What PS2 game should we play next?

September 7, 2007 10:32 AM

After a lovely weekend playing Harry Potter on a borrowed xbox 360, my lady and I are feeling inspired to dust off our PS2. Given that we like adventure and aren't so big on shooting, what game should we rent this weekend?

We tend to prefer games that focus more on fun and exploring rather than absurd button mashing (think more the Harry Potter series and less Halo). No guns, armies, aliens, etc. My girlfriend says all her video gaming skills topped out when she was eight, so games that are aimed at a younger age group that we can play and enjoy without a huge learning curve generally work best.

posted by jaybeans to sports, hobbies, & recreation (29 comments total)

Lego Star Wars 2; although that does have all of guns, aliens, and armies, it's not hyperviolent and it's a lot of fun.
posted by heeeraldo at 10:37 AM on September 7, 2007

Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus fits your criteria from what I remember (although I never finished it). I will note you need to have an official PS2 memory card and not a knockoff or you can't progress past the first 10 minutes of the game.
posted by Meagan at 10:39 AM on September 7, 2007

Lego Star Wars (and its sequel) are enormously fun, and very forgiving of those without great skills, other than a tiny handful of weirdly difficult sequences like podracing. The multiplayer is also, I think, great for couples (my first date with an ex consisted of dinner and the first LSW game).

Unfortunately, co-op's hard to come by these days. Psychonauts would be excellent if single-player's acceptable.
posted by Tomorrowful at 10:40 AM on September 7, 2007

Recently I've been playing Okami. It's a really unique game, not very hard but fun nonetheless. The graphics are done in a traditional Japanese art style.

The Sly Cooper games are also a lot of fun. The controls are easy to use and in the 2nd and 3rd game there is a lot of exploring involved (some in the 1st but not as much).

If you are looking for something extremely weird and hilarious check out Katamari Damacy. Rolling things up into a ball has never been so fun or fulfilling.

Another really good one for exploring is the original Jak and Daxter game (the 2nd and 3rd have guns).

Enjoy!
posted by crios at 10:45 AM on September 7, 2007

Psychonauts is a really fun game, on any platform.
posted by elendil71 at 10:50 AM on September 7, 2007

Seconding Katamari Damacy. It's a great, novel game.
posted by Ms. Saint at 10:53 AM on September 7, 2007

God of War
posted by misha at 10:53 AM on September 7, 2007

Seconding Okami.
posted by box at 10:54 AM on September 7, 2007

Thirding Katamari Damacy; you WILL like this game. You are rolling up things into balls, which sounds stupid, but the game is wonderful fun. Utterly nonviolent.

Okami is one of the best games I've played in ages, but it doesn't get truly great until the 10-hour mark or so. It's very focused on exploration, puzzle solving, and plot, but it has a lot of fighting. You are playing the Japanese Sun goddess, Okami Amaterasu, returned to earth in wolf form. You are trying to save the world from demons, and there's a lot of them floating about. You can often avoid them, but you will frequently have to fight. It's just wolf fighting though, and totally bloodless, so you're not likely to find it objectionable.

At about five hours, there's a straight vertical ramp in difficulty... your first boss fight is very, very difficult, because you haven't encountered anything tough enough to teach you how to fight him. If you can get past that battle, the ramp is much smoother after that.

It's a thoroughly great game, just wonderful, but I'm a little worried that it will have too much combat for you.
posted by Malor at 10:56 AM on September 7, 2007

Okami, We Love Katamari Damacy are both great suggestions. God of War... tricky one. My GF hates games but sat and watch my friends and I playing that through because she found the story so gripping. It is incredibly violent though which may put you off.

Have you tried games like Guitar Hero and SingStar? They're not exploring ones as such but they are a lot of fun to play together (even with one controller, going through GH and taking turns to unlock stuff is ace).

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are both widely held to be wonderful adventures, too.
posted by Sifter at 10:58 AM on September 7, 2007

The Walace and Gromit game for the PS2 is some really good 3d-platforming / puzzle solving if you like the characters.
posted by Riemann at 11:05 AM on September 7, 2007

There are also a few "Dance Dance Revolution" games for PS2, if you can rent a floorpad too (and feel like dancin' to silly hi-NRG earworm songs).
posted by Sterling Hoyt at 11:11 AM on September 7, 2007

Ooh, yes, if you can find it, Ico is an incredible experience, and one I'm sure both you and your lady friend would enjoy a very great deal.
posted by Malor at 11:17 AM on September 7, 2007

X ing katamari damacy. best game ever.
posted by PowerCat at 11:21 AM on September 7, 2007

Katamari Damacy (and sequels): Yes

God of War, not so much. Instead of God of War, I'd recommend Shadow of the Colossus.

