The Mountain Dew green colors. The loud marketing campaigns. The Xbox 360 felt like Microsoft trying to but its way into the console gaming big leagues. Through the unexpected collision of developer-friendly tech, consumer affordability, and digital-first initiatives, the Xbox 360 organically bootstrapped its way into being one of the best consoles ever.
It didn’t just capture the late 2000s gaming imagination, it defined the zeitgeist and forged experiences that feel as formative as the early days of the NES or PlayStation 1. To mark the console’s 20th anniversary and lasting impact, here are the Xbox 360 memories that still stick with us:
1. The first time I earned an in-game achievement, something clicked in my brain. I believe it was for completing the training level in Call of Duty 2. I remember how nice it felt to get a little pop-up reward from the game. I then spent the next many, many years collecting achievements on Xbox 360, subjecting myself to games like Full Auto and Perfect Dark Zero in the hunt for more points. And while I think achievements aren’t that exciting anymore, I do still love the idea of having this record of things I’ve played and done across now three generations of Xbox consoles. I’m happy every other platform stole this idea, too. (Zack Zwiezen)
2. When the incredible Pac-Man Championship Edition came out, I became embroiled in a fierce high score battle with a few acquaintances. Every night I’d get home from work to see that one of them had just barely slipped past me, and so I’d lose myself for hours in the neon vibes and clubby beats of its arcade action, relying on pure instinct, trying again and again and again until I finally secured my victory over them on the leaderboards. It was pure arcade bliss. (Carolyn Petit)
3. The first and last time I ever ordered a pizza on a video game console happened in 2013. Pizza Hut launched an app on the Xbox 360 and offered a promotion that let you get a pizza for 15 percent off. I ordered a pepperoni pie, stuffed-crust of course, and consumed it while playing Black Ops 2. Little did I know life would rarely be this good again. (Zack Zwiezen)
4. My first 360 memory was Tom Bramwell bringing his pre-release machine over to my flat before it was out, and we played Criminal Oranges and Kameo and worried for the machine’s chances. But then after that, all Geometry Wars, all the time. (John Walker)
5. My girlfriend’s roommate’s boyfriend moved into their apartment during the last year of college. He had an Xbox 360 with Modern Warfare 2. I slept over often staying up with him until one or two in the morning fighting Juggernauts in Special Ops missions and running Model 1887 Akimbo through Terminal while drinking a case of Lion’s Head. (Ethan Gach)
6. It might sound silly now, but Gears of War 3 is burned into my brain because of one character’s death. Late in the game, spoilers for those who haven’t played it, Dom sacrifices himself to save Marcus and the others from doom. My brother and I had played through the first two games multiple times and had developed a connection with this world and the characters. He was always Dom. I was always Marcus. And there was something oddly compelling and sad about watching my digital brother sacrifice himself to save me. (Zack Zwiezen)
7. I’m still chasing the high of that first Dungeon Defenders. It came to XBLA in late 2011 when I was living in my first apartment after college. My best friend and I were hooked on the tower defense RPG loop, hoovering up crystals and maxing every character. I’ve never played anything as intensely since. (Ethan Gach)
8. The foundational memory I have of the Xbox 360 was that, when the box launched in 2005, I wasn’t allowed to play it. My twin brother and I got one the following January because they were on back order, so I spent a couple months staring wistfully at the games we’d bought ahead of time. But I had recently failed my seventh-grade math class with a 64, and rather than investing in tutoring or anything to support me in a subject I clearly struggled with, my mother decided to punish me by not allowing me to play the shiny new console.
I still did, obviously. I just waited until my mother went to sleep. I beat Kameo: Elements of Power in the dead of night and honed my skills in Dead or Alive 4 when no one was awake to notice. My mother eventually found out because my local youth minister was a narc and was listening in on every conversation my friends and I were having. But I beat 360 games months earlier than I was supposed to. In retrospect, that was a lot of drama for something so insignificant as a middle school math class. But hey, those late-night play sessions were worth it. (Kenneth Shepard)
9. I borrowed Catherine from a friend and played it at the exact time my girlfriend and I were on a break over my own commitment issues. That precise combination of puzzle platforming panic, existential dread, and demonic nightmares will never leave me. I can still hear the music as Vincent sits in the bar bathroom watching his low-stakes life unravel over text message. (Ethan Gach)
10. Halo 3. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a multiplayer experience quite like that one again. I have many good memories of killer matches and chill hang out sessions. But I’ll always remember when folks started spotting players wearing the “Recon” helmet and were obsessed over trying to figure out how to unlock it long before the armor piece became available to the public. Me, being the kind of person I was at the time (and maybe still am?) would often hop onto social, unranked matches to try and convince people I knew how to get the armor. No, I didn’t scam them. I just wasted their time, taking them to various corners of the game’s maps and asking them spin around in circles, empty all their ammo in the corner, stand on top of each other to build a ladder to where I promised them the Recon armor was hiding, or recite strange cryptic sounding sentences I made up on the spot. I’m sorry if you were one of those people whose time I wasted. But it was really, really funny to me. Thanks for the memories. (Claire Jackson)
11. Waiting for Bastion to come to XBLA’s Summer of Arcade felt like being back in the ’90s. Digital downloads still felt novel. They were giving birth to an entirely new generation of retro-inspired indie giants. I played it my SD TV left over from college up in my parent’s attic during July with no air conditioning. I was still sweating even in the middle of the night as Logan Cunningham raspy voice unfurled a broken world hope, despair, and beautiful colors. It felt like I was looking at the past and the future simultaneously. (Ethan Gach)
