“Red’s Top 25 PS2 games for PlayStation 2’s 25th birthday!”

Oni

Let’s kick things off with an unexpected entry, because a lot of these are going to be the popular choices. Now on the surface, Oni is a somewhat forgettable action game but beneath the surface… it’s an action game. Then why do I remember it so well and so fondly?

Final Fantasy X

Still the most unique setting in any Final Fantasy, playing this one as a Polynesian living in Hawaii was a special treat considering how many RPGs wanted to take me to far off planets or the European Middle Ages. Playing it again down the road with my wife was an all-new emotional journey.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

My favorite of the PS2 MGS games (please save all questions until the end of the tour, thank you), I played the heck out of MGS2, backward and forward, until I burned out on it and its iconic, haunting themes and dialogue.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

The story lost me a couple times here, seeming a bit sillier than the rest, but this was a game about gameplay and I will always respect a game for remembering it’s a game, not a movie or a book. In the immortal words of Snake: “that’s damn good!” What a boss.

Metal Slug Anthology

Why waste new technology on new games when you can play old ones? Back then, ports weren’t so frequent and I don’t recall having easy access to emulation at the time so this was a life saver if I didn’t want to dump a truckload of quarters into a cabinet just to play my favorite Metal Slugs.

Taiko Drum Master

Ok, bit of a whackier entry (see what I did there?) but hear me out: I love rhythm games. That’s it. This one came with its own taiko drum controller that let me bang it out to a diverse array of tracks from the theme to DBZ to the William Tell Overture to Britney Spears’ Toxic.

Katamari Damacy

Speaking of wacky entries, Katamari Damacy is probably the most unique game on this list. Roll up everything, people, cats, houses, sushi, miscellaneous Japanese household objects you only recognize from anime… all of it with a sticky soul(?) ball of some kind because your deadbeat dad is too drunk on power to clean up the universe.

Dark Cloud 2

My gut tells me someone will be angry that I didn’t pick Dark Cloud one, but the second game is where I spent most of my time building towns, fishing, golfing, and generally RPGing.

Okami

Better on the Wii but still good on PS2, Okami is a visual buffet seemingly built just for fans of folklore like myself. Plenty of game here with a longish adventure that never lets up from sunrise to sunset.

Onimusha: Warlords

Resident Evil but in ancient Japan somehow spoke to me more than RE did, keeping me glued to the adventures of the samurai and the ninja breaking into a zombie and yokai infested palace to do samurai and ninja stuff.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

I’ve been a Lord of the Rings fan for as long as I can remember, so when Sir Peter Jackson crafted his cinematic trilogy, I achieved a level of fandom too great and terrible to imagine. Then along came EA’s twin beat ’em ups based on the movies based on the books and I was as addicted as Gollum.

DDR Max Dance Dance Revolution

Svelt as an otter. Spry as a sea lion. Swift as a raven. That was me in my heyday thanks in no small part to a slew of DDR games, but I remember this one the best. Heck, I used to be able to rock MAX 300 on heavy difficulty. I was a dancin’ master! Now? I’m still on heavy difficulty but not in the same way as DDR Max.

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition

Two Harvest Moons appeared on PS2, at least that I played, and the farm sim genre is a huge guilt pleasure. Of the two, A Wonderful Life agreed with my palate a bit more. My beloved Nami. You’re still the one~!

Final Fantasy XII

Since I skipped XI (couldn’t convince ma or myself that it was worth doing on dial-up), Final Fantasy XII was for me where the series took a sharp turn to the left. Feeling more like a single-player MMO and less familiar than ever, I enjoyed most of its characters and much of its world, nonetheless. Discount Aladdin was pretty dull but hey, the leading man was in this game.

Armored Core 3

We all have those games that were with us during hard times in our lives. For me, that was FFX and Armored Core 3, two games I had access to after recovering from kidney surgery and making the move out of Hawaii to California. These two games absolutely colored all memories of that period in my life and I’ll never forget them.

LEGO Batman: The Videogame

Alongside LOTR, I’ve been a DC comics fan all my life and that means a butt ton of Batman. The LEGO games may be a case of “you played one, you played ’em all” but they’re fun for co-op, hilarious, and soaked in IP fan service. What more could a bat-fan ask for?

Guitar Hero

There was a time when you (happily) could not get away from this game. These days the retro aftermarket has wrecked prices on the peripherals, but in its time, you could find the guitars littering every garage sale on the block.

Shadow of the Colossus

For my money this is one of the best games to pull of a marriage of the cinematic and the ludological, remembering its a game while also delivering on the majesty and awe of motion picture quality cutscenes. This one is in my top 10 favorites of all time.

Ico

Nowhere near the scale or scope of Shadow of the Colossus, Ico is a much smaller, more intimate tale and a completely different kind of game. However, it maintains that same sense of mystique and mystery and atmosphere.

Marvel vs Capcom 2

So glad it’s finally free. The greatest 2D fighting game ever made, as far as I’m concerned, with one helluva roster! I almost bought a Dreamcast just for this! Mega Man, Tron Bonne, and bone Wolverine filled out my usual trio of triumph. How about you?

Star Wars: Battlefront II

I never knew what I was doing but by golly I had fun with it! Droids or Stormtroopers? Jedi or Sith? Does it really matter? Just shoot pewpews or throw laser swords and remember your mantra: the lore doesn’t matter anymore.

Kingdom Hearts

A cashier at a podunk game store had to talk me into this one and early twenties me thought he was too macho and masculine to be seen associating with Disney characters, but glad I took the dive headfirst into a series that ultimately kinda turned out to be a big, huge, messy nothingburger. BUT… it started out well! This is still my favorite KH.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3

Was this the one where you could play as Spider-Man? Or was it Wolverine? I dunno, they all kinda blend together. Something about skating on skateboards with D-tier celebrities.

Gran Turismo 3: A-spec

Was this the one where you race cars? I dunno, they all kinda blend together. Something about a silver Volkswagen.

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

Is this 25 already? I’m not sure. Only the pedantics are counting. And I don’t even remember if I finished this PS2 game. My memories are unraveling here…

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

Just for the kicking and screaming. Honestly, if you made it this far through the list, you needed a wake up call anyway. Get that blood pumping and remember to feel something again!

That’s my list! I’m sure you can come up with some games you think are missing but how many of these PS2 games on my list did you play?