The PlayStation 2 is one of the most important consoles of all time, and the first gaming platform to double as a DVD player while Sony avoided the sophomore slump. The console is one of the major reasons why the Sega Dreamcast completely failed, effectively driving Sega out of the home market. Many of Sony’s biggest franchises were completely revamped for the PS2 while other beloved properties made their debut on the advanced console. The best PS2 games of all time showcased what the system was capable of and redefined gaming for the 21st century.
But we’re not talking about the best that the PlayStation 2 has to offer this time, nor the titles that have since garnered considerable empathy. We’re going to the other end of the spectrum: From cheap licensed games, to releases that just couldn’t get their gameplay and presentation down. There are a lot of subpar titles to find on the classic console. After all, as a platform with thousands of games published for it, the PS2 library was bound to have several notorious clunkers. These are the worst PS2 games of all time, ranked according to their sheer mediocrity.
5. The Sopranos: Road to Respect
The 2000s were an unusual decade in gaming, as many movies and television series that you wouldn’t normally think should receive a video game tie-in in fact received licensed games. Properties like “The Great Escape” and “Reservoir Dogs” each received their own games for the PlayStation 2 in the wake of “Grand Theft Auto III.” On paper, HBO’s hit mobster series “The Sopranos” could’ve lent itself well to a crime game like “GTA.” Unfortunately, “The Sopranos: Road to Respect” proved to be a disappointment across the board when it launched in 2006.
For starters, “The Sopranos: Road to Respect” isn’t an open-world crime game like “GTA” or “Mafia,” but a restrictively linear experience. Outside of poker games and visiting Tony Soprano’s hangouts, there is little for players to do other than play through the game’s story. The game botches even that narrow focus, with uninspired dialogue, numerous performance issues, and character designs that look a generation behind, despite coming out near the end of the PS2 era. You’re really better off just settling in for a rewatch of the HBO series rather than wasting your time with this one.
4. Celebrity Deathmatch
If there was ever an MTV show from the 2000s that felt like a product of its time, and we do not mean that as a compliment, it’s “Celebrity Deathmatch.” The stop-motion animated series had claymation facsimiles of contemporary celebrities gruesomely battling to the death, often punctuated in gory slapstick gags. The show was popular enough to get its own tie-in video game of the same name in 2003, presented like any number of pro wrestling games of the era. The game offers a selection of playable celebrities, like Marilyn Manson, Dennis Rodman, and Carrot Top, as they fight to the death in the ring.
Apart from being as overtly mean-spirited as its source material, “Celebrity Deathmatch” is just a complete drag to play. The game is far worse than any pro wrestling game available at the time, with a clumsy control scheme that struggles to respond to even the simplest inputs. Presentation-wise, the game is, frankly, an absolute eyesore, from its garish character models to its stiff animation. Just an all-around disgrace, “Celebrity Deathmatch” is best left erased from our collective memory, left in the dust of our neurons like it never happened.
3. GoDai: Elemental Force
The 3DO is one of the worst home consoles released in the ’90s, an overpriced hunk of plastic and metal that tried to outperform the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. Though the console itself stopped receiving support by 1996, The 3DO Company continued on as a game development studio for another seven years. Among the last games developed and published by the company was “GoDai: Elemental Force” for the PlayStation 2 released in 2002. The game is a 3D action game, mixing platforming and melee combat as players control a ninja named Hiro.
As we’ve known since the “Ninja Gaiden” and “Shinobi” series, ninja games tend to require precise inputs to succeed in combat and platforming. That makes “GoDai: Elemental Force” all the more frustrating, with its controls completely unresponsive as Hiro sleepwalks through every level. The closest comparison I can think of, on dubious terms, of course, is that the game is the PS2 equivalent to the maligned Xbox exclusive “Drake of the 99 Dragons.” A travesty at everything that it tries to accomplish, “GoDai: Elemental Force” helped put the final nail in the coffin for The 3DO Company.
2. Gravity Games Bike: Street, Vert, Dirt
With the incredibly lucrative “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” games still in their heyday when the PS2 launched, extreme sports video games were definitely in vogue in the early 2000s. That trend spread to BMX titles, with that sub-series predominantly led by the “Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX” franchise. The worst extreme sports game of this generation, however, was “Gravity Games Bike: Street, Vert, Dirt,” released in 2002. Like “Pro Skater,” the game places players in levels to pull off tricks and other objectives in order to unlock more content.
What “Gravity Games Bike: Street, Vert, Dirt” proves is that the “Pro Skater” formula certainly isn’t a guarantee for an enjoyable game. What derails the title is that its controls and gameplay mechanics feel completely broken. For a game that revolves around pulling off tricks at speed, that is the kiss of death. This is coupled by the fact that the game looks and sounds like complete garbage, its production as visibly rushed as the way it handles suggests. A sports game for masochistic PS2 owners only, “Gravity Games Bike: Street, Vert, Dirt” feels like a stain on the genre.
1. Beverly Hills Cop
Another crime property that was adapted into a late-stage PlayStation 2 game was “Beverly Hills Cop,” which was released in 2006. A crudely made first-person shooter, the game follows Axel Foley as he blasts through waves of enemies with a variety of weapons. There are sequences in the game that are meant to be played stealthily, with the game’s haphazard detection meaning players can fail without warning despite maintaining their cover. This poorly staged hit detection system means that the run-and-gun sequences are similarly marred by inconsistent mechanics.
The best thing that can be said about “Beverly Hills Cop” is that the game isn’t yet another “GTA” clone, as was crowding the market at the time. The other thing, for better or worse, is that the game is mercifully short, only clocking in at a grand total of six levels to endure. Given the lackluster quality of gameplay, glaring issues with its technical performance, and unresponsive controls, that truncated length is a mercy. Nobody was asking for a “Beverly Hills Cop” game in 2006 and the PS2 title is a reminder why.
