The Xbox 360 dominated gaming following its 2005 launch. There was a reason the 360 took the lead over the competitors for so many years: it had some of the best games ever made. In this article, we will discuss standout games well worth playing by kids. Read on to find out what those games are:
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Top 31 Xbox 360 Games for Kids
Shadow Complex
Protagonist Jason Flemmings starts out as a fairly average Joe. Instead of Samus’ plasma or Alucard’s swords, Jason prefers a trusty pistol and the side-scrolling gunplay is most excellent. But after a game’s worth of upgrades later, your kid will be an unstoppable war machine, rushing around the map like a crazed, ludicrously excited human tank.
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Minecraft
Dangerously addictive and deceivingly simple, Minecraft will pull your kid in and never let them go. It’s not a sandbox game, it is the sandbox, empowering your kids to create and share just about anything their ever-growing army of fellow crafters can imagine.
Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown
Here are some numbers that help sum up Virtua Fighter: one joystick, three buttons, hundreds of moves to learn, thousands of hours needed to attain mastery. Sega’s flagship 3D fighter manages to take a simple control scheme and create an absurdly deep system, encompassing a massive variety of real-life fighting styles. VF5 Final Showdown is the most complete VF yet, with more characters and combos than you can shake an arcade stick at.
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Fez
Your kid is going to get really confused while playing Fez. They’re going to stand on top of a tower, flipping the camera around the square world, thinking they’ve broken the game because there’s seriously no way they could have possibly missed something, and then they’ll see a symbol, and realize they saw it earlier. What begins as a basic platformer with a cute, retro gimmick evolves into something absolutely massive, and almost violently rewarding.
NBA 2K14
No other game simulates its sports like NBA 2K14. Commentary, courts, player likenesses, animations, licenses–everything in this game is pristine. And while the visuals of the 360 version pale in comparison to the next-gen offerings, it still looks incredible. Thing about NBA 2K14 is that it’s more than just gloss: there’s a superb, deep game underneath it all.
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Nearly every square inch of South Park: The Stick of Truth is packed with comedy. Your kid meets with a non-stop barrage of South Park jokes, references, and cameos. It’s almost overwhelming at times, but it’s handled in such a way that they don’t need to be a fan of the show to understand the humor.
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Fable 2
The Fable series has always offered a compelling blend of dark, adult fantasy and goofy-but-clever humor, but the now-well-worn franchise has never delivered on its fascinating gameplay promises quite as completely as with Fable 2. Compared to other action-RPGs, it’s quite simple, but what it lacks in mechanical complexity it makes up for with deep and rewarding player interaction.
Metro: Last Light
Metro: Last Light is a shooter in the sense that your kid has a gun and can shoot things. This is a game that prizes atmosphere and storytelling over non-stop action and set-piece moments. It’s a bleak look into a world ruined by humanity itself, a chilling adventure that teases your kid with crumbs of hope before stuffing them out of existence. And the few bullets your kid has are things they’d rather hold onto than waste, because they never know what sort of horror might be awaiting them just ahead.
Darksiders 2
Traveling in and out of our plane of existence lets your kid take in the beauty of Darksiders 2’s post-humanity world–right before your kid slices your way through a horde of demons and angels in the hunt for loot upgrades.
Trials Evolution
The controls in this game are tight and fluid and your kid will instantly find themselves in that intangible flow.
Saints Row: The Third
From skydiving rescue missions to fighting off zombie invasions, its story missions get progressively wackier. Not only will the humor keep you giggling nonstop, but the characters are genuinely fun to be around. It’s a welcome change from some of the more self-serious alternatives out there, and it’s got great game play to back up its humor.
Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3
Few are the games that make you feel as competent or as powerful while knowing very little about what you’re actually doing. UMvC3 is among that number. And regardless of whether you see yourself as the next great EVO champ or just the resident button-mashing wunderkind among your friends, you cannot go wrong with UMvC3.
Rayman Legends
Rayman Legends showcases the persisting power of platformers with gorgeous visuals, lovingly balanced game play, and a whole lot of wild fun. Legends ramps up the chaotic speed considerably, putting you through a number of smartly designed stages that keep up with the masters of the genre. The goofy fun gets better with each new player who joins in the inventive side-scrolling action, as up to four players can bounce between cooperation and competition at high speed. For a genre that many publishers no longer touch, Rayman Legends shows that platformers are still worthy of big budgets and even bigger talents.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an intelligent, challenging and Blade Runner-beautiful vision of the future. The style is unmatched, and the game play is customizable enough to qualify as both 100% shooter and 100% stealth, which doesn’t even make any sense. Which genre you experience is completely up to you as you explore the dark, interesting world.
Burnout Paradise
Burnout Paradise creates a winning counter argument to that by investing heavily in one singular locale and keeping you there for the long haul. But we still long for another trip to this velocity-obsessed town.
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is an excellent throwback to score-based arcade games, and it’s packed with a lot of game modes. A twin-stick shooter at its core, Retro Evolved 2 pits you against increasingly difficult waves of enemies. Twitch reaction speed and on-the-fly foresight are all that will keep you alive, and the addictive flow and fast-paced gameplay will keep you playing for hours on end.
Battlefield 4
Battlefield 4 has all the trimmings of any big-budget military FPS, but it’s the thrilling memories you’ll make while playing online that elevate it above other shooters. And beside the massive-scale multiplayer skirmishes, BF4’s single-player campaign is a huge step up from BF3’s underwhelming story–here, you actually care about your fellow squad mates.
