Xbox's Dead Exclusives - Dr. Dray

quick think of an XBox exclusive franchise got it okay now how many of you thought of either Halo Gears of War or Forza oh all of you literally every single one of you all right uh you know what that's uh that's great actually that proves my point exactly all my life I was raised to be an Xbox kid I played the original at my cousin's house when I was in elementary school I got a 360 for Christmas when I was in Middle School and I wanted an Xbox One throughout most of high school which is why when the ninth generation of Home consoles rolled around and I finally had enough money for a new system I joined the Dark Side of course all my friends were still hardcore Xbox supporters but fortunately they were very understanding and respectful of my decision but why though after years of playing these games using this controller getting used to this interface why make the switch well how else am I going to play Knack exclusive games are arguably the most defining feature of consoles and it's been no secret that Xbox is lacking them as of late they've acquired a ton of developers over the years and do release various timed exclusives and one-off titles but when you say XBox exclusive game there's a reason people only think of these three out of all Xbox owned franchises the only ones that have been around for at least 10 years consistently get new entries and have always been XBox exclusive titles well you can count them on one hand there's simply not enough quality and variety within Xbox's library of games to satisfy most Gamers especially those who are forced to choose between one one platform or the other for any given generation they may be trying to build up their repertoire but to say that the results have been mixed that's an understatement however it wasn't always like this long ago when the Earth was flat and the world was in black and white Xbox was but a fledgling brand trying to compete with the gaming juggernauts that were PlayStation and Nintendo they needed a way to draw the attention of consumers and get them to foro Luigi's Mansion and Final Fantasy 10 so they started pumping out exclusives like it was no one's business and largely due to a certain space shooter that needs no introduction it worked sure they didn't sell anywhere close to PS2 numbers but for a newcomer they got a pretty solid foothold within the Home console Market but it does beg the question what happened to these games how did these series evolve how were they received and what caused Microsoft to give them the axe well I'm glad you asked allow me to show you what used to be here are some of Xbox's deceased franchises it's by no means a definitive list just some of the ones I thought were interesting noteworthy or at least was able to find footage for of all Xbox exclusives that never got a followup Crimson Skies is the most baffling to me it started as a board game of all things before being adapted into a PC title they got ported to arcades but the entry that defines the series is high road to Revenge released for the original Xbox now I'm no expert on the genre but I have played a good few arcade flight games and high road to Revenge is easily my favorite fun characters a good story really solid visuals and an awesome alternate history setting that explored diesel Punk before diesel Punk was even a thing it's not a true open world game but it does have large levels and an open-ended Mission structure and of all games from this era that give you this much Freedom Crimson Skies is arguably the best one that isn't titled Grand Theft Auto it wasn't a best seller per se but it was critically and commercially successful so many fans jumped to The Logical conclusion and began anticipating a Sequel and 20 years later we were still anticipating come on people really liked Crimson Skies it's maybe not the best thing ever but it got good reviews and it's consistently seen as one of the must-have titles for the original Xbox it would give Xbox a defining series and a firm grasp on a genre of games without significant competition it's not like the developers suddenly went defunct or Microsoft lost ownership of the IP it's almost like they just forgot it ever existed that's just tragic [Music] though it's been a while since the Heyday of snowboarding games like 1080 and SSX it doesn't make the genre any less cool anyways amped a launch title for the original Xbox amped focused on exploration-based gameplay within the game's various Resorts and mountains rather than the much more linear levels of its competitors it didn't get get the greatest reviews but it's still sold pretty well the uniquely open gameplay helped set amp apart from others in its genre and ultimately gave Xbox enough reason to make a sequel amped 2 was a departure from its predecessor and that it was based Less on exploration and more so on Tony Hawk Pro Skater featuring a variety of professional snowboarders in realistic courses with various goals to complete in each level it was a part of Xbox's xsn series of sports games which aside from going defunct after a single year of operation United a variety of Xbox sports franchises under a single banner so it does make sense they decide to go in a slightly different albeit still realistic direction for the series with gameplay that adhered to more traditional takes on extreme sports games and it largely seemed to work out for them not only is amped 2 generally considered to be the peak of the series but also just one of the best snowboarding games ever it only made sense to continue the