steamrolled by so much nostalgia that I just had to write a blog about it.
Which version of the Xbox 360 dashboard was your favorite? Also, hilarious that Bing had its own section in the dashboard.
First off: the Xbox 360 boot-up sequence is so iconic. The sound effects that the UI makes as you flip around from here to there in the dashboard or when you open the guide gives me flashbacks to when I'd hop onto my 360 to play some Left 4 Dead 2 and I'd quickly invite some friends to a party or send a message and see what some friends are up to. I still can't believe that the Xbox 360 could connect to MSN Messenger and let you chat with your MSN cool kid friends! I also remember being so blown away by the fact that you could open the disc tray from the guide using your controller.
There was a lot to customize on the Xbox 360. You could update your bio, your motto (just a fun one-liner that others could see on your profile), your "Zone" (I still don't know what that was for), and then your gamer picture. There was an INSANE number of gamer pictures to choose from. They added new ones for newly released games, advertising deals with certain brands, gamer pictures drawn by certain artists, or even from movies. You also had cool themes that you could set for your dashboard. Just like gamer pictures, there was a theme for everything. The best ones had different backgrounds would change as you went to different areas of the system.
Holy cow, a whole slew of gamer pictures based off of different ABC series!
One of the best and coolest things that really took off during this generation was streaming. I guess it was already a thing on PC. But on console it was starting to really pick up. Stuff like Hulu, Netflix, and even YouTube were things that you only saw on your computer. They eventually made their way to consoles and that was the only way we watched TV back in the day. If you had an active internet connection, you ditched cable or over-the-air TV and stuck with either Hulu or Netflix. It was weird that you NEEDED a subscription to Xbox Live Gold in order to use them, but most people that owned an Xbox 360 had a Gold subscription.
You were also able to straight-up purchase movies and TV shows through Microsoft Movies and TV. I remember getting free copies of different movies and single seasons of some shows either from buying a certain game or just from being a member of Xbox Live Gold. I once got a copy of the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie because I pre-ordered Mortal Kombat 9. What a wild time.
I really miss the old Xbox avatars. The new ones that they've introduced just aren't the same. I much prefer the cartoony, more animated avatars. I still remember to this day when the New Xbox Experience was released and my friend and I messed around with his avatar for hours and hours. It was so cool that you basically had a Mii, but for Xbox. Not to mention that the avatars had some really cool clothes. Every avatar has a small wardrobe to start with, and a gigantic slew of other things that you could buy with Microsoft Points (think V-Bucks, but for Xbox) to deck them out. Things like cool sets of armor from Halo, a costume from Borderlands, a pack of Skittles, or MY PERSONAL FAVORITE - a MetalGreymon helmet. My avatar has had that helmet on since 2013, baby.
There's my boy! MetalGreymon helmet, Guitar Hero 3 punk pants, Gears of War loafers, and a Radiant Silvergun long-sleeve shirt.
This generation was also where Gamerscore first came along! Whether you love it, hate it, or just don't care, Gamerscore (or Trophies if you're on PlayStation) have long since become a staple of gaming. There's all sorts of achievements for every game that add a sort of replayability to them. Stuff like beating missions within a certain amount of time, beating a game with just this one gun, or beating time attack on this difficulty. You'd get a cool achievement to show off to your friends and a small boost to your overall Gamerscore, which you would also show off to your friends! Some games even had "Awards", which were cosmetics that you could give to your avatar.
There's my profile!
Music was awesome on the Xbox 360. Not only could you slap a CD into your disc drive and watch some really cool visualizers go insane, but you could also connect your iPod or Zune (remember those? RIP) to your Xbox 360 via USB and play your music directly on the system. Back in the day, I went to quite a few parties and you ALWAYS had someone connecting their iPod to their 360 and blasting tunes through their TV or stereo. You could also listen to music while you play a game! I remember playing a lot of Naruto: Ultimate Ninja and jamming to some Nirvana or Machine Head while my Zune was connected to my 360. I was definitely a Zune sicko.
If you were a subscriber to Groove Music (Microsoft's music streaming subscription service) you could also stream your favorite songs through there! You also had the ability to stream photos and videos through the Windows Media Center.
Remember Groove Music? It wasn't bad. Definitely the Spam of music streaming services
Finally, let's talk about the games! I was in my late teens to early 20's when I was playing on the Xbox 360, so I had A LOT of time on my hands to just sit down and game or watch some shows. During this generation, online multiplayer shooters were all the rage. The games that I played the most online would have to be Left 4 Dead 2, Halo Reach, and Destiny. Ugh, Destiny 1 was so insanely good. I would always text my friends on my phone (I don't think I had a smartphone yet), I'd message them on Xbox, or invite them to an Xbox party and chat it up.
This was also the first console generation where you could buy and download an entire game right to your console. No more having to go to a store to get a new game, being pressured into pre-ordering the next goddamn Assassin's Creed, or worry about disc wear.. IT'S RIGHT ON YOUR XBOX.
I can't help but feel like the Xbox 360 has some of the best exclusives of any Xbox console. With Halo 3, Gears of War, and the Forza series at the helm, they could do no wrong at all. It even had some insanely good exclusive JRPG's! Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, and Tales of Vesperia were such great games that you could only (at the time) play on Xbox 360. Some of my other favorite 360 exclusives are Viva Pinata, Crackdown, and Fable 2. UGH, FABLE. Then you had the Xbox Live Arcade with retro gems like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Crazy Taxi 1 and 2, Banjo-Kazooie, and even Bejeweled.
Here's some more of my favorite multi-platform games from that generation:
- Darksiders 1 and 2
- Eternal Sonata
- Dishonored
- Dead Island
- Batman Arkham Asylum and City
- Dead Space
- Sleeping Dogs
I'm not even scratching the surface, here. I've played entirely too many games on the Xbox 360 to even know where to begin with which ones I enjoyed the most or which ones I've spent the most time on. There are a few games that I've gotten every achievement on, but there's also quite a few games that I took my sweet time on and enjoyed the ride. With the Xbox 360 store closing July 29, it's going to be incredibly sad to see so many games ride off into the sunset, never to be seen again.
In summation, I greatly enjoyed my time with the Xbox 360. All of it. Every single last bit. The social aspect (messaging friends and party chat), the cool customization features (gamer pictures and avatars), the media library (music, movies, and TV shows), and finally the games. The sweet, sweet games. That truly was my Golden Age of gaming. It did so many things right and few things wrong.
While the Xbox 360 is on its way out, I'll gladly hold its hand the entire time. I'm going to miss you, old friend.
PEACE OUT.
