Remember a time when console manufacturers were bold with their colours? Sure, Sony has always leaned heavily on greys and blues but there was a time when Microsoft just had a thing for acid green. The original Xbox, while still looking like a chunky black block (what else is new?) used to be accented with shockingly bright green accents. And the user interface? Well, that was even louder. If you’re too old to remember the original Xbox (or just never owned one, it wasn’t like they were all that available here) then you might want to check your Xbox Series X|S dashboard theme options…
Microsoft quietly went and released a new theme for the Series X/S consoles which is meant to evoke the the past and highlight the Xbox’s history. Titled “The Original”, the new dynamic background brings back all that green and slaps it across your dashboard. As pointed out by Eurogamer, it looks closer to the loading screen the console threw up when you first turned it on but it’s still a cool little homage to systems past. The actual “dynamic” part is rather limited but who doesn’t love it when their dashboard slowly rotates while displaying an amorphous green blob in the centre? There’s a short video of it in action, brought to you by Tom Warren:
It’s certainly one of the cooler dynamic themes included in the new run of Xbox consoles. The others are fairly dull and obviously don’t have the same kind of history attached to them. Maybe pop into your settings and switch things up if you’re feeling like a retro gamer or just want to relive the 2000s vibe so many of us are missing these days.
Last Updated: May 13, 2021