Everyone Raves about Ico, but I haven't played my borrowed copy yet, so I can't personally recommend it.
posted by NortonDC at 11:24 AM on September 7, 2007

Ratchet and Clank! Especially the first one.

I've been looking for something similar for a while, Sly Cooper didn't do it for me, but I liked Jak and Daxter.

nthing Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari. FUN!
posted by nkknkk at 11:29 AM on September 7, 2007

Katamari Damacy is the reason we bought a PS2.
posted by O9scar at 11:51 AM on September 7, 2007

okami definitely if single player is ok.
posted by juv3nal at 11:52 AM on September 7, 2007

nthing Katamari Damacy as well.

Also: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Forgiving controls (it's easy to "take things back" before your mistakes have serious consequences), an emphasis throughout on exploration and puzzles (with the exception of one slightly difficult fight sequence) and some of the best storytelling you'll come across in a videogame. You can finish it in a weekend if you dedicate yourself.
posted by Prospero at 11:53 AM on September 7, 2007

oh, as far as coop goes, a couple of friends and I thought shrek 2 was pretty fun. there are a couple of difficult bits, but overall it's not too bad.
posted by juv3nal at 11:55 AM on September 7, 2007

another vote for Katamari Damacy and its sequels.
posted by Lucinda at 12:20 PM on September 7, 2007

+ Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
+ Psychonauts
+ Beyond Good and Evil
++ Katamari Damacy
+++ Ico
+++ Shadow of the Colossus
(those games are so good I might have to buy a PS3 when the next game in the "series" comes out)
posted by Rock Steady at 12:44 PM on September 7, 2007

Katamari definitely, Guitar Hero on the easier levels.
posted by zackola at 12:46 PM on September 7, 2007

Shadow of the Colossus is gorgeous and amazing and brilliant, but I must warn you that it is also very depressing. Why and how are an important part of its brilliance, but I know more than one person who simply didn't have the heart to play it through.
posted by redfoxtail at 12:48 PM on September 7, 2007

Rock Steady writes "
+++ Ico
+++ Shadow of the Colossus"

Absolutely. I think Shadow of the Colossus is probably the best game I've ever played. Absolutely amazing.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:57 PM on September 7, 2007

Beyond Good and Evil is great if you can find it. The main plot does have you fighting an alien army, but with a twist: you play a female investigative journalist who has to photograph evidence of the coming alien invasion and spread it to the population. The game world is gorgeous and the exploration factor is high -- there's a running sidequest that involves photographing and indexing various alien wildlife. Toss in some memorable characters and a beautiful soundtrack and you've got a winner.

It flopped commercially, but became something of a cult hit soon after (Peter Jackson was reportedly such a fan that he had the designer develop the King Kong game). Highly recommended.
posted by Smallpox at 2:32 PM on September 7, 2007

Game Spot has hundreds of games on their site with good reviews by both their reviewers as well as users. You can look up games by console and by game genera. So you should have no problem looking up the top rated adventure games for you PS2.
posted by munchingzombie at 2:59 PM on September 7, 2007

Ico (play this first)
Shadow of the Colossus

Those two go on my top PS2 games EVAR list. They're different from each other, Ico has more exploring, but have the same mood. Love them.

While not an adventure game, I'd like to recmomend Persona 3. It's a role playing game, came out a few weeks ago, and it's fantastic. There's the dungeon-crawling aspect of it, but there's also a relationship building part that might interest your lady friend. I have a couple of friends who say their girlfriends who don't usually play games could NOT put this one down. The battles are all turn-based, so no need for lightning reflexes.
posted by nakedsushi at 2:59 PM on September 7, 2007

Shadow of the Colossus is gorgeous and amazing and brilliant, but I must warn you that it is also very depressing. Why and how are an important part of its brilliance, but I know more than one person who simply didn't have the heart to play it through.

Exactly why it is so good. I teared up on more than one occasion while playing this game. I can't say enough good things about it.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:29 PM on September 7, 2007