Retro|Spective 199: The Final Tour of PlayStation 2

[wakka]

I've played none of these except, I think, Airblade. Very much one of those games of that era where the best possible way to stick it to The Man in the future was by dancing or doing sick grinds on your hoverboard or what have you. I remember you spent a lot of time smashing billboards. That was a big part of it. The Man presumably hated that.

Akira Psycho Ball has been on my mental 'to play' list for ages. Must get into that soon.

[Neon Ignition]

Altered Beast
A remake of the 80's Sega title, players transform into beasts and once again we saw a title released in Japan and in PAL territories but denied a US release. The game failed to suitably update the formula in a way that paid off leading to mixed reviews.




Amplitude
Harmonix title was technically a sequel to their previous game Frequency which was very well received by game critics when it came out. Despite this the game was financial failure and the only life it enjoyed beyond this was a crowdfunded remake that Harmonix managed to pull off during the PS3/PS4 days.




Another Century's Episode Chapter One, Chapter Two and Chapter Three: The Final
Banpresto's trilogy of third person shooters was successful and well thought of, providing action titles that were considered to be similar to the Zone of Enders games. The company enlisted FROM Software to help in the development of the series and despite the subtitle of the third game a fourth title for PS3 was also later made.




Have any experience of these lost to the past games?

[DeathAdder]

I have Altered Beast just to complete my collection - I'm one of the few who like the original game. It's fairly crap - doesn't feel like the developers have actually played or even seen the original game, more that they've read about it. The GBA game, although not great, at least played as if they were trying to show some sort of appreciation of the original.

Haven't played the others.

[Asura]

I’d agree the PS2 was the best of a very strong generation (DC, GC and Xbox were all worth owning) but best console of all time? It’s no SNES.

It's a weird one. Personally I think the PS2 is a the greatest machine of all time despite championing the Xbox for most of that generation mainly due to the transformative nature of Live, finally realising the online multiplayer aspirations of the Dreamcast.

Mainly because it has (1) an enormous library of games and (2) within that library are numerous extremely good-to-great examples of every genre that existed in gaming up until that point (except real-time strategy; I mention it as this tends to crop up in this discussion). RPGs, racing, action, 2D shooters, 3rd-person shooters, Devil May Cry and the genre it near-created... I'd argue the PS2 has possibly the most prolific and rounded library of good games of any system.

Also during its life, it just felt like we got good (and, critically, varied) games on a monthly basis. There was always something new and good to play. Either the latest AAA big hitter or a new C-tier game which was maybe rough, but interesting in some way (I'm thinking stuff like Dropship, or the Rocky boxing game).

Another Century's Episode Chapter One, Chapter Two and Chapter Three: The Final
Banpresto's trilogy of third person shooters was successful and well thought of, providing action titles that were considered to be similar to the Zone of Enders games. The company enlisted FROM Software to help in the development of the series and despite the subtitle of the third game a fourth title for PS3 was also later made.

Just to say, as I think Bordersdown bye-laws require someone to do so - these games were amazing. I still have the whole set, along with the "Special Vocal Edition" of ACE2, which replaced the instrumental music with the proper sung verisons of all the songs.

It's true they were conceptually similar to ZoE but in terms of raw gameplay I'd argue they were much better (ZoE's strength is in its visuals & presentation which admittedly are amazing for both games).

They're a little rough to play now unless you either have a good guide or a grasp of Japanese, but if you're a fan of the TV shows present in the games, they have some fantastic cross-over moments.

[QualityChimp]

I'm so sorry, Neon, but I haven't played any of these so far!

I remember Amplitude being the precursor to the first Guitar Hero and had Weezer on the soundtrack, but that's all I've got.

[Neon Ignition]

Don't worry, we have a long road ahead as the PS2 apparently had several thousand exclusive games so even though a lot will be skipped as they aren't notable releases in some way it's set to be a long journey. Today...


