PS2 GAME RECOMMENDATIONS |

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I really consider the PS2 to be my favorite console. It's the one with the biggest pile of games I can spend months on end playing. Like the other console pages, this is my little way of recommending you stuff to play. I'm not here to tell you to play San Andreas or God of War or any of the big games. My focus is on stuff I either have history with or smaller, more obscure titles I've enjoyed or found curious.

Games are recommended on a four-point scale like those "strongly agree/disagree" questions you get on surveys. This scale goes "Strongly", "If you like this kinda game", "Watch it online", and "Avoid at all costs" from best to worst. It's one part how likely I am to replay the game and one part how likely I am to recommend it to fans of that game's genre. I'm not in the business of objectivity, just what's fun to me. No reason to play a game if you're not having fun, yeah?

[#] Amplitude (Sony, 2003)

FreQuency might've given Harmonix a lot of good press, but it didn't make them millionaires. Its sequel, Amplitude, improved every single aspect of FreQuency and hasn't dated a day in 18 years...and still didn't make them millionaires. This may be the single best game in history no one bought. To date, I still staunchly shill it to everyone I know, because it deserves it. And that, my reader, means you now.

Amplitude plays roughly the same as FreQuency, juggling instruments track-by-track to rebuild a song's mix, except it's now on sonic highways rather than through tunnels. Compared to FreQuency, Amplitude features a gentler difficulty curve over four difficulties, Mellow, Normal, Brutal, and Insane. The latter two are apt names—you'll be chasing good scores on them for a long while. The timing window is much relaxed, similar to the first Guitar Hero, and Amplitude is still as playable as it's ever been, especially given the absolutely fantastic soundtrack that spans everything from blink-182 to Slipknot to P!nk to David fucking Bowie.

The graphics are much improved from FreQuency, featuring dizzying cityscapes and bubbling reactor cores you'll fly your Beat Blaster through, and the FreQs, formerly just icons, are now customizable 3D models that play along to the track you're on and whose bodies and heads you'll unlock as you play. You get ranked in songs by your score (1-4 bars), and there's nothing better than nailing the right path through a song and earning all four. While you can still get local multiplayer and even online going for extra fun, even solo, this game is bonkers fun. You need to play it.

[#] FreQuency (Sony, 2001)

FreQuency carries the distinction of being the first game legendary rhythm game developer Harmonix tackled. Here's the gist: You're a "FreQ" flying through a tunnel of music. Each side of the tunnel is plastered with gems that sync up roughly to the rhythm of one instrument in the song, the difficulty determining the note density. Press the corresponding shoulder buttons as each of these gems pass the target, and if you can keep up successfully for two bars, that instrument will play itself for a few. Spin the tunnel, move to another instrument, and repeat the process until the end of the song.

At its best, FreQuency is a hypnotic game. Your goal, ultimately, is to play well enough to rebuild the mix of the song. The "arenas" outside the tunnel can be chosen, and they're quite the neon light show, for better or worse. Powerups help you capture tracks, double your score, and keep your multiplier going in case you screw up. The soundtrack is also fairly good, though how much you'll like it depends on if you've ever heard of The Crystal Method, Curve, or Powerman 5000. (And some of the quirkier and harder tracks are outright HMX inventions!)

Those things also massively limit its appeal though; it can be hard on the eyes, and you won't see or hear much that's terribly human during gameplay. It doesn't help that the timing window per note is extremely small, and with emulator lag, the game is nearly unplayable on the harder difficulties. Paired with all tracks muting at the start of each section, thus killing your groove, and I can see some people finding this game downright frustrating. I like it, though. It's flawed, and the sequel works far better in every way, but there's a lot of personality here and not a whole lot like this.

[#] Namcomuseum (Namco, 2001)

Namco had a brilliant run on the PS1, not only building some of its best-known titles, but helping usher in the age of the arcade compilation in their Namcomuseum five-volume set. Featuring a clearinghouse of both their best titles and deeper cuts on each volume, the compilations lived up to their name with a full 3D museum players could wander around in, peeking at promotional material and taking in the architecture along the way. When it came time for graphics to get a major boost with the next generation, Namco decided to...cut out the museum portion entirely. Great.

