10 Games Celebrating Their 10th Anniversary in September 2017

Medal of Honor: Airborne

Games Celebrating Their 10th Anniversary in September 2017

Medal of Honor: Airborne was the 11th game in the franchise, and when it released in early September 2007 it was the first Medal of Honor game to release on the Xbox 360. The campaign put you in the shoes of a fictional World War 2 paratrooper called Boyd Travers, and took place across levels based in Italy, France, and Germany.

The first-person shooter released to fairly average reviews, getting an overall Metacritic score of 73. Since then EA has released two Medal of Honor games on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with the latest being Medal of Honor: Warfighter in 2012.

Stranglehold

Games Celebrating Their 10th Anniversary in September 2017

Stranglehold came to the Xbox 360 on Sept 7 in North America and the week after in Europe, while the PC version released on Sept 18 in both territories. PlayStation 3 players got their hands on the game a month later.

The third-person shooter was a sequel to 1992 film Hard Boiled, with director John Woo also collaborating with Midway Games. Stranglehold takes place in Hong Kong with the story starting with a policeman going missing under strange circumstances, with the main protagonist’s investigations involving multiple triad groups. The game has a 77 Metacritic average across the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

A sequel called Gun Runner was in the early stages of production, however developers Midway Games had to file for bankruptcy in early 2009 after making heavy losses for a number of years.

Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber

Games Celebrating Their 10th Anniversary in September 2017

One of the only games on this list that released on the Nintendo DS, Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber released in North America on Sept 10 after initially releasing in Japan the month prior. Meant to be a sequel to Donkey Kong: King of Swing on the Game Boy Advance, the game used the dual screens of the Nintendo DS to show more of the level at once. It also included a four-person multiplayer mode.

Like Stranglehold, Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber also has an average of 77 on Metacritic. The most recent game released by Nintendo from the franchise is Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in 2014 on the WiiU. With the Nintendo Switch performing well it may not be long until we see the Donkey Kong franchise return again.

Fatal Inertia

Games Celebrating Their 10th Anniversary in September 2017

Fatal Inertia was an Xbox 360 exclusive for just over nine months, releasing on the Microsoft console Sept 11 in North America and Europe and only coming out on the PlayStation 3 on June 19, 2008.

The game from Koei was a futuristic vehicle racing game set in the 22nd century, with Fatal Inertia being the most popular of many extreme sports, and involved fifty-one courses over six rural environments. The game didn’t do so well critically, only getting an average Metacritic score of 61. Koei is more known for the ‘warriors’ style of games like Dynasty Warriors and Hyrule Warriors.

Heavenly Sword

Games Celebrating Their 10th Anniversary in September 2017

Heavenly Sword was a PlayStation 3 exclusive hack and slash game from Ninja Theory, and it released in North America on Sept 12, 2007. It was a single player game that revolved around martial arts and melee combat, with the main protagonist’s “Heavenly Sword” changing in combat depending on the stance chosen by the player. The team working on it also had names like Andy Serkis, known for playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies, and video game writer Rhianna Pratchett.

The game did relatively average at release, scoring 79 on average on Metacritic. It was Ninja Theory’s first game released, with the England-based team going on to release games like Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, DMC: Devil May Cry, and most recently Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.

Skate

Games Celebrating Their 10th Anniversary in September 2017

EA’s first Skate game released in North America and Europe across September 2007 on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Unlike the Tony Hawk franchise of skateboarding games, Skate went for a more realistic skateboarding with its analogue sticks-based trick system and a large city environment with no loading screens between the major areas.

The game did very well both critically and with fans, and on Metacritic scored 85 on average. Skate 2 and Skate 3 released in Jan 2009 and May 2010 respectively, with the development team then being moved onto other projects in the studio and elsewhere with EA. For awhile fans have been waiting for a new game to release on the most recent generation of console, with the majority of the comments on EA’s Instagram posts being about Skate 4.

Eternal Sonata

Games Celebrating Their 10th Anniversary in September 2017

Eternal Sonata released in North America on Sept 17 for the Xbox 360, three months after the game originally released in Japan. The PlayStation 3 version of the game came out a month later. Eternal Sonata is an RPG  based around 19th-century Polish composer Frederic Chopin, with the combat system in the game including features where light and dark changed how the enemies behaved.

The average Metacritic score came to around 79, although for the Xbox 360 version there aren’t any negative critic reviews. Developers Tri-Crescendo went on to help work on projects like Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo 3DS and WiiU, and Tales of Berseria.

World in Conflict

Games Celebrating Their 10th Anniversary in September 2017

World in Conflict was a real-time strategy game developed by Massive Entertainment for the PC, releasing in North America on Sept 18 and in Europe three days later. The game takes place in 1989 with alternate history, with the invasion of Europe by the Soviet Union causing a third world war. The game had both a single player campaign and a multiplayer mode.

It did very well, getting an average score of 89 on Metacritic with all but one critic review being positive. The multiplayer servers for the game were shut down by Ubisoft in Dec 2015, although the fanbase of the game ended up taking matters into their own hands and launched a work-in-progress multiplayer system this year.

Warriors Orochi

Games Celebrating Their 10th Anniversary in September 2017

Released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 on Sept 18 in North America, Warriors Orochi was a beat ’em up game that was a merge of both Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors. The game had four separate story arcs to play through, with many characters from both game universes making appearances.

Warriors Orochi didn’t go down well with critics, getting a 53 Metacritic average on the Xbox 360 with no review on the site scoring above 70. There have been two more games in the Warriors Orochi franchise since 2007, with Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate close to coming out on the Nintendo Switch on Nov 9.

Halo 3

Games Celebrating Their 10th Anniversary in September 2017

Halo is arguably Microsoft’s biggest gaming franchise for the Xbox family of consoles, and Halo 3 is classed as the best of them all overall. It first released for the Xbox 360 on Sept 25 and was able to get an average review rating of 94 on Metacritic. Only eight games on the Xbox 360 have a higher average, with five more games scoring the same overall.

Halo 3 from Bungie was a first-person shooter that concluded the trilogy of Halo games story wise. The multiplayer for the game was also well received and became very popular among Xbox 360 players. The Halo franchise has seen four more major games release, although more recently developers Bungie now work with Activision on the Destiny franchise.