Celebrating 25 Years of PlayStation 2 - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: Celebrating 25 Years of PlayStation 2

Episode Date: October 31, 2025
Hosts: Blessing Adeoye, Tim Gettys, Barrett

Overview

This episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast is a lively, nostalgia-fueled retrospective celebrating the 25th anniversary of the PlayStation 2—the best-selling console of all time. Rather than strictly running through a ranked "shitlist" as originally planned, the crew pivots into a vibrant discussion sharing their most personal PS2 memories, favorite and deep-cut games, and the cultural legacy of the console. Fans chime in via live super chats, fueling further anecdotes and game recommendations. This is a love letter to the PS2 from those who grew up (and gamed up) with it.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Power and Legacy of the PlayStation 2

• Tim Gettys: Declares the PS2 "the most successful console of all time," noting its status as both a pop culture force and a key transitional system for many gamers (05:02).
• Blessing Adeoye: Argues the PS2 "might be the greatest console of all time," citing its unmatched third-party support and pivotal role for his generation (05:17-05:23).
• Both hosts discuss how the PS2 not only provided legendary exclusives (God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, Jak & Daxter) but was vital for third-party series like Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid, and Tony Hawk.

PS2 as a Generational Touchstone

• Tim: Reminisces about the excitement of the PS2 launch, sharing a vivid childhood memory of visiting the PlayStation Store in San Francisco with his dad and experiencing the launch hype and gaming community for the first time (09:00–10:00).
• Blessing: Shares memories of being a young gamer, noticing the leap in graphics when visiting friends’ houses and marveling at mature games like GTA III and God of War (10:00–11:22).
• Blessing describes his personal gaming "coming of age" with the PS2, emphasizing the emotional impact of Shadow of the Colossus and Metal Gear Solid 3 (12:00–12:30).
• Tim: Points out that “coming into a generation late is a pivotal moment to decide: am I a gamer, or do I just like games?” (11:22–11:38).

Why the PS2 Was So Successful

• Tim: Notes the dual appeal of PS2—as both a world-class gaming device and a DVD player, drawing many new fans into the ecosystem (13:11–13:55).
• The hosts marvel at the longevity and breadth of the PS2’s library, often crediting it as the formative system for both themselves and countless others spanning age ranges (14:12–15:18).

Favorite Deep Cuts and Underrated Gems

• Tim’s Picks:

  • Downhill Domination - “Downhill mountain bike game, incredible, holds up today.” (16:59–17:28)
  • Kinetica - “Humans racing, holding on to wheels with their bodies, that was Sony Santa Monica’s weird one.” (17:32–17:41)
  • Frequency and Amplitude – Early rhythm games, precursors to Guitar Hero/Rock Band (17:44–18:02).

• Blessing’s Picks:

  • 7 Samurai 20XX - “I was the master of the GameStop $10 bin… obsessed with it even if it’s a 5/10 game.” (18:02–19:10)
  • MTV Music Generator 2, I-Ninja – Oddball finds that evoke strong nostalgia (18:32–19:10).

• Barrett’s Pick:

  • FlatOut series – “Kind of Burnout-esque, but really about crashing and funny stunts.” (19:10–19:37)

Demo Discs & “Cousin Games”

• The team reminisces about the era of demo discs, GameStop bargain bins, Blockbuster rentals, and friends’/cousins’ bizarre game collections (19:59–25:03).
• Barrett: Vividly brings up Whiplash—an odd 3D platformer about escaping an animal testing lab—and unlocks “core memories” for the group (23:55–24:50).

Hidden Gems & Blockbuster Standouts from the PS2 Era

• Tim: Shouts out Spy Hunter, TimeSplitters, and the launch slate: “TimeSplitters was like GoldenEye but with more kooky energy. TimeSplitters 2 was phenomenal.” (26:53–28:36)
• Franchise Trilogies: The hosts highlight how PS2 boasted not just single classics but full trilogies, e.g., GTA III–San Andreas, Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper (47:22–48:11).
• God of War & Ratchet & Clank: The two PlayStation first-party series that have truly endured (47:22–47:40).
• Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec - Even for those uninterested in sim racing, GT3 “was a moment… you just wanted to see it because of how good it looked” (46:58).

