Thinking about picking up an original XBox...

RainbowDespair

My situation: I currently own a Japanese XBox 360. Now, normally this is a great thing: XBLA games are region free, most US games are region-free, and occasionally I can find a good deal or get a game early by importing the Japanese or Asian version (which usually have a full English mode). However, there's one problem: original XBox games. Most original XBox games are region locked. Now I thought the newly released XBox 360 Originals download service would let me get around this, but from what I've heard those downloads are region locked as well.

So I'm thinking about maybe just buying an original XBox since they're getting to be awfully cheap - around $50 on ebay (that includes shipping) or a little more from the local game stores. I already own two games for the system (from when I lived with people who owned the system): Panzer Dragoon Orta & Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'll admit that Panzer Dragoon Orta is the main reason I want the system although I wouldn't mind replaying Buffy (shockingly good for a media tie-in game). I also already own the Asian version of Ninja Gaiden: Black. Other games, I'm considering are:

Otogi 1&2 (I hear these are good Devil May Cry style games with minor RPG elements)
Oddworld: Stranger's Odyssey (don't know much about this game other than that it's supposed to be good)
Knights of the Old Republic (worth replaying plus my daughter loves Star Wars and has reached the age where she's starting to like RPGs)
Jade Empire (never played it though I'm sure I'd probably love it. Not much of an original XBox selling point though since it's one of the few region free games)
Fable: Lost Chapters (Enjoyed playing my brother's copy of the original, although I'm tempted to download the original game since it's region free and has reduced load times)
Phantom Dust (sounds like a cool game to me; is it fun in single player mode?)
Magic the Gathering: Battlegrounds (eh, it's $5 and though it looks bizarre, I was enough of a MTG fanatic back in the day that I'm curious)
Breakdown (Cinematic FPS/brawler? Sounds interesting to me)
Gun Valkyrie (Played it briefly and it seemed like it might be worth the $5 it costs used)

Are these games worth tracking down? Is there anything else worthwhile that I'm missing? In particular, I'm looking for games that are EXCLUSIVE to the original XBox (I already own a Gamecube & PS2 plus a 360 and Wii). I'm pretty flexible with gaming genres (except for sports titles - yech): I probably like RPGs and Strategy games the most, but I also like horror games, FPS with strong single player campaigns, puzzle games, rhythm games, and twitch games (I love XBLA). I'm not very much into multiplayer.

Qorzm

Psychonauts

Forever Zefiro

Psychonauts is hardly exclusive though.

Uh, teh Haloz are pretty fun.

RainbowDespair

Qorzm wrote: »

Psychonauts

A great game, but I'm looking for game suggestions that are exclusive to the XBox. I already own the PS2 version of Psychonauts.

Violynt

Metal Wolf Chaos.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Genl242_ZU8

Thank me later.

EDIT: Thief: Deadly Shadows, Riddick and Call of Cthulhu if you haven't played them on PC.

EDIT2:
Jet Set Radio Future
Kingdom Under fire
Shemue 2
Dai Senraku VII Modern Military Tactics
Crimson Skies

RainbowDespair

Metal Wolf Chaos does indeed look very cool, but there's the matter of price. The 1 copy of the game that's on ebay at the moment is already nearly $100 with almost a full week left to go. Alternatively, you could just buy it from the one seller on ebay for a whopping $180 or so.

Rotting Meat

Absolutely Crimson Skies. And Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition.

Violynt

RainbowDespair wrote: »

Metal Wolf Chaos does indeed look very cool, but there's the matter of price. The 1 copy of the game that's on ebay at the moment is already nearly $100 with almost a full week left to go. Alternatively, you could just buy it from the one seller on ebay for a whopping $180 or so.

Oh shit I didn't know that.... hey time to make some cash!

EDIT: Also, XBMC.

Rhaka

Steel Batallion? Should cost you more than the actual XBox.

thegloaming

It should be mentioned that KOTOR, Jade Empire, and Fable are all available for the PC, so they're no longer console exclusives.

RainbowDespair

Rhaka wrote: »

Steel Batallion? Should cost you more than the actual XBox.

Yeah, copies on ebay are selling for $70-$90 on average. Still beats the $150 they were going for at release. I must say I'm a little tempted. Any impressions from people who have actually played the game?

apotheos

I thought the region locking on 360 was tied to the nationality set in the dashboard and the IP address of the console?

Also I need to second Xbox Media Centre (XBMC). Its by far my favorite media centre experience.

apotheos

RainbowDespair wrote: »

Rhaka wrote: »

Steel Batallion? Should cost you more than the actual XBox.

Yeah, copies on ebay are selling for $70-$90 on average. Still beats the $150 they were going for at release. I must say I'm a little tempted. Any impressions from people who have actually played the game?

While undeniably fun, the game is really slow, unforgiving, and if it wasn't for the controller you wouldn't bother.

Mr_Grinch

Is Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecies available on anything but the Xbox? I can't remember.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is worth getting, not an Xbox exclusive BUT the xbox version contained both an unlockable of the original POP and the original POP2 (The ps2 version just had the original POP)

RainbowDespair

apotheos wrote: »

I thought the region locking on 360 was tied to the nationality set in the dashboard and the IP address of the console.

That might be the case on the XBox Original downloads but so far I haven't been able to get an answer from anyone confirming this and I'm leery of spending my own money to find out. It's definitely not the case for the actual disks though as sad experience has taught me: trying to play the US copy of Panzer Dragoon Orta on my Asian XBox 360 makes the XBox logo come up and then a dashboard message stating that the game's region isn't compatible with my system.