While we certainly may never know how exactly these came about in terms of being added to the lists, let's still take a general look at these "oddities", starting with what (technically) works on the Xbox 360.
Support for OG Xbox games on 360 was done via an emulator named Fusion that was developed in-house at Microsoft, and because of just how different the two consoles were it was even deemed "impossible" by half of the Xbox team; even those who worked on Fusion called it "magical". While all 996 OG Xbox games are supported by Fusion in theory, Microsoft limited official support to just 463 games, or ~46.49% of the entire catalog, due to a wide variety of games having some sort of technical issue (& even many supported games don't exactly play 100% like they should). Two years after the console launched, the Xbox Originals program debuted, which digitally re-released certain OG Xbox games that were already BC, and it turns out that the two Japan-exclusive BC titles were also re-released as Xbox Originals! First up is 2003's Magatama, which is arguably the most interesting Japan-exclusive OG Xbox game, as it's not only one of only five games published by Microsoft itself that wound up being exclusive to the region but also the first one that was actually developed in-house at Xbox Game Studios Japan, the same studio (though with a different team) that would later make cult-classic Phantom Dust. Specifically, it was produced by Hiroshi Kawai, an ex-Sqauresoft employee who was actually the main programmer behind Final Fantasy VII & IX, two of the most beloved entries in the entire franchise; the actual director was Daisuke Fukugawa, who would later direct cult-classic RPG Lost Odyssey. A third-person action title, Magatama is today in Japan considered both a "Fukishin/Unscrupulous Game", due to it directly addressing a major real-world event (in this case the Warring States period), & an example of "Kiku/Chrysanthemum Taboo", as it criticizes or parodies the Japanese Imperial Family, which is generally considered off-limits; the Imperial Family crest is a Chrysanthemum, hence the name. Likely due to its immensely Japan-centric focus, & a lack of interest from any other publishers, Magatama never saw release outside of Japan, and due to the OG Xbox's region lock it's not easily playable today, outside of getting a Japanese Xbox or soft-modding a console. Sadly, said region lock also applies to the Xbox 360, so you can't simply buy a physical copy, put it in just any 360 console, even change the "Region" to Japan, & start playing; it has to be a Japanese 360.
If you want more detail about Magatama, Import Gaming FTW! covered it well back in 2014. With both Phantom Dust & Metal Wolf Chaos having received great HD remasters on Xbox One, maybe we should finally get one for Magatama on the Xbox Series, so that it can finally see release outside of Japan.
Then there's 2004's Puyo Puyo Fever, which was a port of the 2003 arcade game & fifth main entry in Sega & Compile's iconic bean-matching "vs puzzler" franchise. In Japan, the Xbox version was just one of 12 different ports of the game(!), including being the last Dreamcast game Sega itself ever published, but said port to Microsoft's console would only see international release in PAL regions; North America only ever received the GameCube & DS versions. However, unlike Magatama, it's likely that all versions of PPF released on console (DC, PS2, Xbox, & GC) actually feature a full English translation, as I know that is the case for the Japan-only Dreamcast version. What's even more odd about PPF's inclusion for BC on the 360, though, is that it apparently only applies to the Japanese release, not the PAL "Puyo Pop Fever" release, so owners of that specific version may look to have to rely on an OG Xbox for that one. However, being Xbox Originals on 360, that means that they are both still available for purchase digitally, since Microsoft still operates the 360 Marketplace, & both are only 1,029 yen to purchase, which makes them each a better deal than to try to get their physical versions. However, because of the region lock, it is literally impossible to even purchase either Magatama or Puyo Puyo Fever digitally on the Japanese 360 Marketplace, unless you are using a Japanese 360; the website only supports a Japanese credit card. I literally bought some credit for my Japanese Xbox account recently, and when I tried to buy either game on my American 360 it actually refused to finalize either purchase, and the first possible reason it gave was because of the region difference; even switching the "Region" on the 360 itself changed nothing. This is also why the 360 actually refuses to allow you to install games that are region locked from your console, since they wouldn't normally work to start with; a region-free game like Mushihime-sama Futari will install, but not something like Super Robot Wars XO.
