Six Disney Games you cannot play on modern Xbox consoles
One of the best features of the Xbox line of consoles since pretty much the Xbox 360 days but especially with the Xbox One and the new Xbox Series X and S is the extensive amount of backwards compatibility the systems have with prior generations of software. Sure, the Playstation 5 can play pretty much every PlayStation 4 game (and with its current library, it really needs to anyways) but if you have an Xbox One, X, or S odds are almost every Xbox title you own you can play on it, most are even still available to buy digitally in the Xbox store.
However, while an impressive majority of legacy games do work on even the hard to find Xbox Series X and S (which to be fair also have very little in the way of new games currently just like the PS5), there’s a significant amount that are not and may never be. Some are Kinect titles and that’s been dropped like a bad habit, some are just random forgotten trash (but there’s also plenty of trash that is forwards compatible) but many are licensed games that are likely held back because it’s either too much money or too much effort or both to extend that license so the game can work on current Xbox consoles. Many of those not surprisingly are games that fall under the massive Disney umbrella of IP even before buying Marvel, Star Wars, and a good chunk of Fox’s properties. A comprehensive list would be way too long (it took me long enough to research and then whittle down this list) but here are six Disney games of note you cannot play on current Xbox platforms (and while Xbox 360 still an active console it certainly isn’t a modern one so for that reason it does not count):
#6. The Simpsons/X-Men Arcade Game
These share the same spot for a couple reasons. They are both beloved ports of classic arcade multi-player beat-em ups, both developed by Konami, both pretty much only released digitally on Xbox Live Arcade, and are both currently delisted so the only way you can play these games as of right now is to own an Xbox 360 that already has it (I do actually have X-Men but for some reason I never bought The Simpsons and I can’t for the life of me remember why I didn’t).
So these are basically unplayable on consoles. These games aren’t super deep but can be fun with friends and are fondly remembered so it would be great if say they got re-released on Switch at least and both Disney and Konami seem pretty open to mining old legacy titles so it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility.
#5. Pirates of the Carribean
Granted, the Bethesda Softworks game loosely based on the first movie in Disney hit franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean isn’t a great game, but it’s an interesting take and not currently available on PC so an original Xbox is really the only way to play this game. In it you are some dude named Captain Nathaniel Hawk and it’s sort of a seafaring RPG that actually has very little to do with the film series (it may have something to do with the fact that it started life as a different game called Sea Dogs II and just had the Pirates brand slapped on it at some point). Maybe Microsoft purchasing Bethesda mean this gets some kind of attention either through a backwards compatibility patch or a port but seeing as again it’s not a great game and more of just a minor footnote of interest I could see it never rising from it’s watery grave ever again also.
#4. Star Wars: Obi-Wan
Much like the previous entry, Star Wars: Obi-Wan isn’t a fantastic game, but it pretty much the only one starring one of the most famous Jedi in all of Star Wars, who has had a new series in development for awhile now and you can play a number of older Star Wars games on Xbox and this has never been released on any other platform so that alone makes it noteworthy enough to be on this list. I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if it gets at least a backwards compatibility patch if not a no frills port close to the primer of the Obi-Wan series at least as what is now known as Lucasfilm Games seems very intent on mining their back catalogue for current releases.
#3. Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s revenge
Oogie’s Revenge is such an interesting game. I have it for PS2 and I honestly can’t decide if it’s a good but somewhat flawed game or just an ambitious failure, but it’s super interesting. Capcom developed it and it’s basically a Devil May Cry clone, but lacking the shine that classic has honestly. But again super interesting idea on how to tackle a game based on the cult holiday classic.
Given the enduring and seemingly only increasing popularity of The Nightmare Before Christmas, it’s surprising this basically is not available on PC or had some sort of HD port to modern platforms and also has not been made forwards compatible for current Xbox platforms. It may only be a matter of time as for awhile Disney seemed reluctant to do really anything with older games and now we are getting collections and re-releases here and there.
#2. Captain America: Super Soldier
The start of the mighty Marvel Cinematic Universe might’ve actually spelled the end for tie-in licensed games because after this flood of mostly mediocre trash they mostly slowed to a crawl. We don’t even get games based in the MCU these days much less ones tied to specific films and even other licensed games while plentiful are rarely directly based on a movie or series, they are just sort of their own take on the IP. While that’s definitely a good thing, given the massive success of the MCU I’m surprised literally none of the games are playable or have been ported to any current platforms.
Thor, Hulk, Iron Man (hell Iron Man has 2 games, though the second may have literally been the last straw it was so bad and sold so poorly) and Captain America all have games, with Captain America: Super Soldier being the only one worth a damn at all frankly. It’s not fantastic but it’s a very competent licensed 3D action beat-em up which in itself was pretty darn rare period. Like the only other one I can really even think of is Wolverine: Origins which was a surprisingly solid game based on a terrible film.
Again it’s just odd that given the popularity of the MCU these games just aren’t available to buy even with like no enhancements for Xbox One or Series X/S on the marketplace and with the MCU kind of moving on from that era of characters, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Just weird that the best way to experience these characters in the last decade is pretty much this recent Avengers game by Square Enix (which I’ve written at length about and will definitely be writing more about in the future).
#1. Marvel vs. Capcom 2
Granted, the original Xbox Version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is not the best version, that’s easily the Dreamcast version or the Xbox 360 Arcade version which is literally just a port of the Dreamcast version. And with Marvel vs. Capcom 3 available on current platforms I can see why there hasn’t been a huge rush to to make this available.
However, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is an incredible game that should not be merely left in the past. Heck what should probably be done is you throw it in a collection that has all the Marvel street-fighting classics from X-Men: Children of the Atom all the way up to Marvel vs. Capcom 2. But, if we can only get one game from that era, it should be the best one and that is inarguably Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Capcom seems at least somewhat cozy again with Disney recently so this seems like the right people would just have to talk to each other and we could at least get the digital Xbox 360 version back on the storefront again if not some sort of port. Hopefully with Disney clearly being open to mining their video game legacy it’s just matter of when, not if.
And that’s the list. Let me tell you as someone that has been actively collecting Disney games for he past couple years boy I wish I had at least held onto to every console I ever owned because repurchasing this stuff can be exhausting on many levels. Anyways, I don’t know if I’ll have another entry this week but definitely something next week for sure so see ya real soon!
