14 Rarest XBox 360 Games Ever
You could be sitting on a goldmine.
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00:00Not saying the Xbox 360 is up there entirely with the PlayStation 2, but it's pretty damn close.
00:05The early days of crackdown collectibles, Gears of War blowing our hair clean off,
00:09Halo 3's legendary ending and the legendarily tiny cat helmet collectible,
00:14Xbox Live Arcade achievements, The Blades, there was so much to love,
00:18collect and all-out enjoy about being an Xbox fan.
00:21Speaking of, chances are you hoovered up your fair share of collector's editions.
00:25Smaller titles may be given boxed releases, or any number of cool things you may or may
00:30not have realised would go on to be worth far more than they were at the time.
00:34I'm Scott from popculture.com, and these are the 14 rarest Xbox 360 games ever.
00:39Number 14, Dead Space, Ultra Limited Edition.
00:42One of the coolest versions of an already incredible game,
00:45there were only 1,000 of these made for Dead Space's debut run.
00:49Comprising a graphic novel, the first Dead Space animated movie downfall,
00:52a signed custom lithograph by legendary comic artist Ben Templesmith, the game itself,
00:57an art book, Ishimura crew patch and a custom box to put it all in, combined with a limited
01:02production cycle, and you have to embark on an Isaac Clarke-sized mission yourself
01:06if you want to track one down.
01:08Number 13, Aliens vs Predator, Hunter Edition.
01:11Once a proud gaming franchise morphed into a laughable one thanks to some naff movies,
01:16AVP on 360 is actually super recommendable.
01:19Coming with three overlapping story campaigns and lots of xenomorph or yautja finishes,
01:23the Hunter's Edition then was an AVP fan's dream.
01:26Coming with an actual replica facehugger and tie-in graphic novel,
01:30plus assorted trinkets and materials.
01:32Considering how starved for genuinely cool things this fandom are,
01:35the Hunter's Edition has turned into a highly sought-after collector's item.
01:39Number 12, DJ Hero, Renegade Edition.
01:42For a while across the late 2000s, Activision were pumping out hero games like there was no
01:46tomorrow, going from guitar to band, DJ and back again.
01:49For DJ Hero's Renegade Edition, it's the one that came with the Jay-Z and Eminem Twin CD pack,
01:54along with changing the colour of the hardware itself to a slick black and gold combo,
01:59perfect for collectors.
02:00Thanks to being a new and unproven franchise though, not many people snapped this up
02:04immediately, meaning such a limited run never had the demand to be followed up on,
02:08resulting in a paltry amount circulating online and in many storage units around the world.
02:13Number 11, Fallout 3, Survival Edition.
02:15The one thing that makes this so special isn't necessarily the freestanding Pip-Boy wrist clock,
02:20but an awesome little Pip-Boy figure.
02:22These little guys are incredibly hard to come by in versions that aren't bobbleheads,
02:26making for an irresistible combo when taken with everything else.
02:29A robust bundle in itself, both the aforementioned items sit alongside some limited edition art,
02:34a soundtrack and the collector's edition of the game too.
02:37Bethesda knew exactly how to make an entrance with their take on Fallout.
02:41Number 10, Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions, Limited Edition.
02:44Now, this isn't anything fancy in terms of what you could take home physically,
02:48as instead the limited edition of Spidey's cross-dimensional
02:50outing came with a code to redeem a Negative Zone suit.
02:54Shattered Dimensions tended to go down well with fans and no one else,
02:57so thanks to the game's lacklustre scores and the suit's limited availability,
03:01it's combined to drive prices up to ridiculous heights.
03:04Unless you find someone randomly posting the code online having not used it this whole time,
03:08you can literally only get one from these editions.
03:11Number 9, Darksiders 2, Collector's Edition.
03:14Hidden gems of the shiniest kind, all four Darksiders games are just great action titles,
03:19filled with fun, intricate lore, chunky characters and meaty combat.
03:23Though Darksiders 3 was a bit of a dud compared to its predecessors,
03:26Darksiders 2 saw vigil games shoot for the stars,
03:29introducing a more open world, mounted combat, a complex loot system and plenty more.
03:34To mark the occasion, we got a couple of limited editions,
03:36one with a hulking statue and one ultra-rare variant featuring Death's mask itself.
03:41The latter only seems to surface every few years at one place or another across entire countries,
03:46remaining an ultra-valuable collectible if you picked it up in the first place.
03:50Number 8, Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning, Signature Edition.
03:53Seems that having your development team go out in a blaze of glory does wonders for the
03:57trading market, as 38 Studios had one hell of a time getting Kingdoms of Amalur out the gate as
04:01a franchise. Included in this Signature Edition, the rarest of the Special and Collector's variants
04:06is a unique Todd McFarlane-signed sketch, a sizeable troll figure also signed by either
04:11McFarlane, Ken Ralston or Curt Schilling, the game's soundtrack, the game itself,
04:16a set of playing cards modelled after in-world Destiny cards, more unique artwork,
04:20a dice set and a themed playing mat. Oh, and there are only 300 of them on the planet Earth.
04:26Happy hunting.
04:27Number 7, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Prestige Edition.
