Welcome to The Top Shelf, a new feature I'm starting this year that will - if I've done my math right - persist throughout the first eight months of 2017.

Like many of you, I've managed to accrue a video game collection over the years and have reached the point where the quantity of plastic cases has far outpaced the amount of available shelf space. As I stare at the disheveled niche in question, and how I'll probably need to do something with all these DVD cases too, my goal for the present is to pull down what is currently five entire rows dedicated to the Sony PlayStation 2 alone and place the majority of those in plastic bin storage, in the tried and true Gerstmann style. However, I'd like for there to remain a single row on the shelf dedicated to the PS2 games that have and will continue to mean the most to me. I can then start surrounding it with all the fair-to-middling PS3, 360, Wii, Wii U and PS4 games I own, thus perpetuating the cycle for another generation or two.

Even though we're talking about a single shelf in a cluttered room, I'm not going to half-ass this process. I'm going to use this feature to run down every PS2 game I own and attempt to narrow down what is presently close to two hundred titles to a much slimmer 44: the number of cases I can reliably fit on a single row of my bookshelf, according to this tape measure I found that uses colors instead of inches and centimeters. Wait, I guess this is a fruit roll-up. At any rate, as I reminisce on each game, occasionally booting them up for a refresher course, I'll finish each appraisal with one of three "fates":

• Approved games are those rare few that are automatically added to the final 44, no questions asked. They'll get their due process like any other game, but there's no way in Hell that they aren't one of my forty-four favorites.
• Considered games get entered into the second round of eliminations, as they are games that I have fond memories of or haven't played sufficiently to render a fair verdict. I'll be coming back around to narrow this selection down further.
• Eliminated games are those that I've determined are not top shelf material. Whether they were crap games to begin with, or didn't age well, or are simply games that don't mean a whole lot to me, they've been kicked to the curb and will either enter storage or permanent removal from my collection tout de suite. Turns out my storage space is limited too. As is my patience.

There's an additional modifier as well: the Exclusivity Tilt. PlayStation 2 games that were exclusive to the platform will be given a little extra weight when it comes time to choose whether to move them forward or eliminate them. Hard to make the argument that a certain PS2 game is essential when, chances are, there's a graphically superior OG Xbox, Dreamcast or PC equivalent out there. Ditto for later enhanced remakes or remasters of games. However, this tilt does apply to games which have since been added to the online "PS2 Classics" range for PS3/4/Vita, as those were left untouched but for trophy support and the occasional framerate tweak.

The First Round

You can see how the first, and longest, round is getting on by consulting the table below. (Bold entries are those that have moved on to the second round, while italicized games have been eliminated.)

Secret Bonus Round

An ode to those I left behind.

The Second Round

This table is for those that made their way to the second round. Rather than five or ten games to a single blog, each of the second round qualifiers receives its own spotlight entry. (Bold entries are those that have moved on to the final round, while italicized games were eliminated in this stage of intense scrutiny):

The Third Round (The Battle Royales)

For the sake of keeping this collection of games somewhat varied, I'm only choosing one game per franchise. Therefore, with this round, I'm taking every series that has two or more games in close contention for my favorite and paring it down to a single choice for the shelf. There'll be some hard decisions to make here, as I compare and contrast the multiple PS2 entries in franchises like Final Fantasy, Silent Hill, Onimusha, Ratchet & Clank, and more.

The Final Eliminations

Currently, you can see all the first and second round qualifiers in this ever-updated list of finalists. Once the third round has been concluded, the remaining shelf spaces will be taken by whatever tops this list.

The Top Shelf

And finally, we have the forty-four victors that earned spaces on the shelf, in alphabetical order (bold entries are those that were immediately approved from the first round of eliminations):

(More details on these forty-four can be found in this The Top Shelf finale blog.)