series with amped 3 which was an even further departure from the previous two games given its irreverent tone and absolutely non sensical Story Mode God the 2000s were weird it wasn't as warmly received as the previous two but it still did well enough it was Far Enough from an outright negative reaction to avoid prompting anything drastic like cancelling the series so for 2k's next trick they canceled the Series in 2006 while amped 4 was still in development the studio behind the series Indie built was abruptly shut down and the series hasn't seen the light of day since as for why Microsoft decided to abandon the series there well I can't entirely be sure I mean as far as I can tell 2K still retains the rights to the amped name and it's not like there was any formal announcement regarding the series end if any one factor is to blame it was probably the declining sales of the series as well as just snowboarding games as a whole but it probably doesn't help that amp is just a really weird series it doesn't really have a definitive entry sure two is generally considered the best but all games in the series received comparable critical reception despite being pretty unique from one another in fact aside from being a more relaxed alternative to SSX I'd even go so far as to say that amp doesn't even have that strong of a series identity between those two factors Microsoft likely figured that trying to pick up from where Indie built left off simply wasn't worth the effort I'd love to see Microsoft return to amp someday though even if it does happen I feel like there's no telling what kind of snowboarding game we'll get it's just that kind of series [Music] without a doubt Project Gotham Racing is one of the most iconic and influential arcade Racers ever conceived it's most known for bringing about the Kudos system where moving on from One race to the next isn't just determined by your placement in the race but also the amount of tricks you perform along the way encouraging a healthy balance of road safety laws being violated the track list took you on a brief tour across the globe featuring courses based on various cities and their landmarks and creating a world of legalized urban street racing for you to partake in it's not overly deep or complex it's just simple arcade racing fun and that's honestly what made it so great in a time where Ridge Racer and Gran Turismo were the dominant racing games on home consoles Project Gotham not only gave Xbox an exclusive to call its own but a respectable and rather unique foothold within what was at the time a very lucrative market for years it was a staple of Xbox consoles receiving entries on both the original Xbox and the 360 and always Landing solid reviews from and fans alike but similar to amped the series continually sold less and less with each entry despite constant improvements and additions to the gameplay formula no doubt due in part to the critical and Commercial Success of games like Need for Speed and Xbox's own forts of Motorsport eventually the developers bizarre Creations were bought out by Activision announcing that Project Gotham 4 would be the last game they developed for Microsoft with Microsoft retaining the trademark to the series and that was really the last we heard out of project goth given that it's been over 15 years since it's likely we aren't getting a new entry Microsoft doesn't seem to have any interest in Reviving the series given the continued success of Forza and bizarre Creations was dissolved in 2011 after their spiritual successor the Project Gotham failed to meet sales expectations in hindsight it was just time for the series to go it may have been a classic formula but people were ready to move on to bigger and better things still its influence on the racing genre is clear to see even today for such an iconic title it feels like a pretty ignoble way to go [Music] out though not as popular as Halo or gears Crackdown offers some variety in Xbox's shooter space where other Shooters focused on gritty campaigns and competitive online multiplayer crackdowns gameplay is much more relaxed featuring an open sandbox map arcade Gunplay environmental destruction powerups vehicles and overall just invokes the spirit of comic books and superer Heroes which itself is accentuated by thick outlines for character models the fact that it's heavily influenced by GTA is blatant but it's far more straight up clone it's got plenty of its own style places far more emphasis on Co-op and in some ways tries to supersede GTA the first Crackdown title is a classic definitely one of if not the definitive sandbox shooter problem is it's been 17 years and despite having two sequels Crackdown one is still the definitive sandbox shooter Crackdown 2 released in 2010 and notably without the direction of the series progenitor David Jones who's also known for such Classics as Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings perhaps it was due to Jones's lack of direction that Crackdown 2 was consistently criticized for lacking Innovation with reviewer stating that it was fun though that was more so an effect of the solid core gameplay established by the first game rather than any changes made by the sequel Crackdown 3 was set to release in 2016 with Jones back at the helm but 3 years of delays and epic games' acquisition of cloudgen in 2018 once again left the series Jones less Crackdown 3 also received middling scores and was similarly criticized for not really adding anything new or Innovative to the Crackdown formula aside from Terry Cruz of course given