The PlayStation 2 was released on this day in the year 2000 in Japan, making it officially 20 years old. Happy birthday PS2!
Often overlooked by retro enthusiasts thanks to its position as only the second in line to the crown of PlayStation's genesis, the PS2 still marks a watershed moment for gaming in a lot of ways. Alongside the Dreamcast, the PS2 was the first generation of consoles to connect to the internet. And with the expansion of fully explorable 3D worlds, many a first epic adventure remain fond memories for gamers today. Here are a few of the games that defined the PS2 era, on its 20th birthday.
SSX Tricky
During the PS2's launch year, a newly minted EA Sports BIG label pushed out the first SSX game, showing what the new console could do for the de rigueur genre of snowboarding titles. With over-the-top tricks and larger-than-life characters, it's no surprise that not even a year later they amped up the formula with SSX Tricky and birthed a legend. From the remix of Run DMC's rap banger It's Tricky over the attract mode intro it was clear that this was the new wave of exciting sports games. We're still waiting for detachable snowboard bindings to become widespread, and a gigantic snowdome megaplex to be built in downtown Tokyo.
Burnout 3: Takedown
EA enjoyed a string of incredible hits at the start of the century, really nailing the tone of the PS2 generation. Licensed music and extreme action led players away from the simulation or kart racing games of the previous gen into arcadey fun. Plenty of the Burnout titles are worthy of fond memories from PS2 owners, but Takedown introduced the series' most revolutionary feature...er...takedowns. Endlessly satisfying and visually astounding, smashing rivals into barriers never got old, and the Crash game mode got even more addictive with the addition of Aftertouch control once you'd fired your Crashbreaker and become a fiery wreck.
The Simpsons: Hit & Run
Other arcade racing favorites that embody their moment in time include The Simpsons: Hit & Run. While some may dismiss it as merely a masked clone of GTA, it was so much more. It was also a platformer, a Crazy Taxi-style racer (though not as much as The Simpsons: Road Rage) and a sort of RPG? The PS2's obsession with brand tie-ins and licensed titles almost flooded the console's library, risking another games industry crash on par with 1983, but in amongst the Bad Boys cash-in and Crazy Frog Racer 2 there were some really authentic attempts to cross the barrier between entertainment mediums. Hit & Run had all the loving jank of a PS2 3D action game, all the humor of the hottest cartoon of the time, and all the genuinely great driving feel of the rival Dreamcast's killer game: Crazy Taxi. A jewel in the rough.
SOCOM: US Navy Seals
While it didn't have online capabilities at launch, the PS2 did eventually introduce an entire generation of gamers to the wonders of internet multiplayer with a modem add-on. One of the first games to utilize this was SOCOM: US Navy Seals, a third-person tactical shooter which attempted to emulate the style of gameplay that PC players enjoyed with Counter-Strike. It also came bundled with a USB microphone, because the single-player missions had AI team-mates that would follow your voice commands (or were supposed to, if speech recognition was anywhere near Siri or Alexa's current ability).
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4 changed the game for Capcom’s horror series, tossing out the fixed camera and slow, lumbering terror of zombies for a more frantic, action focus and an outrageous B-Movie plot which saw you rescuing the US president's daughter from a cult. There was still plenty of tension, only this time it was thanks to a chainsaw-wielding maniac and his friends making a beeline for your neck. Resident Evil 4 remains one of the best in the series to date, and stands among the finest of its generation. While the subsequent RE games floundered with direction and pacing, Resident Evil 4’s only crime was nailing a new formula on the very first attempt. (Entry supplied by resident Resident Evil superfan Henry Stenhouse - Ed.)
Final Fantasy X
JRPGs already had cutscenes that looked too good to be true but the level of detail in FFX's intro movie literally blew us out of the water. Even though it would take years for in-engine graphics to catch up, the world of Spira still looked fantastical, with tropical beaches and cities rendered with jaw-dropping scale. It was also the first Final Fantasy to feature voice acting, a fact we're willing to throw out to explain away that infamous laughing scene. Still, even with that awkward moment seared into our brains there were some truly great performances.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid's first two games were a little wild on the conspiratorial twisting story side, but the third game is really where Hideo Kojima got let off the leash. Deciding that Vamp in MGS2 was the baseline for new villain characters, everyone gets a superpower in this '60s homage to Bond movies, and the real open-world survival elements of Metal Gear's later entries are shown for the first time. It's also just the best Metal Gear, no contest. Fight us. MGSV didn't have the weird Ape Escape tie-in minigame.
Guitar Hero
We thought we'd left hyper-specialized gaming console peripherals in the 90s, despite the Gun-Con's best efforts. But just in at the tail end of the PS2 era came a brand new genre to fill our cupboards with plastic guitars and drum kits and microphones. Guitar Hero, the Harmonix rhythm game that started the flood, took to the stage in 2005 and since then we've had any number of new intruments to add to the orchestra. The latest, Harmonix's recently revealed Fuser, takes the genre into VR – the only frontier left for peripheral-based music performance games.
GTA Vice City
While GTA3 started the third-person open world crime formula that dominated this generation of console games, it was Vice City that added the extra cinematic spice that was missing. Acting as a conduit for the Houser brothers' love of '80s films, a twisting and turning narrative and rockin' soundtrack elevated Vice City to the stuff of legends. San Andreas that came after was also a damn fine game, but missing some of the awe-inspiring moments that made us ask "can games even DO that?"
Have we missed your favorites? What do you consider to be the best games of the PS2 era now that it's 20 years on?