Image via Complex Original
With rumors swirling regarding legacy PlayStation titles coming to Sony’s streaming game service PlayStation Now, hope springs eternal for PS4 owners looking to get their retro gaming on.
That’s right, retro gaming.
Maybe it seems like only yesterday, but PlayStation 2's Golden Age was two long hardware cycles and an entire decade ago. With the system firmly holding the title of best-selling video game console ever, chances are you still have a PS2 and at least a few games collecting dust somewhere.
So until Sony decides to reveal its full hand on the PlayStation Now front, it’s time to bust out your now classic PS2 and play some of the best games you (probably) skipped.
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RELATED: Complex Picks the 50 Best PS2 Games
10. The Warriors
Publisher: Rockstar
Developer: Rockstar Toronto
Year released: 2005
Rockstar Toronto's 2005 game, The Warriors, was an inspired and faithful digital adaptation of Sol Yurick and Walter Hill's 1977 cult-classic of the same name.
The spirit of the original movie is all here. If you aren't familiar with the movie, both the film and the game follow members of a New York City gang on a hazardous trip through 1970s New York City which if you've seen any fictional portrayal of New York from this era, is basically depicted as a prostitute-laden, crime-infested, hell on Earth. The game remains faithful to the film and doesn't shy away from portraying borderline attempted rape, foul language, and the violent street-fighting contained within the original.
While the graphics are obviously dated, the outstanding audio and soundtrack work still leaves an impression of authenticity. Much of the original film's soundtrack is successfully recreated, adding a lot to recapture the gritty urban atmosphere of the film. Several of the voice actors from the film, among them James Remar, Dorsey Wright, and Michael Beck, also lend their voice talents in a digital reprisal of their original roles, which adds a nice touch to cap off the excellent sound work.
Fighting also happens to be a blast. The beat-em-up mechanics have aged well and the character's movesets are as inspired and viciously fun as they ever were. Taking the ride from the Bronx to Coney Island is way more fun with friends, weapons, and classic brawler action.
9. Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
Publisher: Sierra Entertainment
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Year released: 2005
Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is hands down one of the most fun games ever made. Period.
It's also the best superhero game ever made after Arkham City. The Playstation 2 era saw developers still in the mood to take risks. The business model hadn't evolved into the current state of massive money-sucking, three game cross-studio projects with eighteen gigs of planned DLC. Developer Radical Entertainment really just got it. They understood the heart of the superhero video game genre should be escapism, a key component that many developers and publishers of Marvel and DC licensed games fail miserably to accomplish.
Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is an underrated gem that really gives you the power to embrace being a 12-foot tall, 900-lb radioactive rage-beast with daddy issues, all in an open-world sandbox.
Want to tear out a 40ft. tall street light and play home-run derby with pedestrians? Want to jump on to the side of a skyscraper, climb to the top and elbow drop a tank from 200 feet up? Go for it.
Not only did the developers give you license to do it, they encouraged it, with points awarded for smashing the hell out everything you could use to buy moves to smash even more.
8. Amplitude
Publisher: SCEA
Developer: Harmonix
Year released: 2003
Amplitude is a music/rhythm game released two years prior to the also Harmonix developed Guitar Hero.
It exists in the Harmonix cannon as a sort of spiritual predecessor to Guitar Hero and gets a lot of mileage out of the better elements of that game while not being hindered by control gimmicks. Amplitude, along with its prior installment Frequency, briefly achieved a cult following, establishing its own community of players and fans brought together by the frenzied rhythm-based action.
The soundtrack was also notable at the time and featured Garbage, Run DMC, and Weezer among others.
7. Def Jam: Fight for NY
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Canada
Year released: 2004
Chances are if you're a Hip-Hop fan you remember Def Jam: Fight For NY.
Even if you didn't/don't play many video games the title was a landmark release. The sequel to 2003's Def Jam: Vendetta is notable as much for its brilliant marketing ("branded content" before the era of branded content), as it is for its solid and enjoyable gameplay mechanics and superstar cast.
Expanding upon Vendetta, the sequel featured an expanded roster of characters, fighting styles, and all around content. Notable appearances from most of the Wu-Tang Clan, Redman, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Nore, and others. It also featured some notable secondary characters including Danny Trejo (Danny-fuckin-Trejo!), Omar Epps, Funk Flex, and Jacob the Jeweler (pre-BMF related conviction). Besides the noted improvements from its predecessor, it also far surpasses it's lackluster sequel Def Jam Icon.
It also currently remains the only way you can be Ghostface and slam Joe Budden's head into a moving subway train. So there's that.
6. Freedom Fighters
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: IO Interactive
Year released: 2003
Freedom Fighters gets a nod because it was a perfect blend of tactical shooter and open-ended action/adventure that translated smoothly to the console experience.