Ape Escape 2, Ape Escape 3, Ape Escape: Pumped and Primed
Following the success of the original game on PS1, Sony released the second game which followed a similar set up and added in some new equipment to use when catching the apes. The third game reduced the gadgets but gave you the ability to transform whilst also having a crossover element with MGS3. The fourth game took more of a party game approach but failed to score a release in Europe.




Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, Arc the Lad: End of Darkness
The sixth and seventh entries into the long running RPG series, the series continues as fans would expect with the exception here of the latter title that replaced the battle system with a poorly received real time system. The game also didn't receive a European release either making it the less familiar exclusive of the two.




As additions to popular franchises, did you ever get into any of these?

[Neon Ignition]

It's insane how many exclusives there are on PS2 but how much dirge there is as well. Continuing with another batch:

Beserk: Millennium Empire Arc - Chapter of the Holy Demon War
A sequel to the Dreamcast exclusive, this adapts volumes 22-27 of the comics and offers larger playfields and more detailed visuals over the first game. It only recieved release in Japan however.





Blood Will Tell
Based on a manga, the games lead character has had most of his limbs stolen by 48 enemies and fights using a range of prosthetic limbs.




Bomberman Kart, Bomberman Kart DX
A kart racer starring the popular bomber, the game sticks to the template and DX was released in Japan only with enhanced graphics, redesigned tracks and the ability to download DLC tracks via the PS2 adapter.




The Bouncer
Squares first major release for the system and a notable game at the time of its release, this was aimed to be a cinematic walk along beat em up with a story that could be affected by player choices. Hype was strong but on release the scale of the game had been reduced to meet deadlines and reviewers were left unimpressed by the combat bringing the games life to a short end.




Did you ever play any of these and did they deserve life beyond the one they had?

[Asura]

The Bouncer
Squares first major release for the system and a notable game at the time of its release,

Kinda most notable today for kids saying "where does this fit in the Kingdom Hearts franchise?"

Main thing I remember is how the game isn't 2-player co-op. IIRC it was going to be, but that was removed from the final game. We got it expecting to play it 2-player not long after release, and were a bit miffed.

[wakka]

I'd totally forgotten about The Bouncer. That game was so hyped and then it finally plopped out onto shelves to a flurry of 4/10 review scores. Up like the rocket and down like the stick.

I never actually played it though (on account of the damning reviews).

Bomberman Kart looks bobbins but I notice it has nice boxart:

[chopemon]

Played The Bouncer recently. Not a bad little game but didn't keep me interested to finish it despite it being short. Got Berserk in my backlog. Love the manga and this game looks great. I believe there's a fan translation for it as well.

I want to get Blood Will Tell but prices have got daft on ebay. Might go for the much cheaper Japanese version. Helps that it has nicer box art as well.

[Neon Ignition]

More PS2 exclusives:


Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest
Playable as a single player or over network with four players, this action RPG uses hack and slash gameplay and takes place in the EverQuest world. Despite not being released in every region it proved successful enough to receive a sequel




Choro Q HG 4
Another entry in the long running CarPG series, this game followed on from the events of the film and offered more of the franchises racing action.




City Crisis
The helicopter rescue game where you fly around the city and save people from burning buildings. You also put the fires out by collecting and dumping water on them.




Did you ever play any of this trio?

[Asura]

More PS2 exclusives:


Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest
Playable as a single player or over network with four players, this action RPG uses hack and slash gameplay and takes place in the EverQuest world. Despite not being released in every region it proved successful enough to receive a sequel

I remember really enjoying this, but don't remember anything about it that you can't learn from that single screenshot.

[chopemon]

I always wrote City Crisis off as some western budget crap but then I found out it was made in Japan and thus instantly a better game so I bought it recently. Not played it yet but hopefully will do soon.

[nakamura]

City Crisis is very good. It's an arcade game with a PS1.5 graphics. But so playable.

Even runs in 240p!

Bouncer is okay too. Interesting for what it is, basically Streets of Rage with poor execution.

[QualityChimp]

Ok, so I thought I could join in for a minute because I thought I had City Crisis, but instead I have Incredible Crisis.

City Crisis looks aces, though. Like G-Police but helicopters in "modern" day.