It's stuff like this that really makes me wish that Microsoft would one day put out one last update for the 360 that disables the region check for games, and since the Marketplace on the console was repeatedly updated as late as 2021 to add in the last batch of BC titles I think that is something that Microsoft could actually do. While I understand the logic the company had back in 2005 when the console launched, it's nothing but restrictive in the year 2023, and it's literally the only video game console that actually could be officially made region free via an update today.
Moving, on there are also two PAL-exclusive (i.e. primarily for Europe & Australasia) OG Xbox games that are officially BC on 360, though it's arguable that neither of them are actually anywhere near as interesting as Magatama or Puyo Puyo Fever. Of the two, the more "interesting" one would likely be 2006's Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory, a game by now-defunct Slovenian developer ZootFly ("best known" for 2013's Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death, which is actually BC for Xbox One & Series!) where you control a variety of tank squadrons throughout World War II; this is also apparently the only entry in the Panzer Elite series to ever see console release, on PS2 & Xbox. While for consoles it remained a PAL-exclusive release, the PC version did see North American release, once in 2006 under the title First Batallion & later in 2014 under the title Panzer Elite Action: Gold Edition (which included both the game & its expansion, Dunes of War). We'll actually come back to Panzer Elite Action later on, but those who do own a PAL 360 can boot this OG Xbox game up & play it, but only with that specific version of the console, as it will not work on any other region 360.
Meanwhile, there's also 2004's Richard Burns Rally, which was developed by the now defunct Warthog Sweden (Starlancer, Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter) & is the only video game starring the late Richard Burns, the only Englishman to ever win the World Rally Championship as a driver, which he did in 2001. Similar to above, this game was primarily made & released for PAL audiences, but it did see some small smattering of international releases, namely on the PS2 in Japan... and on the Gizmondo, of all things, in North America; Ignition Entertainment did plan on releasing it on consoles in North America, even getting an ESRB rating, but it was cancelled. In the end, only 66 games released for the OG Xbox wound up being PAL-exclusive, including some bizarrely PAL-only Xbox ports of games, like Shadow of Memories/Destiny, Taito Legends 2, Alien Hominid, & Barbarian, as well as arguably more interesting PAL-exclusive titles, like Rolling (Rage Software's final game) & TDK's Conan (no relation to THQ's later game, beyond being the same licensed property). Unlike, say, how Sony handled backwards compatibility on the PS2 or PS3, i.e. "Make a general emulator & allow anything to be played, though some just won't work", the Xbox team took a more curated execution when it came to the BC on Xbox consoles, even more so for the later generations, so it's interesting to think about why certain regional exclusives were added to the official list over others, especially when it wound up being literally just two games each for both Japan & PAL regions. In terms of digital availability, neither Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory nor Richard Burns Rally were re-released as Xbox Originals for the 360 back in the day, making them disc-only offerings.
 |
| Neither of these are actual Xbox cover arts. I just wanted to keep things consistent. |
Finally, & most bizarrely, there are even two OG Xbox games that never actually saw release that wound up being made officially BC on the Xbox 360! Of these the most curious would easily be 2005's He-Man: Defender of Grayskull (a.k.a. Masters of the Universe Interactive, according to the cover), a third-person action/adventure game based on Mattel's iconic multimedia franchise. While the 2002 animated series was around by this point, this game and its predecessor (2003's He-Man: Power of Grayskull for the GBA) are apparently their own interpretation of the franchise, but while TDK did release the GBA game as a North American-exclusive, this console follow-up wound up being a PAL-exclusive... and only on the PS2, and instead of TDK being the publisher it was Midas Interactive Entertainment. As for why this happened, while TDK was still technically around by 2005 (the GameCube version of TDK's Conan came out in PAL regions after He-Man did on PS2), its presence in North America was very much dead by that point, while TDK itself wouldn't last for too much longer. Also, as seen with the uncovering of a prototype of this specific console version by Hidden Palace in 2021 that dates back to July of 2003, this game was apparently stuck in development hell for a good while, in general. Because of all of this, some feel that a North American release might have been planned for later in 2005, if not even early 2006, & the Xbox team likely had a near-final build of the Xbox version on hand when testing out which games could be whitelisted for the 360's BC program. Therefore, the Xbox team likely just decided to officially support it, on the off chance it did come out... which it did not.
