This is an old revision of the document!
SB Recommends Playstation 2 Games
One of the most popular non-portable game consoles made. Released with two major different models: the larger original and the much smaller “thin” version. If you know someone that only owns one recent-ish console, this is probably it. Its popularity meant tons of games were released for it, from shovelware to hidden gems. Also had good backwards compatibility with PS1 software.
Modding the PS2 is usually done via a hard drive mod, or a fliptop. (Someone with PS2 modding knowledge should fill this in more.) You can get a memory card loaded with Free McBoot off eBay for around 10 USD, which lets you play all the “backups” you want.
Recommended
The Bouncer
MattCD42: This game was ripe with potential. One of the best
beat 'em ups ever to grace the
PS2. Unlike the other greats of the same system it had the idea of divergence and set moves and was a quick game to play through. I've played this game so man times. Honestly the multiplayer was what really drove it home back in the day. The ragdoll physics when someone would hit the floor, the random flying panthers.
I really have more fond memories from playing this game than any other single video game. Say what you will but if someone made another one of these, probably with a touch more polish I think lots of people would have a blast playing it.
Castle Shikigami 2 (NA)/ Shikigami No Shiro II (JP) / Castle Shikigami 2: War of the Worlds (PAL) (also on: DC, GC, NAOMI, PC, PSN, XBox)
Ni Go Zero Ichi: Worth playing for the
legendary “localization” alone, but it also happens to be a pretty decent (and damn hard, at least for genre newbies like myself) co-opable shmup.
The Blueberry Hill: I find the enemy/pattern design pretty boring, and would recommend
Psyvariar 2 over this if you want to play something with
bullet grazing (which is a fun mechanic). The game lacks that meatiness (or crunchiness, or—) that I need in a
shooter. I haven't played the translated version.
Dual Hearts
Lainer: Someone in Japan really liked the
Spyro games. Then they made an RPG where you solve villager's personal problems by jumping into their dreams and jumping on platforms and beating up monsters, but they probably wanted to make a Spyro game instead.
-
Rudie: PAL gamers lucked out on this sucker. One of the most entertaining games I've ever played. You are one of those soldiers against giant ants, centipedes, and UFOs, just like an old movie. The only objective in the 100+ missions is destroy them all. In co-op mode the framerate drops are more 'Awesome' than 'Distracting.'
Loki Laufeyson: It's also one of the best co-op games of the modern day! Hard enough to be fun for good players, yet easy enough for others to actually survive the stage!
The Blueberry Hill:
Sandlot's typically wonderful sense of scale, mixed with an alien invasion scenario. Wonderful co-op (with each character having differing movement option), wonderful as a solo game (I still play in in half-hour bursts). One of the first
PS2 games you should buy, if you're playing catch-up, and don't have access to
EDF 4.1. Aesthetically it's more 50s B-movie like than the new games, which is fun!
1CC: Everything up to Hard and Inferno is just warm-up anyway. That's where you have to plan and coordinate each and every move with your buddy, come up with inventive solutions, and be efficient as fuck. It's where the games are at their best, it just takes too long to get there.
-
Rudie: Selectbutton's one holy grail. The Right analog stick does not control your camera, but acts as a multi-direction evade. It is the video game all others are compared to.
Lainer: Your nostalgic memories of early 90s brawlers come to life as a real video game, no rose colored spectacles required.
boojiboy7: A game that feels like the original brainstorming sessions worked like they did for FLCL, in where everyone just suggested something they thought was awesome, and it all made it into the game. Think Mike Tyson is awesome when he talks? So did whoever wrote the enemy's scripts. Think sweet guitar stylings are the shit? So does the soundtrack. Always wanted to punch a man into the sun? Who hasn't?
P1d40n3: Pretty much the reason sb hates vidcons really.
Felix: The closest modern comparison is Devil May Cry, which is a slightly better game, but if there is any love in your heart, God Hand will make you grin from beginning to end. Fairly low-budget; a half-sarcastic sacred cow.
