(2018) Xbox (2001): Review and Retrospective

  NOTE: This review was originally posted to Tumblr on November 3, 2018, and has been reposted here for archival purposes. It may not reflect recent events or my current opinions.

Well, after being late to the Wii U, I decided to buy one of the newer consoles to enjoy all the latest games on, so I now have… the Xbox One!

I actually managed to get the Xbox One for fairly cheap, I ran into it at a thrift store for only $10. Had to also buy the controller separately, but it came down to $14 plus tax, which is an amazing deal for an all new cons-

Wait, what was that?

This… isn’t the Xbox One?

This is the original Xbox?

Released in 2001?

WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME?

I won’t deny that I have never been too big on the Xbox brand as a whole. My brother actually had the original Xbox when it was a new system at a young age, but I was too young to really remember it, and a few years later it was traded in for the Xbox 360. My brother had it and played it for a long time. I’m pretty sure the system was bought somewhere around 2006 or 2007, and he used it for a long time, even lasting through two red rings where it had to be sent back to Microsoft up until it finally died in 2014. But I won’t deny that I was never too into it. Even when I first really got into gaming, it was when I was a hipster and thought any game that wasn’t ROBLOX, Minecraft or made by Nintendo or Sega was bad, so the Xbox 360 didn’t really have any titles that really interested me too much, and the only games that I ever really played on it were titles like Sonic CD and The Simpsons Game, which were obviously on other systems anyway. The Xbox One didn’t really help my opinion either, especially after Microsoft ported pretty much all of it’s worthwhile exclusive to the Windows 10 Store, making the Xbox One a pretty pointless console in my eyes especially as someone who has a decent gaming PC with Windows 10 at least dualbooted alongside Linux Mint. But the original Xbox is a system that I’ve always held… some interest in. It’s never really been a console that I’ve been particularly into like, say, the SNES, Genesis or Wii U, but being a PC gamer, it definitely holds some interest to me being… essentially a PC in the form of a console. And there were some things about it that did seem pretty interesting to me, including just being one of the first consoles I remember my brother having, but it wasn’t quite enough to really get me into or sell me onto the system.

That said, I managed to run into an original Xbox while at a thrift store I sometimes go to. I typically go there to buy VHS tapes, DVDs and Wii games for cheap, but about a week ago I managed to find a working original Xbox for only $10. I was kind of hesitant at first, even after plugging it in and seeing it turn on and the disc tray open, but I decided to just bite the bullet and if it didn’t work, I could at least return it for in-store credit and buy 10 VHS tapes with that money. So, I took it home, cleaned it a bit, and plugged it in, and to my surprise, it actually worked. I was mostly worried about the disc reader and the laser, but it managed to read a music CD I tried and at least recognized a DVD I put in (though I couldn’t actually watch it because I didn’t have that bullshit accessory thing). Although I had to wait a week to play anything on it because… well, I didn’t have any games for the thing, but a trip to my nearest retro game store led me to buying a few games for the system, and I figured I would give my thoughts on it.

So, let’s get the first thing out of the way: the hardware is definitely one of the main reasons why I hold some interest in the original Xbox. It’s pretty much common knowledge that the original Xbox was the most powerful console of it’s time, sporting a 773 MHz Pentium III along with 64MB of RAM and an 233 MHz Nvidia NV2A graphics chip. And if you were to take apart the console and look at it’s internals (or just look at a photo of it’s internals), you’ll notice that the original Xbox pretty closely resembles most desktop computers of the time. Hell, you could probably tell that alone with the Pentium III CPU, which was a commonly used CPU in home computers of the time. And while this is obviously nothing compared to what we have these days, keep in mind that this hardware made the original Xbox a beast during it’s run in the 6th generation. You could made the argument that the Xbox basically was a PC inside a home console, because, in a lot of ways, that’s pretty much what it was. Again, if you look at the internals, it uses a fairly standard hard drive, which was the first console of it’s kind to use at the time since every other system used memory cards, a pretty standard looking DVD drive and it was also the first console to come with a built in ethernet port. The original Xbox was pretty ahead of it’s time, as some of the features of the original Xbox would become common in consoles throughout the 7th and 8th gen. Hell, you could probably say it was the Steam Machine line if it was actually executed well. As a result, multiplatform games from the 6th gen tended to look the best on the original Xbox and the Xbox itself actually still manages to look great on modern televisions. I mean, after hooking it up to my flatscreen TV in my room with the component cables it came with and setting the video to “Widescreen,” I was actually impressed with how it looked on a modern television. It somehow manages to look better than my Nintendo Wii on the same television, which is pretty interesting. Although if there was one thing holding it back, it was the pretty stupid decision to require an accessory in order to play DVDs. I mean, the PS2 could do that natively only with the controller, and that was a less powerful system, so I’m not sure why Microsoft decided to lock the feature behind another accessory you had to buy. Guess they were preparing for the influx of DLC and lootboxes in 2018.

