Welcome to the 6th iteration of Backwards Compatibility Voting. Well, last week there was supposed to be some big announcement of more games confirmed for Backwards Compatibility. What did we get? Nothing and more nothing. Furthermore, Microsoft made the announcement that the Preview program is almost filled to capacity. Therefore, yours truly when he gets an Xbox One in September probably won’t be able to get in. Which is sad, since I spend a couple of hours every week on this topic and I would be perfect for that program. Why? Because, I would like this column to evolve beyond the votes. The votes as you will see in a few minutes are dwindling down and won’t hold together this column forever. Much can happen though…and let us go ahead and dive into the main course.
If you would like a copy of the file that these votes are stored in, please click here: Backwards-votes
Top 15
| Name | Difference Weekly | % |
| Deadpool | 233 | 5.85% |
| Outrun Online Arcade | 20 | 3.57% |
| NCAA Football 14 | 243 | 2.82% |
| Two Worlds II | 24 | 2.60% |
| Gun | 27 | 2.29% |
| Overlord 2 | 28 | 2.17% |
| Two Worlds | 17 | 2.14% |
| Overlord | 29 | 2.12% |
| Rumble Roses XX | 21 | 2.11% |
| Wolfenstein 3d | 31 | 2.04% |
| Silent Hill Homecoming | 50 | 2.00% |
| Worms 2: Armageddon | 23 | 1.95% |
| Double Dragon Neon | 17 | 1.90% |
| Syndicate | 25 | 1.89% |
| All Pro Football 2k8 | 10 | 1.83% |
Bottom 5
| Sega Vintage Collection: Monster World | 4 | 0.75% |
| Leisure Suit Larry | 3 | 0.73% |
| Record of Agarest War Zero | 3 | 0.65% |
| Lucha Libre AAA | 1 | 0.60% |
| Sam & Max: Save the World | 2 | 0.53% |
Well the top 3, is still the same top three for the most part since we started this thing. Deadpool is nearing 5000 votes, that magic number as I like to call it towards inclusion in Backwards Compatibility, if it wasn’t for the license and Activision. NCAA Football 14 closes in on 10000 votes slowly but surely. I hope EA brings it over, the perfect place might end up being EA Access which I plan on getting when I get a Xbox One in September. At least for the first year since I won’t have much to play from the beginning.
Anyway, then we get into 4-15 and this was actually interesting. Two Worlds II and the original? Now Two Worlds II is underrated I feel, it was quietly released by TopWare and people forgot about it because the original was such a mess. I actually have the velvet GOTY copy from the UK and its a great example of a quality collector’s edition.
Gun slid back into the top 10, it now has over 1200 votes. Again, I know Activision (which I probably sound like a broken record) but if there was ever a game that is a shining example of what BC should be about, it’s Gun. Rumble Roses also had another top 10 showing and passed into the 1000 votes category. It’s a mess, but has a solid fighting engine disguised as some T&A.
Riding out the top 15, we see Worms 2 which is already in the preview program as well as the two Overlord games and even a showing from Double Dragon Neon which sits on my Xbox 360 dashboard un played. I need to get on that. Oh, and quick shout out to Silent Hill Homecoming AGAIN showing up with now over 2500 votes. Konami, come on. Seriously.
The bottom five is a train wreck of games who didn’t even get 5 votes in a given week. Just missing the list was such titles as Tales of Vesperia (*frowny face*), Dishonored (I guess they finally got the memo), and Alan Wake (again). There are two titles worth commenting on from the Bottom Five. Leisure Suit Larry and Sam & Max: Save the World.
Leisure Suit Larry had been in the top 15 for quite a bit. It even made the top 10 when we did our monthly tabulation. But it plunged this week and I guess the people who were voting realized that the Xbox 360 Larry game is actually horrible. Or maybe they found the remastered PC version of the first game. Which by the way, should be released to Xbox One in some form or fashion. It was risqué for its time, but its so tame compared to what we see now and point and click games actually have a niche in today’s gaming market. I’d buy it (as long as it was $15 or lower).
Sam & Max: Save the World somehow ended up dead last when its companion game, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space was actually in the top 35. Go figure that one kids when the games are for all intents and purposes the same game with a different storyline. I wish they would reduce the price for these games. But I say that almost every week because one of these titles appears somewhere in the Top or Bottom countdown.
Welp, that concludes our analysis for this week. Hopefully, I will have a little more exciting news next week than Two Worlds II making the top 10 or Silent Hill again showing up in the top 15. I just want September 15th to get here so I can enjoy my Xbox One. If somebody can get me into the preview program (has the inside track and not just an invite) at that point, I would really appreciate it. They can even mention this column, I’m sure somebody at Microsoft would appreciate the work that goes into it. Take care.
