An HD remaster of niche Xbox classic Phantom Dust is now available on Xbox One and Windows 10, for absolutely free. This includes the single-player campaign and its newly-restored Xbox Live multiplayer, with the cards now able to get updates live from Microsoft’s end. The announcement of the imminent re-issue came from Xbox’s head of games marketing Aaron Greenberg on Twitter.
Excited to announce a fan favorite Phantom Dust will re-release exclusively tomorrow for free on @Xbox One & @Windows 10! pic.twitter.com/q8lmn4yeIh
— Aaron Greenberg 🙅🏼♂️💚U (@aarongreenberg) May 15, 2017
For the remaster, expect a 16:9 presentation and a bump in resolution up to 4K standards. In speaking to Polygon, Microsoft’s Adam Isgreen explained, “The biggest thing is moving [Phantom Dust] to 16:9 and moving to native resolution…So basically, if you put it in a window, the resolution will be the window size. So we’ve been able to actually take full advantage of whatever you’re playing on and render Phantom Dust correctly at that resolution.”
Originally released in 2004 for the original Xbox, Phantom Dust is a hybrid of trading card and third person action game, befallen to obscurity due to poor sales. A modern remake was announced at E3 2014, but ultimately saw cancellation. As though in compensation, a remaster of the original game was announced at E3 2016, of which the newly released port refers to.
For Microsoft account holders, you can download the full game and its Multiplayer Starter Pack both here and here.
