Parkour video games have become really popular over the last ten years. They're known for their cool moves and the way players can explore huge 3D worlds. These games are all about fast action and smooth stunts as players jump and run through maps. On Xbox 360, there are some really great parkour games that let you do amazing tricks and moves in open world environments.
In these games, you can play as all kinds of characters, like cyborg agents, pirate assassins, or futuristic runners. You have to be athletic and quick to perform all kinds of cool moves and takedowns. The worlds you play in are filled with towering buildings and amazing landmarks, from Renaissance Italy to dystopian cities. You can explore these worlds and express yourself through your movements. This article will take a closer look at some of the best parkour games on Xbox 360, and explain what makes them so great.
#1 Assassin’s Creed II
In Assassin's Creed II, you play as a character named Ezio Auditore da Firenze who is a master assassin. The game is set in 15th century Italian cities like Venice, Florence, Forli, and Tuscany. You can run, jump, climb, swing and leap around these cities, using the parkour mechanics. The game is designed in such a way that you can climb up famous buildings like the Colosseum and Santa Maria Del Fiore and perform some risky jumps.
Ezio's moves are very smooth and fluid. You can grab ledges at the last second, swing pole-to-pole in crowded streets, and chase targets across countless rooftops. You can also explore complex climbing paths through maze-like interiors. There is an open-ended stealth component to the game that emphasizes taking to the high-ground, blending with crowds, and plotting attack routes along vertical paths. This style of gameplay works perfectly with the flowing parkour system.
There are upgrades like throwing knives or dual hidden blades that further enable nimble aerial takedowns and quick escapes. You can use the environment to your advantage by diving into bales of hay or using descending ledge-grabs to evade city guards. The game encourages interaction with the parkour mechanics, and you are even incentivized to run the obstacles and architecture like improvised jungle gyms. The urban traversal is intuitive and familiar, while offering endless opportunities for improvisation.
Assassin's Creed II was groundbreaking for its expansiveness and flowing responsiveness. Modern entries further iterated on the game, but Ezio's coming-of-age adventure marked the first emergence of the series' signature urban running. Ubisoft captured the latent fantasy of running across Italian architecture as a hooded, rooftop jumping assassin.
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#2 Crackdown
Crackdown is a game developed by Microsoft Studios that takes place in Pacific City, an open-world battleground filled with destructive gangs and crime syndicates. In this game, you play as a genetically-modified D.N.A. agent who has inhuman athletic abilities to eradicate these organizations. The city becomes a testing ground for you to weaponize your physical skills against hordes of thugs.
The game offers enhanced mobility options that almost parody typical platforming controls. You can leap over 25-story buildings, scramble up entire skyscrapers, and glide across full city blocks. The exaggerated vertical freedom turns environments into challenging obstacle courses. You are incentivized to scale buildings for hidden items or surveying gang activity. Sculpted elements like contoured rooftops encourage chaining together flips, rolls, lifts, and superheroic plunges off towers.
Missions range from intense scenarios like outrunning attack helicopters across electric pylons hundreds of feet in the air to street shootouts. The game encourages tackling these scenarios from unexpected angles, using navigable architecture pieces like jungle gym equipment. The "memoir prototype genetic uplink" system allows players to distribute ability points to attributes like agility. Leveling agility by collecting orbs scattered across the environments lets you reach ever more dizzying heights. This risk-reward upgrade system tangibly links skill acquisition to physical mastery of Pacific City's infrastructure.
Overall, Crackdown executed its exaggerated urban mayhem and vertical freedom exceptionally. The city was specifically designed to empower players' locomotive creativity. The game world existed to enable you to leverage your athleticism against entrenched crime systems. You can express yourself through movement, systematically dismantling organizations, block-by-block, while scaling buildings however you want.
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#3 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Ubisoft made a new Prince of Persia game called The Forgotten Sands. It's set in between two other games from the series. The game is a reminder of what made the franchise so great. In the game, you play as a prince who has a special gauntlet that can control earth and water. With this gauntlet, you can climb and jump in new ways.
The game has lots of climbing, swinging, and puzzles to solve. The parkour feels like a dance, and using the gauntlet adds more options to the movements. The game is not completely new, but it's a great reminder of why people love the Prince of Persia games.
