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Review : Xbox Originals For Xbox 360 : Psychonauts, Ninja Gaiden Black, & Fable
Last winter one of the biggest features that Microsoft rolled out in the 2007 Winter Xbox 360 Dashboard update was Xbox Originals. Now that I upgraded to a 120-Gig hard drive I decided that is was time to try them out.
Xbox Originals are Classic Xbox games that are sold and distributed over Xbox Live. It uses the same Xbox one emulation software as the Backwards Compatibility feature and requires a hard drive with enough space. Some games are as low as a Gig but some are 4.7 Gigs so if you are running a 20-Gig hard drive with your Xbox 360 you need to be selective as to the one or two games that you will have enough space for. All the current Xbox Originals games are priced at 1200 MS points that works out to $15 before taxes. For most games that is cheaper than a physical disc copy at a used game store but for some games like Fable and Halo it might be a couple bucks more.
This gives Microsoft a way to re-market old Xbox games to a new generation of players and to familiarize gamers to a series before a sequel is due out. If you think the fact that there are sequels to Ninja Gaiden and Fable out soon and they just happened to be close to the top of the list is not an accident.
However where the series really shines is for distributing acclaimed but hard to find xbox original titles. It is a wonderful thing that through the modern miracle of digital distribution anyone with $15 to spend can get a copy of Psychonauts over night rather than hunting for a physical disc copy on eBay or praying that they get a copy in at your local Gamestop and you are going to get your grubby hands on it before the next nerd does. The brilliant thing about digital distribution of media is that there is enough for everyone instantly.
Well it's not that instant in the case of Xbox Originals. Since the files are so large it can take a very long time to download. I started a download of Ninja Gaiden Black on Saturday morning and then I spent the day in Seattle and it was still chugging away twelve hours later on 1.5 meg a sec DSL. It's probably a good idea to download a game before bed and then plan on playing it the next night. It's gratification but it's hardly instant.
I gave my disc copy of Psychonauts to my friend BBQ as a part of his welcome to Xbox 360 gift basket and I am giving my disc copy of Ninja Gaiden Black and Fable to my girlfriend's friend for her birthday next week. Not only do I endorse buying multiple copies of Tim Schafer's brilliant Psychonauts but you should create additional Xbox Live silver accounts and purchase multiple copies of it. Even better than that, just take a wad of cash, stuff it in an manilla envelope and mail it off to Double Fine games and hope that through the magic of capitalism that it will make Brutal Legend even more awesome. Plus they could always use more beer money. (Tim if you are reading this because you have a Google News alert for the word Psychonauts you should stop reading this blog and get back to work making Brutal Legend, We need it soon. Did you know that you can buy signed copies of Psychonauts from DoubleFine.com? If only I could get Tim Schafer to sign my Xbox 360 hard drive) But I digress away from my love of Psychonauts for several paragraphs.
These still have the same Digital Restriction Management (That's right I refuse to put the words "Rights" in DRM) issues as Xbox Live Arcade games and Video Marketplace TV purchases. They are still tied to the original Xbox 360 system and gamertag and downloading them again after moving to a new Xbox would be twenty times worse than a Xbox Live Arcade game since you are dealing with a much larger file. Hopefully they will have released the DRM work around by the time I upgrade to a Jasper motherboard powered Xbox 360. Hopefully my Xbox 360 will not "Red Ring of Death" before then. If you have a previously RRODed Xbox than you should stay away from Xbox Originals because it is going to be even more painful the next time your system dies on you. In a perfect world system reliability problems and strict Digital Restriction Management systems that mistrusts the user by default would not be such a negative factor. If you are confident that your Xbox 360 will not RROD on you and if you have the hard drive space than this can be a great choice for you.
These are the exact same game play experience as running the physical disc version of the games through the Backwards Compatibility emulator. The games can supports Widescreen graphics such as Ninja Gaiden Black but if not black bars will display on the sides of the screen on an HDTV or widescreen monitor. The 3d graphics are rendered and upscaled to the HDTV resolution and can look better than graphics on several current generation systems (PS2, PSP, Wii, WiiWare and DS). The Xbox one's span of games from 2001-2006 is not that long ago. The very concept of them being able to emulate a Pentium 3 and Nvidia GPU in software only blows my mind.
The Black and White buttons on the Xbox are mapped to the Rb and Lb buttons on the 360 pad. There is the same minor audio glitching in Fable, the Ninja Gaiden arcade game on Ninja Gaiden Black still does not work and the disc loading times has not improved at all. The program emulates a disc drive and a virtual disc image so there is no loading time improvements. Since they did not have to modify and recompile the existing games there is a drastically reduced software testing cycle. There are no achievements and the in game blade can't access your custom soundtracks, friends list and Xbox Live messages. Starting up an Xbox Originals game logs you out of Xbox Live on the 360 and logs you into Live via the virtual machine. This maintains exact compatibility with the network code on the old game and keeps the policy that a gamertag can only be logged into Live once. That also means that you can't download items in the background or access cross game messages and friend invites via the Xbox 360 dashboard when running one of these games. This may sound bad to gamers that have never played Xbox one games on the 360 but it is par the course.
That's too bad but I can so get over the issues since there are some great games on the service.
Currently the available games are :
Halo: Combat Evolved (Get it)
Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (Get it)
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
Fuzion Frenzy (DON'T GET IT)
Indigo Prophecy
Psychonauts (Buy five copies of it)
Fable (get it)
Puyo Pop Fever (Only came out in Japan, Sigh)
Magatama (Only came out in Japan)
Burnout 3: Takedown (What's the point since this game was ported to Xbox 360)
Black
Ninja Gaiden Black (Get it)
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
The Wikipedia says that Guilty Gear X2, Panzer Dragon Orta and Dead or Alive 3 are due out on Xbox Live Originals some day.
I am sort of at a lost as to why Microsoft does not hurry up and release more Xbox Originals games, especially for Microsoft developed or published games, But perhaps that is for the best. I am not holding my breath for a re-release of Azurik: Rise of Perathia or Kakuto Chojin. They are limited to the list of Backwards Compatible Xbox games that have been certified to work with the emulators but there are a number of games that I would love to see sold as Xbox Originals one day (like Stubs The Zombie).
I currently have:
Psychonauts
A truly creative and inspired game. It is a 3d platform action adventure game set in a twisted world of a summer camp for psychic children and the demented mind contained within. Think Nicktoons on large amounts of drugs but actually really funny and smart. This game makes Xbox Originals look good.
Ninja Gaiden Black
A tough as nails critically acclaimed action game that features more bloody sword-work than The Crusades. It is a shame that the classic arcade game is not emulated.
Fable
Fable is the best "Legend of Zelda" game to not be an actual Legend of Zelda game. Fable is a rich, immersive, creative RPG that pushes the previously held concepts of of the RPG, plus you can hit on people, fart and be a totally evil dude known across the land as a bloody tyrant. So far that has not happened in a Legend of Zelda game. It is a shame that they released the original Fable and not Fable : The Lost Chapters.
They should not only release more games faster but they should put some game play trailers on Xbox Live to better market them.
Your not going to advance your Gamerscore one bit with these but it is a great way to get some classic Xbox games. If you have the hard drive space to spare and 1200 MS points burring a whole in your pocket than Xbox Originals are pretty spiffy .
Jake at April 14, 2008 
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