Great Xbox 360 Strategy Games that are Fun from the Start

For most of gaming history, strategy games were primarily limited to PC platforms, largely due to controller and processor limitations. But this changed during the sixth and seventh console generations.

This era saw many strategy games be ported and be specifically developed for home consoles, such as the PS2 and original Xbox exclusive real-time strategy game Aliens Versus Predator: Extinction, to widespread mixed results.

However, the Xbox 360 was home to many exclusive and multiplatform strategy games that were fun right from their very start due to unique gameplay uses, enthralling expansions on franchise lore, fun multiplayer options, and simply featuring intriguing narratives.

8 Plants vs. Zombies

A Fantastic Mobile Port

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, it was fairly common to see popular mobile games such as Angry Birds and Doodle Jump be ported to proper gaming platforms through digital and physical releases, with one of the best on the Xbox 360 being Plants vs. Zombies.

The PC and touch-screen controls of the original Plants vs. Zombies were adapted perfectly to the Xbox 360's iconic controller, allowing fans to easily figure out and master how to defend Crazy Dave's home from hordes of zombies with a wide variety of deadly plants from the simple Peashooter to the destructive Jalapeño.

What made the 360 port of PVZ especially fun from the start compared to its other versions was the addition of exclusive PvP Versus, PvE co-op, and several new minigame modes on top of being bundled with Peggle and Zuma in physical editions, making a package full of fun content.

7 LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

LEGO Games' Most Underrated Feature

Traveller's Tales LEGO titles aren't particularly known for featuring strategy-esque gameplay, with most being fairly simple third-person shooters and platformers, but this changed when TT and LucasArts released LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars in 2011.

Based on the 3D animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars film and the first two seasons of the show of the same name, LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars featured the same LEGO gameplay players were familiar with, on top of the addition of RTS Ground Battles where players must control armies of Clone Troopers.

Here, players must build bases to order the deployment of Clone barracks, cannons, and vehicles to fight CIS armies, bases, and vehicles in epic recreations of some of the show's most chaotic battles, such as the Second Battle of Geonosis and fighting the massive Zillo Beast during the Battle of Malastare.

6 Brütal Legend

Jack Black's Greatest Gaming Role

Jack Black is famous today, especially among younger gamers, for bringing iconic video game characters to life on the big screen through his depiction of Steve in A Minecraft Movie and Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. movies, but arguably his greatest gaming role was playing Eddie Riggs in Brütal Legend.

Brütal Legend was not only a heavy metal fan's dream come true, but also a perfect mixture of third-person action-adventure games and RTS' as the game follows Riggs as he's transported to a fantasy, heavy metal-inspired world where he's destined to free the land from Emperor Doviculus using The Separator axe and his trusty Flying V guitar called Clementine.

Much of the game plays like a common, third-person hack and slash game, but Brütal Legend does feature several RTS Stage Battles where Riggs must appease and summon fans to aid him in defeating hordes of demons, which Riggs can do on foot or by air after growing a pair of demon wings.

5 Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

Commander & Conquer's Console Debut

One of the most popular RTS franchises is the Command & Conquer series centered around historical fiction and sci-fi battles between massive armies in story-driven campaigns and PvP matches.

Set in the late 2040s after the extraterrestrial resource Tiberium crash-landed on Earth and began lethally terraforming the planet, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars has players complete campaigns aligned with the Global Defense Initiative or the Brotherhood of Nod as both factions strive to control Tiberium and the world.

While CC3 was designed to be played on PC and PC is overall the best way to play CC titles, CC3 still managed to be incredibly enthralling both in its single-player campaigns and PvP multiplayer, with the 360 version introducing several new multiplayer modes such as King of the Hill and Siege.

4 The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II

The Greatest LOTR RTS of All Time

With a universe as rich and storied as The Lord of the Rings, it was inevitable that one day it would be adapted into RTS games, allowing players to control armies of Middle-earth. While there are many RTS LOTR titles out there, the best one available on the 360 is The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II.

The sole LOTR RTS available on the 360, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, was designed for PC platforms, but the 360 port still managed to allow players to control armies of Elves, Dwarves, Men, and Orcs flawlessly with a standard 360 controller.

What made The Battle of Middle-earth II especially more fun from the start compared to other LOTR games was its good and evil campaigns, which were set in battles in the North instead of just recreating scenes from the books and films, depicting a Dwarven-Elven alliance defending Erebor.

3 Worms Revolution

An Absolutely Hilarious Multiplayer Experience

Oftentimes, strategy games tend to take themselves fairly seriously, depicting intense sci-fi or fantasy conflicts between good and evil forces, but one of the best strategy and turn-based tactics games on the 360 is one that focuses most of its presentation on comedy, with that game being Worms Revolution.

The 21st entry in Team17's long-running Worms series, Worms Revolution has players control squads of militaristic worms in 2D battlefields as they strive to eliminate opposing worm squads in single-player or in four-player local and online multiplayer, using weapons such as baseball bats, a giant concrete donkey, and holy hand grenades.

Worms Revolution is easily one of the best party games available on the 360, as it's absolutely hilarious seeing the comedic names players can name their worms, hearing the worms state funny sayings in high-pitch British accents, and simply seeing the ridiculous ways worms die from either foes' attacks or environmental mishaps.

2 Overlord

Power of Evil Pikmin

One of the best strategy games on the Xbox 360 is one that's not explicitly classified as a strategy or tactics type game, but is one that still heavily features RTS elements in a very unique and comical way, with that game being Triumph Studios' Overlord.

Set in a medieval fantasy world, Overlord has players embody the titular Sauron-like Overlord as he's resurrected by Goblin-like minions to become their new leader and set out to conquer the world and recruit other minions with their own special abilities, such as blue minions being able to swim and red minions being able to throw fireballs.

These minions function very similarly to Nintendo's Pikmin, with players having to slay people and creatures in order to summon minions and having to order them around to solve puzzles and defeat certain foes, with only certain types of minions being able to complete certain tasks, requiring players to dispatch them strategically.

1 Halo Wars

The Best Xbox 360 RTS

Without a doubt, the best strategy game available on the Xbox 360 that's incredibly fun right from the start is Halo's very first spinoff game, the RTS Halo Wars.

Set roughly 20 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo Wars has players control the UNSC Spirit of Fire as it aids in repelling alien Covenant forces from the UNSC colony world Harvest before traveling to the Forerunner Shield World Etran Harborage to prevent Arbiter Ripa 'Moramee from obtaining a Forerunner fleet.

Unlike other aforementioned RTS games, Halo Wars was designed from the ground up to be played on the 360, making it one of the best console-based RTS games of all time in terms of controls and fidelity, but it's also a ton of fun in other ways, such as being able to find collectible Skulls and Black Boxes in each level.