Topic: Games that make you want to buy a PS2

[Nick DiMola]

On the request of Kairon in the Okami thread I decided to put together a personal list that made me buy a PS2, and games that have come out since that are also worth buying. Here it goes (in no particular order):

1. Katamari Damacy / We Love Katamari
2. Guitar Hero Series
3. Devil May Cry Series
4. Final Fantasy Series
5. Onimusha Series
6. Metal Gear Solid Series
7. Maximo: Ghosts to Glory / Maximo vs. the Army of Zin
8. Ico / Shadow of the Colossus
9. Okami (Wii version is better)
10. Jak and Daxter (none of the sequels)
11. Klonoa 2
12. God of War Series
13. Kingdom Hearts Series
14. Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution
15. Dragon Quest Series
16. Gitaroo Man
17. Melty Blood: Act Cadenza
18. Disgaea 1+2
19. Psychonauts
20. GTA Series
21. Timesplitters
22. Dark Cloud 2
23. Twisted Metal Black/Head On
24. Sly Cooper Series
25. Ratchet and Clank Series
26. Tales Series
27. Soul Calibur III
28. Graffiti Kingdom / Magic Pengel
29. Contra: Shattered Soldier / Neo-Contra
30. Gran Turismo
31. Silent Hill Series
32. Mister Mosquito (plus others in the Fresh series)
33. Rez
34. Tekken Series
35. Shinobi
36. Taiko Drum Master
37. Shin Megami Tensei games (Persona, Digital Devil Saga, Devil Summoner)
38. Odin Sphere
39. Zone of the Enders Series
40. Rogue Galaxy
41. Xenosaga Series
42. Star Ocean
43. Yakuza 1 + 2

Those are just some of the games that came to mind. They are all PS2 exclusive and they are all pretty good games. All are worth looking into though if you are seriously considering a PS2 purchase. Any changes/updates I'll add as you guys post.

Edit: For simplicity reasons I decide to group the 2 lists into 1.

[vudu]

You forgot Ico.  Also, a lot of people would ask you to add the Gran Turismo series (but I won't).

[Artimus]

I intend to pick one up in a year or so, when I can get it REALLY cheap and games even cheaper.

[KDR_11k]

Neo Contra is supposedly crap.

Melty Blood: Act Cadenza deserves your full attention. And I think I need to punch you for the lack of Disgaea.

EDIT: Hm, if you lack a good PC and didn't buy an XB you could add Psychonauts to the list.

[jasonditz]

Depends what you like... here's the ones that I ended up playing a lot:

Dragon Quest 8: My absolute favorite game of this generation. A long, beautiful traditional RPG with memorable characters, a great animation style, and a lot of fun. Don't just do the main quests... explore around a little. Be sure to visit Le Puff Puff Club. That's easily the loudest I've ever laughed at a video game (nobody who's played it give it away, it's way funnier to go into it totally blind), even moreso than some of the stuff in Mario&Luigi Superstar Saga.

.hack// 1-4: Action RPG with some great tie-ins to the animes... make sure you can get a copy of 2 before you get too deep into 1, that's the toughest to find.

Xenosaga: Only buy these if you like long cutscenes. A lot of people get restless during a half hour cutscene and probably wouldn't enjoy the game. I love that sort of thing, personally.

GTA: San Andreas: For a game that's poked fun at so much, it really is impressively deep and well done. This is a game that gives you probably 80 hours of play time if you intend to do all the side-missions.

Dynasty Warriors 4: A lot of people find this game repetitive, personally I love it. If you're into it, this is the sort of game you'll be playing for months trying to unlock everything, then hunting around the Koei Japan website to put in your high scores in the challenge mode. I bought it over a year ago, it's been one of my most heavily played PS2 games in that time, and I'm still nowhere near unlocking everything. Great two-player co-op mode. There's nothing like it on the Gamecube...

Kingdom Hearts: A very well done game with a great story.

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time: A great story with a mediocre game attached. The storyline itself is fairly riveting, but I could never get past the ugly fight system to get very deep into it.

VF4: The sort of graphics the PS2 was supposed to deliver from the get go, VF4 is a great fighter that deserves some attention.

[GoldenPhoenix]

For me my PS2 has been collecting dust, but anyway here are the games I own for it (I own every game I wanted a PS2 for).

Silent Hill series
Shadow of Collosus (I was a tad bit dissapointed by the crappy framerate though)
Contra Shattered Soldier
Kingdom Hearts series (KH2 is one of my favorite games of all time!)
Mister Mosquito (Yes AWESOME game, everyone needs to play it)
God of War (I guess I'll put that here, but I am not a big fan of it, I felt it was overrated)
Smackdown series
Jak series (1 was still the best though!)

Sadly I think that is it, don't like the GT series, don't like the FF games, not a big fan of the MGS series, and the rest of the games are ports of games where I can get better versions of the Xbox or my PC.

