Final Cut: Toradora! Part 1 DVD
Keep It or Trade It?: Madden NFL 11 (PS3)
Keep It or Trade It?: Trinity Universe (PS3)
Read or Recycle? Gantz Vol. 1
Read or Recycle? Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit Vol. 1
Ten years and still kicking. Originally released on March 4, 2000, the PlayStation 2 went on to be one of the greatest systems, if not the greatest system, in the history of gaming. While I did not get my PS2 until my sophomore year of college, 2003, I’ve still gotten more than my money’s worth out of it. For most of my formative years, I was a Nintendo fanboy. I grew up in a Nintendo household while my cousin and grandfather both had Sega products. However there was one event that made me jump ship on the Nintendo 64. Square announced their intention to move to the PlayStation, and I followed them, spurning the Nintendo 64. If I hadn’t made that decision, I may have missed out on the PlayStation 2 as well.
During its lifespan, the PS2 has sported a plethora of fantastic games in pretty much every genre. That’s what made the system so great. It never endured the criticisms of the current generation of consoles: the 360 as the “shooter box,” the Wii as gimmicky and childish, or the PS3 just simply not having a variety of great games. Considering my personal favorite genre, I had no shortage of games to play on PS2. Classic series such as Final Fantasy, Shin Megami Tensei and Dragon Quest had new installments alongside series like Disgaea, Ar Tonelico and Shadow Hearts making their debuts. Of course, there’s more than just RPGs to play; the PS2 also gave us great games like God of War I and II, Metal Gear Solid 3, Katamari Damacy, Shadow of the Colossus, and Gran Turismo 4. Perhaps the most amazing part is that 10 years later, there are still games coming out, and not just bargain bin titles, either. I’m not sure we’ll ever see one system dominate a console cycle the way that the PlayStation 2 did.
While not my favorite game of all time (my top 3 are all on the Super Nintendo), I’d have to say that Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 is probably my personal favorite PS2 game. In honor of its tenth birthday, leave us a comment and tell us some of your favorite PS2 games
Greg Barbe on 05 Mar 2010 at 10:42 am #
I had to look at my Backloggery to answer this question as none of the PS2 titles stood out in my mind. My favorite games have always been on Nintendo systems.
After seeing which games I have played I would pick Kingdom Hearts. I spent so many hours on that game. I never would have guessed that a crossover of Disney and Square would have worked. Glad I was wrong.