Why Minecraft Legacy Console Edition Was So Loved

Today is may 9 2022. to many if not most players of minecraft this date may not mean much but to one albeit small part of the minecraft community this date is an anniversary a birthday if you like on this day one decade earlier may 9th 2012 minecraft xbox 360 edition was

Released marking the very first title in the legacy console edition line of minecraft a version of the game considered to be the best of its kind by many of those who continue to play it 10 years later now some of you might not know about this version especially if you’ve picked

Up minecraft recently so let me talk a little bit about its history the legacy console edition of minecraft was created by 4j studios a scottish game development company who nowadays produces content for the minecraft bedrock marketplace minecraft legacy console’s development was entirely in the hands of 4j meaning

That they could add their own creative flair to minecraft separate from that of mojang they could take it in their own direction and add their own unique features many of which are subjects of this video starting on xbox 360 legacy console edition eventually made its way to several platforms including playstation

And nintendo systems it continued to be updated alongside the other main versions of minecraft until it began to be replaced by the new and unified bedrock edition throughout 2017 to 2019 when it received its final update though its community started small the legacy console edition reached an immense popularity over the course of

Its life with the 360 version having sold a whopping 56 million copies as of 2014 alone which is a while ago now and over the years there were a great number of console edition youtubers stampy ibx toycat bigby stats and echo soldier just name a few

So why did people love this version so much why do we continue to love it look back at it with nostalgia to this day i’m ollie creates and this is why the minecraft legacy console edition was so great As with all versions of minecraft the first thing to appear upon entering a title screen is a panoramic image in modern minecraft versions this is usually an image of an environment depicting the latest minecraft update in legacy console edition however the image was of the current tutorial world

Tutorial worlds were built in worlds in console edition that provided a combination of in-game environments and hints to help new players learn how to play minecraft every tutorial world had a similar formula an enclosed starting area for the player to learn the basics which would connect to passages that led to

The rest of the world out there aeros were constructed specifically for teaching players about various skills such as combat enchanting trading brewing and redstone but what made these so great was the work that 4j studios build team put into making these worlds look absolutely incredible with every update the builds in the

Tutorial world seem to get larger more intricate and more beautiful palaces towers bridges towns manors caves valleys and more if not to learn about minecraft players looked forward to their release just to see what amazing creations 4j had created worlds in minecraft legacy console edition came in four sizes which in

Order of increasing size were classic small medium and large from the perspective we have today the lack of infinite worlds as a playable option is certainly a downside but at the same time limited worlds could be a lot of fun every world would have a finite amount of non-renewables you had to be

Strategic about how you obtained resources and how much you used them similar to how natural resource usage is managed in the real world the added responsibility could be exciting i certainly found it to be as a bonus 4g implemented a fine balanced seed toggle that would actively

Look for worlds with as many biomes and structures as possible in the small worlds this meant that biomes were smaller and both biomes and structures were more often guaranteed and easier to find a little could go a long way with legacy console worlds now customizable flat worlds were never

An exclusive feature to the legacy console edition of minecraft java edition has had them as early as 1.4 the difference is console edition’s custom flats came with a built-in customization menu that was much more accessible players who didn’t understand how to write preset code which is probably most

Players could have their desired level of customization without having to consult a flat preset generator online you could see exactly what blocks were going where and how many layers your world would have there was a whole menu of toggleable options including biome type structure generation spacing rarity and more

Making custom flat worlds was simply far easier for the broader audience on console edition and it’s unfortunate that bedrock is still missing this versatile feature all these years later this one was really small perhaps an unnoticed feature of minecraft console edition gamma was a settings option found under

The graphics tab in the main and pause menus it could be set anywhere from zero percent to one hundred percent the lower the gamma the darker and more saturated the colors would be and the higher lighter brighter and less saturated have you ever wondered why console edition gameplay often looks somewhat

Bright perhaps even washed out probably because it was being played with a high gamma the lighter slightly more pastel tint that gamma gave to the game made the textures a bit easier on the eyes and in my opinion the reduction of the intense vibrant colors also produced a greater feeling of realism

The deep neon pink color of pink wool for example would look a much mellower rose color something i could actually imagine on a sheep maybe if it had gotten into a raspberry patch with high gamma night time caves and silhouettes would all appear a bit brighter without looking illuminated meaning that you