that it's been only 5 years since the most recent entry it doesn't feel right to kill off the series just yet and of all games we're going to talk about today Crackdown feels like the title that's most likely to make return still it's hard to deny that Crackdown design is outdated to say the least I want to say there's a market for it though I think that's only if the series finds a way to push the genre forward and quickly otherwise yeah it's dead in the [Music] water what Mario is for Nintendo and Sonic is for Sega blinks tried to be for Xbox and considering we're talking about it right now it's safe to assume it didn't turn out well blinks is an action platformer whose main gimmick is time and ulation the story takes you throughout world B1 q64 really rolls off the tongue as you try to save its princess and defeat the evil TomTom gang who obviously are a group of biker pigs a cat's natural enemy you get 10 minutes to complete each level which involves defeating enemies and collecting time crystals upon collecting a set of time crystals within a level you gain one of five different types of time control including slowing down speeding up reversing pausing or recording a segment of time blinks offers a unique take on a popular familyfriendly genre and had pretty solid visuals for the time it definitely had the potential to be Xbox's Flagship franchise however despite the developers trying to push it as such at least in Japan people just did not like this game blinks was consistently met with middling reviews people called it repetitive and tedious or just Flatout criticized the game's execution particularly the controls it's still sold okay but not nearly enough for a game that's trying to become the franchise for an entire video game platform nevertheless Microsoft did Greenlight a sequel which aimed to supersede the original in almost every way blinkx 2 masters of time and space adds character customization a versus mode and a secondary storyline that allows players to control tomtom's in stealth-based gameplay with a massively scaled up single player campaign and the addition of multiplayer surely this would be the entry that cemented blinks as an Xbox staple surely blinks 2 underperformed as well it didn't bomb per se but like the original it was was met with pretty middling reviews and it sure as hell didn't meet sales expectations one mediocre game might not kill a franchise but two probably will especially if you're barely averaging 300,000 copies sold with each entry that just ain't going to cut it for old penny pinching Microsoft we all know they don't have any money to spare on these experiments blinkx couldn't be the mascot for Xbox but at least he lives on as the mascot for one of my favorite Twitter accounts let me put this on the record right now Steel Battalion and is hands down one of the most ambitious video games ever created it is at this point that most people ask Dre what in the hell is Steel Battalion Mech Simulator for the original Xbox this thing these Graphics these TVs Mech simulator now I don't think simply calling this thing a Mech simulator really explains how out there this game is just so we can establish a Baseline let's take a look at a modern Mech game and see how it plays this is armored Core 6 a me game that wouldn't feel too out of place in an arcade the high freedom of movement strongly contributes to faster paced missions and the high number of customization options available to you means there's a wide variety of strategies you can employ to tackle said missions my point is the unrestrained feel of armored course gameplay creates a game that is action-packed fast-paced and easily approachable now let's take a look at Steel Battalion at the start of a mission you must start up your Mech by pressing a series of buttons in the correct order if you press them out of order your Mech stalls and you have to start over if you're traveling and you try to take a corner while moving too quickly your Mech will topple and you have to start over if you use your boosters too much your Mech will overheat and your operating system will shut down and you have to start over if you take too much damage and fail to eject from the cockpit in time your Mech will explode your character dies the game deletes your save data and you guessed it you have to start over did you get mud on your windshield well those windshield wipers aren't going to turn themselves on like I said Mech simulator as you can probably imagine everything about this game from missions to gameplay is rather meticulous and complex and controlling your Mech is no easy feat speaking of which controls here's our modern Mech game again and it controls about how you'd expect it to its arcadey gameplay allows you to easily control your Mech with a standard controller each button has a purpose and all are easily accessible very simple very natural in Steel Battalion your controller looks like this I'm starting to see why this game didn't do well in hindsight this one is obvious I mean as blatantly awesome of an idea that this is even what did get released is clearly far too ambitious even at the time people didn't really know what the hell to make of it Gamespot thought it was a really great game they also thought it was a really bad game it lacked accessibility it was in a really nce genre and even though the original Xbox is known for big controllers there's no way your average gamer has room for this absolute hos of a battle station it would be a surprise if this game did sell well and considering its only follow-ups were