Going off from there, the original Xbox did have some pretty interesting features. Like I said, you could watch DVDs on it provided you had the DVD playback kit, but it also had some neat features as well. You could listen to CDs on it (natively), which alone was pretty standard, but you could also save soundtracks to the hard drive, and some games like the Grand Theft Auto titles would actually let you listen to these soundtracks in-game. Again, this isn’t as big of a deal nowadays, but for the time, this was actually a pretty neat feature and another way that the Xbox was pretty ahead of it’s time. This also saw the introduction of Xbox Live, which… maybe isn’t so great since it led to every console now requiring you to pay a subscription to pay online, but for what it is this did bring a lot of the first online capabilities to consoles with games like Halo and set the standard for console online gaming and even console LAN parties, something that was pretty much unheard of up until then. Of course, a lot of these features aren’t too big of a deal since they’ve been incorporated into pretty much every current gen console, but it does show how the original Xbox was a console that was surprisingly ahead of it’s time.

Controller-wise, there were two major controllers that were used by the original Xbox. The more infamous of them was the Duke controller, and boy did it earn it’s nickname. The Duke controller is THICC but as a result is pretty clunky. I haven’t really used it myself, and I don’t even think my brother had it when he owned the original Xbox when I was a very young child, but it tends to be very hit and miss with people… mostly miss. I know some people out there who actually enjoy using it more than the Xbox Controller S, but the general consensus seems to be that it’s extremely clunky and awkward to hold and use due to it’s THICC size. Although it hasn’t stopped Hyperkin from recreating it for the Xbox One.

So that brings us to the Xbox Controller S, initially being the primary controller for Japan until Microsoft brought it over and replaced the Duke when they realized that no one liked that controller, and… it’s a surprisingly good and overlooked controller, dare I say the best out of the 6th gen. I still find it kind of odd how they used Black and White face buttons instead of having should buttons (although i do like the aesthetic), but from what I’ve used of it, it’s a comfortable controller with a good button layout. At the moment I don’t have a standard Xbox Controller S and instead just have a Madcatz controller since that’s all they had at the thrift store I went to, but I still think the Xbox Controller S is definitely a good controller and one that I don’t feel gets enough love.

So, this leaves me to look at the most important part of any game console: the game library. A common criticism I’ve seen towards the original Xbox is that compared to it’s competitors (the PS2 and Gamecube), the original Xbox really seems to lack in terms of good exclusives. For what it is, it did have a pretty short lifespan and compared to the PS2 which sold millions, the original Xbox never really had much of a chance to develop a huge library, and it also doesn’t help that not many Japanese developers were on board with the system, so some developers and genres, namely RPGs, never really made it to the original Xbox. The original Xbox was very much an American made console, with an American made library, so if you’re not into western games then… yeah, the Xbox definitely won’t be for you. But honestly, I think the Xbox has a fairly decent library of exclusive titles, both that are well known and ones that have gone under the radar and have become hidden gems of their own. Of course, since I only recently picked up an Xbox so I don’t have a very big library of games, and therefore can only talk about certain games based off reviews and what people have said about them, but I decided to pick out a good selection of particular titles that I may be interesting to check out.

