Games That NEED to be on XBLA: Halo Custom Edition
I see that look you're giving your computer and therefore are vicariously giving to me. You're saying "But Halo is already an Xbox Originals download, it'd be stupid to rerelease it!" To which I reply...yeah, you're kind of right, but hear me out.
Aside from the fact that Halo is popular enough to rerelease almost indefinitely, console gamers are still missing a substantial part of the experience that only PC and MAC gamers got to experience; online Halo 1. Halo PC, along with its MOD heavy multiplayer only counterpart Halo Custom Edition, not only offered the original Halo in higher resolution than its Xbox brother, but also offered online multiplayer with up to 16 players. Now, I realize that Halo 2 and 3 offer the same experience, but ask nearly any hardcore Halo fan what they would rather do given the chance: play Halo 3 online, or play Halo 1 online. 9 times out of 10 I bet they pick Halo 1. Although you'd have to be a fanboy to call the original Halo's gameplay balanced (OMG THE PISTOL ISN'T OVERPOWERED IT'S JUST DEADLY IN A SKILLED PLAYERS HANDS), one would be hard pressed to find anyone willing to say that Halo 2 or 3 have better maps than 1. In fact, Halo 1's muliplayer map design is so well done, I doubt any future Halos, heck, any FPS will live up to its high standard in that particular nuance. All that said, I bet you're starting to see my point; people would pay for a console version of Halo 1 if it had online multiplayer. Here's how I think they could do it; either they could port Halo PC over to the console single player intact OR they could port over Halo Custom Edition along with all it's crazy user created content.
Now, it should go without saying that an XBLA release of Halo should include the 6 exclusive PC maps, and that they would include the standard achievements and leaderboards required for every XBLA release. It would be awesome if they could go the extra mile and add online co-op (which was strangely missing from the original's release). I wouldn't really expect them to add online co-op, but it would be pretty sweet nonetheless. I suspect a leaderboard for Halo would either involve a total number of online muliplayer kills, or a speedrun leaderboard for the single player campaign, or both. As far as achievements, I reckon they would go something like this:
I Can't Wait for the Sequel: Complete the campaign on any difficulty
Heroic: Complete the campaign on Heroic difficulty
Legendary: Complete the campaign on Legendary difficulty
Bang, Zoom, to the Moon: Launch a Warthog a predetermined length
What did he just say?: Find the food nipple grunt
Mythic: Listen to Marty's hidden song
Megg: Find the elusive Megg easter egg
Superior: In a ranked match, kill an opponent with just 3 shots from the M6D
Seven is Darker: Kill 777 people total
Killtacular: People used to think 4 in a row was HUGE
Well Traveled: Play a full ranked game on every multiplayer map
Blood Gulch Chronicles: Play a private match on Blood Gulch starring the original cast of RvB.
I should elaborate for the last achievement. It would involve a party of 9 players, each wearing a specific armor color corresponding to the original Red vs Blue cast. For the record, that's Blue for Caboose, Cobalt for Church, Cyan for Tucker, Black for Tex, Red for Sarge, Orange for Grif, Maroon for Simmons, Light Red for Donut, and Brown for Lopez. Also, it would need to be played with vehicles, because we can't forget about Sheila.
The other option for a release of Halo on XBLA is a gimped multiplayer only version. Again, I'd expect at the very least it would include the 6 exclusive PC maps, but if they REALLY wanted to make fans happy, they could create a site online that houses user map Halo Custom Edition maps that allows Xbox Live members to cue up specific maps for download. Of course, that would require a pretty huge amount of work on Microsoft's part, but I personally think it would be worth it. If they didn't have user made content, we could at least hope that they would update the online interface to mirror Halo 2 and 3's experience system. I don't imagine that would take too much work, and it would help the game feel fresh even if it only included the original multiplayer maps. Just for fun, here's a second list of achievements that are multiplayer only:
Superior: In a ranked match, kill an opponent with just 3 shots from the M6D
Predator: In a ranked match, kill an opponent from behind while invisible
Seven is Darker: Kill 777 people total
Killtacular: People used to think 4 in a row was HUGE
Running Riot: Killing 10 people without dying seemed so much harder back then
Well Traveled: Play a full ranked game on every multiplayer map
Team Player: Win a team game with the highest score on your team
One Man Army: Win a ranked free for all match by having at least a 10 kill lead
Flag Fan: Capture 7 enemy flags
My Precious: Win an Oddball match with at least a 20 second lead
Why did they get rid of this?: Win a race
Hail to the King: Win a game of King of the Hill with at least a 15 second lead
Blood Gulch Chronicles: Play a private match on Blood Gulch starring the original cast of RvB.
Obviously, there's some overlap. If the impossible happened, and they allowed user generated content, I imagine there would be at least one achievement based on that.
Halo 1's multiplayer NEEDs to be experienced on a modern day connection on a modern day console with modern day people. It would undoubtedly become one of XBLA's fastest selling games, and would reignite the passion for the franchise in the heart's of fans across the globe.
-AfroRyan
I didn't forget about all you Xlink Kai players
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