Gradius V
-
Felix: I actually like this better than RSG or Ikaruga, as far as Treasure's bombastic modern 2D shooters go. Multidirectional lasers that you have to stop moving your craft in order to fire should be game-breaking, but aren't.
-
Rudie: While I am the one person on the planet that doesn't have godly opinions of
Jak and Daxter. I adore
Jak 2. The controls just feel so tight. The graphics are going to look great forever. It's hard as hell, and I love it for that.
Jak 3 (also on: PS3)
Rudie: It's
Jak 2, in the desert. It has more vehicle missions than
Jak 2, and is slightly easier. Has the best plot-twist I've seen in a video game, and it's neat to go back to a war-torn Haven City (setting of
Jak 2.)
-
Rudie: You press buttons and things happen. Sometimes you don't even need to press buttons.
boojiboy7: On a very basic level, even down to the core of its mechanics, Killer 7 is about how little choice any of us have in games, how arbitrary and controlled every part of a videogame is. A taunt, but sometimes a very funny one, wrapped in a wonderful aesthetic. An amazing soundtrack.
gatotsu2501: GameCube version recommended if you can get it.
Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil
spectralsound: Gorgeous and haunting, if you have the right mindset. It's kind of too-easy, though.
wourme: Weaker than the excellent Door to Phantomile, but still worth a look.
Metal Saga
Lainer: Not Mad Max: The JRPG, but about as close as we're going to get in an English release. Collect tanks and outfit them with cannons so big they look like they come from WH40k. Collect bounties on colorful criminals and improbable robot monstrosities. Buy a tanuki statue and some wallpaper for your room, then send a wedding dress to your mother.
Mister Mosquito
Sketch: Really cool arcade-style mosquito-sim. Weird, but genuinely fun. Like
Pilotwings 64 in mosquito form.
Onimusha
Rudie: Still beautiful. Nothing wrong with this RE-like Samurai zombie slashing game.
mothmanspirit: Super pretty and amazing atmosphere. There's an Xbox version where they added a creepy doll and some tug of war-type shit to the battle system.
Phase Paradox (JP)
Swarm: […] another JP game with English voice acting for the
PS2. What's amazing is how dry the Japanese translation of the English dialogue is. Something like “we've gotta get the hell out of here right now” is just translated to “早く”, or “don't come any closer or I'll shoot” is just “来ないで”. The gameplay is like a mix between a
survival horror game and something like
Alpha Protocol, where the game has branching storylines based on decisions you make in about a 5 second window. All the combat in the game isn't controlled in real time though, it's all decision based. It has some pretty nice character graphics since all the backgrounds are pre-rendered and all the characters look modeled off famous actors.
Ratchet and Clank series
Rudie: I say series because there are about 5 or so games just on the Playstation 2, and you really need to play one. The games started out as platformer with guns and became more run and gun with platforms and sort of swings back and forth. I'd say try Up Your Arsenal (If that's the English name for the third one.) The first game features no side-step, which in a game about shooting things is unacceptable. All the games features some gorgeous graphics devoid of the marks of a PS2 game and slapstick cartoon humor.
spectralsound: As much as I enjoy the first game, you probably are better off just skipping it. The second game is hilariously glitchy, and features a final boss that can be beaten in about a minute and a half.
Remote Control Dandy SF
Cacophanus: I actually thought it was the best implementation of the
Sandlot scale/limb control setup. The whole first person camera control was nuts too.
Resident Evil 4 (also on: Gamecube, PC, Wii, PSN, XBLA)
Rudie: Woah, you haven't played this? You should get on that. I do hear the Wii version is the definitive one now though.
gatotsu2501: Perfect example of a game stretched too thin. The first third or so is really engrossing, tense stuff, but by around the time you reach the castle the game has already introduced and explored its most novel mechanics, and starts increasingly to rely on setpieces and gimmicks to keep it going for the next dozen hours or so until it finally sputters out. I can't think of another game that makes such a drastic transition from excitement to exhaustion over its running time. The story and cutscenes are mood-ravagingly, inexcusably bad. (Wii Edition is generally considered the definitive version, though one could argue that its super-slick controls break a game that wasn't designed for them.)