an online only expansion and a sequel for connect I'm almost shocked the series didn't die [Music] sooner what what do you mean I I can't talk about Viva Pata not an XBox exclusive how what so what if there's a version for the DS it's Viva Pinata it's an Xbox classic well who cares if it's not technically correct it's not like anyone watches these videos anyways no you know what you are not doing this to me again it's my video I'm going to talk about Viva Pata and you're going to like it Viva Pinata the original was released in 2006 for the Xbox 360 and on top of being a pretty solid life simulation game is also the only video game that's ever made me ask why does a pinata need human teeth both ideation and development came courtesy of rare and it's very clearly a project that they themselves were passionate about rather than something that Microsoft forced them into making between the visuals and bright color palette Viva Pinata feels very at home with many of rare's older titles which is something that critics seem to make note of it was specifically praised for those aspects as well as its deep and expansive gameplay and the wacky charm that rares games seem to have in Spades to this day it's regarded as a cult classic and it received enough critical and Commercial Success to spawn several sequels as well as versions for Windows and yes the Nintendo DS so the series isn't entirely exclusive to Xbox whatever subi save for the party game spin-off that also happens to be the only only Viva Pinata game not developed by Rare all the Viva Pinata games were pretty well received and both the original and its direct sequel trouble in Paradise were included as titles in rare replay unfortunately that's about all we've heard out of Viva Pinata in the time since the aformentioned DS title even though sales-wise Viva Pinata didn't exactly do poorly it was around this time that Microsoft started shifting their focus to the Casual crowd primarily through the development of connect rare is one of Microsoft's most valuable developers they can't be seen working on games that'll barely crack half a million units sold they need to be working on real projects like connect sports and Xbox Live avatars yeah in hindsight Viva Pata is one of the least Xbox feeling franchises that Xbox has ever Xbox and alongside the unfortunate timing of Xbox's change in marketing strategy that's probably why it got shut down I find it ironic Microsoft shut down a casual franchise so that rare could work on a casual franchise albeit one that was Microsoft mandated they didn't seem to understand that rare's best work typically comes about when they're left to their own devices honestly rare is just such a fascinating company I'd love to do a deeper dive into their history but that's for another [Music] day if you ask most Gamers my age about from software they'll likely tell tell you that it's the company that makes the souls games maybe they'll say something about armored Corp but more often than not people act like this company didn't exist before the year 2009 like rare I would very much like to do a complete overview of the company's almost 40-year history but for now otogi first released in 2002 otogi myth of demons is a third person action adventure game where you play as an undead Warrior attempting to fight back waves of demons in classical Japan I feel like I've heard this one before aogi was set apart from other action adventure games by its darker atmosphere especially its Eerie lighting and enemy design and yeah this is all sounding pretty familiar it was also noteworthy for its somewhat higher difficulty it had heavy RPG elements magic and health that could be difficult to replace If lost and combat that was slower and more deliberate when compared to other hacking slashes okay I know I've heard of a game like this before um ooh I got it odama no wait that's the p one both otogi and its sequel were pretty well-liked critically the visuals and atmosphere in particular were almost universally lotted by critics in terms of gameplay and presentation Oki brought a new flavor to the action adventure genre especially as an XBox exclusive commercially though yeah this series was about as successful as an ice salesman in Finland nobody bought these things the first entry only sold about 130,000 units whereas its sequel didn't even sell half that making it one of the rarer and more more valuable games for the original Xbox of course I think what's most striking about this series nowadays is that on paper it has a very strong resemblance to the souls games I mean it's an action adventure game by from software that alone should be a red flag but even if you look deeper than that the story The Atmosphere the combat the [ __ ] it's really not that difficult to see otogi as a Souls prototype yes with sales numbers like these it's kind of hard to justify continuing the series but with sales numbers like like these I do wonder what would have happened if they had it's just weird to think that one of the biggest influences for one of the biggest game franchises in recent memory may have been a couple of Duds for the original Xbox if Bill Gates told you that his favorite video game was a party game exclusive to the original Xbox would you want to play it yeah me either and thus we have Fusion frenzy which is exactly that an XBox exclusive party game which does away with the board and focuses exclusively on the mini games pitting up to four players against each other either mono ammana or in teams players are awarded orbs based on their performance