So, to start with the most obvious, there’s Halo 1 (or Halo: Combat Evolved) and 2. Obviously both of these games were among the Xbox’s killer apps, and were a franchise that moreorless became synonymous with not just the original Xbox but the Xbox brand as a whole. I decided to buy both games and play through the first level of Combat Evolved before this review and from what I played it’s definitely a solid FPS title. Probably wouldn’t consider it one of my favorites of all time, but definitely solid and fun for what it is, and I can definitely understand why it was popular during it’s time. It’s definitely a good title to look out for if you enjoy FPS games and while it has it’s flaws it’s definitely a solid game especially for a launch title. Another franchise that’s synonymous with the Xbox brand that had it’s origins on the original Xbox is the Forza series. I will admit that I’ve never been into the whole simulation racing subgenre myself (I’m more of a Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing person) and while this series has been milked to death by Microsoft with new games being released every year, I can definitely see the original Forza Motorsport as a pretty good racing title if you are into those. And if you are into those, there’s also Project Gotham Racing 2, which is packed with content and has some of the best visuals on the system. I can’t really speak too much about these since I don’t have either them nor am really into that genre as I said, but they’re definitely titles that you may want to look into.

Another game to look at is Blinx: The Time Sweeper and it’s sequel Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space. Both of these games are 3D platformers with a cute cat as the main character (extra furry points for this game) that focuses mainly on a time mechanic where you can manipulate time. Again, not a game I have played, but one I’m definitely interested in picking up due to my love of platformers and furry characters. At one point, Blinx was proposed to be the Xbox’s mascot akin to Mario to Nintendo and Sonic to Sega, but after the second game Microsoft just kind of stopped caring about the series and we never got a new game since, so… that sucks.

Now, one thing I always noticed about the original Xbox is that it always felt very… Sega to me. I mean if you just look at the controllers alone, the original Xbox controller (especially the Duke) does pretty closely resemble the Dreamcast and Saturn 3D controllers, even having a slot for memory cards just like the Dreamcast did with the VMUs. And there is a reason for that, I mean Microsoft’s first foray into the console market alone was porting Windows CE to the Sega Dreamcast, and there were originally plans for the original Xbox to be backwards compatible with Sega Dreamcast games, and while those plans fell through, Sega was a pretty major third party supporter of the original Xbox. There were the obvious Sonic games for the system, Sonic Heroes, Mega Collection Plus and Riders, but there were some particular exclusive games developed by Sega for the original Xbox, among them being Shenmue II, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Outrun 2 and JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future. It should be stated that the Xbox’s port of Shenmue II was actually the first time it was brought over to the United States, as if you didn’t know it started out as a Dreamcast game but was only released in Japan and Europe for that system, and for a while the Xbox port of the game was pretty much the only way to play it until the Steam, PS4 and Xbox One remaster of the game in 2018.

Conker: Live and Reloaded is another game I could probably talk about. Unfortunately, it was this gen where Microsoft bought out Rare and basically destroyed them forever (sea of thieves was garbage), but Conker: Live and Reloaded did serve as a pretty good remaster of the N64’s raunchy classic, Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Unfortunately, this version did get a lot more censored than the N64 original, but otherwise does improve the graphics and I’m assuming the controls. I can’t really blame them for using the N64 original in the Rare Replay compilation, but it is still in my opinion a worthy remaster.

Now, I will say that since I only got the system recently, I really can’t speak much about many of the exclusives for the system, but among the exclusive games that you may want to check out and ones that I plan on looking into in the future include of Steel Battalion, Fable, Ninja Gaiden, Breakdown, Jade Empire, Deus Ex: Invisible War and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, just to name the ones off of the top of my head. There’s a lot that I can’t really talk about right now due to not having played them, but those are some of the ones I have seen be recommended as good Xbox exclusive games.