#4 Remember Me
Remember Me is a video game made by Dontnod Entertainment. It's set in a futuristic version of Paris in the year 2084. The city is in a bad state because of a civil war and a technology that can change people's memories. You play as Nilin, a memory hunter who can go inside people's minds and change their memories. The game has a unique fighting system called Pressen. By combining different moves, players can create their own fighting styles. Each move has its own bonus, like healing or doing extra damage. Players can also do special Takedown moves for big damage.
The game also has parkour-style movement. Nilin can run, jump, and climb through the city using her acrobatic skills. Players can even watch recordings of other people doing parkour to learn new paths through the levels. The game combines the fighting and parkour mechanics to make an exciting and unique experience.
Remember Me is a great example of how to mix different game elements to make something new. The memory-changing story fits perfectly with the combo fighting system. The parkour movement adds even more fun to the game. Overall, Remember Me is a great game that does a lot of things well.
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#5 Mirror’s Edge
Mirror's Edge is a video game made by EA DICE. It stars Faith Connors, an underground courier who runs and jumps through a futuristic city. The game was released in 2008, before other games like Assassin's Creed or Dying Light had popularized first-person parkour.
The game is all about movement. Players must run, jump, slide, and climb across the city to complete their missions. The game is played from Faith's point of view, which makes the movement feel very real. The game is like a puzzle -- players must figure out the best way to get from one place to another using all their parkour skills.
The game is also very stylish. The city is mostly white and clean, which makes the colors and Faith's movements stand out. The music and graphics are also very well done. The game was so popular that it inspired a sequel and a lot of other games with parkour elements.
Mirror's Edge is a great game because it focuses on one thing -- parkour movement. The game is simple but challenging, and the graphics and music are amazing. The game is a great example of how a game can be successful by doing one thing really well.
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#6 Brink
Brink is a video game that tries to combine parkour with shooter gameplay. Players can use a system called SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) to run and jump through levels while shooting their enemies. The game is set on a floating city called The Ark that is in a civil war. Players can choose to play as either the resistance fighters or the security officials.
There are different classes to choose from, like the Scout or Gunner, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The game also has a lot of customization options, including weapons and objectives. The parkour movements are smooth and add a lot of mobility to the game.
The game is challenging because it requires players to think quickly and creatively. Combining parkour moves with shooting requires a lot of skill. The game never became very popular, but it was a bold attempt to combine two different types of gameplay.
In conclusion, Brink tried to do something new by combining parkour and shooter gameplay. The game has a lot of customization options and is challenging to play. Although it never became very popular, it deserves recognition for trying something different.
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#7 Titanfall
Respawn Entertainment, the creators of Titanfall, made a brilliant online shooter game that combines parkour and mechs. You can play as either a fast-moving foot soldier or a huge 20-foot-tall Titan across futuristic battlefields. The maps are multi-tiered, giving players lots of options for moving around. You can run on walls, double jump, swing mid-air, or climb onto high-up places. Mastering these moves can give you an advantage over your enemies.
The contrast between the agile Pilots and the slow-moving Titans creates an exciting dynamic. Players can use their mobility to outsmart their opponents in a game that emphasizes strategy. The shooting mechanics are also polished, and the game rewards players with satisfying progression and balanced Pilot and Titan abilities.
The sequel added more tools for movement, such as grappling hooks and air drifting. But the original game, released in 2014, established the core elements that make Titanfall so unique. The combination of parkour Pilots battling building-sized Titans is still novel and exciting. The game has sold over a hundred million copies and remains a popular choice for players who love fast-paced, action-packed shooters.
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#8 Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaiden is a series of 3D action games that star Ryu Hayabusa, a powerful ninja with incredible agility and weapons skills. The games were developed by Team Ninja for Xbox consoles and are known for their demanding combat system that rewards players who take risks. Ninja Gaiden tests players' reflexes and technique, making them better at the game and more efficient killers.
Ryu can use his acrobatic abilities to dodge and attack supernatural enemies. His movements are realistic and animated at a fast pace. The game sets a high standard for responsive gameplay that still feels great today. Enemies are designed to test players' skills, with towering demons wielding giant weapons that can kill Ryu in one hit. Players must read attack patterns and judge their positioning correctly to avoid damage.