Evolving Game Development & Player Expectations

• Games were released more quickly, which led to annual sequels being welcomed rather than critiqued for lack of innovation (49:12–50:16).
• Annualized titles like Need for Speed Underground and Prince of Persia were eagerly awaited—players would coordinate who would buy which sequels amongst friends (48:38–49:12).

Celebrating the Publishers and Developers of the Era

• Top MVPs:

  • Rockstar (GTA, Bully, The Warriors)
  • Square/Square-Enix (Final Fantasy X, XII; Kingdom Hearts)
  • EA Sports Big (NBA Street, SSX, NFL Street)
  • Activision (Tony Hawk, extreme sports)
  • Harmonics (Guitar Hero, Rock Band)
  • Pandemic (Battlefront, Destroy All Humans, Mercenaries)
  • Konami (Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill)

• Tim: “Square didn’t miss on PS2.” (45:20)

• Barrett: “The true goat for Rockstar in that era is Bully.” (43:11)

• Blessing: “God of War and Ratchet & Clank are the two big PlayStation franchises that stood the test of time.” (47:26, 47:40)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

On the PS2 as a cultural moment:

• “25 years of the most successful console of all time, the PlayStation 2.” — Tim Gettys (05:02)
• “Some might say the greatest console of all time.” — Blessing (05:17)

On personal transitions as gamers:

• “For me, that was the PS2. PS2 was me going from, alright, I'm a kid who's playing video games… to then having that transition [into]… appreciating the story here.” — Blessing (12:30)

On discovering bad games:

• “Spy Hunter… I had learned what bad video games were. As a kid, I was like, ‘Oh, this is boring... too many requirements.’” — Blessing (25:16)

On the sensory memory of old consoles:

• “I hear a hum… that’s a PlayStation 2 is on… I literally heard the hum and I knew it was a PlayStation 2.” — Tim (15:18–16:09)

On demo discs:

• “Official PlayStation Magazine… you pay for a monthly demo disc. That’s the best moment of my month.” — Tim (33:41–34:32)
• “You just keep going back like it’s crack or something.” — Blessing (34:46)

On annualized sequels:

• “As a new game would enter the fray, you kind of just had to plan: next year there’s going to be a sequel.” — Tim (48:38)

On PS2’s wide-ranging impact:

• “Everything, the good, the bad, and everything in between.” — Tim, reflecting on Star Wars games and the console's massive library (41:58)

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Super Chats & Community Involvement

• Fans shout out deep cuts like The Bouncer, Mark of Kri, Indigo Prophecy, War of the Monsters, Budokai 3, Haunting Ground, and more, sparking rapid reminiscence by the hosts (30:41–52:10).
• The chat helps unlock forgotten titles (Freedom Force, Maximo), demo disc lineups, and more.

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [05:02] – PS2 as a generational and cultural milestone
• [09:00]–[11:22] – Childhood anticipation and personal PS2 “coming of age” stories
• [16:41]–[19:37] – Deep cut and underrated PS2 games (Downhill Domination, Kinetica, FlatOut)
• [23:55] – Whiplash and cousin game memories
• [26:53]–[28:36] – The importance of TimeSplitters and early launch standouts
• [33:41]–[36:55] – Demo disc culture and magazine memories
• [47:22]–[48:17] – Long-running series and franchises on PS2
• [50:02] – The evolution of game release schedules and sequel expectations
• [52:53] – Nick’s final shout out: SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom

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Memorable & Fun Moments

• Extended and enthusiastic cape discussion (“I tried to wear a cape for my wedding so hard… bought three separate capes.” – Tim, [02:12])
• The group being suddenly flooded with nostalgia over obscure games like Whiplash, Oni, and FlatOut (“I don’t think I’ve ever had a memory hole unlock like this.” – Tim, [24:26])
• Repeated running joke of mistaking the console for a DVD player—Tim can identify a PS2 by its operating hum alone ([15:18])

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Conclusion

While promising to eventually tackle an official “top 25 PS2 games” ranking, the crew recognizes the impossibility of truly capping off a conversation about a console with such a massive, diverse, and beloved library. Instead, they remind listeners just how formative and wide-reaching the PlayStation 2 was for countless players—offering not just legendary blockbusters, but weird failures, oddball favorites, and unforgettable moments in gaming history.

