Collapsing the table-of-contents on the right should make this page flow a bit nicer.
I wrote a lot of these entries a long time ago and they're kinda painful to read now—
| Ace Combat: The Belkan War | |
|---|---|
| Activision Anthology | |
| The Adventures of Cookie & Cream | |
| FromSoftware made a cute, co-op, action game. | |
| 福原愛の卓球一直線 1) / SpinDrive Ping Pong | |
| Pretty crummy TT game, but it has spirit! | |
| Alone in the Dark | |
| Armored Core Nexus | |
| The Bouncer | |
| A briskly-paced, story-based brawler. You get different perspectives on the narrative depending on which character you select, and that selection is prompted before every battle scene, and some cut-scenes. |
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| Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter / Breath of Fire V: Dragon QuarterJP | |
| One of the few PS2-exclusive games I've actually gotten ride of. Is quite popular in top RPG and PS2 game lists in discerning circles, but for me it's ruined by icky anime characters and plot—helpless female fantasy character, etc. | |
| Capcom vs. SNK 2 | also on: Arcade, Gamecube |
| Castlevania: Curse of Darkness | |
| Castlevania: Lament of Innocence | |
| Chulip | |
| I died jumping from a modest height and lost my progress. Save often, kids! | |
| Cocoto Fishing Master | |
| DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Joi | |
| EverGrace | |
| Fantavision | |
| Final Fantasy XII | also on: PS4 |
| This's the only contemporary Final Fantasy game that has seemed interesting to me, and the appeal mostly comes from the way the combat works. The cast are (probably) still the same intelligence-offending twits, but it didn't grate so much now that the place and interaction with monsters/whatevers feels somewhat sensible and credible. It's also well worth noting that the Final Fantasy XII: International Zodiac Job System version (which has an English patch) makes some welcome changes, particularly the availability of all gambits without the need for purchase. This is incorporated into the PS4 version too. | |
| Fire Fighter FD-18 | |
| Fire Pro Wrestling Returns | |
| Flipnic | |
| Great example of a videogame version of pinball. Does all sorts of things you can't do on a pinball machine. 'Tables' are connected zones with all sorts of different mechanics. Has some fun multiplayer minigames too, especially the Pong one. | |
| Garouden Breakblow: Fist or Twist | |
| I suck at it, but it has the biggest big beefy beef boys. | |
| Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex | |
| I love the eeryily large and empty levels. Real spaces from a parallel universe. | |
| God Hand | |
| Gradius V | |
| Hidden Invasion | |
| Ibara | |
| Ico | |
| Katamari Damashii | |
| 剣豪３ 2) | |
| Japan only entry in this Bushido Blade+RPG elements game series (by the same developer). | |
| Lowrider | |
| Maze Action | |
| Maximo | |
| Maximo vs Army of Zin | |
| Metal Gear Solid 2 | |
| Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence | |
| Metal Slug 3 | |
| Not the best Metal Slug game, but still one of the good ones. Home ports have some fun extra modes, too. | |
| Michigan: Report From Hell | |
| Mojib-Ribbon | |
| Operation Winback 2: Project Poseidon | |
| OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast & OutRun 2 SPJP | also on: PSP, Win, XBox |
| Lumping these together as the differences are kinda minor. The big one is that the Japanese version supports force-feedback racing wheels. It's really spenno though, so~ I love this game. Maybe not the best version, but there's nothing wrong with it, apart from needing to link the PSP version to unlock some shit. |
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| Psychic Force Complete | |
| Robot Alchemic Drive / Gigantic DriveJP | |
| Raw Danger! / 絶体絶命都市２－凍てついた記憶たち | |
| Sometimes it's taught, sometimes it's actiony, sometimes it's pensive, sometimes it's Lonely Game, and sometimes it's clunky. If I were to buy a PS2 again this would be amongst the first five games I bought. It's terribly ambitious, but does a good job of reaching its goals. And where it doesn't you appreciate the effort; I guess it works a bit like some of my favourite 8-bit era games in that sense, or like something Sega might have tried on the Dreamcast. Those kinds of comparisons can seem hollow—I know—but the kid's got heart, and dash, is what I'm trying to put across. | |
