Ps1/Ps2 Games That Hold Up

I just got a PlayStation 2 and was looking for game recommendations! ^_^ I was going to get games like the Viewtiful Joe games, Okami, Psi Ops, Bushido Blade, Way Of The Samurai.

I was wondering if anyone had more recommendations for Ps1 and Ps2 games? I'd ne curious to see what people suggest to play and what holds up after all this time. :D

Persona 3 and 4!

FFX holds up fine i prefer it then the HD remake

Dark Cloud might be a big rough but it's a fun one too.

@xanadu: is it worth playing persona 4 golden for the first time? I've heard people say that's the best version of the game. ^_^

Suikoden 2

Shadows of Rome

You really can't go wrong with Devil May Cry 3 or Zone of the Enders 2. Tekken 5 is the best Tekken. Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance. SSX 3, Tony Hawk 3, Psi-Ops are all cool.

And plenty of PS1 RPG's hold up. Vagrant Story and Valkyrie Profile come to mind (though I prefer VP2). Castlevania: Symphony of the Night always feels good. Project: Overkill is tough as nails but still has a lot to offer.

The TimeSplitters franchise still holds up surprisingly well on PS2, even the multiplayer is still fun. Given how competitive the FPS genre is, and how much it blends with other genres, TimeSplitters still feels amazing to play.

Final Fantasy Tactics on the PS1 is still the best version of FFT, even with its rough translation by today's standards.

Onimusha series is still very playable. Especially if you enjoy counter/parry systems.

Fucking yes. That's always one I recommend when people bring up PS2 games that still hold their own. I played through it last year and it's still great.

There are legitimate reasons to play Persona 3 FES over Persona 3 Portable, but from what I understand there's no real reason not to play Golden over vanilla P4. Well, aside from the part where you have to buy a Vita or Playstation TV.

As someone who was holding various games in his PS2 collection not 36 hours ago, a lot of the stuff I'd recommend has admittedly been re-released on newer consoles. Still, between the PS1 and PS2 it's a massive library. To name drop a couple of games that haven't already been mentioned: Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Suikoden III, Dark Cloud 2, most of the old Resident Evil stuff, and... uhhh... Crash Bandicoot 2. Yeah, let's go with that.

Some of my favorites, you may have played some of them on other platforms .

• RESIDENT EVIL 4 (lots of extra added content)
• Shadow of the Colossus
• Hitman 2, 3 and 4, the second and third games never get enough love.
• Vice City and San Andreas if you haven’t played these games already.
• Destroy all Humans is fun for a laugh.
• Conflict Desert Storm 2 is great for a tactical shooter where you control a member of a special fores team, you direct the other members of the squad, CDS1 is also pretty good as well as the sequel Conflict: Global Storm
• God of War 1 and 2 are excellent if you have never played a GoW game.
• I played the PS2 version of Persona 4 and that is still very good even if Golden is the more complete version. I haven’t played P3 yet.
• Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3
• Ace Combat 4,5 and 0, 0 is my favorite Ace game because it lets you fight enemy pilots but 5 is also excellent.
• Black (I still think this is a better than any COD game) Some fantastic guns
• The Prince of Persia games, especially the first.

I second Zone of the Enders and Zone of the Enders 2 on ps2.

God hand is and amazing game

The Jak and Daxter games and the Ratchet and Clank games are also great

All the Sly Cooper games

Crash. Team. Racing.

Shadow of the Colossus

God of War

Assuming you aren't going to go with any HD collections for PS3/PS4, you have a ton of options for PS2 and far fewer for PS1. Off the top of my head on PS1:

Metal Gear Solid
Symphony of the Night
Spyro the Dragon series
Final Fantasy Tactics

And that pretty much covers it for me.