“When you start the conversation, it’s impossible to end the conversation.”
– Blessing, [53:23]

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Next up: The crew teases future ranking episodes and heads off to Game Showdown, their next show for the day—leaving listeners with a heartfelt, open-ended celebration of a true video game legend.

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25 years on, the PS2 legacy endures.

Transcript

[Tim Gettys]

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[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

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[Tim Gettys]

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[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

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[Tim Gettys]

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[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

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[Tim Gettys]

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[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

What is this place? We help you reach your true potential. How are you feeling?

[Tim Gettys]

It's good to be Hawaii.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Hey, new girl. Hey.

[Barrett]

Look at what you've done to yourself. For a new plant to grow, the

[Tim Gettys]

seed has to die. Slanted Rated R. Only in theaters March 13th. Side effects may occur. This episode's brought to you by Arc Raiders, a multiplayer extraction adventure video game set in a lethal yet vibrant future Earth. Available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S and PC arc raiders dot com.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yo, what's up? Welcome to Kinda Funny Gamescast for Friday, October 31, 2025. I'm on your host blessing Adelier Strife. And joining me is Tim. Shit.

[Tim Gettys]

I love it. I love it. What's up, everybody? How you doing? Bless.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I'm doing good. How you doing, Tim?

[Tim Gettys]

I'm doing good.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Happy Halloween.

[Tim Gettys]

Really good. Excited for this. You look fantastic. You'll get many, many guns comments in the chat today, of course, and they're well deserved.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

And you look fantastic.

[Tim Gettys]

Thank you very much.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Shredder.

[Tim Gettys]

I have a cape. I've lived my entire life wanting a cape.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I fuck with capes. So heavy.

[Tim Gettys]

It's so good.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Capes are so cool. I've always wanted to pull out. Oh, and man, look at that. Tim's running around the capes flowing in the wind. I feel like we need to incorporate capes into way more formal outfits. I know people do. We don't do it enough.

[Barrett]

He tried for the longest time.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Who did?

[Tim Gettys]

Kev was trying to get capes going. I, I, Everybody needs to understand how I agree with you wholeheartedly. I tried to wear a cape for my wedding so hard. Yeah, so hard. To the point that I bought three separate capes. They just don't look right. It just ain't right. They just ain't right. One gia war cape. Yeah. I was very jealous of her.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

I tried to get a cape so desperately that I ended up buying a professional cosplay, like very high end. Like wear it on a show grade from what's his name from Rogue One. Is it Krennic Barrett?

[Barrett]

Yes.

[Tim Gettys]

Like the white cape. Because it's, it's sick shit.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Okay.

[Tim Gettys]

And it just looked bad. It just didn't pull it off the right way. I tried looking up like actual fashion capes, but they were way too. Just like, yeah, the material wasn't right. Or my bigger problem being, yeah, oh, this is pretty damn sick. But it just didn't, it didn't look right. And otherwise it's like, there's a lot of like cultural outfits that I'm like, I can't be doing that, you know?

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah, no, exactly.

