When you think of gaming consoles, I bet the first name that comes to mind is PlayStation. For many of us, that iconic logo and the start-up sound are almost as nostalgic as Saturday morning cartoons.
Since its debut in the mid-90s, PlayStation has held onto its crown as the most loved console brand in the world. There’s just something about the design, the unforgettable exclusives, and the way it grew up alongside us that we can never forget.
Granted, the world has since moved on from the PS2 era to the shiny PS5 (and the much-rumoured PS6, supposedly arriving in 2027), but nothing quite hits like the PlayStation 2. Originally released on March 4th, 2000, in Japan, October 26th in North America, and November 24th in Europe, the PS2 quickly became a cultural phenomenon.
With over 160 million consoles sold worldwide, it remains the best-selling video game console of all time (a record that’s still unbeaten).
For context, even the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Switch, which sold 154 million and 150 million units respectively, haven’t managed to dethrone it. The success of the PS2 is not its fancy hardware or over-the-top specs, but its games.
The PlayStation 2 was the console that had everything from action, adventure, racing, horror, role-playing games, and plenty of button-mashing chaos.
So, 25 years later, let’s take a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Here are 10 PlayStation 2 games we can never forget about.
1. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
If there’s one game that defined the PS2 era, it’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Released in 2004, Rockstar took everything they’d learned from GTA III and Vice City and created a sprawling, living, breathing world. The state of San Andreas, inspired by California and Nevada, was a massive playground of chaos.
Players played as CJ, a gang member returning home to rebuild his life, only to be sucked back into the gritty underworld of crime, loyalty, and survival. What made San Andreas so special was its depth. You could hit the gym, grab a burger, mod your car, fly a jet, or just cruise around listening to the best radio playlists ever put in a game. To this day, it’s still the gold standard for open-world games and the reason many of us fell in love with the PS2.
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2. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
For racing fans, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec was the moment. With jaw-dropping graphics (for its time) and an almost obsessive attention to realism, it turned casual players into armchair car enthusiasts. Every curve, sound, and shimmer of metal felt real, and the car roster was huge as you had modest Toyotas to short cars like Ferraris.
It wasn’t about chaos or shortcuts with Gran Turismo as it demanded precision and patience. It made you earn every victory. When you were tuning engines or mastering cornering on the Nürburgring, it was a pure test of skill.
3. God of War
Few games had the intensity that God of War had. With its cinematic storytelling and brutal combat, it felt like an action film you could control. You played as Kratos, the furious Spartan warrior with a vendetta against the gods themselves. Using the Blades of Chaos, you hacked and slashed your way through Greek mythology’s biggest names.
It was violent, but also brilliantly choreographed. Every boss battle felt like a blockbuster scene, every combo was smooth and satisfying, and the scale was jaw-dropping for 2005. Kratos might have been angry 24/7, but you couldn’t help but root for him even while he was destroying everything in sight.
4. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
If you owned a PS2 and didn’t at least try Metal Gear Solid 2, you missed one of the wildest and most cinematic games of the era. Metal Gear Solid 2 took everything that made the first Metal Gear Solid a cult classic and dialled it up to eleven. You start as a Solid Snake, infiltrating a massive tanker in the middle of a storm to expose illegal weapon development.
Halfway through, Snake disappears and you suddenly find yourself playing as Raiden, a rookie soldier thrown into an eerily similar mission aboard a massive offshore facility called the Big Shell. The plot explores government conspiracies, digital control, identity, and manipulation, themes that still feel scarily relevant today.
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5. Final Fantasy X
Few games pulled at the heartstrings like Final Fantasy X. Set in the breathtaking world of Spira, it follows Tidus, a cheerful athlete mysteriously transported from his high-tech home city of Zanarkand to a realm plagued by a monstrous entity known as Sin. Along the way, he joins a young summoner named Yuna and her guardians on a pilgrimage to defeat Sin once and for all, but of course, nothing is as simple as it seems.
As the journey unfolds, the game becomes an emotional rollercoaster about sacrifice, faith, and the fleeting nature of happiness. Tidus and Yuna’s growing bond anchors the story, but the deeper themes of death, loss, and hope elevate it to something unforgettable. By the end, you’re left gutted but grateful, with a story that stays with you long after the credits roll.
6. Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts shouldn’t have worked on paper because mixing Disney’s bright, magical worlds with the brooding aesthetic of Final Fantasy was madness. You play as Sora, a cheerful boy from a small island whose world is consumed by darkness. When his friends vanish, he teams up with Donald Duck and Goofy to travel across Disney-inspired worlds in search of them.
Sora faces the sinister Heartless, learns about the power of friendship, heartbreak, and confronts a shadowy villain named Ansem who’s trying to engulf every world in darkness. Along the way, you visit classic Disney settings like Agrabah to Halloween Town, meeting beloved characters like Aladdin, Ariel, and Jack Skellington.
7. Shadow of the Colossus
In Shadow of the Colossus, you play as Wander, a quiet hero who enters a forbidden land to save a girl named Mono. To bring her back to life, he must defeat sixteen enormous beings known as the Colossi.
There are no towns, no side quests, no armies of enemies. Just you, your horse Agro, and the haunting silence of a vast, desolate world. Every Colossus you face is majestic. You climb their massive bodies, find their weak points, and strike them down. But as the game progresses, Wander himself begins to change, hinting that every battle comes at a terrible price.
