The Backbone Pro Xbox 25th Anniversary Edition comes in three new (well, old) flavors.BackboneXbox’s 25th anniversary celebrations are getting well underway, and Backbone, which makes arguably the best controllers for mobile gaming, is releasing three new variants of its premium pad that hark back to the more colorful days of the console.The Backbone Pro range is now available in three “heritage” colorways — Crystal Clear, Iconic Blue, and Bold Orange — which hark back to the early years of Xbox, “when controllers and consoles felt like objects worth collecting, showing off, and remembering.”There’s a slightly annoying twist: the controllers come in a blind box, meaning you can’t choose your preferred colorway. They all have the same rarity, as all three will be produced in the same numbers, but you can’t, say, guarantee you’ll get the orange one, which is by far the best choice, and certainly the most “recognisably OG Xbox” of the trio.Maybe it's because my friend had the orange Halo Xbox. I just think it looked neat.BackboneYou might be wondering where the transparent green option is, but luckily, Backbone has already applied this treatment for its Pro series (though not under the Xbox 25 banner), and you’re not at the mercy of a blind box. Play Puzzles & Games on ForbesThere’s a good chance this might get a bit of a bump in sales, if rumored leaks are anything to go by: Microsoft is allegedly unveiling a limited-edition green, see-through Xbox for the console’s 25th anniversary on Black Friday, with a matching controller. It’s not exactly a Black Friday “deal”, though — rumor has it that it’ll cost $900, putting it at the same price as a PS5 Pro.Dispiriting rising hardware prices aside, I have to give credit where it’s due: the Backbone Pro is a superb bit of kit if you’re into Cloud Gaming or Remote Play, and it’s probably the most comfortable controller of its type that I’ve used — even if its smaller buttons take some getting used to, if you have shovel hands like me.It’s also got a few decent benefits, though you’d expect them from a premium-priced unit that retails for $179.99: full-sized joysticks, remappable rear buttons, Hall-effect triggers, 40 hours of battery life, a straightforward USB-C connection for low-latency gaming, and Bluetooth connectivity. The only frustrating thing, perhaps, is that it uses ALPS potentiometer tech for the sticks — Hall effect really needs to be the standard nowadays, especially when other companies like GameSir and PB Tails have offered the even more impressive TMR technology since last year.Expect more from Microsoft’s partners in the coming weeks, especially after the company launched its own 25th anniversary celebrations in a blog post yesterday, unveiling “the latest XBOX updates, community-created designs for gamerpics, backgrounds, and themes, curated Game Pass collections, the full FanFest Tour schedule and sweepstakes details, and more.”