7 Games That Defined the PS2 Era

The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling console of all time. With more than 160 million units sold worldwide, thousands of games have been launched on the system, giving it one of the largest libraries for players to dive into. Still, a few games emerged that helped define the PS2 era. These aren’t necessarily the best games, but the ones that PlayStation 2 fans were essentially required to own if they wanted to experience everything the system had to offer. The list below is roughly ranked in order of each game’s importance to the PS2, but don’t read too much into the ordering.

Here are the seven games that defined the PS2 era.

7) Ratchet and Clank

PlayStation was never able to settle on a mascot like Nintendo did with Mario and Sega did with Sonic, though it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Both Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon took a stab at it during the PlayStation 1 era. Both series were successful, but never quite caught on the way Sony hoped.

Ratchet and Clank was Sony trying to find a mascot once again, and the series is arguably the closest the console maker ever got to reaching the heights of Mario and Sonic. To be clear, Ratchet and Clank are still far below those two legends, but they did get an animated movie in 2016. Regardless, if you were a young gamer in the PS2 era, you had to have a Ratchet and Clank game.

6) Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero was a genuine craze during the PS2 era. Everybody had a plastic guitar controller, and you could not attend a party between 2005 and 2007 without someone pulling out a PS2 to start up a Guitar Hero session.

Of course, it being everywhere ultimately led to its downfall. Guitar Hero ran out of steam after Activision bought it, largely because it put so many games in such quick succession. Similar to Tony Hawk, Activision ran Guitar Hero into the ground, killing off what had been one of the most popular series for a few years in the middle of the PS2’s run.

5) Final Fantasy X

The first PlayStation had Final Fantasy 7 as the era-defining RPG, and while Final Fantasy X didn’t surpass that all-timer for most, it’s still one of the best games in the long-running franchise. Plus, it looked absolutely gorgeous back in 2001.

Final Fantasy X received outstanding marks across the board, earning a 92 on Metacritic, and quickly became one of the best-selling games on the PlayStation 2. Anyone who considered themselves an RPG fan had to play FFX to see Tidus and company’s journey to its thrilling end.

4) Shadow of the Colossus

Shadow of the Colossus wasn’t a huge commercial hit when it released, despite being a critical darling. That was kind of par for the course for director Fumito Ueda, who also directed Ico, which has a similar tale.

That said, for players in the know, Shadow of the Colossus was one of the best-kept secrets on PS2. This was one of the landmarks in the push to recognize games as art. Shadow of the Colossus is beautiful to look at and play, which is why so many fans were excited when Bluepoint released the 2018 remake, giving fans who missed it a chance to see what makes SotC so beloved.

3) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

You could also put Metal Gear Solid 2 here, but the list needs one of the two. The first Metal Gear Solid was a notable release that put creator Hideo Kojima on the map, but the next two games established him as one of gaming’s great auteurs.

To be clear, a giant team of people worked on these games, but for better or worse, Kojima is the figurehead. Thankfully, he and his team are experts at crafting cinematic games that happen to have rock-solid stealth mechanics. MGS3 is the team at its most ambitious during the era, giving players an entire camouflage system to take this sneaking mission to the next level.

2) God of War

God of War has gone to be one of Sony’s big prestige game series, but it started as an over-the-top action-adventure game from the mind behind the Twisted Metal series. Kratos has certainly come a long way since the early days, but that doesn’t mean the first game wasn’t a game-changer for Sony.

After all, establishing a brand-new IP with as much staying power as God of War takes some doing. The team at Santa Monica Studios knocked it out of the park, giving players a heart-pounding combat system that mixed quick thinking with jaw-dropping brutality. If you had a PS2, you had to have God of War and its sequel.

1) Grand Theft Auto 3

Again, you could put one of several Grand Theft Auto games in this spot, but GTA 3 was the one that turned the series into one of gaming’s biggest events. Adding the open world of Liberty City was instrumental in Rockstar’s journey to becoming one of the biggest developers in the industry. Sure, San Andreas and Vice City built on that formula in important ways, but there’s something special about that first broke that ground.

In the last entry, I said that if you had a PS2, you had to have God of War. In GTA 3‘s case, when you first saw it in action, you had to go buy a PS2 so you could play one of the greatest games of all time. The PlayStation 2 had some good games before Grand Theft Auto 3, but this was a system-seller for most players, released only a year into the PS2’s life cycle.

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