Now for PS3:

Um....
Afrika

The end  

[JonLeung]

I played Silent Hill 2-4 on the PC, so a PS2 isn't required for those.  Just saying.  Also played Psychonauts (though on the PC).  Recommended.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Yeah I know the SH series is on PC (in fact I own SH2 for it) but I do own 3 and 4 for PS2 since I do like playing them on my TV!

[Nick DiMola]

IMHO Katamari Damacy/We Love Katamari are games no one should miss out on. I bought a PS2 to play these games. On the whole I'd say there are a pretty large selection of PS2 games that make it worth buying. Not to mention pretty much every game on that list sells for less than 20 bucks, some are only a few dollars used.

[couchmonkey]

Arrgh, quit tempting me, I need a Wii, not a PS2!

[Ian Sane]

It has the first real Contra game since Hard Corps.  That alone makes me interested.  And after playing Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes on the Cube and loving the hell out of it I am naturally interested in the sequels.  Well not so much the second game but definitely the third.

[capamerica]

I bought my PS2 for Final Fantasy alone, I had no desier to play any other games on the system.

But over time I have found a few other gems on the PS2 system.
- Disgaea
- Disgaea 2
- Radiata Stories
- Kingdom Hearts
- Xenosaga Trilogy
- Tales series
- Jak Trilogy
- Mister Mosquito
- .Hack Series
- Suikoden Series
- Silent Hill Series
- Shinobi
- Nightshade
- King of Fighters Series
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
- Tekken 5

Thats about it... For a system that has so many games my PS2 collection is pretty damn small.
I had Katamari Damacy but after about a week I found the game was really boring. The Sequal was just plain dumb. Way over hyped.

[Hocotate]

- King of Fighters 2003
- Neo Geo Battle Coliseum
- Capcom Fighting Jam
- Last Blade 2-in-1
- DDR Extreme
- Melty Blood
- KOFXI

As you can see, 2D fighters make up my need for a PS2. Now that Ninty has SNK, there is no reason whatsoever to buy a PS3. Thank you SNK

[KDR_11k]

Me, I think Tekken and Rez are overrated. Tekken has some nice extra features but the game itself is horrible. Too much control memorization, too little freestyle comboing. It's like a vocabulary lesson except all words are written in X O [] /\.

I liked the combat system in Star Ocean but gave up a bit into the second disc where enemies are so overwhelmingly strong I started avoiding encounters (especially since I thought that was what you're supposed to do as most enemies had a wipe-your-entire-party attack) and therefore couldn't continue. Same for FFX, got annoyed by the battles, started avoiding them and got suck as a result. With Xenosaga (2, the only one released here) I just stopped playing because save points are so far apart I wasn't sure I could play for long enough to reach one and gradually forgot about the game (never mind the boring combat system, I hear that's rectified in the DS port).

Project Zero might be worth a mention, it's the only horror game I've ever played (because I wouldn't call Resident Evil or Doom 3 horror, it's more like "come here suckers, taste some hot lead!"). Of course it's on the Xbox as well but who has an XBox?

And if you want some cheap mindless shooting Gungrave Overdose is the right game for you, 15€ MSRP and more carnage than you can shake a zombie at. Not the greatest game around but makes for some fun while it lasts.

[Kairon]

I don't own a PS2... but if I did, the following games would've caught my eye:

Mister Mosquito (a.k.a. Ka?)
Metal Gear Solid 2
Psychonauts
Katamari (there are two of these games?)
Shadow of Collossus
GTA 3 (the GTA games play horrible on PC...prob play horrible here too but eh)
GTA: SA
Okami
God of War series
Maybe a Suikoden game or two...

...and that's all I can think of for now.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[wandering]

Seriously mr. game designer, buy a ps2, and then get all of those games used. And, if you absolutely can't stand to give Sony any of your money, buy the ps2 used, too.

I'm playing through Shadow of the Colossus now, and it is showing me the error of my old single system ways.

[Kairon]

Nah. I live in a dorm. People have PS2's. I'll just bum off of them.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[wandering]

That works.

[oohhboy]

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

^^^^^

What did you find good with that?

[KDR_11k]

I'm guessing the answer is boobies. He IS a Dead or Alive fan, after all.

[KnowsNothing]

For me, I want:

- Ico
- Shadow of the Colloosusuoss
- DANCE DANCE Revorucion
- Katamari Darling
- Guitar Herro
- Okami
- probably Gran Turismo 4 as well since there are no other "realistic" racing games available on GC or PC

While I really want these titles, it's not enough to get me to buy a PS2.  Shoddy hardware + uncomfortable controller = save money for Wii.

[capamerica]

I really enjoyed  Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
I liked the gameplay and the story. Thou it probily helped that I am a GitS fan.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I've played enough disappointments to convince me I shouldn't spend money on PS2 software. (i buy new/unopened games only)

[BranDonk Kong]

If I didn't already have one...

...games that would make me buy a PS2: none.