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 031: Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto 3

• Original Release (US): 22/10/2001
• Not PS2 Exclusive (also came out on PC and Xbox, though the PS2 version is the original)

There's been a few obscurities showcased of late on this feature, but for the most part this week's batch is as mainstream as they come. Yet despite the legacy of Rockstar North's (I believe they were still called DMA Design when this came out) big 3D jump for their "whippersnappers in whips" open-world crime series, I've not actually had the pleasure of playing this one. Something about GTA put me off for the longest time, and it wasn't until San Andreas that I finally bit the bullet and jumped into the world of the wasters and the wasteds. While I really don't have space in my schedule for another open-world game, considering they became the default standard for the AAA industry and thus I'm swamped with the things in my backlog, I don't feel comfortable with dropping this game from contention before I've had a chance to see what most consider to be a critical step in the evolution of modern gaming. Really, were there any big open-world action games of note before GTA 3 came along? (Probably.) Considered.

Case File 032: Core Design's Project Eden

• Original Release (US): 22/10/2001
• Not PS2 Exclusive (originally came out on PC)

I'll level with you. I first played Project Eden because I thought it was going to be hilariously awful. The horrible CGI intro movie - though I'm sure it was impressive at the time, maybe - was not a great first impression, and it was hard to make out just what type of game it was from screenshots. In reality, Project Eden has a lot of novel ideas in its corner and plays moderately well for what turned out to be more of an adventure game with environmental puzzles than a straight up third-person shooter. As a team of government security experts living in a futuristic vertical city where the lowest, sunless floors are filled with detritus and mutants, the player gets to control all four members of the team alternatively as they descend through layers of this city to troubleshoot a power consumption issue that turns out to be a lot more convoluted than anyone thought. It's far more focused on puzzles over combat, with each character offering different skills and abilities necessary for surpassing particular obstacles, making it something like a cyberpunk The Lost Vikings (though I recognize the second The Lost Vikings was plenty cyberpunk already). It's also an unexpectedly lenient game, letting fallen characters regenerate back at checkpoints thereby giving players plenty of opportunities to experiment with new locations and hazards without fear of an early game over. The story's a bit scrambled, there's very little characterization between the four agents (though plenty more that's implied in the manual's backstories) and I can't say it's much to look at, but for an early game in this console generation it's both ambitious and distinctive. All the same, it's another case of a game that is just too flawed to hang with my favorites for this system, so I might as well eliminate it now rather than later. Chalk it up as another fascinating game I don't regret having in my collection, even if it's not top shelf material. Eliminated.

Case File 033: Neversoft's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

• Original Release (US): 28/10/2001
• Not PS2 Exclusive (came out on like nine different systems, though PS2 was first)

Right, you probably know what's coming with this one. I will strongly consider a PS2 Tony Hawk game for the top shelf. It will not be Pro Skater 3. I realize that's sacrilege to a lot of you, but I was really put off with the limitations the enforced timer put on exploration and finding all those gaps. My favorite part of these skateboarding simulators is scouring each of its locations for all its secrets and high-scoring zones, and the opportunity to freely do so while also keeping the timed high-score chases safely contained within separate side-missions was a huge boon to this series. Unfortunately, the later games leaned way too hard into unfortunate Jack-Ass buffoonery and I dropped off fairly quick. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 sticks out as a game that takes all the lessons of its two predecessors and distills them into the definitive Tony Hawk Pro Skater experience, the "A Link to the Past" of the THPS games if you will, but I just couldn't truck with this series until it made the concessions outlined above. It's outta here, but perhaps its sequel will fare better. Eliminated.

Case File 034: Traveller's Tales's Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

• Original Release (US): 29/10/2001
• Not PS2 Exclusive (also on Xbox and GameCube)

The only Crash Bandicoot game I own. While I'm a huge fan of platformers, nothing about the Crash games ever appealed to me and it would take another Naughty Dog franchise (coming up shortly) to win me over to their particular brand of "platformer mascots with attitude". I want to say I played through the first half of this game, but like Rayman I never could get into it in part because I didn't like the main character at all. I also suspect the Rare platformers on N64 spoiled me somewhat, raising the bar impossibly high for us nutjobs who like our 3D platformers stuffed with collectibles. In addition, it's possible this game in particular lost something by switching developers from the original Naughty Dog crew (busy on something else, see above parenthetical) to what would later become the guys behind the ubiquitous LEGO games. I should probably extend the same courtesy to this that I did to Rayman Revolution, giving it a shot in the second round simply because 3D platformers have become a rare commodity in this day and age and I need to look backwards for any "new" ones to play. Well, until Yooka-Laylee's out at least. I highly doubt I'll be getting on the Bandicoot Bandiwagon any time soon, but there's only one way to make sure. Considered.

Case File 035: Konami's Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

• Original Release (US): 12/11/2001
• Not PS2 Exclusive (remastered as Substance for PS2/Xbox/PC and one again in the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for PS3/Vita/360)

Hoo boy. Unlike most of the PS2 games I'll cover on this feature, I don't have to think back very far at all to remember what my first playthrough of this game was like. In fact, that playthrough was thoroughly journalized in all its painful glory over here and here - the result of wanting to play the whole MGS series at the same time Drew Scanlon did. MGS2 certainly was a huge release, both for what it meant to Kojima fans and for the admittedly impressive technological advances it demonstrated. The hype around it was almost certainly one of the major factors that convinced a massive audience to invest in the PS2, along with Final Fantasy X and the convenience of a relatively cheap DVD player that also played PS1 games. All the same, I really did not care for this game at all. The story was pure nonsense (but in the way MGS fans giddily anticipate), it was filled with unpleasant sequences (anything underwater, the platforming, the trap-laden struts, that one sniper section), hours of codec conversations between the most dysfunctional couple on the planet and the biggest non-pachinko bait and switch trolljob ever perpetrated by Konami (which, again, might be a plus in the game's favor depending on how much joy all that internet anger elicited from you). If I never have to listen to a malfunctioning AI explain memes to me for thirty minutes straight again, I can consider myself a fortunate man. Eliminated. (Don't worry, I'll be giving MGS3 a fighting chance.)

Results

This wasn't so much a pleasant trip through memory lane as a means to therapeutically throw some overrated junk under a bus. All right, all right, maybe I shouldn't have been so antagonistic this week. A large number of folk regard the above "Eliminated"s as undisputed classics, and I guess I felt the urge to get disputin' done. I've given myself a mid-tier Crash Bandicoot and the world's oldest open-world 3D crime game as homework for the second round, so no-one can say I wasn't entirely without mercy this week.

We're now 10 for 35 for games entered into the second round. Still no "Approved"s as yet, but the feature's still young. Next week's batch looks to be a great one: a few JRPGs to gush about, and a universal favorite I feel less inclined to be iconoclastic towards.

< Back to the Case File Repository

(Also, do any regular readers of this feature have a preference for its size? I'm wondering about bumping it up to ten games per week instead of five to speed this first round along. That would also mean boosting the word count from a svelte ~1000 to a more chunky 1800-2000, though. Any input would be appreciated, thanks.)