Also, if you're curious if that mid-2003 prototype is BC, I actually did burn a DVD containing it & tried it out on my stock 360, for the hell of it. While the console did actually acknowledge it as a "Game", & even tried booting, it sadly gave me a "not listed as compatible" message, so the build that was approved is still out there for someone to find; I'm honestly shocked my 360 even recognized the prototype as a game & let me try booting it.
Even more shocking in why exactly the Xbox team added it to the official 360 BC whitelist would be 2004's Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku. Based on the iconic Cartoon Network animated series by Genndy Tartakovsky, this game by Sega, Adrenium Games, & Amaze Entertainment actually did see release in both North America & PAL regions, but only on the PS2 & GameCube. However, while an Xbox version was announced back when Sega confirmed that it had the Samurai Jack license back in January of 2004, after BAM! Entertainment originally had it, it wound up never coming to pass; Samurai Jack wouldn't come to Xbox until 2020's Battle Through Time. But while He-Man: Defender of Grayskull at least can have the logic of "Maybe the Xbox staff thought it would still come out in time for the 360's launch" to explain why it was officially added to the BC program, that same logic doesn't really apply to The Shadow of Aku. This game came out in March of 2004, August in PAL, long before the Xbox 360 launched (in fact, the console itself wouldn't even be officially announced until a year after the game came out!), so the inclusion of The Shadow of Aku is a great showcase for just how long before the launch of the 360 the official BC list was already being made. As for why the Xbox staff didn't simply remove the game from said list when it became obvious that it was never going to come out... I guess no one noticed that it was still on there until it was too late, and they just shrugged their shoulders & went "Oh well"; I certainly don't know. Still, just as with its fellow unreleased game, this would have to mean that the Xbox team had a build of some sort for The Shadow of Aku, but unlike He-Man there has been no leak of any prototype for this specific console version.
As mentioned before, the launch of the Xbox One in 2013 was... awkward, to say the least. However, after new leadership took the helm things got much, much better, & proof of that came at E3 2015, when a backwards compatibility program was announced for "The Bone", a program that only continued to grow over the next six years, coming to an end on November 15, 2021, the 20th Anniversary of the OG Xbox's launch. In fact, one could argue that a major aspect of the launch of the Xbox Series X|S in November 2020 was BC, as it would play (almost) anything that its predecessor could, and with better performance across the board, at that! Now, to be fair, this form of BC is a different beast than on the 360, as putting in a compatible game disc results in a download that simply treats the disc itself as a key to actually boot the game; at the very least, heavily scratched discs are still semi-viable options. This is because Microsoft also wants to offer as many of these games as possible as digital purchases, which means that they had to make brand new licensing deals with the proper parties involved for each & every supported game; this means that each BC game is essentially its own custom version of the emulator used, to minimize technical issues. Just as with the 360, nearly all of the games supported for Xbox One & Series are ones that saw some sort of international release, but there are a handful that originally only saw region-exclusive release.
