Five additional games have been added to the Xbox One’s ever-growing library of backwards compatible titles.
Microsoft recently made it known that a collection of Xbox Live Arcade classics are now backwards compatible with the Xbox One. According to ObnoxiousGamer, this includes Sonic & Knuckles, Dig Dug, Phantasy Star II, Samurai Shodown II and Runner 2.
While many of the other big name and high-profile backwards compatible titles are oftentimes plastered all over the net and made a big deal about, these five classics are pulled out of the deep recesses of the XBLA library, many of these games being old Sega Genesis titles that managed to find new life on the Xbox 360.
I guess if you grew up without emulation and you wanted to earn some achievements and gamer score for your playthrough of Sonic & Knuckles it’s worth picking up on the Xbox One. Of course, the game really isn’t complete unless you have Sonic & Knuckles locked onto Sonic 3. Now that is what makes the game worth playing and replaying time and time over again. It should go without saying that the magnum opus for the Sega Genesis was easily Sonic & Knuckles combined with Sonic 3.
The other games on the list aren’t pushovers, though. We have Phantasy Star II, which was a decent JRPG for the Mega Drive and Genesis back in the day. It’s pretty crazy to think that they’ve moved the series forward enough that they’re now on Phantasy Star Online II.
Samurai Shodown II isn’t bad, but it really doesn’t hold a candle when it comes to mechanics, timing and the animations of Samurai Shodown III, which is still in my opinion the best out of the franchise. The latter two games just didn’t contain the speed or balancing that Samurai Shodown III contained, despite IV and V featuring better animations and more characters.
You can pick up each of the five games right now from the Xbox digital storefront, or if you already have them attached to your Xbox Live profile, you can install them onto your Xbox One.