Ten rare PS2 games that we’d love released on the PlayStation Network

This game is in many (most) ways an inferior clone to the Resident Evil series, but by the same token, it was still good, shlock horror fun.

Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel on the PlayStation 3 is a fun, if slightly demented game with some… strange… moe otaku fanservice going on. But that’s the third game in the series, many of us missed out on playing the PlayStation original games.

So, who’s a fan of Suda 51? Here’s one of his PlayStation 2 games that a lot of us probably likely missed out on the opportunity of playing, given that it was a Japan-only release.

I don’t see a HD remake happening for the Dragon Quest games. Square Enix is busy playing with the Final Fantasy series for that.

Tecmo Koei has never been one to shy away from an opportunity to make money from its Romance of the Three Kingdoms franchise. Dynasty Tactics is the forgotten brother to Dynasty Warriors. This was a strategy game rather than the action button-masher many accuse Warriors to be.

Oh Pandemic, why did things have to go so wrong? The original Mercenaries game was an open-world wonder, full some truly entertaining moments. It was also a huge game, with no less than 52 targets to hunt down, four different factions to either ally with or fight against, and two different cities/ regions to explore and fight across.

As such a huge game, it controlled remarkably well, with a huge number of vehicles to jump into and drive around. That in itself surprised me back when I originally played the game – indeed I enjoyed it more than the GTA games of the time. Then there were three different characters to play with, each with their own characteristics and personalities.

And most importantly, the warzone plot and setting, pitting you against the North Koreans, was a fascinating and believable one to play in. Pandemic is gone now, which means a HD remake is very unlikely, but I’ll happily download the original anyway.

This “make your own RPG” package was awesome fun. For one thing, it allowed you to make full 3D RPGs – a first for the series, and actually seeing your work realised as a limited but complete “modern” RPG was very, very addictive.

Though we’d prefer an RPG Maker for the PS3 that allowed game sharing (like Little  Big Planet allows), we’ll take a straight port of this. Even if for no other reason than we have very fond memories of making “epic” RPGs, tapping out dialogue using the dual shock controller.

That in itself was an epic experience.

This is an old game indeed – it was a launch title for the PlayStation 2. It was also a rather good little RPG that would be worth playing again, if for no other reason than to see if it stands up ten years later.

The thing that made this game interesting was the massive number of side quests and alternative storylines there were to follow. At times the game felt like a true non-linear experience, though it was wasn’t quite there.

The game also had an incredibly deep mythology that rewarded players the more involved they became in it – if you enjoyed reading the books of Oblivion and Morrowind, you would get right into this game.

Oh, and the marketing campaign included the hilarious Summoner Geeks. Best promo ever.

Screw the critics, Worms Forts was awesome fun. Critics called it slow and ponderous. Those critics didn’t run into a certain buddy of mine that could slaughter us within ten turns.

Except for once. Once, memorably, I pulled of a “win from behind,” victory, and that victory was oh-so-sweet. And therein lies the greatness of Worms. Where the others were just nuts, this game has some smarts about it, and it was a breath of fresh air for the series.

Now Worms has gone back to being nuts, I’d like to see this game revived on PSN for a cheap and easy download.

Do you have any fond memories of obscure PS2 games that will never qualify for HD remake, but you’d like to see rereleased on PSN? Let us know what they are!