For more than a year now, you have been able to play Xbox 360 games on an Xbox One or Xbox One S (reviewed here). Not all of your old library of games are playable, but there are well over 300 titles currently available. Xbox is also adding to this list regularly as new titles are checked and cleared for release.But do you have to do anything different to get it to work? Exactly how will Xbox 360 games play on an Xbox One? And can you buy Xbox 360 games on an Xbox One? Here's our handy guide to the feature.Microsoft first announced that it would be adding backwards compatibility to its current generation console during E3 2015, and the initial wave of 104 games arrived in November that year.The Xbox One is able to play Xbox 360 games through emulation software that makes the console think it's a last generation machine for the purposes of playing older games.When a supported Xbox 360 game is started on the machine, the Xbox One opens the emulator and, in all regards, the game works as if it was running on an Xbox 360.
The 360's opening screen appears first then the game will load.All other aspects and features that would normally be available on an Xbox 360 are be available on the Xbox One too, including the hub (which can be opened through a simultaneous press of the menu and view buttons on the Xbox One controller). In addition, all new features of the Xbox One work, including the ability to take screen grabs and record and share video of gameplay.Although Sony opted for a paid route to play PS3 games on a PS4, through the PlayStation Now cloud gaming platform, Microsoft decided to offer its backwards compatibility for free as part of the November update at the end of 2015.If you own a supported game already, you do not have to pay anything to play it on Xbox One.Obviously, it costs to purchase new Xbox 360 games that work on the machine.Xbox One backwards compatibility works with digital content as well as disc games. In fact, if you enter a supported disc into your Xbox One, the machine will download the game from Xbox Live first - although you will need the disc to be in the machine each time you play.
If you own a digital copy of a supported game it appears in your games list ready for download. Check your Games and Apps hub to see if any are listed among the games yet to be installed.Since the March 2016 update compatible Xbox 360 games have been listed for purchase on the Xbox One game store. If you are an Xbox Live Gold member, you now also see free Xbox 360 games to download each month alongside Xbox One titles as part of the Games for Gold scheme.That means you get two free Xbox One games and two free Xbox One games a month.Prices for the Xbox 360 games on the online store vary, but start at around £3.If you originally set your Xbox 360 to save games to the cloud you will be able to download the save files to the Xbox One version and carry on. The cloud files are permanently associated with your gamertag so the Xbox One should do this automatically.If you only saved your in-game progress locally, to the hard drive, you will need to restart your Xbox 360 and save them to the cloud instead.
If you no longer have your Xbox 360, sadly you won't be able to access the files.There are now more than 300 Xbox 360 titles available as part of the backwards compatibility scheme.The company's plan is to eventually support every game it feasibly can bar a few that cannot be made compatible due to requiring additional accessories to run. These include games like the original Guitar Hero and Rock Band series, plus any that worked with the original Kinect. Even if you have the Xbox One Kinect, it will not be compatible with previous Xbox 360 Kinect games.Here's a full list of the Xbox 360 games that are currently available with backwards compatibility for Xbox One (as of 23 February 2017):I don't think I've ever played a game so clearly made with hardcore fans in mind. Not only is LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham a DC fanboy's dream come true (unless you happen to love one of the few characters not included), but also a LEGO fan's too. If you happen to fall into both categories, knowing, for example, both who Mr Plastic is and what LEGO master builds are, then you've hit the jackpot.
For everyone else, this is another slick, content-packed LEGO game that will feel incredibly similar to previous LEGO games you've played. Dropping the open-world design seen in LEGO Batman 2 and the more recent Hobbit game, Batman 3 returns to a series of individual levels and a number of hubs and planets that can be explored. With a storyline that centres on the evil Brainiac's intention to shrink down planets, and the involvement of the Lanterns, an open world wouldn't really work. The result is a game that offers some lovely diverse locations, and a lot of fun, once it actually gets going. The opening few hours were a bore. Mainly set inside dingy locations or dull space station rooms, it all felt rather 'been there done that'. New playable characters were slow to arrive and the introduction of new suits for characters (giving them new abilities, such as magnetism, electricity, flight, etc) made for a rather prolonged tutorial. I wasn't feeling the love. It was another LEGO game, done well, but there was no spark.
And then things suddenly got a lot more interesting. It takes a while, but once you're outside the game comes alive. Not only do the levels become more colourful (especially the Lantern planet levels) and clever in their design, but the characters can use their abilities more and the increased cast plays off each other very well. While the game is largely played from the same fixed camera angles the series has always used during levels, meaning you can't pan around to take in the environments, parts of Batman 3 look lovely. A couple of boss encounters really impress, as do a set of shrunken city levels that are entirely made of LEGO. Sure, this isn't a next-gen showpiece, but I paused on more than one occasion to take some snaps. Of course, the audio work here is brilliant, with top notch voice acting to deliver the humorous script, and all the classic music associated with the DC super heroes. Speaking of the DC heroes, LEGO Batman 3 can't help but suffer to the casual audience in comparison to last year's Marvel Super Heroes game.
While Marvel is on a high at the cinema, unless you are really into DC you'll struggle to recognise most the characters here. Batman and the rest of the Justice League characters, along with some of the enemies, will be familiar faces, and if you've played the Arkham games you'll at least know some of the Batman friends and foes, but this will largely be a game of discovery for many players. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and you'll know going in how much fanservice here will excite you or go completely over your head. Designed for an audience so diverse in age (very young kids through to fully-grown adults with kids of their own), LEGO Batman 3 often feels like it can't quite be challenging enough. I'll admit to being stuck from time to time (entirely down to overlooking objects in the levels that needed to be destroyed in order to be built into something else), but the puzzles are borderline pre-school level and the mini-games are atrocious (aside from the shmup-lite sequences that resemble a super simple Resogun).
A set of stages in which you have to run around Tron-like worlds are so poor I'm surprised they made the cut, and offer nothing other than tedium. If you're disappointed about the lack of open world, you can explore the Lantern planets via a moon base (Oa, for example, lets you drive vehicles around, but they all offer plenty to do along with the moon hub itself) and the hub zones (Batcave, The Watchtower and Hall of Justice) have so much to find that you'll be playing well beyond the end of the main missions. As is always the case in LEGO games, there are an obscene number of characters to collect, bricks to find and secrets to uncover. This is a massive game that will keep you (and a split-screen friend) happy for a long time if you're into collectables of the DC variety. Freeplay has always been a series staple and it's great here, and there's even a character customisation tool. LEGO Batman 3 starts slow and then gets a lot better, and then overwhelms with so much content it's hard to be disappointed.
It's hard to get really excited about a game that feels largely similar to how the series started with LEGO Star Wars almost 10 years ago on the PlayStation 2, but DC and LEGO fans won't care as much about the sameness. For everyone else there's no doubt this is a classy package packed to the brim with content, but new ideas are definitely needed. LEGO Batman 3 eventually becomes very good but it's time the studio attempted to build a new mould. How to build a new LEGO experience If you read my review and thought, "They did that with LEGO City on the Wii U", you're right. They also offered open-world elements in numerous previous games, including LEGO The Hobbit and LEGO Batman 2. These were big changes for the series, but I still want more. I'd like the teams at Traveller's Tales to look at the Ratchet & Clank games. Insomniac's 3D adventure platformer series manages to tread the line between simple platforming and third-person action, offering control schemes that suit your play style.