Cult Classics: PlayStation 2

It's been a while since we've done one of these and, since each new console generation usually results in older hardware being passed on and great software going cheap, it seems like a good excuse to have another dig around in the archives for some of the PS2 games that never really got a fair deal. The games that were maybe too innovative to stand out in an industry increasingly devoted to predictable franchise-building. The games that were deemed too weird, or were sunk by poor marketing. This, then, is not a list of the greatest PS2 games ever made, even though several here certainly deserve that praise. Many more are solid 7/10 efforts that fell by the wayside. All are recommended for adventurous souls with a taste for the eclectic.

Amplitude

• Developer: Harmonix
• Publisher: Sony

Let's start with one of the classic cult titles to grace the PS2, a game that was clearly five years ahead of its time. Developed by the people who brought us Guitar Hero, Amplitude is - you guessed it - a music game, not entirely dissimilar to that fret-mashing smash hit. In what has since become a familiar sight, notes glide down the screen towards your "beat blaster" and you capture them by hitting the corresponding button. There are separate tracks for bass, drums, vocals and so on. Capture enough notes in a sequence and it's locked into place, looping on its own for a short time. While this happens you flip over to another song track and try to add that to the mix, eventually building up a complete rendition of the song. The 26 tunes on offer seem stingy by modern standards, especially since several are composed for the game by the developer, while the presence of David Bowie, Blink 182, Slipknot and Run DMC lend the game a musically schizophrenic air. But ultimately, it's this slight awkwardness that makes Amplitude so interesting - this game sank like a stone, but its direct descendant became a monster smash, and the evolution between the two is most curious. Amplitude's prequel, the equally overlooked freQuency, is also well worth finding.

What we said: "We'd be fools not to give this a big mark and a thumbs-up."

Ebay price guide: Around GBP 20

Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana

• Developer: Gust
• Publisher: Koei

If you recoil at dialogue like "Could you pick up a tingleberry from Veola's magic shop?" then you should probably continue to avoid Atelier Iris, one of several RPG series that would be flying off western shelves if the title contained the words "fantasy" and "final". If, however, you like a little whimsy with your inventory-hogging and NPC chatting, it's time you delved into one of the most charming games of its kind since Chrono Trigger. At its heart is Klein, a young alchemist whose ability to extract mana from objects in the gameworld and combine it into new items is central to the slightly obsessive gameplay. Viewed in isometric 3D, with a delightful platform game feel to the way you scamper around the quaint towns and leafy forests, Atelier Iris is a throwback to a gentler role-playing age. That it spawned two sequels which failed to capitalise on this sweet foundation just makes Eternal Mana all the more special.

What we said: "You'll be instantly hauled into its delightful world, desperate to help out in anyway you can."

Ebay price guide: GBP 15-20

Dark Cloud

• Developer: Level 5
• Publisher: Sony

One of several promising RPG series that were stifled by Final Fantasy's all-encompassing +20 Cloak of Ubiquity, Dark Cloud deserves to be remembered for its curiously alluring mixture of Zelda and Sim City. On the surface, everything is much as you'd expect. An evil magical army has enslaved a peaceful world, and the only hope is a plucky young chap with enormous hair, his expanding group of allies and their quests through randomly generated dungeons. Where Dark Cloud deviates from cliché is in its gameplay mechanics. For one thing, you level up your weapons, not your characters. For another, you're always searching for Atla, pieces of the gameworld that have been smashed apart by the baddies. This leads you to Georama mode, where you put the pieces back together, talking with NPCs to figure out what needs to go where. There's already plenty to recommend Dark Cloud as a pure dungeon crawler, but this oddball town planning element makes it essential for anyone with a taste for the eccentric. The sequel, Dark Chronicle, offers an even more flexible town designer and is also well worth seeking out.

What we said: Not reviewed

Ebay price guide: GBP 10-15

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

• Developer: Nippon Ichi
• Publisher: Koei

Another game that suffered because people didn't know how to ask for it. At least, not without sounding like Borat talking about "this guy here". Of course, it's also a Japanese turn-based strategy RPG, and the audience for those in Europe is slender but devoted. Disgaea is the sort of game that even RPGphobics should be able to enjoy though, blessed as it is with a devilish sense of humour and a storyline that casts you as a lazy demon hell-bent on claiming dominion over the Netherworld. Those who balk at turn-based games should be pleased to learn that in Disgaea all your characters move at the same time, eliminating the annoyance of having your strategy muffed up by enemy interruption. Even the levelling system manages to be fun, allowing you to smush enemies together to create stronger foes for higher rewards, and the game happily lets you build up your forces to silly levels of power. In a genre with an often deserved reputation for melodramatic seriousness, Disgaea is a breath of fresh air that could well be to your taste. Put aside your prejudice and give it a try.

