It was a magical time when Halo, Gears of War, and Forza had multiple follow-ups and extensive respect. Even before Microsoft slowed down on the exclusives and delved further into Kinect, the Xbox 360 generation offered some legendary releases. Here are our picks for the top 15, as of 2024.

Grand Theft Auto 4

Going from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to Grand Theft Auto 4 on a new generation of consoles wasn’t easy for Rockstar. However, while the latter had its shortcomings, it’s still a phenomenal entry in the series, with Niko Bellic’s rise through crime showcased in grim, unrelenting fashion. Its improvements to character models and motion capture, the sheer amount of dialogue, the increased scale of Liberty City, and more all made for an incredible sequel.

GHOST OF TSUSHIMA

Let’s start with the most obvious choice, because obviously, there was no way Ghost of Tsushima was not going be to in the list. Living the samurai power fantasy in a vast, richly created, beautiful open world that is brimming with striking vistas- Ghost of Tsushima accomplishes is defined by all of this, and so much more. Just as deserving of praise is the combat, which serves up the perfect samurai experience- and as you play more and Jin keeps moving further and further away from the code of honour he’s been bound by his entire life, those gameplay mechanics begin changing as well, allowing for much more brutal, deadly, efficient, and silent ways of dispatching enemies.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Smash Bros. Melee served as the series’ watershed moment, providing a near-perfect combination of gameplay, graphics and music. Super Smash Bros. Brawl didn’t win over everyone with some of its changes (hello, tripping) but it was superior in a number of other aspects. Subspace Emissary is an incredible story-driven mode till this day; the base roster was large and grew even further with the addition of non-Nintendo characters like Solid Snake, Sonic the Hedgehog and Cloud Strife; and the Stage Builder was introduced for creating one’s own levels. The Nintendo Wii already had a number of great exclusives but Super Smash Bros. Brawl is definitely one of its finest.

Xbox Game Pass subscribers take note – Kazuma Kiryu is coming next week. Microsoft has announced that Sega’s Yakuza 0 will debut on Xbox Game Game Pass for consoles on February 26th. The title has also been confirmed for Game Pass on PC but doesn’t have a release date yet.

Console subscribers can also look forward to Ninja Gaiden 2, Team Ninja’s super-difficult and action-packed hack and slash title, on February 20th. February 25th sees a number of titles joining the service including Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts 3, inXile’s Wasteland Remastered and Sega’s Two Point Hospital. The Jackbox Party Pack 3 releases on February 27th to close out this month’s offerings. Basically, clear your schedule for next week.

Xbox Game Pass for PC subscribers will receive Yakuza 0, Wasteland Remastered, Reigns: Game of Thrones, Two Point Hospital and Indivisible. These titles will also be out this month so expect more details in the coming days. Xbox Game Pass currently costs $9.99 for consoles and $4.99 for PC.

When it comes to action franchises from the PS2/Xbox console generation, there’s really two franchises that stand out as prime innovators in the genre- Devil May Cry (which just saw a new sequel last month) and Ninja Gaiden, the pseudo-reboot of the NES series of the same name. While DMC has seen a grand revival, Ninja Gaiden has been absent for some time, despite hints from Team Ninja that the series would return a few years ago. A new game may not be in the cards any time soon, but Ryu Hayabusa is getting a bit of second life today, with Ninja Gaiden 2 joining the list of backwards compatible games supported on Xbox One.

While the enhanced version of the original Xbox game, Ninja Gaiden Black, has been backward compatible for some time, it’s now joined by the Xbox 360 sequel, which you can purchase digitally now and play on any version of the Xbox One console.

While Ninja Gaiden 2 is plagued by technical issues (some sections are very clearly unfinished), it still features the refined action gameplay genre fans fell in love with and is remembered fondly despite its problems. A version of the game was released later on the PS3, titled Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, but saw significant alterations to both how the game played as well its overall level structure and aesthetics, which proved controversial and was found lacking by some fans.

You can experience Ninja Gaiden 2 in all its original, and very bloody, form now on Xbox One. If you have an Xbox One X, you receive the game with enhancements as well.

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Death Egg Robot – Sonic 4 Episode 1

While we’d all like to forget this game and pretend that Sonic Mania is the real Sonic 4, Sega did play around with the idea of episodic titles using that loaded name. The final boss lifts the iconic Death Egg Robot nearly wholesale from Sonic 2. Nearly. When on the final hit, the mad doctor will stomp one more time, and crumble the entire floor beneath the player with no warning, unless they somehow know when and how to intercept that attack, they’re back to the start of the boss rush.

Blade Wolf – Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

IF Prototype LQ-84i, otherwise known as Blade Wolf is the first real boss that Raiden will face down in the delightfully ridiculous Metal Gear Rising, with some quick movements and lightning fast attacks to challenge the player’s understanding of the parry system. But every prototype eventually sees mass production, and versions of Blade Wolf hit the battlefield just a couple chapters after your first battle.