04:30The one with the Night Vision goggles was a landmark moment in gaming for pre-order bundles,
04:35as not only had Activision gone slightly mad by including what was touted to be a working
04:39pair of Night Vision goggles, but we all immediately realised there were clearly no
04:43limits on what could be packaged in with our favourite titles. Sadly, in action,
04:48as reality settled back in, these advanced goggles were not military-grade, and instead
04:53were pretty blurry and lo-fi when using them in the dark. Still, it remains the coolest pack-in
04:57this side of Saints Row IV's $1 million pre-order that aimed to send a lucky fan to the moon.
05:03Yes, really.
05:04Number 6, The Beatles Rock Band, Limited Edition. Ask a Beatles fan how much they'd pay for a
05:09guitar that was actually used by the members of the band. Exactly. Now think about how MTV
05:15and Harmonix clearly had that idea in mind when they created The Beatles Rock Band,
05:19as the Limited Edition features a whole band's worth of instruments licensed to be replicas of
05:23those used by John, Paul, George and Ringo. It's a shame this didn't take off more in retrospect,
05:28as from the incredible set list to cartoonish takes on locales ranging from the Apple building
05:32to The Ed Sullivan Show, Rock Band's first major spin-off remains one of its best.
05:37Number 5, Halo 3, Legendary Edition. The entire launch of Halo 3 was more like a cultural event
05:43than a game release, with Times Square plastered in Master Chief adverts left, right and centre.
05:48Before launch, though, fans who coughed up the substantial asking price for the
05:51Legendary Edition thought they were getting a life-size chief helmet to wear. Instead,
05:55the reality was storage for the game itself, leading to the cat helmet label I mentioned
05:59at the beginning. To this day, fans trade the Legendary Edition online for hugely varying
06:04amounts, depending on what state it's in. 2015 saw one signed by the entire Bungie team go for
06:10$10,000, so if you plumped up the cash at launch, hold on, because a time might come where you can
06:16make that money back many times over. Of course, that's providing you can let that beloved cat
06:20helmet go. Number 4, The Legend of Spyro,
06:23Dawn of the Dragon. A game that's not worth a huge amount of money compared to many other
06:27entries on this list, but one that came in the midst of a franchise changing hands multiple times,
06:32right before Spyro would end up with the Skylanders crew. We're literally talking about
06:36the base game here, but through the factors mentioned, it became a collector's item through
06:40sparsity alone. Looking back, Dawn of the Dragon is a total hidden gem for fans of Spyro himself,
06:45a fairly bold, mature take on his aesthetic that included Elijah Wood as Spyro himself,
06:50plus Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman and more reprising their roles from A New Beginning and Eternal
06:54Night to wrap up the Legend of Spyro trilogy. Number 3, Bioshock Infinite, Songbird Edition.
07:00Bioshock's status in the industry is legend at this point, a genre-bending fourth-wall
07:04breaker that anyone who favours the original will shout about from the rooftops any chance they get.
07:09By the time we'd had one awesome underrated sequel, though, it was time to shift gears and
07:13journey out from Rapture up into the clouds. This produced Bioshock Infinite, a real head-scratcher
07:18with more iconic elements, great characters and one of the best world designs of all time.
07:23From its hulking Songbird statue, who you'll have grown to love over the course of the game,
07:27to the tiny handyman figure, art books, posters, a small Murder of Crows tonic keychain and the
07:32game itself, 2K knew exactly how to capitalise on such a dedicated fanbase. Number 2, Mass Effect,
07:38Limited Collector's Edition. Back when Bioware set the Mass Effect ball rolling in 2007,
07:43even just looking at how conversations work was genuinely mind-blowing. For this fancy
07:49edition then, you get a limited edition art book, making of DVD with exclusive footage never seen
07:54anywhere else, the game, a really neat Shepard-slash-Seren steelbook case, 36-page Galactic
08:00Codex guide to the Mass Effect universe and some unique art from the base game's cover.
08:04Mass Effect of course blew up beyond Bioware's wildest dreams, and this has gone on to become
08:08a bonafide legacy item only a few can call their own. And Number 1, Combat Wings, The Great Battles
08:14of World War 2. Do yourself a favour and pick up a game from a no-name studio every now and then,
08:20you never know what's going to develop a devoted following comprised of people who'll do anything
08:24to get their hands on it at some point in the future. Combat Wings is such a game,
08:28especially on Xbox 360, where a copy is rarer than a 2K title without microtransaction.
08:33Developed by Citi Interactive, the game received fairly mixed to negative reviews,
08:37but as flight sim lovers are a dedicated bunch, Combat Wings' inherent rarity through a very
08:42limited production has made it one of the most valuable games on the system.
08:45To this day, even the Metacritic page for Combat Wings' 360 version is completely empty,
08:50setting up insane prices to own a copy, like at one time, a copy shifting for $10,000.
08:56And those are the 14 rarest Xbox 360 games. Maybe you've just realised you're sitting on a gold
09:01mine. Let me know your favourite titles down in the comments below, and please subscribe to the
09:05WhatCulture Gaming Podcast. For now, I've been Scott from WhatCulture.com, and I'll catch you soon.