R-Type: Final
TOLLMASTER: Advertised as “King of the Shooters.” Unless you are a bullet-hell fan, then this is definitely the case. It's the first shooter to really reward you for playing, even if you suck–there are 101 different ships to unlock. As you practice blasting off and striking the evil Bydo Empire, you'll improve in skill and not feel guilty about it as the number of craft you have slowly rises. As with most R-Type games, Final is a “tactical” shooter–success depends not only upon your skill at shooting and dodging, but making the most use of your power-ups and Force Pod configuration.
LaserGun: Boring and uninspired, only play it if you like collecting/unlocking shit for no real reason.
Sniper Honeyviper: Only boring because of its absolutely glacial pace, it makes the original R-Type seem like a Gradius speed stage. Definitely not uninspired: the last stage has people fucking in the background. You can ignore the collectathon unlockable shit and play it on maximum difficulty like an arcade game if you want, though some of the ships (many of which reference classic Irem games) are really strange and fun.
-
Tollmaster: Exhilarating action game that actually makes you feel like you are driving a giant robot. Probably the first game to give the player the sense of scale involved, by forcing the player to drive the robot from the perspective of the pilot, who flys around from building to building on an antigrav device. The combat is deeper that it first looks, but perhaps not deep enough, and the production values–graphics, VAs, etc.–are terrible, but the game is fun enough to recommend a playthrough. The 2P Battle Mode can be fun, if chaotic.
The Blueberry Hill: Toll's summed it all up. I just want to add an endorsement for this, and everything else
Sandlot has made. Well, I dispute the 'terrible' graphics comment.
Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love / Sakura Wars V ~Farewell, My Love~ (JP) (also on: Wii) -
Read the thread
Samurai Western
tacotaskforce: Samurai Western is pretty awesome because dashes are invulnerable and if you dash through a bullet you charge up your super bar and your next attack will be a 1HKO so that when you do reach whoever is shooting you you can end them instantly. Also enemies almost always shoot you all at the same time so you only have to get one counter hit timed right and you'll send like a dozen bullets back to the guys that shot them at you. Also like half the unlockable skins in the game are for characters that aren't even in the game, like the Cow Girl.
Sega Ages
The Sega Ages series is, in general, old videogame game compilations/ports done right.
The following are our recommendations:
Vol.9 Gain Ground
firenze: The Japanese Sega Ages PS2 remake (Vol. 9) is pretty fantastic. I'd absolutely recommend it. One of the highlights of the early Sega Ages series, when they focused more on remakes than painstakingly accurate emulation. It's a damn shame it wasn't included on the western Sega Classics Collection release.
Seek and Destroy
Lainer: ChoroQ goes to war.
Loki Laufeyson: Definitely worth the price it goes for online, which is generally in single figures. Of pennies.
Siren 2 (PAL/JP)
Sketch: Much easier than the first installment, and probably my favourite game on the system. It does things with light and darkness which I’ve only ever really seen in Chronicles of Riddick, and even then not as good, since here you sometimes need to cling to the light for survival.
Rudie: Yes it is easier!
-
Victor:
Sky Odyssey is one of the system's gems. Outdated, even by the standards of it's day, and uninspired visuals — but man, what a joy. Non-combative, unrealistic flight-sim. Its aesthetic/thematic sensibilities are grounded much closer to the arcade than the computer desk. But, at its core, Sky Odyssey is a videogame based primarily on the skillful manipulation of its physics-based flight controls — which, while not specifically grounded in any high-level modeling of real-world aerodynamics, or anything like this - are dependent upon methodical and thoughtful rudder/throttle control.
