PlayStation 2 games are coming to PS4, here are 12 titles we want to play again

It’s what veteran gamers have been asking for, but what Sony once said would probably never happen: the company is working on a PlayStation 2 emulator for PlayStation 4.

In an email to Wired, a sony representative has stated: “We are working on utilising PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2 games forward to the current generation. We have nothing further to comment at this point in time.” It’s not clear, then, what form the emulation will take. Will Sony just be making a handful of classic titles available for digital download, or will it build a fully functioning emulator allowing players to load their old PS2 discs into the PS4?

The latter is the route Microsoft has taken with its Xbox One backward compatibility. Console owners now have access to over 100 classic titles, and they can just insert their original disc to play them on the new machine. Any compatible digital games that you downloaded on your 360 will also be available to re-download onto Xbox One – and multiplayer titles support online play between both consoles. A pretty sturdy and impressive set-up.

News of the long hoped for PlayStation backwards compatibility came after Sony announced a new Star Wars-themed PS4 bundle including four classic games for download: Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, Star Wars: Racer Revenge and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. The latter three are PS2 titles. Video game technology testing site Digital Foundry has measured their performance on PS4 and found vastly improved frame rates, approaching 60fps at times – a scintillating prospect for those old school racers and shooters.

Sony has now tweeted, asking for suggestions about which games it should bring to the emulator:

Mostly ignoring titles that have already been officially remastered for later platforms, here are the games we’d like to play again ...

Burnout 3: Takedown

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Criterion’s explosive urban racing series arguably reached its fender-bending zenith with this third instalment. As well as being encouraged to drive dangerously in order to earn style points, players were now also asked to take down rival cars by smashing them in to stuff at really high speed. Glorious.

Gitaroo Man

Seamlessly blending the rhythm action and sci-fi shooter genres (with a little bit of high-school romance thrown in), this is a weird and beautiful adventure from Japanese studio iNiS and veteran publisher Koei. Lead character U-1 is the school nerd who finds himself battling aliens – by playing the guitar. That’s about as much sense as you’ll get out of it quite frankly.

God Hand

Developed at the legendary Clover Studio and overseen by the dream team of Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil) and Atsushi Inaba (Viewtiful Joe), this is one of the great overlooked beat ‘em ups of the PS2 era – or indeed any era. The story involves beating demons to death with your magical arms, but forget the plot and focus on the brilliant combat system, hilarious characters and endless invention. Better than the whole God of War pantheon put together.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

We could have gone with a whole load of Rockstar games here, including The Warriors, Bully, Manhunt and of course, GTA: San Andreas. But Vice City, with its extravagant, brutal and sleazy combination of Scarface and Miami Vice, is the one every fan of the GTA series should study over and over again. And, oh, that soundtrack.

Killer 7

Another cult Capcom title here, this time from eccentric designer Suda51 and his Grasshopper Manufacture studio. It’s a kind of existential sci-fi assassination adventure with strange, stark visuals and a plot that gradually begins to question the physical and mental reality of its characters. Not enough games do that these days.

Kingdom Hearts

When the world first learned that Disney and SquareSoft were to combine forces on a role-playing game there were raised eyebrows. Then Kingdom Hearts arrived and it was just such a gorgeous, thoughtful and evocative merger of two seemingly different fantasy universes. The sequel, also on PS2, was great as well. (Both were available in remixed and remastered fashion on PS3, but let’s have them all on PS4 as one gigantic download.)

Mister Mosquito

During the PlayStation 2 era, Western publishers became interested in the offbeat games coming out of Japan and started porting them over. It led to European releases for oddities like Polaroid Pete, Disaster Report and Maestro, as well as this bizarre but brilliant title in which you play a mosquito trying to suck blood from members of a family (without annoying them so much that they swat you). Developed by little known studio Zoom Inc, it was a huge hit in Japan, leading to a more ambitious sequel. Both are worth rediscovering.

Onimusha: Warlords

OK, so it’s another Capcom game, but this is our list and we don’t care. Set in the Sengoku period of Japanese history, this is a luscious action adventure with magic, exploration and wonderfully realised samurai combat. With its moody settings and challenging puzzles it had the feel of the Resident Evil titles – indeed producer Keiji Inafune would go on to oversee the knockabout Dead Rising series of zombie action romps.

Pro Evolution Soccer 4

While many gamers will tell you that football simulation reached its peak with Sensible Soccer, those of us who know better will point to the golden era of Konami’s ISS and PES brands. Slick passing, great unobtrusive animation and true flexibility in front of goal, the PS2 Pro Evo titles had it all. It’s a toss up between PES instalments 3-5, but we’re going straight down the middle with this choice.

Silent Hill 2

While zombie fans had Resident Evil, devotees of darker, psychological horror had Konami’s twisted Silent Hill series – of which the second title is perhaps the high point (especially the later Restless Dreams version, with added backstory). A hero wracked with psychosexual guilt, a town filled with murderous mannequins and an antagonist that looks like he’s just walked out of the darkest fetish party ever held, Silent Hill 2 is one giant mental breakdown. Yet, for a game of resolute creepiness, it also has the funniest alternate ending ever conceived. (And yes, we know there was a PS3 remaster, but it was not good enough.)

Simpsons: Hit & Run

There have been plenty of really terrible Simpsons games, but this is definitely not one of them. Essentially a parody of Grand Theft Auto, devised by the show’s own writers and voiced by the proper cast, it’s an open world adventure filled with ridiculous humour and daft missions, taking in everything from Kwik-E-Mart to the monorail. Worth a port to PS4 if only to prove to youngsters that the Simpsons used to be funny.

Timesplitters 2

Still one of the greatest local multiplayer first-person shooters ever made. That’s pretty much all we need to say about Free Radical Design’s time-spanning blaster – except that it also came with a map editor, masses of imaginative play modes and an admirably high level of customisation, putting most PS4 shooters to shame.

Let us know what you’d like to play again in the comments below.