But I kind of wanted to focus on what is in my eyes the Xbox’s strong suit, that being multiplatform games. Being a more powerful system, multiplatform games obviously tended to look better on the original Xbox, but in addition you also occasionally got some extra content with the game. One notable example I thought of was Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City, where you can actually play custom soundtracks within the game using the soundtrack saving feature. So if you ever wanted to listen to the MLP Movie soundtrack while shooting at people and stealing cars, you can actually do that with the original Xbox. Factoring in this, I could really see the original Xbox being my console of choice in which I buy 6th gen multiplatform games on in the future. Hell, I actually managed to finally play Crash Twinsanity for the first time on the Xbox since I never owned a PS2 ever in my life (yeah i know), and from what I noticed it does run smoother and at a higher framerate than the PS2 version. There’s also Half-Life 2, which was a console exclusive at the time that was of course also released for PC, and for what it is it’s pretty impressive. I’d still probably rather play the PC version of the game, but the fact that they managed to put Half-Life 2, a game that requires 512MB of RAM and a 1.7GHz processor at the minimum, on a system with a 733MHz Pentium III and 64MB of RAM is kind of amazing to me. I would definitely say if you feel like buying 6th gen multiplatform games, the original Xbox is definitely the best choice for those due to it’s higher graphics quality and in some cases extra content.

This leads me into asking one more question: Why didn’t the original Xbox sell better than it did? I mean, I wouldn’t call it a failure (well, at least aside from in Japan), but compared to the PS2’s monstrous 155 million sales, the Xbox’s 24 million is measly in comparison. You could say it was because of the games, and while it doesn’t have the PS2’s large amount and variety or even the Gamecube’s quality Nintendo titles, it still does have some neat exclusives. You could also say it was because of the lack of brand recognition, considering this was only Microsoft’s first foray into the console market, but at the same time it didn’t really seem to stop Sony from being extremely successful with the original PlayStation, so… what gives?

Well, I think there are a few things it comes down to. One of them being DVD playback. Sony basically came at the right time with DVD playback, making a system that could natively play DVDs in addition to being it’s own game console. And yeah, the Xbox was capable of it, but as I said, it didn’t support DVD playback natively and required an additional accessory in order to play DVDs. I do think that this is one thing that held the original Xbox back, and while I still don’t think adding it natively would’ve put it even close to the PS2’s sales, I still think it probably would have made it sell at least a little better than it did. I think the other major thing that really hurt it was it’s failure to really take off in Japan. In case you’re wondering, the original Xbox was a flop in Japan, and didn’t really sell much in it’s lifespan. As a result, this led to a lack of Japanese developers for the original Xbox and caused the Xbox to rely mostly on Western gaming as far as development and its audience were concerned. And I kind of feel like this is another thing that may have caused the original Xbox to really not sell better than it did, because I think they could’ve at least gained a bit more of the console market had it not been for these two obstacles. I still don’t think it would’ve even sold close to how well the PS2 did, considering even then Sony made themselves an image in the console market with the PS1, but I still think that the Xbox could’ve at least done a little bit better had they not had these two problems. But hey, anything’s possible I suppose.

So, this leads to my conclusion on whether or not I would recommend buying the original Xbox. I will say it will really come down to your taste in gaming, but if you liked the idea of the exclusives I mentioned and/or having the best option when it comes to multiplats, I would definitely say that the Xbox is worth checking out. You can probably find an Xbox system for around $30, and occasionally may even get lucky like I did by getting it a thrift store for $10. The games themselves are also fairly cheap for what it is, I managed to find 5 games for the original Xbox - Crash Twinsanity, Half-Life 2, Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - and it all came down to $30, which isn’t too bad, especially since three of those cost $1.95. I will say that the some of the Sega exclusives (as well as Conker: Live and Reloaded for that matter) can be a bit more expensive, but it’s still kind of in the $20-$30 range, which again isn’t bad at least coming from the Gamecube where a copy of Mario Kart: Double Dash costs me $40. So, if you have the chance and are interested, I would definitely look into it. The original Xbox is definitely a system I want to continue collecting for and I’m definitely happy that it’s part of my own collection. I’ll probably review more Xbox games and go more in depth in the future, but I think this concludes my review.