[Tim Gettys]

So that, that's always the, the thing there. But I, I reached out to Gary Witta to see if there was any favors he could pull to get me Lando's cape from Solo because it's like the coolest. Like Donald Glover's cape.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

So sick. And he tried, he legit reached out to people to try to get me the cape, but it's a real one right there. It didn't work. Shout out Gary Widow.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Well said. Happy Halloween and Also Halloween. Happy 25th anniversary to the PlayStation 2. That's what we're celebrating today because of course, remember this is the kind of funny games cast. Each and every weekday we get together and talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify and Apple podcasts to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show for a chance to be a part of the show. Some of your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. So super chat in with what you think is one of the top 25 best PS2 games. Or even if you just want to super chat in with your favorite PS2 game and why, let us know and we'll talk about it on the show. Housekeeping for you. We're an 11 person business all about live talk shows. KFTD was about Arc Raiders dominating on Steam. After this is game showdown then an Nvidia Arc Raider sponsor stream. And then closing out the day is another sponsored stream with Nick and Mike celebrating a little Halloween with a little spooky game. If you're a kind of funny member, today's Greg Way is coming at you from Mike. Thank you to our Patreon producers Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the song Twining for now. Let's start. Topic of the show. It's my favorite day of the year. Yep, shitless day.

[Tim Gettys]

Shitless day, baby. I can't wait. This is a very special one though, because it's not just any old shitless. Like this is one of the most important anniversary dates gaming has had thus far. 25 years of the most successful console of all time, the PlayStation 2.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Some might say the greatest console of all time.

[Tim Gettys]

Some might. I think most people would. Right? Yeah, I mean it's.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

The PS2 is a, it's a force, it's a beast.

[Tim Gettys]

And yeah, I don't necessarily know that I would at the end of the day give it the, the nod but like I can't deny that I would need to debate myself and I think at the end of the day it would be a personal taste thing of me. Really loving Nintendo games that would put a different console over it.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

But that makes sense.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean when you look at what the PlayStation 2 did from a third party perspective, like it's kind of wild. And even from an exclusive perspective, less so. The like Sony first party perspective, that was I think a later generation in Sony's life thing.

[Barrett]

But very important like building blocks here though when it comes to the first part.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Oh for sure, absolutely. You talk then you're talking about Jak and Daxter talking. I mean when you want to talk about first party exclusives. Shadow Colossus, one of my best, like favorite games of all time. Right? Talking about God of War.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, totally. But you get to the third party stuff and we're talking about Grand Theft Auto 3 trilogy, right? Exclusive on PS2 later, coming to other consoles. But for the initial launch and like for ostensibly like the life of those games, it was PS2 exclusive. That's, that's crazy.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 and 3, right? I mean we'll get into the conversation. Of course, for the uninitiated, shit list is where I go online. I find a top 10 list, I bring it back to Tim and sometimes Spirit on the ones and twos and we judge it for your amusement. Today's list is the best PS2 games of all time. This list is coming from IGN. I'm taking off my gloves for this one because I'm going to do a lot of typing. This list is coming from ign. It was compiled by the IGN staff. There's not just one name on this one. This is a staff made list. Originally posted on October 13, 2023, but then updated on October 26, 2025. I imagine for the anniversary of the p. Of the PS2.

[Barrett]

I wonder if it was, like, 20 games, and then. Because I think the whole thing is they're doing top 25 for this one for the 25th anniversary.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

So they probably expanded it, added.

[Barrett]

Added a few.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah. And so October 20th. I mean, I guess the date doesn't matter because PS2 games are PS2 games.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Ign. Tim, I know we just listed a few, but what comes to mind before.

[Tim Gettys]

Before we get into the list, there. There's two things I want to say. One, I want to do a non sequitur. Going back to talking about capes. I've had this picture on my desktop for, like, six months now, and I think it is legitimately the coldest picture I've ever seen in my life. And, like, if I could have this picture just, like, tattooed on my forehead perfectly, I would, because it's. And no one would judge me. People would be like, you know what? That guy cool. That guy's fucking cool. I need to show you this picture of Spider man that. I saw that. It's just. I'm gonna send this to Assets right now, and I need everybody to prepare themselves. All right? And I'm not gonna get too graphic, but you might want to get some tissues out.

[Barrett]

Jesus.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I mean, he said what reason. He said what he said to you.

[Tim Gettys]

You might cry, Barrett. You might cry.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

He might cry out of somewhere else.

[Tim Gettys]

Like, this is legitimately the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life.

