twenty years of xbox 360: a short reminisce

2025-11-19

Twenty damn years. What the hell.

The Xbox 360 for me was the first console I ever had alongside my brother. A year later was the Nintendo Wii. I remember the Blades dashboard being the first one we interacted with. The soft clicks with the UI passing through the different menus. The different colours you'd see passing by each blade. The black XMB interface when pressing in the Xbox button (does that have a name?). Hearing all the little sounds from each interaction with the newly-white controller.

I do remember one time we left the volume up really high the previous night when playing some games, forgetting to turn it down and the room suddenly being erupted with the loud startup sound. Dad wasn't too pleased with that!

This might sound a bit corny, but there was a particular game on the Xbox 360 that really attracted me with the visual style and soundtrack. Viva Pinata. My Dad rented it from Blockbuster for me. (I was six-years-old at the time). I think it was the first game I played that really made me pay attention to a soundtrack and feel it emotionally, and not just overlook it to be in the background. What I'd do for a CD copy of that...!

It also allowed me to become more close with my Dad. He didn't really get into a lot of video games growing up. But I remember the 360 bringing us together quite often and playing a lot of split-screen games alongside him and both of us having a blast. Particularly Halo 3. Another game he really enjoyed was the original F.E.A.R and its sequel Project Origin. Dark room; volume cranked up; ambience overflowing; the Nurse's Office level in F.E.A.R. 2. He still tells me how it's one of the scariest games he's played!

We got our first Red Ring of Death when my Dad was playing through Call of Duty (Doody) Modern Warfare's campaign. Something about seeing it happen in real time stuck with me. The 3 rings pulsating with fear. My Dad's reaction of shock and some certain expletives that re-occured frequently. I believe my Dad contacted Microsoft Support (the legit one, not the ones you hear nowadays) and we sent it away. We got it back after a week or so? I believe it was the same unit, I could be wrong though. I do remember seeing videos on YouTube at the time of people doing the "towel trick". In which you cover your console with a towel and letting it overheat, to hopefully fix the issue. I never done this myself.

One issue I did have later on the console's lifecycle was the "Open Tray" issue. It was to do with the laser on the DVD drive being faulty. I remember before we upgraded to the Slim variant of the 360 in 2011, I used a small bit of paper (specifically the local Chinese place's menu) to trick the Xbox into playing disc based games when closing the tray. It done the job but even I knew it was done for without repair!

It was my first console that allowed me to become more social using Xbox Live particularly with Game/Party Chat, and speaking with the godawful headset. I didn't get Live until late 2010 and having to use that white dongle with the antennas in the back of the Xbox. I remember playing F.E.A.R. 2 online and the original Black Ops Zombies online with the tinny headset. Some of my fondest memories spawned from there, chatting some amount of shite to fellow people in game.

Around the start of 2011, I'd seen a rise of people using the Kinect as their main form of communication online with the console. You heard every bit of conversation happening from downstairs. Plates clanging in the kitchen; particularly rife music whilst playing multiplayer; a mouse farting. The whole lot. This is back when gamechat's audio quality was... not the best. But being able to do that in real time was genuinely impressive to me. The ability to party chat with some friends from school was amazing. Nowadays most people in lobbies don't gamechat, as different services/programs exist. All being confined to Discord mainly. It's a completely different world compared to back then.

I also recall two friends of mine in school having a debate about whether the correct way of having the Xbox placed was horizontal or vertical. Very hot debates back in primary school!

Finally, I want to give a shout-out to the Xbox Live Arcade/Indie Marketplace. Sure, a lot of rubbish was thrown on there, but there were some genuinely great games that I played a lot as a child. Castleminer/Z, Total Miner Forge especially. This was back before Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition was a thing, so mid-2011. And a little indie gem particularly at Christmas which I played every year, called myChristmas. I'm a sucker for Christmas stuff, so this was right up my street!

Whilst I've moved on from the Xbox ecosystem nowadays (mainly PC and Nintendo), I'm forever grateful for it being the introduction to how I interacted with games as a whole.

Oh, and Peggle fucking rocks. That is all!