Mein Leben! – Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Wolfenstein II rocked the shooter landscape by being a tight, narrative focused game where they wanted you to make America nazi free again and showing that shooters can have a place without a tacked on multiplayer. Wolfenstein II already makes you work for it, but if you want to finish that achievement list you need to take on the controller shatteringly frustrating “Mein Leben!” mode. Translating to “My life!”, as it says the player has a single life to complete the entire game, no save scumming allowed and the enemies are capable of goose-stepping all over the otherwise hardy “Terror Billy”.

These games are built to frustrate you. They’re built to make you seethe deep down and outright hate playing games in general. There are perhaps hundreds of games out there built specifically to irritate people and it’s crazy how some of the most popular games weren’t meant to be difficult to begin with. Games like The Unfair Platformer and Give Up though? What the hell?. Check out our picks for the top 15 most frustrating games you will ever play.

QWOP

QWOP is a funny game that stops being funny all too soon. You play as a track racer representing a fictional country that can only be controlled via four keys. Q and W control your right and left thighs while O and P control your right and left legs. Or maybe it’s the other way around, then inverted and reversed. Or maybe this game just plain hates you.

Try to take a sprint and your character unapologetically concusses himself by flipping forward. Your best bet is to take little mini-lunges to the finish line which feels light years away. To add insult to injury? You won’t get any music till you break out into full sprint and risk permanent brain damage. And you thought the Olympics were harsh.

And while we saw games like Uncharted, ModNation Racers, Assassin’s Creed, and Call of Duty falter in the transition to Sony’s handheld, Sigma Plus made it through mostly unscathed. Sure, there were a few cutbacks, and of course there were a few compromises, but of course there would be some, it was a launch game, and the developers first time with the hardware.

So of course, Sigma Plus had a few drawbacks, but on the whole it was a great port of a great game, now available in full on the go. It was hoped that the inevitable Sigma 2 Plus would fix the few glaring flaws of Sigma Plus, and deliver the quintessential action game experience on the PS Vita.

With Sigma 2 Plus, that has unfortunately not happened. The flaws that plagued the original Sigma Plus are all here, and sometimes they are even more noticeable. Having said that, however, it does not change the fact that Sigma 2 Plus remains one of the most ambitious PS Vita games, one of the most thrilling and amazing ones, and flat out one of the most recommendable ones, simply because of how good the core game is.

For those not in the know, Sigma 2 Plus is the port of the PS3 port of the Xbox 360 original Ninja Gaiden 2. The sequel to the celebrated Xbox original was criticized for not living up to the impossible expectations set by Itagaki’s masterpiece, but was nonetheless an appreciated addition to the series.

Sigma 2 Plus, like the original game on which it is based, takes place a year after the first Ninja Gaiden game, and it involves Ryu Hayabusa, the series protagonist, looking into an attack by a mysterious rival ninja clan. The story is long and harrowing, but ultimately pointless. It serves as an excuse to take you from one locale to the next, fighting one wave of enemies to the next.

That fighting is thrilling in how precise, clinically lethal, and technically complex it is. The battle system of the original game has been preserved here with all of its nuances, and more importantly, the blood and the gore that define the series (and made the Xbox 360 version of the game much more superior to the PS3 port) are all here too.

Of course, it is worth noting the combat, good as it is, has not aged all that well, and there are times when what were initially lauded as some great enhancements now stand out as poor design decisions. Oftentimes, the game can feel outright cheap, especially because of its own inconsistency; the same move will have a different effect different times, and the enemies themselves seem to be relentless in their swarming to the point where it just feels like bad game design as opposed to real challenge.

The combat issues are exacerbated by the other issues the original game had, and which Sigma 2 Plus retains, such as a bad camera, some really poor and confining level design, overpowered moves from Ryu that can often clear off the entire screen at once, and so on. Add to all of these the issues that are specific to the Vita version- to get the game running on the hardware, the framerate has been cut from 60 FPS to 30 FPS, and it doesn’t even hold steady at that, often dipping to dangerously unplayable sub 20 FPS levels; the number of enemies on screen seem to be reduced, there are more jaggies everywhere, bad textures, more flickering and even what felt like pop ins- and you see that there are issues galore with Sigma 2 Plus, possibly more than the original Sigma Plus.

And yet you find yourself returning to it repeatedly. If you want to show your Vita off to friends, this is the game you use. If you want to recommend a good, deep game to your friend on the Vita, this is the game you recommend. That is because, in spite of all the issues that plague this game, both in general, and the ones that are specific to the Vita game, the strength of the core game is so good that it shines through. Like Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater, the 3DS port of the PS2 game that suffered from similar issues, the integrity of the core game design is what shines through here.

Ultimately, that’s the reason you should get Sigma 2 Plus. While there are issues, loads of them, the game itself is great to play; while it’s a pity that what could have been the definitive version of a good game has been so held back by so many unnecessary issues, the game itself is among the best on the platform right now. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus is a cautionary tale against too much ambition, but in the end, it is that same ambition that makes this title stand out.

This game was reviewed on the Playstation Vita.