Welcome to The Top Shelf, a weekly feature wherein I sort through my extensive PS2 collection for the diamonds in the rough. My goal here is to narrow down a library of 185 games to a svelte 44: the number of spaces on my bookshelf set aside for my PS2 collection. That means a whole lot of vetting and a whole lot of science that needs to be done, five games at a time. Be sure to check out the Case File Repository for more details and a full list of games/links!

Case File 016: LucasArts's Star Wars: Starfighter

• Original Release (NA): 19/02/2001.
• Not PS2 Exclusive (ported to Xbox and PC)

This week is unfortunately going to be one of those ones where I have no strong feelings about almost every game featured, largely because they were part of a bounty of old games I was bequeathed by some friends of my sibling who were happy to unload them to make space for next gen consoles. That's not to say I wasn't grateful for the package, or even that any of these games are particularly bad, just that they aren't the type of games that I would normally purchase. It's why I own copies of Dead or Alive 2 and Tekken Tag Tournament despite not caring for either series or fighters much in general, and why I own games like Star Wars: Starfighter, one of many licensed Star Wars games to accompany and prop up the prequel trilogy. From what I understand, Starfighter's a bit more like Rogue Squadron than the more strategy-intensive X-Wing/TIE Fighter PC games, sticking you in a series of gaudy chrome spaceships seen in The Phantom Menace with a plot that happens concurrently with that movie: early on you bump into Queen Makeup as she escapes the planet with the help of the Jedis, and conclude in that weird half-eaten donut Trade Federation mothership that Anakid inadvertently blows up during the movie's cluttered final act. I could never get into the Rogue Squadron games, try as I might, though they did seem a lot more friendly than the PC sims; way less having to guard frigates made out of space-tissue paper, for one. Maybe I just don't really care about Star Wars all that much. Eliminated.

Case File 017: Capcom's Resident Evil: Code Veronica X

• Original Release (JP): 22/03/2001.
• Not PS2 Exclusive (X is a remake of the Dreamcast original, and was itself remade as RE:CVX HD)

I was happy to give Onimusha the old college try last week, but I can't bring myself to do the same for Resident Evil's black sheep of an entry (well, until RE6 came along). Code Veronica has a reputation for being clunky and annoying even among series purists, and having the likes of Steve Burnside - the world's least charismatic man - hardly help matters. Until the excellent Resident Evil 4 and the acceptable Resident Evil 5 to a lesser extent, the appeal of this series has always eluded me, and I simply shrugged it off and assumed there was something I was missing in the awkward controls, sub-B-movie presentation and pointless meandering with its keys and puzzles. I think if I were to ever give this series another shot, I'd go with that remake of the first game (or maybe the HD remake of that remake) or perhaps start fresh with Resident Evil VII, since people seem to like it. But certainly not with Code Veronica X. I doubt I'd understand half of what was going on. Eliminated.

Case File 018: Lucas Learning's Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing

• Original Release (NA): 23/04/2001.
• PS2 Exclusive!

All right, so I could make the same excuse I did with Starfighter as to why I own this ill-advised kiddy Star Wars cart racer, but... no, I actually bought this one myself. Close to release, even. For a short time I was obsessed with cart racers after Diddy Kong Racing - yet to be surpassed in that genre - and ended up with a number of lesser examples like South Park Rally and this game. The chief issue I tend to find with cart racers is the addition of power-ups that you could use to increase your position when skill alone isn't sufficient, and it leads to a Morton's fork in its game design that they can't quite resolve: if your cart racer de-emphasizes power-ups, it's essentially a crappier version of a real racing game with little of that all-inclusive casual party-time fun. Conversely, if your cart racer over-emphasizes power-ups you end up with scenarios where you can't reliably win against the CPU even if you're an incredible driver because they'll keep knocking your ass out of the race at the last stretch with a koopa shell, or whatever this game has. Thermal detonators, probably. Point is, unless you're building a game like this solely as a casual multiplayer experience, it's exceptionally difficult to get that balance right for the single-player. It doesn't help that Super Bombad Racing revolves almost entirely around The Phantom Menace, with memorable characters such as Vaguely Racist Rabbit Alien, Loud Spittle Toad King, Angry Camel Joe, Diaper Vader and That One Red Guy Who Gets Cut in Half. The goofy Looney Toons remixes of all the movie's orchestral tracks is kinda funny though, if only because of the flagrant John Williams disrespect. Eliminated.

Case File 019: Volition's Red Faction

• Original Release (NA): 21/05/2001.
• Not PS2 Exclusive (saw a PC port. And, uh, an N-Gage port)

That other major series Volition is known for, Red Faction created a stir at launch with its Geo-Mod engine that allowed players to blow literal chunks out of the environment in their anti-corporate Bolshevik revolution to retake Mars for the common workers, a premise that cleverly compounds the idea of a "red" faction in the Communist sense and in the sense that they're fighting over a red planet. It's one of those cases where you come for the uncommon sci-fi workers resistance plot and stay for the level geometry destruction. Along with TimeSplitters, Red Faction was one of the first PS2 FPS games I remember enjoying because it felt like it was carving out its own path (as it were) irrespective of what had come before on other platforms. Innovation can be a double-edged sword, with new ideas falling on their ass as often as they set the new standard, but I've always wondered why more games didn't follow Red Faction's lead in creating all these scenarios based on tactically destroying parts of the landscape, like blowing apart a bridge while an enemy vehicle was passing over it. The next time I saw anything like that in a shooter was with Half-Life 2's physics engine trickery a few years later. Alas, while I do appreciate Red Faction and its pioneer spirit, this is another one of those cases like Dark Cloud and TimeSplitters where the sequel was better. Though if I'm really being frank, it's the second sequel - Red Faction: Guerrilla for the Xbox 360 - that finds the sweet spot in combining destructible environments and shooter gameplay. Let's assume Red Faction isn't anywhere near this PS2 shelf, then, and instead give Guerrilla more prominence whenever I inevitably do all this again for the 360 games I own. Eliminated.

Case File 020: LucasArts's Escape From Monkey Island

• Original Release (NA): 18/06/2001.
• Not PS2 Exclusive (was originally a PC/Mac game)

By its fourth entry Monkey Island was starting to feel its age a bit, having to come up with yet another new take on insult swordfighting and a ridiculous plot about a Rupert Murdoch stand-in (remember that guy? Whatever happened to... oh right, he's still making the world demonstrably worse through his far-right-wing media empire) turning the pirate archipelago in an overpriced tourist trap via a voodoo medallion. It still has some good jokes and a handful of smart puzzles, but lacks anything as memorable as what can be found in the first three games. I mean, it'll keep bringing back Stan, the Voodoo Lady and Murray the Demonic Talking Skull until the three-headed monkeys come home, but doesn't contribute a whole lot to the overall mythos of the series. At any rate, even if I did like the fourth Monkey Island game, the PS2 is definitely not the platform of choice to play it on. A point-and-click with a controller? Sacrilege. Eliminated.

Results

Oh dear. After a promising week with four games moving onto the second round I've changed my generous tune and consigned another five games - the majority of which appears to have poured out of the LucasArts license game factory - to the relative oblivion that are a pair of plastic storage containers underneath my bed. It's pretty grim down there, is all I am inclined to say on the matter. That means we're now 5 for 20 on games to be considered for the shelf, and we've yet to encounter a single game for my shortlist of absolute essentials. It's still early days yet, though, and next week will see a combination of genuine PS2 classics and weird personal favorites. Be sure to stick around to find out what they are.

< Back to the Case File Repository