The PS2 era delivered some truly excellent games, from beloved classics to underrated gems. In particular, the console is rembered fondly for delivering some solid platformers. With games like Jak 2, Ratchet and Clank, and Pac Man World 2, this was a great time to be a platformer fan. But that doesn’t mean that every PS2 platformer was high quality.
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This experimental era in gaming was full of big swings and equallly massive misses. It was a time of peak movie tie-in attempts, and many of the worst titles we received were a result of ill-conceived brand deals. But of all the misses on PS2, these 3 platformers are so bad, we’ve tried to erase them from memory altogether. Alas, I’m here to remind you why these games fell so short of what a great platformer can be.
Frogger: The Great Quest
As a classic arcade game, Frogger is an absolute legend. The concept is simple, but surprisingly challenging. You guide a little frog across the street, dodging obstacles. In theory, this should’ve translated fairly well to a paltformer, a la Super Mario. Yet somehow, Frogger: The Great Quest fumbled the assignment.
This 2001 attempt renders Frogger in 3D as a platformer. Alas, it does not deliver on really any level. The camera controls are a mess, leaving you struggling to see what you’re doing. Unlike some entires on this list, the graphics were also bad, as was the voice acting. What could’ve been a fun new entry in a beloved franchise is instead one of the PS2’s worst platformers. While I’ll play Frogger in a retro arcade any day, Frogger: The Great Quest is best left in the past.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Congratulations to this game and I’m sorry, because it’s earned a spot as one of the worst movie tie-in games already. But it must be said that this game also attempts to be a platformer, earning it a spot on this list, as well. It released in 2005 as a tie-in to Johnny Depp’s film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, arriving the same day as the movie. And much as I’ve been trying to forget Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka ever since, many gamers have hidden away the existence of the tie-in game.
Charlie and the Chocolte Factory suffers from baffling controls and boring, unpolished gameplay. Though the graphics are impressive for the PS2 era, the game didn’t know what it was trying to do. Its platforming elements failed to deliver an enjoyable gaming experience, and the poor controls only exacerbated this issue. The game also puts you in the position of rescuing the very annoying children who attend the factory tour with Charlie. While it’s admirable Charlie might want to do that, as a player it’s hard to summon the will to wade through the lukewarm gameplay to save kids who have long been painted as villains.
Catwoman
This one tops the list not only for its reputation as one of the worst-ever PS2 releases, but for its personal slight against me as a young female gamer. I was so excited to finally have a superhero game with a female protagonist, only to experience one of the actual worst games I had ever played to date. When Wonder Woman got cancelled earlier this year, I had cause to think about Catwoman for the first time in ages, and they weren’t fond memories. The game has pretty impressive graphics for its time, which drew many gamers in. Sadly, that’s where the positives pretty much end.
Catwoman released in 2004 as a tie-in to the unfortunately also bad movie starring Halle Berry. It received a generally unfavorable 46 MetaScore, and for good reason. The game’s controls and camera angles make almost no sense, rendering it nearly impossible to actually see what you’re doing at varius points. Though the game might’ve done well with better controls as a platformer, it also attempted to shoehorn in combat, a lackluster addition that did it no favors.
Did you play any of these awful PS2 platformers? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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Image courtesy of Stage 6 Films -
Image courtesy of Lucasfilm.
