2006 was a fantastic year for the Xbox 360. Lots of games were released and, more importantly, lots of good-to-great level games were released. Picking the ten best for this list was quite a challenge to say the least. Here are our picks of the Top 10 Xbox 360 Games of 2006.
Oblivion is one of the biggest, deepest, and most addictive games ever. You can do anything and everything you want, and it immerses you into the game world better than just about any other game out there. It is not just one of the best 360 games of 2006, but one of the best games ever.
The undisputed winner for best graphics on any system in 2006, Gears of War also has plenty of quality gameplay to match up with the pretty visuals. The third-person-perspective, “stop and pop” gameplay gives GoW a different feel from most other shooters, which is very welcome. It offers great co-op and deathmatch modes as well as a solid single-player campaign.
If you are a fan of boxing or ultimate fighting, or you at least have some knowledge of fighting of any sort, Fight Night Round 3 is a must play. You have a wide variety of punches thanks to using the analog stick to control them, and you can form unique strategies so that no two fights will ever be the same. A casual fan won’t get too much out of it, but it is endlessly replayable for a real fight fan.
Rainbow Six: Vegas is a sort of reinvention of the Rainbow Six series. It retains the great tactical squad-based action of older games, but tweaks things to make it more accessible. The result is a great game that shooter fans will absolutely love.
You are trapped in a mall filled with thousands of zombies. You can go into any store and use anything you find as a weapon. You have four days to solve the mystery of how the outbreak happened, save as many other survivors as possible, and generally just make a mess out of as many of the walking dead as possible. Dead Rising is simply amazing, and is something that horror fans, and zombie fans in particular, will love.
This mix of Harvest Moon / Pokemon / Animal Crossing / and The Sims may look cute and cuddly, but there is a darkness hiding underneath that adults will really get a kick out of. The gameplay is surprisingly deep, and undeniably addictive, which makes Viva Piñata one of the best games of 2006.
Blood Money is another example of a game where the series was previous rather exclusive and not very accessible, but has been rebuilt to appeal to a broader audience. It is stealth, and trial-and-error through and through, but it is also extremely satisfying so you don’t mind dying a few times before you get to the end of a level. It also looks and sounds absolutely fantastic on the Xbox 360.
First Encounter Assault Recon is one of the scariest games you’ll ever play, but it doesn’t just rely on cheap and easy scares to keep you playing. The first-person-shooter gameplay is as solid as you’ll find, and the combat is very intense and very fun.
LEGO Star Wars II is just flat out fun. If you are a Star Wars fan, it honestly doesn’t get much better than this because it does a great job of retelling the original Star Wars saga with a nice touch of added humor. It is also a surprisingly big game that will see you playing for 40-50 hours before you have collected everything and earned a 100% rating.
2006 was a bit of a down year for racing games overall, but Test Drive Unlimited was one of the few bright spots. It allowed you to drive around on more than 1000 miles of Hawaiian highway with your choice of dozens of supercars. The first-person camera angle is the best to be implemented in a racing game yet, and the overall experience is very fun and very well put together. Plus, it is only $40 so you can’t really go wrong.
