Xbox One Just Added A Radical Game To Backward Compatibility

One of my favorite games of all time that came out during the seventh generation of gaming has been added to the backwards compatibility list for the Xbox One. I'm talking about the one and only...Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

As you can see, Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb announced on Twitter that one of the most popular low-budget spin-offs that released last gen is now available to play and purchase on the Xbox One.

The update comes as a total surprise because there was no lead-up to this announcement. It just came out of nowhere, unlike a game like Red Dead Redemption, which leaked early and then was the talk of the town for months on end. When the game finally did become available for backward compatibility the sales skyrocketed for the Xbox 360 version of Red Dead Redemption because everyone wanted to get their hands on it for the Xbox One.

In this case, it's just a straight-through news alert letting gamers know that one of the most creative open-world games to come out in a long time is available to play on the Xbox One. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was an awesome first-person romp through a reconfigured Far Cry 3. Creative director Dean Evans took the core mechanics and assets from the original game and reworked them to give it a 1980s vibe. Neon colors, weapons from Terminator and Robocop, along with cool catchphrases and a leading role headed up by Michael Biehn made Blood Dragon an instant hit.

If you don't remember the game the trailer below sums it up perfectly.

This is the only Far Cry game I regularly play for fun. That's no joke.

What made Blood Dragon so cool, is that it didn't feel like a typical fetch-quest Far Cry game. You got to travel around wherever you wanted, upgrade the weapons in ways that were fun and thrilling, and battle with or against the seeming indomitable Blood Dragons. Also, that soundtrack from Power Glove is one of the best retrowave synth scores out there. It captures the cheese, the intensity, and even the melodrama of the 1980s soundtrack scores that were popularized by a number of different movies that were out back then, from Terminator to Predator to Above The Law.

If you're a genuine fan of the awesome-bad action movies from the 1980s, and you adore the over-the-top Saturday morning action cartoons like C.O.P.S., G.I. Joe or Exo-Squad, then you'll definitely enjoy Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

It's such a shame that more of Ubisoft's games aren't as high-quality as the low-budget spinoff (which could effectively be called a total conversion mod) but I guess we'll take what we can get. And, in this case, you can get Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon for the Xbox One from the digital storefront for $14.99. If you already purchased it with your Xbox Live profile you can begin downloading it right now onto your Xbox One.