First up is probably the most interesting of all, as it's one of only two region-exclusive Xbox Live Arcade games! For those unfamiliar, XBLA was Microsoft's term for any digital-only releases on the Xbox 360 (though some did later see physical release, usually as part of a bundle with other related XBLA games), and while nearly all of them were available for purchase worldwide, a literal couple of them wound up being Japan-exclusive, and both were a part of Sega's Model 2 Collection, a series of re-releases of five arcades games originally developed for the Model 2 board. The one we'll be focusing on is 2013's Virtual-On: Cyber Troopers, a port of the 1996 arena mech combat game that would spawn a cult-classic franchise & utilized twin-stick controls; it's since also been subtitled "Operation Moongate" to differentiate it from its sequels. While the first three games in the Model 2 Collection (2012's Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers, & Sonic the Fighters) did all see international release, this fourth game sadly never left Japan (both for the 360 & PS3), but on September 14, 2017 Microsoft added Virtual-On to the BC program, a few months after the XBLA version of its sequel (Oratorio Tangram) got added; sadly, 2010's Virtual-On Force, a Japan-exclusive 360 game that was region-free (a rarity for that region), was never made BC. Over time, all of the Model 2 Collection would be made BC on Xbox One & Series... except for the final game, the Japan-only Virtua Striker. However, due to them being (mostly) digital-only releases, it looks like every single XBLA game is technically region-free, as you can purchase & play Virtua Striker on any Xbox 360 console, regardless of region; you just need a Japanese account (& yen in the virtual wallet) to purchase it. As for Virtual-On, it can be a little tricky to actually buy it directly from a One or Series console (I wound up buying it through my 360, for simplicity's sake), but once you do own it all you need to do is have your Japanese account set up on a One or Series and it should pop up in the "Ready to Install" section of your games list, simply titled "Virtual-on", even if you're technically signed into your American account.
Then we have our only PAL-exclusive game in the One & Series BC list, 2006's Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory! Yep, this OG Xbox game was added to the current BC program on April 26, 2018, which also meant that it received the digital purchase option that it never received on the 360, though since I don't have a PAL Xbox account I can't verify if it got added to the 360 Marketplace after the fact, like how various OG Xbox games only got added to that storefront after they became BC on One & Series (like Panzer Dragoon Orta, Dead or Alive 1-3, etc.); that was a really nice gesture from Microsoft that I don't think anyone expected them to do. However, since this was originally a physical release, that also means that you can simply purchase Panzer Elite Action from a place like eBay, get the disc, and when you put it into a One or Series console it will ask if you want to start the download for the game... eventually, at least, as it did take my American console about half a minute to actually realize what I had put into it, because it likely had to access a European server to start the download. Also, the actual physical version of the game has sadly gone up in price, with its BC status no doubt contributing to that (see: 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand mere moments after it was made disc-only BC in 2021), so it might actually be easier to just create a PAL account & buy it digitally now; I only managed to get extremely lucky recently by getting a disc-only copy from an Australian eBay seller for cheap. At the very least, despite being a PAL-only release, it does look to play at a rock solid 60 fps on modern Xbox consoles.
Now, is it actually worth it to go through the trouble of getting either of these "oddities" in the Xbox One & Series BC program? When it comes to Virtual-On I say "Absolutely", because it is just an absolute blast to play, and while dual analog sticks aren't exactly a 1:1 replacement for the twin sticks, it's at least a close enough analog to give most players as accurate an experience as possible; also, it's only 1,029 yen, so you won't break the bank on it, in any way. As for Panzer Elite Action, I gave it a quick try for this B-List, and it definitely has more of an arcade feel to it in terms of how it plays (i.e. it's very straight-to-the-point, so don't expect anything like Panzer Front), so if that sounds appealing then see if you can give it a go; it sometimes even goes on sale over on the British Xbox Marketplace, apparently.
Finally, we end with a quartet of games that I feel should just be bundled together, as they are all Japan-exclusive BC visual novels that, in turn, are actually kind of pointless for anyone outside of Japan to really go after, as they all have official English releases on other hardware. First up is the 2008 Xbox 360 version of Clannad, which originally came out in 2004 for Windows PCs & is arguably the most iconic title by visual novel developer Key. The 360 version was added to the BC list on December 15, 2016, making it the very first Japan-exclusive BC title for Xbox One & Series, though its addition wound up happening just 13 months after the visual novel received its very first official English release by Sekai Project on November 23, 2015. Because of that, Clannad's availability as part the BC program will really only appeal to those who already live in Japan or are uber-hardcore fans of the visual novel itself (or you just absolutely want to play it on an Xbox console, as this remains the only option); at the very least, you do have both physical & digital options for this one.
