Survival horror is one of the defining genres of the early PlayStation era, and after Resident Evil‘s arrival on the PSOne thrust it into the mainstream, many clones emerged. It could also summon powerful deities.Īlthough nowhere near as polished or impressive as the God of War series, which would arrive around three years later, Rygar was a good action adventure, and one that flew well under the radar of many. Much like Kratos’ Blades of Chaos, this gave Rygar an impressive range of attacks, and the upgradable shield could grant new abilities.

The weapon of choice was the Diskarmor, essentially a shield on a chain.

As Rygar, players journeyed around the island of Argus engaging all sorts of mythological threats. Pre-dating the God of War series, Rygar was an update of the arcade and NES title, and included Devil May Cry-style play. If only a game based on a 70s movie would have excited the gaming crowd more. Add in mini-games for stealing car radios, robbing stores, and spreading your gang’s graffiti tag everywhere, and you’ve got a game that successfully captured the feel of the movie, while expanding on the original story, providing a deeper look at the Warriors themselves. The journey to that fateful meeting with Riffs leader, Cyrus, was handled by a brawler-style mechanic that let you take on the gang’s various rivals in hand-to-hand combat. Based on the 70s movie of the same name, The Warriors was a prequel of sorts to the events of the movie, depicting the origins of the titular street gang and looking at each larger-than-life character in more detail.

This is another Rockstar outing, which started life on the PSP before being ported to the PS2. Take away the violence and snuff movie content, and you have a surprisingly solid and well realized stealth title that requires careful planning and a tactical approach to taking down your foes. Underneath all of the controversy lay some truly great, often overlooked gameplay. This attention, however, was for all the wrong reasons, which most of us will be all too familiar with so we won’t go into it here. It sold fairly well, and certainly got plenty of attention. Manhunt wasn’t underappreciated in the classic sense of the word. We’re going to start with a controversial entry. But at the time, they simply failed to make an impact, either critically or commercially. TimeSplitters 2, Metal Gear Solid 2, Final Fantasy X, Shadow of the Colossus, and many, many more made the second generation of Sony’s platform the go-to place for gamers, but for every classic there were several turkeys, as well as some genuinely great titles that missed out on the love. These hidden gems may have their own cult following, or have now been recognized as the classics they are years after their initial release. Sony’s PlayStation 2 has a mammoth catalog of games, and within this reside some of the best games ever made.

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