On PS2 you have far more options:

God of War seriesICO and Shadow of the Colossus
Devil May Cry 3
Onimusha titles
Final Fantasy 12
Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3
Ratchet and Clank series(although the first one feels a fair bit dated now)
Jak and Daxter series
Sly Cooper series
Anything by Clover Studios

Basically look up Capcom, Konami, Sony and Square Enix's output for the system and you'll find tons of great titles.

And there are also dozens of JRPG's that stand the test of time.

I think all the Ace Combat games hold up really well gameplay wise, but the PS2 ones (4, 5, 0 mentioned above) also hold up astoundingly visually.

Is everyone forgetting about the terrible stealth sections in Shadow of Rome?

Dino Crisis 2

All the Tony Hawks.

Grandia II and Vagrant Story come to mind. Other than that I'd mention Beyond Good & Evil, although that game has been released for a number of platforms.

Edit:

If you have no problems with classic survival horror tank controls I'd say that Silent Hill 1-3 still hold up.

I mean, the obvious ones are Shadow of the Colossus and Metal Gear Solid. Some others that I definitely think hold up are Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (level design is superb), Jak II, and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves. If you're into DBZ, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 has a hell of a campaign mode with tons of replayability. The fighting itself is amazing too. My favorite DBZ game to date. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is too obvious not to mention.

Those are just some personal picks. Some others might also be the God of War games. Not sure if Viewtiful Joe holds up cause I haven't played it recently, but I can see it holding up for sure. It's got a fun twist on the beat 'em up genre and it's got styyyyyyle.

Dark Cloud 2

God of War series

Rogue Galaxy

Katamari Damacy

Soulcalibur II

Suikoden

Suikoden II

WipEout XL

NBA Street

I weirdly think the Saturn, Dreamcast and X Box hold up better. Fight me?

When it comes to games that still hold up I could actually see an argument for that. Wouldn't want to fight anybody over which console or games library was better, though. :)

Breath of Fire 4 and Final Fantasy Tactics

I love the art on these games.

Shadow of the Colossus is really a spectacular game, but I would add a small caveat to the love fest it's getting: it runs pretty poorly on the PS2.

Don't mean to be the Digital Foundry pedant, but it's such a good game that it's totally worth playing it on a PS3, at least to ensure a stable frame rate. Also that 720p resolution really does wonders for the big open vistas in that game...

Soul Calibur II and III, Tekken 4 and 5, the Metal Slug games

Metal Gear Solid 3, Ace Combat 5+0 are some of the most fun games I think for PS2. Also the original Jak and Daxter game is probably one of the best platformers and the original art design still holds up. All three original Spyro the Dragon games also standout in my mind as being some of the best PS1 games, but can look dated in some spots.

I don't know why nobody ever mentions The Warriors on PS2. It's not a traditional beat-em-up, but the co-op is superb and I really thing the combat holds up still. I swear I've never played a game so raw.

As many people said, Persona 3and 4 (if you don't own a vita).

I also like Fight Night Round 2 a lot! And Puyo Pop Fever is pretty cool if you like Puyo Puyo/Tetris.

I also played Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2 recently, for the first time, and I think they hold up really well!

Ico, on the other hand, does not.

Burnout 3 is another good one, played recently for the first time. And a few days ago I started Okami, I'm actually playing the HD version on PS3, but I'm guessing the regular version on PS2 is about the same, I remember seeing my friend play and it looked really nice.

Pretty much every SMT game holds up great to okay going all the way back to Persona 2. Most of the FF games from that era are also still great besides 8. Yakuza 1 and 2 are fantastic games, but with 1's remake headed here soon and 2 probably not too far after it might be best to wait for those.

I was wondering the same thing. The arena combat sections are okay to good but the stealth sections were awful a decade ago so I can't imagine how horrendous they would feel today. Considering the sheer variety of options one has for PS2 era Capcom action games, I don't know why anyone would choose that one. DMC1 and 3, Onimusha 1-4, God Hand, Maximus 1 and 2, Viewtiful Joe, and many more. And in no other choice would you have to put up with awful stealth segments to get to the action.