This applies triple to our last overall entry, though at least in this case all three of these games did first launch on the Xbox 360 in Japan. Originally released on October 15, 2009, Steins;Gate by 5pb. (now Mages) & Nitroplus was a visual novel focused heavily around time travel & is the second entry in the Science Adventure series. While it did receive a Windows PC port the following year, the game would remain a console-exclusive on 360 (unless you count the 2011 PSP port as a "console version") until 2012, when it was ported to the PS3. By that time, the game had already received a spin-off, 2011's Steins;Gate: Hiyoku Renri no Darling/My Darling's Embrace, which also initially launched as a 360-exclusive in Japan, before getting ported to both the PSP & PS3 in 2012; the PS3 ports of both games actually came out on the same day. Now fully established on both of the HD consoles, a second spin-off would come in the form of 2013's Steins;Gate: Senkei Kousoku no Phenogram/Linear Bounded Phenogram, which launched on both the 360 & PS3 simultaneously. On May 18, 2017, Microsoft added all three S;G games to the BC program, and while that was somewhat moot for the original game, as it had already received official English release on PC, PS3, Vita, & even iOS by that point, it did actually have some usefulness for the two spin-offs for a period of time, as neither of those would receive official English releases until 2019; sure, they were still only available in Japanese on 360, but the most hardcore wouldn't have cared.
While the "Original Version" (seriously, that's what it's called on the Xbox Marketplace now) & My Darling's Embrace are still available for purchase digitally, Linear Bounded Phenogram is now a disc-only BC offering, though it possibly had been available digitally at some point. Finally, just as with Clannad, these BC options remain literally the only way to play any of the Steins;Gate games on modern Xbox consoles, which likely played a factor as to why they got added to the program, in the first place. Considering the small niche Xbox has in Japan, it no doubt made more financial sense to simply offer the older versions of these four visual novels through BC, instead of wasting money on making new ports that wouldn't sell as well.
-----
Personally, I'm a big fan of Xbox's backwards compatibility program, especially on my Xbox Series X, as it does give me the chance to play games that I had never played before (or replay some of my old favorites) with cleaner visuals, improved performance, & reduced load times. That being said, though, I could list off more "odd" OG Xbox & 360 games that I would have loved to see added to the list (Magatama, Rent-A-Hero No. 1, Double S.T.E.A.L.: The Second Clash, SRW XO, Tetris: The Grand Master Ace, Mobile Ops: The One Year War, etc.), so while this list of "oddities" I've showcased is interesting & amusing in its own right, it also still can feel like just a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of non-North American regional exclusives that help make up the OG Xbox & Xbox 360 catalogs, let alone the wider variety of simply forgotten games that did see English release, but weren't made BC for a variety of reasons (usually down to some sort of licensing snag).
Still, if nothing else, definitely do buy the XBLA version of Virtual-On (& Virtua Striker, too, if you still own a 360) & let's just hope that Magatama can one day be unsealed from its Japanese OG Xbox purgatory.
Magatama © 2003 Microsoft Corporation
Puyo Puyo Fever © Sega © Sonic Team/Sega 2004
Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory © 2006 THQ Nordic
Richard Burns Rally © 2004 SCi Games, Ltd.
He-Man: Defender of Grayskull © 2003 TDK Mediactive, Inc.
Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku © Sega Corporation 2004 © 2004 Amaze Entertainment
Virtual-On: Cyber Troopers © 1996, 2013 Sega, Character Design: Katoki Hajime
Clannad © 2008 Key/Visual Art's/Prototype
Steins;Gate © 2009 5pb, Inc./Nitroplus
Steins;Gate: My Darling's Embrace © 2011 5pb, Inc./Nitroplus
Steins;Gate: Linear Bounded Phenogram © 2009-2013 Mages/5pb, Inc./Nitroplus
No comments:
Post a Comment