Yeah, it's unfortunate! There is no museum to this Namcomuseum, only a set of 12 games that mostly consist entirely of Namco's biggest titles. Of course, this does mean you're getting your favorites: there's both Pac- and Ms. involved, Galaga and Galaxian, both Pole Position titles, and two unlockable Pac-Man titles in Pac-Attack (Columns with ghosts and Pacs) and Pac-Mania (Pac-Man, but it's in 3D and you can jump). More tellingly is that the games here are still not emulations, but the exact same recreations found on the PS1 Namcomuseum games! Not like the PS2 couldn't emulate these games!

There are three "Arrangement" titles in the mix the PS1 games don't have, for Pac-Man, Galaga, and Dig Dug. These up the graphics, add soundtracks, twist the gameplay of each subtly, and give more of a sense of progression with levels, worlds, and endings, and I'm pretty fond of these. Overall though, given it takes up a mere 80MB of its nice, blue-bottomed CD, Namco clearly didn't put too much effort in here. What you get is all well and good, but after playing the PS1 titles, I'm just not sure this really does the concept justice.

[#] NFL Street 2 (EA Sports BIG, 2005)

Unlike most geeky types, in the fall months, I get a craving for sports games. The 2000s were a time of great competition and innovation in them before EA bought the NFL and FIFA licenses and proceeded to print money making the same buggy game over and over. In the midst of the more realistic titles were those from EA Sports BIG, who specialized in making ridiculously over-the-top, simplified sports games that prized fun over accuracy. NFL Street 2 is my favorite of the lot, and one that still kicks ass today.

Whereas traditional football (Caby: "American football") is played 11-on-11 with penalties and a play clock and all that garbage, Street 2 is 7-vs-7 where the same team plays both sides of the ball. No field goals, no special teams, no injuries, and play interference is frankly encouraged. Playbooks are simplified. The special sauce comes in Gamebreakers; showboat enough with the L1 button and eventually you'll be able to, well, cheat. You'll break every tackle, you'll run faster, and if you wait a bit longer for the imaginatively-titled Gamebreaker 2, you're guaranteed a free touchdown. This game is speedy as hell and a blast coming from the sluggish Madden series.

A lot of the flavor in Street 2 comes from the fact that this was the mid-2000s and everything was either glam or metal. Expect a lot of Diddy, Xzibit, and Drowning Pool on the soundtrack. Xzibit himself shows you through the tutorials and campaign, and all the (real!) NFL players are 'roided out, wearing gold chains, and flamboyant as all hell with their popoffs and creative insults. Add in some hilariously stupid cheat codes, and I think this'd win over even some of the people who hate sports games. It's that much of a good time.

[#] Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (Activision, 2001)

Tony Hawk's was an institution on the PS1. These games took a sport and culture everyone's fascinated by and merged them with dead simple controls that even people who aren't gamers can glom onto. I can only guess just how next-gen Pro Skater 3 felt when it dropped back in the day. I mean, this game is next-level in terms of its graphics, the scope of its levels, the objectives, and just how cinematic it can be at times. With a slicker engine, better physics, and cleaner graphics, I don't begrudge anyone calling this their favorite Tony Hawk game.

Like the manuals in the second game, Pro Skater 3 introduces a new mechanic in reverts, which lets you keep your combo exiting a ramp by pressing R2 at just the right time. Also like manuals, it's a little hard to go back to the earlier games that didn't have reverts after making use of it for so long. Seriously, it just feels natural once you've gotten used to it, and it's key for the scores this game asks you to get. If you thought 250,000 for Philly was a tall order, try the 500,000 you'll need to get top marks on the Cruise Ship!

While previous games gave objectives that involved tricking over obstacles and collecting items, Pro Skater 3's objectives oftentimes involve a little thinking. Sometimes, you have to defeat criminals by causing an earthquake. Sometimes, you have to help a man get back into his haunted mansion using an axe stolen from a construction site. It's a nice change of pace, and makes great use of each locale. This game really incentivizes you to 100% each skater, given all the bizarre unlock characters and hidden goodies that await you. And trust me, you'll want to.

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