Forza Motorsport 4
If you love cars, the appeal of Forza Motorsport 4 is pretty apparent. There are hundreds of the world’s most desirable automobiles, all there for you to poke at, customize, and, yes, drive to your heart’s content. But what makes the Forza series excellent are the features that appeal to non-gear heads. Its level of accessibility and its forgiving nature distinguish it in the typically tough-as-nails driving simulator genre, and it has deep enough car painting and customization tools to be an artist’s sole creative outlet.
Far Cry 3
Far Cry 3’s shooting and stealth mechanics are rock solid, but even if they weren’t, there would be no disputing how special it is. The way the games complex AI systems interact with one another, irrespective of your input, induces an unparalleled sense of awe. Far Cry 3 is a game you must play, no matter how tired of first-person shooters or open-world games you think you are.
Left 4 Dead 2
The co-op game has you joining with three friends to fight through endless waves of zombies, working together to survive the zombie apocalypse. The highlight, though, has to be the campaigns–sure, the original game’s stages were great and all, but they can’t hold a candle to Left 4 Dead 2’s ingenious level design.
Fallout 3
Capturing all the dark humor, brutal combat, and bleak setting at Fallout’s core, Fallout 3 remains one of the best examples of the role-playing genre. A big factor in that success is the still-impressive level of choice it offers, whether it’s choosing a simple response to a question or deciding to obliterate an entire town in a nuclear explosion. As long as we have our strange companions and a functioning VATS, the post-apocalypse isn’t such a scary place after all.
Dirt 2
Dirt 2combines the best of all games, dressing up the rewind-enabled, close-fought racing and epic car damage in off-road livery, taking away the armco and letting the vehicles loose into all-terrain wonder tracks. The licensed soundtrack is perfectly chosen and makes this feel like the best summer you never had. But the bottom line is that it still plays superbly, thanks to some of the best handling in any car game, ever.
Dishonored
Dishonored lets you live out your vengeance fantasies in a fleshed-out steampunk world – one that feels wonderfully lived-in, to the point of extreme dilapidation. Corvo’s supernatural abilities make all the first-person sneaking incredibly liberating, letting you approach and assassinate guards (or avoid them altogether) in almost any way you please. Teleportation knife stabs, sentient swarms of rats, and nimble rooftop parkour are all within your grasp when you’re lurking among the dingy streets and lavish mansions of Dishonored.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
For a game with characters that speak in grunts and nonwords, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons sure manages to express an ungodly amount of emotion. It’s a narrative-driven puzzle game where you control two young brothers simultaneously, each assigned to one of the gamepad’s thumbsticks. Their goal is to travel to a faraway land and find a cure for their dying father. In practice, this often means figuring out how to overcome the various obstacles standing in your path. Puzzles that would be overly simple in any other game become far more complex when you’ve got to manage two different characters at the same time to solve them. But the real treat here is Brothers’ gorgeous, varied environments and its phenomenal tale of family love and sacrifice. It’s one of those few games that will shake you to the core.
Diablo 3
One of the best things about Diablo 3 on consoles is that carpal tunnel is less of an issue when there’s much less clicky and more button-mashing. No more sifting through the garbage that you happen to pick up by accident because you wanted just the legendary stuff. But the most important thing is that Diablo 3 just feels great as you’re rampaging through dungeons. The transition to a controller may have been a concern initially, but it’s an entirely different experience that you can have offline–and with a friend through local co-op!
Borderlands 2
The writing here is sure to make you laugh, thanks to the hilarious cast of characters. Claptrap, a returning favorite from the original, is as silly as ever, while the new villain, Handsome Jack, spouts some of the most giggle-worthy lines in the entire game. It also helps that the action is addictive and fun, as the dozens of quests not only lead to more laughs, but also huge caches of loot and XP rewards, allowing you the opportunity to further develop your character’s abilities. Best of all, you can play with up to three friends, making Borderlands 2 one hell of a memorable co-op experience.
Braid
Braid’s brilliance is manifold. It’s a beautiful game, no doubt, with a watercolor aesthetic and subdued soundtrack that complements its clever time-manipulation mechanic. And that mechanic easily carried the game’s mind-bending puzzles. The game is all the more gratifying because of it.
Dragon Age: Origins
When Dragon Age did make it to market, in 2009, it signaled BioWare’s return to the upper echelon of western RPG development. It had engaging combat and excessive gore, sure, but what made Origins stand out was a distinctly BioWare touch: a ranging, epic story. Choice played a real role in the original Dragon Age, and you were pushed to form complex relationships with the game’s large cast.
Bayonetta
The Devil May Cry-inspired combat (“inspired” being another term for “made by the guy who made the original few Devil May Cry games”) is fast and brutal, and the artistic design is inspired. The game rewards you for combos with outlandish, flashy visuals that are so over-the-top you’ll be grinning from ear to ear. Some battles end with Bayonetta turning her hair into a giant dog and devouring her enemies.
Super Meat Boy
No other game in existence delivers a more fun–or challenging–experience where you play as a cube of hamburger. Sure, Super Meat Boy’s later levels may make you quiver with anxiety or curse at air horn-like decibels, but overcoming them provides nothing short of elation. It’s oh-so tough but always fair, and watching your failed attempts after finishing a level is one of the most cathartic moments of any hardcore 2D platformers.
Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2 was a bigger, better, and all around gorier package than its predecessor, which resulted in a game that was a blast to play with friends cooperatively or even alone. While Gears of War 3 made significant improvements to the multiplayer modes, Gears 2 holds a special place in hearts because it was the first introduction to horde mode. This should be played by every kid.
Hope your kid has a great time playing these games!
