If you consider gaming consoles, I guess the primary title that involves thoughts is PlayStation. For many people, that iconic brand and the start-up sound are nearly as nostalgic as Saturday morning cartoons.
Since its debut within the mid-90s, PlayStation has held onto its crown as essentially the most cherished console model on this planet. There’s simply one thing concerning the design, the unforgettable exclusives, and the way in which it grew up alongside us that we are able to always remember.
Granted, the world has since moved on from the PS2 period to the shiny PS5 (and the much-rumoured PS6, supposedly arriving in 2027), however nothing fairly hits just like the PlayStation 2. Initially launched on March 4th, 2000, in Japan, October twenty sixth in North America, and November twenty fourth in Europe, the PS2 rapidly turned a cultural phenomenon.
With over 160 million consoles offered worldwide, it stays the best-selling video game console of all time (a report that’s nonetheless unbeaten).
For context, even the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Change, which offered 154 million and 150 million models respectively, haven’t managed to dethrone it. The success of the PS2 is just not its fancy {hardware} or over-the-top specs, however its video games.
The PlayStation 2 was the console that had all the things from motion, journey, racing, horror, role-playing video games, and loads of button-mashing chaos.
So, 25 years later, let’s take a nostalgic journey down reminiscence lane. Listed here are 10 PlayStation 2 video games we are able to always remember about.
1. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
If there’s one sport that outlined the PS2 period, it’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Launched in 2004, Rockstar took all the things they’d discovered from GTA III and Vice Metropolis and created a sprawling, residing, respiratory world. The state of San Andreas, impressed by California and Nevada, was an enormous playground of chaos.
Gamers performed as CJ, a gang member returning dwelling to rebuild his life, solely to be sucked again into the gritty underworld of crime, loyalty, and survival. What made San Andreas so particular was its depth. You can hit the gymnasium, seize a burger, mod your automobile, fly a jet, or simply cruise round listening to the perfect radio playlists ever put in a sport. To today, it’s nonetheless the gold customary for open-world video games and the rationale many people fell in love with the PS2.
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2. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
For racing followers, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec was the second. With jaw-dropping graphics (for its time) and an nearly obsessive consideration to realism, it turned informal gamers into armchair automobile fanatics. Each curve, sound, and shimmer of steel felt actual, and the automobile roster was big as you had modest Toyotas to brief automobiles like Ferraris.
It wasn’t about chaos or shortcuts with Gran Turismo because it demanded precision and endurance. It made you earn each victory. If you have been tuning engines or mastering cornering on the Nürburgring, it was a pure take a look at of talent.
3. God of Struggle
Few video games had the depth that God of Struggle had. With its cinematic storytelling and brutal fight, it felt like an motion movie you possibly can management. You performed as Kratos, the livid Spartan warrior with a vendetta towards the gods themselves. Utilizing the Blades of Chaos, you hacked and slashed your manner by means of Greek mythology’s greatest names.
It was violent, but in addition brilliantly choreographed. Each boss battle felt like a blockbuster scene, each combo was easy and satisfying, and the size was jaw-dropping for 2005. Kratos may need been indignant 24/7, however you couldn’t assist however root for him even whereas he was destroying all the things in sight.
4. Metallic Gear Strong 2: Sons of Liberty
In case you owned a PS2 and didn’t at the very least strive Metallic Gear Strong 2, you missed one of many wildest and most cinematic video games of the period. Metallic Gear Strong 2 took all the things that made the primary Metallic Gear Strong a cult basic and dialled it as much as eleven. You begin as a Strong Snake, infiltrating an enormous tanker in the midst of a storm to reveal unlawful weapon growth.
Midway by means of, Snake disappears and also you immediately end up taking part in as Raiden, a rookie soldier thrown into an eerily related mission aboard an enormous offshore facility known as the Large Shell. The plot explores authorities conspiracies, digital management, id, and manipulation, themes that also really feel scarily related right now.
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5. Closing Fantasy X
Few video games pulled on the heartstrings like Closing Fantasy X. Set within the breathtaking world of Spira, it follows Tidus, a cheerful athlete mysteriously transported from his high-tech dwelling metropolis of Zanarkand to a realm tormented by a monstrous entity often called Sin. Alongside the way in which, he joins a younger summoner named Yuna and her guardians on a pilgrimage to defeat Sin as soon as and for all, however in fact, nothing is so simple as it appears.
Because the journey unfolds, the sport turns into an emotional rollercoaster about sacrifice, religion, and the fleeting nature of happiness. Tidus and Yuna’s rising bond anchors the story, however the deeper themes of loss of life, loss, and hope elevate it to one thing unforgettable. By the top, you’re left gutted however grateful, with a narrative that stays with you lengthy after the credit roll.
6. Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts shouldn’t have labored on paper as a result of mixing Disney’s vivid, magical worlds with the brooding aesthetic of Closing Fantasy was insanity. You play as Sora, a cheerful boy from a small island whose world is consumed by darkness. When his buddies vanish, he groups up with Donald Duck and Goofy to journey throughout Disney-inspired worlds looking for them.
Sora faces the sinister Heartless, learns concerning the energy of friendship, heartbreak, and confronts a shadowy villain named Ansem who’s attempting to engulf each world in darkness. Alongside the way in which, you go to basic Disney settings like Agrabah to Halloween City, assembly beloved characters like Aladdin, Ariel, and Jack Skellington.
7. Shadow of the Colossus
In Shadow of the Colossus, you play as Wander, a quiet hero who enters a forbidden land to save lots of a lady named Mono. To carry her again to life, he should defeat sixteen monumental beings often called the Colossi.
There are not any cities, no aspect quests, no armies of enemies. Simply you, your horse Agro, and the haunting silence of an unlimited, desolate world. Each Colossus you face is majestic. You climb their huge our bodies, discover their weak factors, and strike them down. However as the sport progresses, Wander himself begins to alter, hinting that each battle comes at a horrible value.