[Barrett]

This actually goes hard.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

He's right. Oh, yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Spider man with a web cape.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Oh, yeah. Oh, dude. This is something I would see in 2007 and go, Hell, yeah.

[Barrett]

Is this.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

And then SpongeBob with, like, the basketball. You ever see those cool SpongeBob pictures? It's this that in Sonic. Like, those are the things that in 2007, you show me those, and I'm like, fuck, yeah, dude. That's what it's about.

[Tim Gettys]

Come on. All right, now the cape talk is over here. Let's talk about PlayStation 2 before we get into this list. Plus, like, I kind of just want to talk about, like, you and PlayStation 2, because. Oh, yeah, this I definitively. For me, this was the first generation we went into that I was aware that a generation was coming. You know, Like, I grew up with Nintendo's and Super Nintendo's from, like, garage sales. And then the Nintendo 64 was, like, the hot new thing at Toys R Us. But, like, that was kind of my first memories was Mario 64, Toys R Us, right? Like, the lead up reading magazines. The build up to the launch of the PlayStation 2. Like, I was also very lucky to be in San Francisco where the PlayStation Store was. And I. The years might be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure the Sony metre on which the Metron used to be owned by Sony, it's no longer, but it used to be the Sony Metron and it was, I think it opened in like 99. And when the PS2 launched, like the, the PlayStation Store there was like the epicenter of the PlayStation 2 launch. So I remember my dad took me there just to look at it all happen and it was such an. It was one of my first gaming community experiences of seeing other people be excited.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

For a launch of anything. And yeah, man, the PS2 was special.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, I was younger obviously, so like I didn't have the experience of seeing a generation come through because it must have been, I guess, six years old by the time the PS2 came out. But I grew up with an N64. Like my earliest memories. I don't remember a time before owning an N64. To put into context, right? Like as soon as I came into consciousness, I was playing Wayne Gretzky's 3D hockey. But I do, I do vaguely remember a shift from playing like the Mario games and Mario Party and all these like colorful N64 games to seeing games just look better all of a sudden. Like I would go, I talk about Addison all the time, but it really was going to Addison's house, going to other friends houses and seeing that their games are getting a bit more grown and complex and more advanced and they look better. And for the longest time, like, Addison would be the friend's house I would go to to be like, yo, what's that God of War game? Oh yeah, he showed me GTA 3 and I remember that being like a. He was so excited to show me GTA 3 and my brain was still on DK 64, you know, and like it was almost like a. You're showing me something that is too complex for my brain to comprehend. Like I am 8 years old and you're showing me GTA and God of War and all this stuff. But eventually I came into the PS2 lifecycle. A little bit later, I want to say around 0304 is when I finally got a PS2. And I remember getting a PS2 and borrowing, just borrowing just a bunch of games from Addison.

[Tim Gettys]

This is where all that's the best though, right? Coming into a generation late, I think is like such a pivotal moment for us to decide are we a gamer or do we just like games?

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yes.

[Tim Gettys]

You know what I mean? And being able to like go back and play the library of games and being invested in that, like, oh, it's so special.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

My first game I think I had for PS2 was Spider Man 2 for PS2. And I remember that being such a fun one. Right. But it was, I think it was after borrowing so many games and I talked about this the other day. I borrowed Shadow Colossus and Metal Gear Solid three from Addison in the same week. And that was the thing that was like when I became an adult. What I mean, like that's when I started to be, to like realize things as somebody who played video games of. Oh wait, I appreciate like the story here. You know what I mean? Like I was playing ND4 games. I was playing Spider Man 2. Finally with MGS3 I had a game where I was so invested with the characters, with the, with the narrative, with all these things. And with Shadow Colossus that was the one where like I was like, video games can be this like I'm going through. The world is empty. I'm just trying to figure out how to get to these big monsters and I can fight them. And it's emotional for some reason and the music is so grand and big.

