5 Ambitious PS2 Games That Everyone Forgot About

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The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling game console ever, boasting a huge library of games. Because there are so many titles, some truly excellent games haven’t gotten the recognition they deserve. Even with a large player base, not every game reaches a wide audience, despite potentially influencing game design today. This list highlights five overlooked PlayStation 2 games that stood out in a particular way and continue to have an impact.

Here are the five most ambitious PS2 games that no one remembers.

5) The Bouncer

Square released The Bouncer internationally on the PlayStation 2. Because the company was well-known for its role-playing games, there was a lot of anticipation for this new action game. A flashy trailer shown at E3, highlighting the game’s destructible environments, only increased those expectations.

Despite not being a major success, The Bouncer was visually impressive for its time. While the developers couldn’t fully implement destructible environments, they did include an early form of ragdoll physics – a feature still common in games today. However, the game’s most significant innovation was likely its use of pressure-sensitive buttons.

Pressure-sensitive buttons on the DualShock 2 were a big deal for Sony, though you don’t see them used much anymore. The game The Bouncer was one of the first to experiment with them, but they didn’t become really popular until Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Even though The Bouncer wasn’t a huge success overall, Square definitely deserves credit for trying new things.

4) The Adventures of Cookie & Cream

Before FromSoftware became famous with games like Elden Ring, they were known for series like King’s Field and Armored Core. While those games developed dedicated fan bases, FromSoftware decided to experiment in 2000 and created the bright and lively action-adventure game, The Adventures of Cookie & Cream.

At first glance, Cookie & Cream seems like many other platforming games featuring mascots. But its co-op mode has a special feature that really sets it apart.

When playing with a friend, each person controlled one of the game’s main characters. Players could use separate controllers, or share a single controller – one person using the left side and the other the right. This shared control scheme quickly became popular with players. It’s a feature few developers have adopted, but the game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons famously used it to create a memorable and highly-regarded game from the 2010s.

3) Shadow of Memories

Okay, so I recently played this game called Shadow of Memories (it’s also known as Shadow of Destiny in the US), and it’s seriously cool. The story is wild – you play as a guy named Eike who gets murdered, but then gets sent back in time to figure out who killed him. It’s a really ambitious detective game, and it’s all about unraveling the mystery of your own death. Pretty unique, right?

In this game, you play as Eike, who travels through four different time periods. Your actions in one time period will have consequences in the others. There’s also a time limit – Eike must return to his own time before he dies, or the game is over. While the story is complex, what really makes the game special are the puzzles that connect everything together.

Even though Shadow of Memories received generally good reviews, Konami didn’t heavily promote it after its first release. It was later made available on the PSP, and the game’s director, Junko Kawano, went on to create a similar game called Time Hollow for the Nintendo DS. However, Shadow of Memories never achieved the same popularity as Kawano’s well-known Suikoden series.

2) The Mark of Kri

Today, Sony San Diego Studio focuses solely on its annual MLB The Show baseball games. But their very first game was quite different. The Mark of Kri was a 3D action game for the PlayStation 2 that introduced a unique feature which later had a big impact on how action combat was designed in other games.

The unique thing about Kri was its ability to let you tag enemies with symbols matching the PlayStation 2 controller buttons. This allowed you to quickly switch between opponents, attack multiple enemies at once, and keep them all under control.

The fighting in this game shares similarities with Batman: Arkham Asylum. While Rocksteady refined the system significantly, you can definitely see the beginnings of the fluid combat that would later define the Batman games.

1) Red Faction

I’ve talked about how The Bouncer aimed for destructible environments, but couldn’t include them in the finished game. Luckily, Red Faction succeeded, becoming a standout title for the PS2 – and a great demonstration of the new hardware’s capabilities.

While the shooting mechanics in Red Faction weren’t anything special, the game’s GeoMod technology – which allowed for realistic, destructible environments – was truly groundbreaking. When Red Faction came out on the PS2 in 2001, its unscripted destruction was one of the most visually impressive features players had ever seen.

Fortunately, the Red Faction series hasn’t been forgotten. While it’s had three sequels and one spin-off game, none have matched the impact of the original. Although a new installment has been discussed for years, the last game released was Red Faction: Armageddon in 2011.

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2025-11-20 01:19