in each game which they can either turn into points or wager for even more points through this game shtick the aptly titled Fusion frenzy round where players have to transport the wagered orbs to their goal while maybe trying to steal orbs from other players too at the end of each round the collected orbs are turned into points player with most points wins I'm no party game afficionado but this wagering mechanic seems to be pretty unique to Fusion frenzy and that's on top of it being an excellent way to introduce your children to gambling right alongside poker with Luigi and Lucky Seven scratch offs on the other hand the overall lack of a board means Fusion frenzy is much more skill-based in than other party games which for a party game at least I consider to be suboptimal the element of Randomness and opportunities for [ __ ] are kind of what make other party games fun it's what gives the person who has no idea what they're doing just as much of a chance of winning as the most seasoned party game veteran I don't think that's what killed off Fusion frenzy though see the game received mix to average reviews upon release and while it didn't sell poorly Microsoft wasn't exactly hovering their finger over the make this a Mainstay series button either what Fusion frenzy needed was a definitive follow-up a sequel that would refine the more simplistic elements and give the game play more depth that would maintain the game unique art style and expand upon the futuristic Urban setting a sequel that would cement Fusion frenzy as more than just another generic party game yep that'll do it so Xbox's dead exclusives sure are a lot of them like I said this was not a definitive list there are plenty of other deceased Xbox exclusives that I could talk about NFL fever a Microsoft developed alternative to NFL 2K and Madden gallion an action adventure game name from the guy who designed Laura Croft Zion a 3D interpretation of traditional 2D shoot them UPS or Quantum red shift a spiritual successor to wipe out I could even get into the really obscure stuff like nud a Japan only life simulation game which apparently is such an enigma that price charting doesn't even have an estimated value for it and Wikipedia can't tell me anything other than it exists but even with the few series I did research I was honestly pretty surprised by the variety of genres that Xbox has gone for in the past I'll probably always identify Xbox as the shooter machine but it's cool to see how it points in its history Microsoft was pumping out some pretty capable party games Life Sim titles Sports and racing games arcade flight games RPGs and way more we may not think of it as such but Xbox was at that time at least a very competent platform with a rich variety of exclusives and even though that hasn't really been the case for some time now I'd love to see Xbox Branch out again and hopefully find success in other yes they've been trying and yes they haven't really been succeeding though while I love pushing for Innovation within the game industry and I'm optimistic that they'll eventually strike gold with a new IP I would really like to see the Revival of some of their older ones let's face it we are in Peak Revival hours for titles from the late '90s and earlys I mean the switch has been absolutely thriving on Old content the doom and Ratchet and Clank reboots have done really well we got remakes of Battle for Bikini Bottom and [ __ ] Pac-Man world of all things Twisted Metal got its own TV show like who is making the decisions for these companies so yeah I'd love to see Xbox take a swing at Reviving its old franchises I may be a PS5 owner but man I would kill for a new Crimson Skies a new ampt would be really neat or an open world take on Project Gotham I would love that if XBox wants to revive one of their old exclusives Now's the Time to do it and I think they're aware of that Fable which I completely passed over earlier is another classic XBox exclusive an action RPG with an awesome fantasy setting inspired by medieval Britain the last Mainline entry was released in 2010 and the developer lion head Studios was shut down in 2016 so it'd be understandable if people assumed the series was dead and yet in 2020 we got an announcement for a new Fable game being headed by fors of horizon developer playground games with the first in-game trailer coming out at last year's Xbox games showcase I'm not saying I have the highest of hopes for it but I still want it to do well and if it does then maybe that'll be the push Microsoft needs to Greenlight more of these revivals we'll see in the meantime though I'm more than happy to play through some of these Xbox Classics I can confirm that there's some great stuff hidden away in your game pass subscription though unfortunately not all I've discussed today is included speaking of which now that I've looked into it honestly I am really curious about playing Steel Battalion especially given its wonky ass control setup I just got to try it for myself let's see how much it's going for I mean original Xbox games are usually Dirt Cheap so it's probably like what 10 bucks [Music] damn yo he coming he coming whoa

Channel: Dr. Dray

Views: 3,577

Keywords: dr, dray, dr., gaming, youtube, channel, essay, comedy, overview, consoles, home, funny, random, guy, 66, randomguy, randomguy66, xbox, exclusive, game, games, one, 360, blinx, amped, crimson skies, crackdown, fuzion frenzy, viva pinata, otogi, project gotham

Id: djkg11TYB-g

Length: 27min 36sec (1656 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 23 2024