[Tim Gettys]

You're 10.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I'm probably like 10 years old. Yeah, 10, 11 years old. Somewhere around that. I want to say that was probably like, I was probably like oh, five by. By the time I'm getting around to that point and my mind is being blown by all this and so like, yeah, for me that was the PS2. PS2 was me going from, all right, I'm a kid who's playing video games and I'm you know, playing party games and all this stuff for fun to then having that transition of like still playing, you know, all these gameplay focused Soul Caliber and Spider Man 2. And like before I even got around to playing Shadow and mgs, I was playing Hella NBA Street Volume two. And like there are so many great arcadey style games on the PS2 that

[Tim Gettys]

I was all locked in for need for Speed underground.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah, Burnout 3 being a big one for me. But yeah, Tony Hawk Underground 2, American

[Tim Gettys]

Wasteland, like that's the thing too. The PS2 generation not only felt like it lasted longer, I think it legitimately did last longer because it was such an entry point for so many people for it was their first console. And look, the numbers back this right? Like the numbers show that it being as successful as it is, people bought it to be a DVD player. How many of those people that did that turned in to gamers because they're like, oh, I can try playing these games too. Right. So I feel like it's so many. I would argue it's probably the most people's entry point and the more than that, the most people's place where they played the most games that are pivotal to them in some way, shape or form.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah, right.

[Tim Gettys]

They might prefer the newer games, they might prefer whatever. But I do think the entry point was probably the PS2 because it just, there was so much going for that. Especially when we're talking about people our age, like give or take the standard deviation of like five, six years on either side.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Right.

[Tim Gettys]

Like, it's crazy to me that the PS2 means as much to me and you as it does to Greg Miller.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Right? Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

And I feel like there's just like this age difference between us and even all the way down to Roger, you know, like where we grew up with the N64 or even like Super Nintendo and Nintendo and stuff. But like so much of that was like not contemporary whatsoever. So the PS2 was a contemporary with Raj, but it's what he had, you know, And I, I, I love that. My favorite PS2 story. I've, I've told the story a bunch of times, but it is so special to me. I. 10 years ago now, when I first started dating Gia, maybe three months into our relationship, she lived out in the sunset with her roommate Avi. Avi is in a band, he not a gamer at all. She especially at that point, didn't even know what a video game was like, no video games around them. Video games were very much me and my friends. That's our thing. I was at their house and me and her are having dinner and I hear a hum. And it was driving me crazy because I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, that's a PlayStation 2 is on.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

And yeah, that's pretty sick.

[Tim Gettys]

And we're eating dinner and at some point she's like, what are you listening for? And I was like, do you hear that hum? And she was like, I guess so. And I'm like, I'm pretty sure it's a PlayStation 2. And she's like, what the fuck are you talking about? And I'm like, I'm telling you, this

[Barrett]

is like one of her first moments where she realizes how much of a fucking.

[Tim Gettys]

What's wrong with me? But, but also she was, she Was like, no, like, that's weird that it sounds like it, but okay. And I just got hooked on it. And for like two hours we're just talking whatever. And I just couldn't get out of my head. I'm like, that's a PS2. Like I know that's a PS2. And then we're like walking around and I look under and guess what is under the home console? A PS2 turned on.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yep.

[Tim Gettys]

And I'm like, it's a fucking PS2. And it's on. And she goes, oh, that's the DVD player.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Of course, of course.

[Tim Gettys]

I was like mind blown that to her. That's not a PlayStation DVD player. But more than that, there was a PS2 that her roommate had been watching a DVD and it was just still on. The TV was off, but the PS2 was on. I literally heard the hum and I knew it was a PlayStation 2.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

That's sick.

[Tim Gettys]

And honestly, that's not some Tim Gettys is a weird sicko. I bet y' all could do it too.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Oh, for sure.

[Tim Gettys]

And it's like, that's crazy.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

What's your. So what's the. What's your deepest cut on the PS2? Before we get into the best games, what's your deepest cut?

[Tim Gettys]

It's funny because I just think because of the nature of our jobs and talking, I feel like we have talked about deep cuts so long that they're not deep cuts anymore, right?

[Barrett]

Probably.

