Editor's Note: List last updated September 11, 2015.

This November, the Xbox 360 will turn 10 years old. Throughout that decade, its game library has grown to include some of the best shooters, RPGs, platformers, and adventure games ever seen. But with the release of the Xbox One, the Xbox 360's enormous lifespan is inevitably coming to a close.

The primary question this top 25 list is intended to answer is simple: "What are the 25 best games we played on this platform?" How much fun we had with the games is obviously our primary concern, but we also considered elements like longevity/staying power, influence, and innovation.

This year, your top 25 game selection committee is Brian Albert (Editor), Ryan McCaffrey (Executive Previews Editor), Mitch Dyer (Editor), Miranda Sanchez (Associate Editor), Tristan Ogilvie (Video Producer), and Brandin Tyrrel (Associate Editor).Our criteria are as follows:You may note the absence of impressive, unforgettable games, but the hard truth is that, no matter how much we love those games and more, Xbox 360's 10 years have been so good to gamers that there simply isn't room for everything on the Top 25. The following are the best of the best, and they should not be missed.

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Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s South Park role-playing game isn’t so much a fantastic licensed title as much as it is Season 18 of the long-running satirical TV series all by itself. The 12-14-hour Stick of Truth takes both inspiration in its creators’ favorite video game genre as well as sheer glee in mocking all of its tropes and conventions – all with a decidedly South Park bent that will have you laughing longer and harder at its outrageous, genuinely funny storyline. By the end of the adventure, it’s clear that no other South Park video game should ever be made without heavy, direct involvement from Stone and Parker. Between television, film, theater, and now video games, is there an entertainment medium they aren’t hilarious in?



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Before realizing the depths of Fez, the outward-facing appeal was its simple yet powerful gameplay hook. The world, which exists in 3D but presents itself in 2D, can be rotated 90 degrees with each pull of the triggers. It disrupts your understanding of perspective by creating opportunity in the way the world has changed. What you see is what you get, so regardless of the physical logic of a space, its visual appearance makes it easy to understand where you can go and how you can get there. Its reverence for video games, the lovely soundtrack, hilarious inside jokes, and mysterious wonder are the claws that dig Fez’s hooks in deep. Mind-bending puzzles, insane alien languages, and risk-free exploration make Fez’s delightful, nostalgic world a joy to wander. It borrows liberally from many things, but Fez is still unlike anything else on Xbox 360.Mojang’s out-of-nowhere PC masterpiece found much more success on Xbox 360 than most anyone anticipated. Its spacial limitations, in addition to a new developer in 4J Studios, meant it wasn’t even the same Mojang game. Yet Minecraft on consoles works because of those things. 4J has been vigilant about not only trying to achieve feature parity with its PC counterpart, but giving Minecraft on Xbox 360 unique content that console gamers can really relate to. Character skins and regular free updates fill the void left by the absence of mods, and not in a “good enough” way, either. Local co-op allows for instant creativity as you and yours build a unique world from scratch, using harvested materials and collaborative teamwork. Minecraft’s greatest success is its commitment to not living as a half-baked imposter. This is the real deal, and it continues to impress its ever expanding Xbox 360 audience with killer content updates.It’s hard enough to build a successful new franchise, but creating one that becomes a key pillar for an entire console platform? So many planets have to align: releasing at the right time in a system’s lifecycle, marketing it well, crafting likeable characters, and – oh yeah – designing an incredible game helps. Gears of War pulled off the miracle, and Gears of War 3 is the pinnacle of the series to-date. Epic storyline with genuinely emotional moments? Check. Huge battles and set-pieces? Yep. Polished multiplayer with dedicated servers? Mmm-hmm. The greatest Horde mode on the planet? Damn straight. The brand-new Beast mode that puts a clever reversal on Horde? Absolutely. Oh, and four-player cooperative campaign play too. Outside of The Orange Box and the Mass Effect Trilogy, Gears of War 3 is arguably the best overall package in the history of Xbox 360.

Car porn. That’s what developer Turn 10 Studios shamelessly advertised Forza Motorsport 4 to be, and that, gloriously, is what it is. The Xbox’s answer to Gran Turismo might not look quite as stunning as Sony’s signature racer (though it does look outstanding), but it’s decidedly more playable and packed with many more user-friendly features.

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First, the cars themselves: a select handful are viewable inside and out in Autovista mode, and the rest are fully modeled so that you can drive from cockpit or traditional external camera views. And the rides themselves vary wildly – everything from electric cars (Tesla Roadster) to pop-culture superstars (DeLorean DMC-12) to every flavor of supercar in-between. Outside of the races, you’ve got challenges to issue to and receive from other players, a robust multiplayer suite, car customizations out the tailpipe (including the return of the user-generated content farm known as the Auction House), and more. It is the ultimate game for gearheads on 360.If you could distill feelings into physical form, Rayman Legends would be bottled joy. Its imaginative level designs -- which challenge you to think about 2D spaces in a more serious way than ever -- play into new gameplay systems that improve on Rayman Origins’ perfected, traditional approach. Plus, a huge amount of Origins’ amazing levels are included in Legends. The addition of Murfy, a secondary character any local co-op player can control with the tap of a button, turns precision platforming into a more complex, timing- and skill-based exercise.The Metroid School of Design teaches philosophies that many games have abandoned in recent years, but Shadow Complex’s politically driven thriller story uses it magnificently. Backtracking with new skills to open new areas allows players to discover darker secrets about a shady organizations true intentions. Its twin-stick shooting and varied player abilities create intense, awesome scenarios where speed, platforming, and twitch reaction is essential to surviving small encounters or huge boss battles. Shadow Complex is the closest thing we have to a traditional Metroid game, and it has plenty of unique style to call its own. This was a defining Xbox Live Arcade Release at the time, and it remains an essential, unforgettable Xbox 360 game.Emotion has been the holy grail of video games since the dawn of the medium. Making the player genuinely affected by his or her actions on the screen is as rare as it is powerful. Telltale’s five-episode, adventure-game season of The Walking Dead – made in partnership with Robert Kirkman – swings an emotional hammer, and it will hit you squarely in the face. As convicted felon Lee, you must protect orphaned young girl Clementine as the two of you try to simply survive and endure the horrors of a post-zombie world. You must experience this. You must.Before killing off major characters became the new hotness, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare shot you in the face and irradiated you with nuclear explosions. Its terrific campaign marked the start of what is now Call of Duty’s signature style: big set pieces, tons of action, and excellently paced, varied single-player missions. Plus, All Ghillied Up remains one of the best FPS levels ever created. Modern Warfare’s multiplayer was the first big console shooter to give Halo a run for its money, and the excellent maps, perks, and loadout system laid the groundwork for every Call of Duty (and countless other shooters) to come.

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Klei’s stealth game proved that the satisfaction and complexity of classic, Splinter Cell-style hardcore stealth could be equally effective in 2D. The agile hero’s ability to navigate intricate spaces, use various tools to lure enemies, hide, and traverse made Mark of the Ninja an absolute joy to play. Its sharp controls, gorgeous art, and demanding difficulty went a long way, too. This is expert-level, AAA quality in small-scale, independent form. Mark of the Ninja’s options for lethal/non-lethal/evasive tactics, when put into the context of its exceptional level designs, makes for one of the most memorable downloadable games to hit the platform.