The best games with X in the title (2024)

Fun fact, currently if you type “x.com” into Google, most of the search results will be related to the XCOM game series.

If you’re looking for something to engage your brain and avoid doom-scrolling, you can’t go wrong with a bit of XCOM, as it’ll require you to use more strategic cunning and tactical forethought than anyone involved in Twitter’s rebranding.

Turns out Elon isn’t even the first person to do it. This was a 1992 Game Boy title that acts as a sort of proto-Star Fox. Only the enemies are incomprehensible specs in the distance. Amazingly, it got a sequel on the DS in 2010 called X-Scape, which is pretty much the same thing only with a higher-resolution screen.

If you’re looking for a 2000s feel, then SSX is the place to be. It may not be the greatest sports game, but nothing takes you back like cruising down a mountain while Yellowcard, Queens of the Stone Age, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers blast out in the background.

Double the X, so we can only assume it’s double the fun.

This is a great and challenging bullet-hell shoot-’em-up designed primarily for the PlayStation Vita in 2012. It mixes in some platforming elements and bizarre challenges to make for a memorable ride that taps into that light indie feel we all need once in a while.

While we excluded any game that uses X as the Roman numeral for ten, we let crossover games slide, and this is certainly one of the better ones you’ll find. It’s hardly the best game in either series, but a Street Fighter versus Tekken game is the kind of thing that needed to happen one day. It’s great simply as a historical artifact if nothing else.

That’s a real title for a real game. With not just one X but two, for some reason, this anime-style fighting series went all-out on this title, throwing utterly random words into the mix. I don’t know what an “Accent Core” is and I don’t care, but let’s just chuck an R on the end for good measure.

Pokémon tried to go down the edgier route before with Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, but Pokémon X, and it’s counterpart, Pokémon Y are pretty light. People often point to them as being the easiest Pokémon games, and they introduced the Fairy-type, which is about as un-edgy as it gets.

Kingdom Hearts is an easy series to pick on, but given it features titles like “358/2 Days” and “2.8 Final Chapter Prologue”, Unchained X is honestly one of the tamer entries. Thankfully it’s fairly easy to place in the series’ overall timeline, as it serves as a prequel to the entire series. It’s not the only prequel – that would be far too simple for Kingdom Hearts – but we don’t have time to get into it.

Ok yes, this game famously sucks but come on, it’s got four Xs in a row, how could we leave it out?

We’ve found it, a game that both begins and ends with X. If you’re looking for a top-notch JRPG series, then you can’t go wrong with the Xenoblade games, and while X has been largely overlooked in favor of the main trilogy, it’s still a great game. The only downside is that Monolith Soft seems unwilling to port it, meaning it’s trapped on the Wii U for all eternity.

Maybe that will finally change when Nintendo releases the Switch X as its next console.