[Tim Gettys]

And even then, like deep cuts I don't think are necessarily like deep cuts to me are the ones that like, aren't going to pop up on this list.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Oh, for sure.

[Tim Gettys]

Downhill Domination is the one for me. But I can't call that a deep cut because that was a first party title. Like I'm pretty sure that was made by the team that did. Was that Sony Santa Monica, but under a different name, Incognito. I think like, oh, I don't even know. It's just crazy. It's like that, you know, that was a big one. Like there was characters from SSX in it.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Interesting.

[Tim Gettys]

But yeah, Downhill Domination, the downhill mountain bike game, which was incredible. Like, I want to play that today. And I bet it still holds up.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Like actually, this is actually pretty sick. Now I'm looking at gameplay. I'm pretty sure I saw this and wanted to play it.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, it's really good. And then, yeah, to me it would be. Kinetica is the other one. That's definitely Sony Santa Monica, which I was obsessed with as a kid. That's like the racing one where it's

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

like, like oh, I know what K

[Tim Gettys]

humans or not, I don't know but they like would hold on to. To wheels and like race like with their whole bodies. Very cool. But then frequency and amplitude, the precursors to Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Yeah, those are my. But again like deep cuts. I don't know if I'd call them that. What about you?

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

7 Samurai 20xx, which is a game. It's a game I've never heard anybody else bring up. But like I was so. I was such a. I was the master of the GameStop $10 bin, right? Anytime I'm at the mall I'm like, I gotta stop by Gamestop. Cuz I know I can ask my mom for $10 and she'll give it to me and I can leave here with a new game or quote unqu. New with an old game. With an old ass game. So I would be, I. I would be in the trenches in that bin trying to find what's next to play. I remember grabbing MTV Music Generator 2

[Tim Gettys]

Dude to make a sick beat so

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

hard trying to make a sick beat and it would just turn out to be like cartoon that I'm making. And then I Ninja was another one I remember being obsessed with as a kid. Like that felt like a man. This is people out here playing Ratchet. People are out here playing Jack and Daxter or whatever. I got. I Ninja that I'm playing. Right? But I just want to bring that up because the PS2 for me is a console of just quantity. But like so much quality in that quantity that I think so much falls through the cracks of things that might not be the best games ever. Obviously like Seven Samurai 20 XX that's like a five out of ten game probably. But like I have the memory of it and I was obsessed with it for some reason and I couldn't get enough of it.

[Barrett]

The one that I want to shout out that I remember my buddy and I playing just hours and hours of was the Flat out games, which was kind of burnout esque, but it was the modes that we would play because we would barely do the actual driving.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm.

[Barrett]

I'm trying to find gameplay of it.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I remember the commercials for Flat Out.

[Barrett]

God, Flat out was so cool.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

They had the commercials where it was essentially like stunt drive, right? Yeah, People, they would like crash and people would fly out the car and all.

[Barrett]

And like there was one where it was like how like there was one mode we were obsessed with where you'd go up and it was almost like one of those like strength things where you see the. The bell go all the way up, but you'd crash and you'd have you try to see like how high you can get your. Your dude to fly and stuff. Like, I'm trying to find like just one of the silly. Here's the thing modes.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm making an executive call here, if you boys will allow me. This is no longer a shit list. This is a celebration of the PlayStation 2 brought to you by Tim Gettys blessing at a junior and I love it. Eric Courtney, I love. We'll get to the shit list at a different point, a different day. Let's just celebrate day.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Okay?

[Tim Gettys]

Let's just celebrate the playst do. Let's just talk about our memories of the 25. Down for that.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I'm totally down for that because yeah, dude, flat out was like. Flat out was one I never played. But like, I remember watching the commercials and being. Man, that's sick. Another one. Another deep cut. Which I think when I, as I say it, everybody's gonna be like, oh, everybody played that, right? But MX versus atv, you remember MX

[Tim Gettys]

versus atv, they shoved that down our throats. That was on every demo disc possible, man.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Dude, I. They had that everywhere for some. I played that in church youth group. Like, for some reason the church owned MX versus atv. I had also a demo disc that. Oh, we got to talk about. Don't discons. We got to. But I played so much versus atv.

