‘Left 4 Dead 2,’ ‘Halo Wars,’ And More Now Xbox One Backwards Compatible Games

It appears safe to say the Xbox One backwards compatibility program is now operating at full steam ahead. Microsoft has announced a flurry of Xbox 360 titles now playable on the new console in the couple of weeks and just added four more in the span of 24 hours. This includes Left 4 Dead 2 and Halo Wars, along with a pair of classic fighting games.

Valve Software’s zombie survival co-op shooter, Left 4 Dead 2, was just made backwards compatible today for the Xbox One. This follows on the heels of an update yesterday that brought Halo Wars, Soul Calibur II HD Online, and King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match up to the current-gen console. This is on top of an update late last week that brought Dark Souls and Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and an earlier update in the week that added Assassin’s Creed, Dark Void, and Grid 2.

That’s nine different titles made available to the Xbox One via backwards compatible in eight days. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft is able to keep this pace, or if a lull will hit at some point. There are still many games expected to hit that have not yet. This includes Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Red Dead Redemption, and more.

Halo Wars, Soul Calibur II & King of Fighters '98 are now available on Xbox One Back Compat https://t.co/dqhwaL4RWt pic.twitter.com/zKTQJvHUa1

— Larry Hryb ?? (@majornelson) March 28, 2016

Left 4 Dead 2 is one of those rare sequels that greatly improves over the original, which itself was a surprise breakout hit. The game earned a very strong 89 aggregate review score on Metacritic for its endless replayability, new weapon, enemies, and more. The only real knocks against it was the lack of newness due to it being a sequel.

Halo Wars was Microsoft’s attempt at translating a real-time strategy (RTS) game to the Xbox 360 using the Halo license. It mostly worked thanks to a simplified approach to the genre. The reviews on Metacritic illustrate the divide between what is and is not expected of an RTS title, but its inclusion in the backwards compatible line-up is necessary with the sequel due out on the Xbox One this year.

Soul Calibur II HD Online is the remake of the fighting game classic for the Xbox 360. The fighter is given a graphical facelift, but is identical to the original Dreamcast title. The one notable addition is support for online play, as the name suggests. The online component does offer ranked and player matches, but the netcode isn’t always the best. The straight remake and sometimes shaky online play earned it a 76 on Metacritic.

Finally, King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match is an old school fighting title with a roster of more than 60 characters. The sprite-based fighter is a remake of the original NeoGeo game and it offers plenty of different modes of play, including online.

As the Inquisitr previously covered, Xbox One manages backwards compatibility by emulating the entire Xbox 360 operating system. This allows Xbox 360 games to run on the Xbox One without any special coding or other workarounds. The major hurdles remaining are the licensing agreements with development studios and publishers to allow the games to be played on the Xbox One and listed for sale on the Xbox Store for the console.

Following that, testing to make sure the game runs correctly on the Xbox One appears to be a time-consuming task. Microsoft has to test each game from beginning to end to ensure the emulator runs the title correctly. This can take hundreds of hours depending on the title.

What do you think about the latest Xbox One backwards compatibility releases? Sound off in the comments below.

[Image via Xbox]