What we said: "Deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with ICO in the rankings of the best games you've never played."

Ebay price guide: GBP 10-15

Dog's Life

• Developer: Frontier
• Publisher: Sony

Predating Nintendogs by several years, this utterly surreal canine adventure (from Elite creator David Braben) is certainly one of the least likely PS2 games to grace this list. You play as Jake, a talkative mutt on a mission to save his bitch (hey, that's what they're called) from an evil cat-food magnate. You do this by completing challenges - or what many would now sniffily dismiss as mini-games - to find and earn bones, the game's currency. Along the way you pick up a posse of pooch pals, each of which has their own useful skills. You're free to wander around a town, a holiday resort and a city, while the human population remains oblivious to your quest. Where things really enter the See It To Believe It zone is in the way the natural functions of being a dog are included in the gameplay. Yes, you can piss and poop at will, and even enter Smell-O-Vision mode to sniff other dogs in the bumhole. It's certainly not a great game, unless you have a fetish for weird toilet-fixated collect-'em-ups, but at second-hand price it's definitely worth experiencing for the sheer "HUH-BUH-WHA?" factor.

What we said: "A fairly innocuous curiosity rather than the great game it could have so easily been."

Ebay price guide: GBP 5-10

Extermination

• Developer: Deep Space
• Publisher: Sony

A good way to guarantee a decent game gets swiftly forgotten is to develop it for the launch of a new console, promise great things and then deliver something that doesn't shatter the planet asunder with next-gen awesomeness. That's what happened with Extermination, an exclusive horror-action game that was going to do very rough things to the mouldering carcass of Resident Evil. Yet somewhere between the announcement and the actual release, the fickle tide of gaming opinion ebbed away and lapped against a different shore. Nobody would hold Extermination up as a beacon of original thinking - you're in command of a crack assault team investigating the monstrous effects of a mutating virus in a secret base, for Wesker's sake - but that's not to say it deserved to be so thoroughly overlooked. For one thing, the game actually does something with the idea of contagion - turning it from trite plot device into central gameplay mechanic. Characters can become infected, and must then try to slow the spread of the virus while hunting for a cure. And besides that, it's an above average action game with some nice atmospherics, fun squad elements and plenty of gooey creatures to shred with bullets.

What we said: Not reviewed

Ebay price guide: Less than GBP 5

God Hand

• Developer: Clover Studios
• Publisher: Capcom

One of the more recent games in this rundown, and a deserving entry in the achingly controversial 2007 Top 50 list, God Hand will probably go down in history as the most insane fighting game on the PS2. It may even end up as the most insane fighting game ever, on any format, ever. Ever. Have you ever seen a Stephen Chow movie? Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle, that sort of thing? If so, you'll have a good idea of God Hand's appeal. Much like Chow's energetic action comedies, this is what you'd get if you put Tekken in a blender with Jackie Chan and every Looney Tunes cartoon ever made, and left it whirring away for longer than is strictly healthy. On a technical level, it's an accomplished brawler with a deep and rewarding combat system geared towards hardcore beat-'em-up fans. On an aesthetic level, it's all about going over the top. So far over the top that it comes back down on the other side as a work of deranged genius. There are spankings, killer haircuts, groin kicks, Chihuahua racing and explosive special moves that send enemies soaring into the stratosphere. And, all the while, an unseen audience cheers and boos your performance, urging you on to ever greater acts of lunatic violence. It's hard, but even fighting game wimps should play this at least once, just for the experience.

What we said: "A third-person brawler that lets us kick gorillas into space. Awesome!"

Ebay price guide: GBP 12-17

Gradius V

• Developer: Treasure
• Publisher: Konami

Old-school shoot-'em-ups, be they vertical or horizontal in nature, remind me of vinyl records. I don't have much use for them any more, but there's a part of me that feels a bit warm and fuzzy that they're still around thanks to the devotion of dedicated hobbyists. It's nice to know that, should I want one, I'll be able to find one. Such is the case with Gradius V, yet another entry in this list from those perverse geniuses at Treasure. As with most titles in this long-running series - this, despite the name, is something like the ninth - you pilot the Vic Viper against sundry alien foes. There's a tactical escalation of power-ups, and the expected focus on lightning reflexes and quick-fire pattern recognition. And, yes, for the majority of the bipeds on this planet, it's ferociously difficult. So why is it here? Because there's something quite awesome about the fact that such an ancient genre is still being refined after two decades, and few do it better than Treasure.

What we said: "If stupendously hardcore shooters that require the skills of other worldly beings are your thing, then the chances are you'll be in some sort of perverted masochistic heaven."

Ebay price guide: Around GBP 15