Underrated PlayStation 2 games that never got the audience they deserved.
The PS2's library was so large that genuinely excellent games disappeared inside it. Mid-budget experiments got funded in that era, which is exactly why the hidden gems are so strange and so good.
These twenty are the ones we would put in front of someone who thinks they have already played everything on the console.
2006 · PS2, PS3
A brawler with a fully customisable moveset and a difficulty that adapts as you play well. Clover Studio's funniest game.
2005 · PS2, GameCube
On-rails movement, cel-shaded assassins and a plot nobody fully agrees on. Suda51 at his least compromising.
2001 · PS2, PSP
A rhythm game with a genuinely emotional story and one of the best soundtracks on the console. Very hard.
2004 · PS2
You play the cameraman of a news crew documenting a disaster, filming rather than fighting. Utterly unique.
2004 · PS2
A dark historical JRPG with the Judgement Ring timing system. Funnier and stranger than its reputation.
2003 · PS2, GameCube, Xbox, PC
Squad-command third-person shooting in an occupied New York, with a Jesper Kyd score. Ahead of its time.
2000 · PS2
A short cinematic brawler with three playable characters and branching scenes. Flawed, but nothing else plays like it.
2002 · PS2, PS4
Dungeon crawling plus town rebuilding, invention, golf and photography. Enormous and completely charming.
2003 · PS2, PC, PS4, Switch
Bleak post-apocalyptic demon negotiation with combat that will punish any lazy turn. The HD remaster is widely available.
2003 · PS2, Modern ports
Tactics with absurd numbers, item worlds and hundreds of hours of optional depth. Comedy throughout.
2007 · PS2, PS4, PS Vita
Vanillaware's hand-painted 2D action RPG with five interlocking stories. Leifthrasir on PS4 fixes the pacing.
2005 · PS2, PS4
Level-5's space-faring action RPG with a factory-building side system. Big, colourful and rarely mentioned.
2002 · PS2
Three interweaving perspectives on the same war, each recontextualising the others. Ambitious storytelling.
2004 · PS2, Switch, PS4, Xbox, PC
Roll everything in the world into a ball. Five-minute levels and the best soundtrack of the generation.
2001 · PS2
You are a mosquito trying to drink enough blood from a family to survive winter. Exactly as odd as it sounds.
2005 · PS2, Xbox, PC, Modern remaster
Quick-time cinematic storytelling that started the whole David Cage genre. The first two-thirds are excellent.
2001 · PS2, Dreamcast, Modern Rez Infinite
A rail shooter where every shot is a note in the track. Rez Infinite is the definitive modern version.
2003 · PS2
A short branching samurai drama you are meant to replay in different factions. Each run takes about two hours.
2001 · PS2
A gothic-comic JRPG where you are the sidekick to a failing demon king. Early PS2 weirdness at its best.
2005 · PS2
Open-world mech customisation plus a music career and moral choices. Nothing since has attempted this mix.
God Hand, Katamari Damacy, Dark Cloud 2, Odin Sphere and Gitaroo Man are the five we recommend first. Each one is unlike anything released since.
Some are — physical copies of Rule of Rose and Kuon are collector items. Many, including Odin Sphere, Nocturne, Dark Cloud 2 and Katamari, have cheap modern re-releases.
Only those Sony has re-released as PS2 Classics or remasters. Dark Cloud 2, Rogue Galaxy, Odin Sphere and Katamari all have modern versions.
Rule of Rose and Kuon are the two most notorious for price, both survival horror games with small print runs in the West.
Katamari Damacy if you want something light, God Hand if you want a challenge, and Dark Cloud 2 if you want something to sink 60 hours into.