| Remote Control Dandy SF | |
| Rez | also on: DC, 360, PS4, Win |
| Don't expect Star Fox or Panzer Dragoon, but do expect a game that is carefully designed and does a good job of linking gameplay actions to music, which enables—for me—a concentrated state similar to what I experience when playing bullet hell games. It may have received some ridiculous praise, but it is still a fucking tidy game and you should play it (with headphones or a nice stereo). | |
| Ridge Racer V | |
| I can never get to grips with how cars handle in this series. | |
| RPG Maker 2 | |
| RPG Maker 3 | |
| Seek and Destroy | |
| It's a Choro-Q spin-off game, but instead of racing you're a tank wot shoots things. | |
| Sega Rally 2006 | |
| Sega Rally Championship '95 | |
| Sega Soccer Slam | |
| Shadow of the Colossus | |
| Shinobi | |
| Silent Hill 2 | |
| Silent Hill 4: The Room | |
| Skygunner | |
| Plane combat game with neat designs. | |
| Sky Odyssey / The Sky OdysseyJP | |
| Probably the closest thing going to the PilotWings games. You fly a plane, and each stage is a different kind of challenge. It's real fun! | |
| Smuggler's Run | |
| Smuggler's Run 2: Hostile Territory | |
| The Sniper 2 | |
| Snoopy vs The Red Baron | |
| Space Channel 5: Special Edition | |
| Street Fighter Anniversary Collection | |
| Street Fighter EX 3 | |
| Sub Rebellion | |
| Sword of the Samurai | |
| The Taito Compilations | also on: Win, XBox |
| They're all great, jam-packed, collections of games, especially the Japanese releases. | |
| 鉄人２８号 3) | |
| For me it's the pinnacle 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. 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. | |
| Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Drift 2 | |
| Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Zero | |
| Trapt | |
| It hung when trying to do the first 'Side Story' mission, when playing with OPL/SMB. | |
| トラック狂走曲〜愛と哀しみのロデオ〜 4) | also on: Arcade |
| Real fun arcade port, where you drive a gussied-up truck, trying to complete tracks in a tight time limit, or collect doodads scattered around a stage. | |
| Twinkle Star Sprites: La Petite Princesse | |
| Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution | |
| Way of the Samurai | |
| Xena Warrior Princess | |
All separate discs in Japan, in other territories a selection was lumped together as Sega Classics Collection.
| 08 | Virtua Racing | |
|---|---|---|
| 09 | Gain Ground | |
| 16 | Virtua Fighter 2 | |
| 25 | Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box | |
| Dynamite Deka | ||
| 30 | Galaxy Force II | also on: 3DS |
| A great railshooter with gorgeous, gratuitous sprite-scaling. That was enough to convince me to get it! There's a 3DS port which is also neat, but I prefer being able to play it on a big screen and a stereo. | ||
Japanese line of budget games. A few have gotten releases outside of Japan, mostly in PAL regions.
| 78 | ＴＨＥ宇宙大戦争 5) / Space War Attack | |
|---|---|---|
| It's okay. Decent for a Simple Series game, but not much reason to go back to it after you've played through all the missions, and there aren't many of them. It did make me curious about the developer Bit Town though. Oh, I also recommend using the 'advanced' controls, 'cause they're just more fun—otherwise you can't bank or roll or anything like that. | ||
| 81 | ＴＨＥ地球防衛軍２ 6) / Global Defence Force | also on: Switch, Vita |
| Sandlot's typically wonderful sense of scale, mixed with an alien invasion scenario. Wonderful co-op (with each character having differing movement options), wonderful as a solo game. One of the first PS2 games you should buy if you're playing catch-up, and don't have access to any of the later games in the series. Aesthetically it's more 50s B-movie like than the new games, which is fun! | ||
| 103 | ＴＨＥ地球防衛軍タクティクス 7) / Global Defence Force Tactics | |
| Turn-based strategy game in the EDF series. Kinda Warsy, with base capturing, but there are plenty of differences: It uses a hex grid, you choose your units at the start of a level, and they all use 'fuel' that needs to be refilled, and you often fight along-side an AI force (and it's fun trying to capture bases before they do, for extra experience). If you turns off battle animations it's a pretty fun game. | ||