It is a videogame about flying satisfyingly unwieldy aircraft on fantastical missions through collapsing caverns and mid-air jet-stream currents.
Pilotwings +
Gran Turismo +
Indiana Jones.
-
Tulpa: Sky Odyssey is pretty incredible. I didn't like it at first and I still think the controls are a bit too timid and arcadey but the level design is unimpeachable.
Mr. Mechanical: It's an arcadey shooter type game with three different main characters who each have their own aircraft with special abilities. You had multiple primary and secondary objectives to complete during the missions, and lots of unlockable stuff if you were good at getting high scores. The only thing I can really hold against it is that it's kind of difficult to control, no matter which control setup you use (I think it had like two different options). It's just confusing because you have to work against the camera sometimes. Very much worth checking out if you're willing to get inside the game and figure out how to really play it effectively.
yarusenai: this game is sick. i love this game, it's one of my favorite ps2 games. you know how in like,
ace combat or whatever, there are some missions where you have to fly through a canyon and you feel super cool when you do it? this is a whole game based around stuff like that. not gonna ruin it all but you're gonna be flying through canyons, caves, blizzards, waterfalls, and a whole lot more. and it's kinda tough but there aren't many games that have made me feel this cool when i finished a mission.
meauxdal
mothmanspirit: The level where you're flying into a mine at night is one of the most lovely videogame experiences on the PS2 or anywhere.
Skygunner
Sketch: Fantastic aerial shooter with anime stylings and a rock solid combo scoring system. I wrote about The Gamer’s Quarter, and it’s definitely in my top 5 games for the system.
nocturnedelight: Only game on PS2 I felt bad for selling to Gamestop.
Mr. Mechanical: It's an arcadey shooter type game with three different main characters who each have their own aircraft with special abilities. You had multiple primary and secondary objectives to complete during the missions, and lots of unlockable stuff if you were good at getting high scores. The only thing I can really hold against it is that it's kind of difficult to control, no matter which control setup you use (I think it had like two different options). It's just confusing because you have to work against the camera sometimes. Very much worth checking out if you're willing to get inside the game and figure out how to really play it effectively. I had it for a while a couple years ago before I had to sell it but I would like to own it again someday.
Tetsujin 28-Go (JP only)
The Blueberry Hill: For me it's the pinacle of
Sandlot's
big robot games. The controls are simpler than the others, which I was surprised to find is a good thing! Something I always forget when I haven't played the game for a while is the great potential for interesting player-created narrative here: partly due to the amount the world reacts to actions of the characters (buildings collapsing, a lot of things can be used as weapons, etc.), partly because of the speed of the game (which gives each action big consequence), and partly because of the low quantity of participants (each enemy is a big personality). I guess this is all true of much of Sandlot's output, and a big part of what I like about them. I'm waffling, but if you like very big robots,
thoughtfully awkward controls,
Gigantor, and player-created narrative try this game. It's in Japanese, but my lack of it was no barrier.
The Thing
Sketch: I loved the film The Thing, and this is as perfect a game-sequel as I could have wanted. The submarine section was a bit shit, and it goes all shooty shooty in the last levels, but for a while at least, this is a fucking awesome, terrifying homage to the original film. You’ve got to keep your team calm and sane, while keeping a watchful eye on everyone, because you never know, one of them might be The Thing. And it’s genuinely random, because once, I used a blood testing kit on myself because my team mates were freaking out and making accusations about who to trust, and you know what? I turned into a monster and it was game over! Guess they were right.
Virtua Cop: Re-Birth
mothman spirit: PS2 port of Virtua Cops 1 + 2. The music is Virtua Fighter 2 as fuck. A lot less shooty and more deliberate than other lightgun games. The Japanese release has an option for English text. Like Crisis Zone and Time Crisis 2, I prefer the 90s candy polygons Daytona-esque aesthetic of the original versions though.
See Also