Could even save on torches just a little bit ultimately gamma was just a minor aesthetic feature but many players including me quite liked it unlike other versions of minecraft console edition had a built-in skin selection system where players of java edition would have to download a skin from the internet

Upload it to minecraft and repeat the process when they wanted to switch console players simply clicked change skin in the option menu and could scroll through dozens of skin packs and change into any skin in seconds many of these skin packs were monetized and that may be viewed as a downside but

I believe that you got your money’s worth overall you paid for the ability to have access to multiple skins at the same time and to be able to switch skins instantly something entirely unique to the console edition at the time mashup packs were essentially downloadable content packs available for

Purchase directly in the minecraft console edition world creation menu unlike the marketplace content of modern minecraft all of these packs were first party created by 4j studios some of these mashup packs were generically themed such as the halloween festive and mythology mashup packs but many others had licensed themes some

Based on other games such as mass effect halo skyrim and fallout and others based on tv shows and movies including adventure time and the nightmare before christmas each pack contained a texture pack skin pack and a themed world built by 4j studio’s build team to play in

As you can probably guess given how incredible the tutorial worlds were these worlds were simply astonishing the halo mashup pack contained an entire recreation of the valley mastership crashes into on installation 04 a covenant dropship and a beam emitter station the skyrim mashup pack contained recreations of riverwood bleak falls

Barrow and the massive city of whiterun the level of detail in these maps is extraordinary even by today’s standards and that’s not to mention the licensed soundtracks playing in the background while you explore these worlds that’s right you could walk up the steps of a minecraft dragon’s reach with secunda accompanying your ascent

Now that’s awesome but in june 2016 4j would release perhaps the greatest most memorable feature of minecraft console edition ever because console edition could not support third party servers 4j decided to create official mini game servers based on popular server games on june 21st 2016 4j studios added the

Battle minigame to minecraft console edition this would be the first in a series of three mini games the next being tumble and the final being glide all of these mini games despite many being based off of existing games were full of unique features battle was an interpretation of survival

Games a popular mode on servers such as mineplex and hypixel and came with different settings for players to customize their matches this ranged from how players could spectate to how hunger systems worked to the weapon and armor variety and more some of the custom sounds were really cool too

Tumble was based off of the server game spleef but players had the ability to customize game rules such as layer count and weapon type in tumble one could stick with the classic shovel or snowball but there were also horizontally firing fireworks and even splash levitation potions which were

Completely unique and didn’t exist in any other version of minecraft glide whose inspiration came from the minds of 4j themselves was an elytra based flying minigame there were two modes time attack and score attack time attack was purely a race while score attack awarded victory to the player who

Could fly through the most rings unlike other mini-games glide could also be played solo and 4j even added a ghost player of one’s best run for players to chase battle and glide both had gorgeously built maps which is really no surprise at this point some were free others were dlc all were

Great but there’s one particular part of 4j’s minigames that i really want to focus on and that’s the music [Applause] The music for all of 4j’s minigames was written by gareth coker a video game music composer also known for his soundtrack for the game ori in the blind forest to this day i believe coker has not gotten enough credit for the incredible amount of work he put into the songs for these minigames

Between battle tumble and glide he composed 65 tracks for just under three hours worth of music and in my opinion all of the songs are unbelievably good it’s astonishing to hear the level of detail skill and finesse throughout this massive soundtrack i’ll leave a link in

The description if you all want to take a listen so why do i think that these songs were underappreciated despite how good they were well i think that there simply was not enough time for players to enjoy them minecraft console edition was discontinued less than two years after

Many games were released with the onset of bedrock edition also many of these tracks were behind a paywall as they were part of dlc maps but i’m hoping that all these years later we can give this music some hard earned love and truly appreciate it for what it is

And that is why minecraft console edition was so great it was the first version of minecraft to have console support and it was a pioneer in that right but i’m hoping that at this point you realize that it was also a pioneer in so many other ways that we have discussed

From tutorial worlds to mashup packs to its skin system all of these factors give reason to why me and other minecraft players still love this version and look back at it with overwhelming nostalgia i do miss minecraft’s good old days sometimes but at the same time it helps

Me appreciate the ongoing evolution of the minecraft we know today so thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed this video and if you did please consider subscribing this has been ollie creates and i will see you later you