The PlayStation 2 Turns 20 today
The PlayStation 2 was officially released on March 3th, 2000. I was a baby at the time, being just 4 years old when the game console was revealed to the world. It was a console that shaped my life, and set me on the path to becoming a gaymer, even if I didn’t know it at the time.
I can’t rightly remember when I first got the console, but my poor parents had no idea what being tech-savvy was, and so gave me the console with no memory card. Being as young as I was, I didn’t really care too much that every time I played Spyro I had to go right back in to play the same spots over, and over again.
Eventually I mastered the console by finally getting a memory card, and adventured onto bigger and better games. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time was one of my first games, and to my delight, it was one of everyone’s favourite Editor, Robin Gray’s too.
Prince of Persia may have aged poorly if the sequels are to go by – by god, they are awful – but that hasn’t stopped us from thinking fondly about the actual slowing down of time and how mindblowing that was. I was also mildly surprised at how Robin’s first video game on the PS2 wasn’t anything LEGO related, because as those who listen to the Gayming Podcast know, that is Robin’s jam. But he has been branching out lately.
Which moves onto another game that we both remember fondly: Spider-Man 2. Movies have been made into games for a while, and while some may be god awful – we’re looking at you King Kong: The Official Video Game — Spider-Man 2 was not even close to being that bad.
It had everything, badass web-slinging, zingy one-liners and a combat system that was actually real innovative and fun to play. It may not look as good anymore, but we remember putting a lot of hours into it.
In other news, it has been rumoured that the PlayStation 5 will have backwards compatibility for all games — including the PlayStation 2.
What were your favourite PlayStation 2 games? Let us know in the comments below.
Header photo courtesy of Deni Williams on Flickr
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