Set in an alternate reality New York City that has been invaded by the Soviet Union, the squad-based gameplay was done with such a simple interface that you could easily manage squad mechanics like covering fire, hold position, and positioning your squadmates.
In games of this nature your teammate's AI really makes or breaks the gameplay and Freedom Fighter's makes it easy to have a good time leading resistance fighters through the war torn streets of New York.
5. Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
Publisher: LucasArts
Developer: Pandemic Studios
Year released: 2005
At the time of its release, Mercenaries seemed at the very least an interesting battlefield-themed Grand Theft Auto clone.
All these years later, the sandbox gameplay still holds its own. Set in North Korea, the game puts the player in the shoes of a squad of Mercenaries in an open-world theater of war comprised of five different factions: the Chinese, the Allied Nations, North Korea, South Korea, and the Russian mob. Because of its open-world structure, the game allows you to complete a series of objectives however you'd like, adding to its re-playability.
Throw into the mix all the accoutrement of war, like rocket launchers, tanks, helicopters, and missile attacks, and add a social reputation dynamic to either make allies or enemies, and you have a recipe for a type of fun that stands the test of time.
4. Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Spike
Year released: 2007
Nine Dragonball Z games have been released in the states since Budokai Tenkaichi 3 dropped. Nine...
Seven years later it's still the best Dragonball game ever made. With 161 characters, gorgeous cel-shaded graphics, and destructible night and day environments, the game provided the fan service following incarnations distinctly lacked. The free-roam mode incorporated into the story campaign and made for a compelling experience. The controls, while lamented by reviewers in the initial reception, allowed for more gripping and cinematic battles. The whole experience allowed for larger movie set backdrops than Budokai 3 to boot.
3. Psychonauts
Publisher: Majesco
Developer: Budcat / Double Fine
Year released: 2005
Psychonauts was a wonderful action-adventure game that, unfortunately for it's creators and publishers, didn't end up selling that well.
It did, however, gain a cult following on the strength of its imaginatively surreal game world and inspired storytelling. You play as Raz, a psychic kid who runs away from his circus performer family. Raz joins a summer camp, in the hopes of one day becoming a Psychonaut, a psychic spy. Charm abounds in this game, taking you through Raz's journey, each level essentially taking place within a different being's mind.
Along the way Raz can gain a slew of psychic powers like telekinesis, pyrokinesis, levitation, etc., all while collecting arrowheads, and 'emotional baggage'. While the replay value (if you've played it recently) is questionable, if you haven't played this game, do so now.
2. Star Wars: Battlefront II
Publisher: LucasArts
Developer: Pandemic Studios
Year released: 2005
Star Wars: Battlefront II was a dream realized for Star Wars fans stuck with consoles.
Arguably the greatest console Star Wars game ever made (after Rouge Squadron), Battlefront 2 provided much-needed fan service, fixing the lackluster A.I. and weak single-player campaign of the first incarnation. The development team also added new levels of depth to the gameplay with space battles and a feature that only previously existed in fanboy wet dreams: the ability to absolutely shit on enemy troops as a Jedi, Sith, or fan favorites like Boba Fett or Han Solo.
Yes, using the "Heroes" was wildly unbalanced, and that's part of why this game still maintains replay value. Booting up a copy of Battlefront 2 and unloading on tens of enemy storm troopers for an hour, a la Dynasty Warriors, or even force-jumping a hundred feet in the air on to the top of an AT-AT and stabbing it to death till it explodes, is still just as fun as it was in 2005.
While the title sold fairly well, it makes the list because it seems to be slept on by the people holding this intellectual property. After the dissolution of LucasArts' development division (looking at you EA), and a measly CGI-rendered trailer our Star Wars fix still hasn't been scratched.
1. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Atlus
Year released: 2008
Absolutely bizarre. Those are probably the first words that come to mind attempting to explain the Persona series to someone unfamiliar with the Shin Megami Tensei offshoot. Another set of words you might use would be: instant classic.
While all the traditional RPG elements like dungeon crawling, turn-based fighting, and leveling up via gained experience are there, the series also flips basically everything western audiences have come to expect from an RPG.
Firstly, there's the simulation genre aspects that require the player-named protagonist to get a part-time job, attend high school daily, and maintain a decent social life by engaging characters in the game. This all happens in in real-time within the game, with the specific time and day being important for accessing necessary gameplay elements. You can also go the Shopping District and buy things. Not that weird right? Well hold on a minute there, because the people you decide to spend time with, or Social Link activities, responds to an Arcana tarot that links to a specific Persona, a manifestation of the character's 'true self' that you utilize in battles.
Secondly, the game is a murder mystery set in a sleepy Japanese mountain town that revolves around a bunch of high school kids making frequent trips into television sets in order to prevent a spree of gruesome murders.
So cool. So kawaii.