Mastering Ryu's moves and abilities allows players to defeat enemies quickly and aggressively. The game is like a rhythm game in many ways, with players needing to learn enemy patterns and attack at the right moments. Later games in the series increased the scope and cinematic set-pieces, but the core of the game remains focused on intense head-to-head duels against tough opponents.
Ninja Gaiden is a pure action game that sharpens players' skills to a razor's edge. It's all about battling animated enemies in a way that's uniquely engaging and challenging.
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#9 Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is a game that took the series' popular parkour formula to new heights. Set in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy in 1715, players take on the role of Edward Kenway, a swashbuckling captain and assassin. Ubisoft blended land-based traversal and stealth systems with sailing, ship combat, and underwater exploration. This approach allowed players to explore colonial-era ports and plantations, hunt in vibrant jungles and bustling sugarcane farms, climb swaying ship masts, and dive off boat hulls to covertly infiltrate fortress coves underwater.
Ubisoft masterfully balanced the seafaring progression with familiar urban running. Cities like Kingston and Nassau offered iconic assassination missions that took advantage of verticality. Open areas housed activities that diversified playstyles between pirating profits, assassin contracts, harpooning wildlife, or just enjoying picturesque sunsets. Ubisoft made sure that both major gameplay halves stood proudly on their own merits while intelligently feeding into unified progression systems like Kenway’s upgradable arsenal and captain perks benefiting his crew’s ship piloting and combat capabilities.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag stands out as the most strikingly balanced game between sailing open world liberties and parkouring through natural and urban expanses. Ubisoft captured the romanticism and liberating journeyman appeal of living by the Assassin’s Creed while braving the open horizon’s excitement call. Black Flag allowed anyone to seize that aspirational reverie. Even though the series later explored new locations like the frigid North Atlantic and Victorian London, none quite captured the same magic as the Caribbean seascape in the Golden Age of Piracy.
#10 Prototype
Prototype is an open-world action game where players control a shape-shifting antihero named Alex Mercer. The game is set in a quarantined Manhattan, where zombie outbreaks and mutated creatures roam the streets. Alex has extraordinary powers like transforming his hands into deadly weapons, gliding through the air, running faster than vehicles, and throwing people great distances.
The game encourages players to unleash their power fantasies by causing chaos and destruction. You can use your abilities to tackle missions, gather intel on your forgotten past, or just indulge in hyperviolent brutality. The game's smart world design allows you to run up buildings, kick attack helicopters, steal tank cannons and shred scores of infantry. The gameplay loop facilitates satisfying sadistic urges, and the game's environments are full of populating human targets that beg for the most inhumanly cruel assaults possible.
As the game progresses, the plot unfolds, and Alex's abilities evolve into even deadlier mutations. The game's robust ability set offers an immediately compelling power trip, and players can utilize their expanding breadth of attacks, environmental weaponizing, traversal tricks, and disguises to unleash their sadistic imaginations. Prototype is a power fantasy that lets players indulge in their darkest desires.
Final Thoughts
Parkour games have become very popular in the last decade. Xbox 360 titles like Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, Remember Me, Brink, and Mirror's Edge were some of the first to introduce innovative concepts. These games offer thrilling movement and environments that encourage self-expression. Players interact through athletic mobility, and the gameplay rewards those willing to take risks and think creatively.
Mastering the parkour toolsets is consistently rewarding, and high stakes navigation fuels tension and triumphant payoffs when you successfully improvise solutions. These games showcase the genuine elation possible when breaking perceived boundaries and defying physical limitations. Parkour philosophy is about exploring possibility space and urging your own trajectory definition through athletic exploration. The player traverses their own way, and that independence feels liberating.
At their best, parkour games promise exhilaration akin to dance, chase sequences from classic action films, or simulated skydiving. We momentarily access latent self-determination. Ultimately, these games celebrate the individual willpower to make the improbable probable just by deciding, "I can." They offer the euphoria of freedom beyond society's preconceptions of place or normative capability judgments. Parkour games sell what most media tries to convey through desperate metaphor.