[Barrett]

Oh, this is unlocking.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

It was everywhere for some reason.

[Tim Gettys]

And this all led to one game and one game only. Freak style.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

They were like, all right. The PS2 era was dominated by ATV and MX related games. Also, extreme sports are popping off. What if we put a Q and freak and had some fun with it? And then there was BMX xxx.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah, I know we've already done this shit list probably on a Patreon thing, but like there's a conversation of the top 10 extreme sports games and they're all like 99 of them are on PS2. Like, PS2 had such a chokeholder.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, again, extreme sports early 2000s,

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

it all comes together.

[Tim Gettys]

That it comes together. But yeah, man. Yeah, here we go. Freak style, baby.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

This is what I never wanted.

[Barrett]

All games just like looked in terms of just like environment assets. Like, everything just looks the same. It's so funny.

[Tim Gettys]

It is really. I mean, yeah, this was essentially like, all right, let's just take SSX and make it motorcycles.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

God, another deep cut. I'll throw out There Oni. Yeah, Oni was one dude, the OG who made that because that was a weird. Oh yeah. Oh, Bungie. They said, oh gee. Yeah, Bungie made it published by Rockstar, of all things. Like a weird ass collaboration there. But like that's what it was like back in the day. Right? But like a, a game that was this third person action game. You're playing as like, you know, a cool secret agent and you're going with. You're getting like these different guns and like I remember in the back of the box how much they would advertise the like melee moves or whatever. And then also how one of the, one of the key bullet points they had on the back of the box that always stuck with me even as I was playing the game. I'm pretty sure this bullet point is what sold me on the game more than the game itself because the game is very fine.

[Tim Gettys]

No, no, no. The game is booty.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

This game is not good.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Even as a kid I was like,

[Tim Gettys]

it's kind of cool. This is the perfect definition of a game. You go to Blockbuster, you see that box art, you're like, there's no way this is bad.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

There's no way home.

[Tim Gettys]

And you're playing it, you're like, this is bad. But no, it's not. I love this. I love this. It can't be bad.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

The bullet point on the back of the box was saying that the architecture in this game was made by real architects. And as a kid I zeroed in on that and was like, I was like, oh, that's really cool. And for some reason matters to me, I let that bullet point convince me that this was some revolutionary.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Type shit.

[Tim Gettys]

God, that's so funny, man. Yeah, I want to shout out the

[Barrett]

PSU for, you know, like, this is, I don't think I quote, unquote, own a PS2 until 2002, 2003, when my mom started dating my former stepdad and he had a PS2. And so a lot of it was learning about games through him. But then eventually my cousin having a PS2 and that was the era of cousin games, you know, like that was, that's where we get that era of just like the weirdest that you'll find. Right. But I was saying all that just to say like, I, I'm not in it. Like you guys are at this point in time, right?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Barrett]

But I just want to shout out like all of the weird games that I think of. The, the number one that I think of going over to my cousin's house. And playing just really weird games was whiplash. Where you play as like. Like a bunny or some shit with another dude.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, my God.

[Barrett]

And you're. You're leaving, you're trying to escape like an animal, like, testing facility. And it was just like. I was just.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I was something in me.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

I don't think I've ever had a memory hole unlock like this. Like, holy crap, this is insane. Where I loved this game, but I don't think I could have ever, ever pulled it out.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Holy cow.

[Barrett]

Yeah, so it was one of those, like, kind of 3D platformer, you know, where you play as two characters kind of thing, but it was a bit more edgier and goofy.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

It was fun, dude. It was.

[Barrett]

I at least remember it being a great time.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, man. Wow. Wow.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Interesting.

[Barrett]

But, yeah, like, my cousin had just a bunch of games like these where

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

you're just like, okay, obviously, I'm gonna get into super chats in a moment. I want to shout out Spy Hunter. The Spy Hunter series. Dude, that was one where I. So I played Spider 1 and 2. Never got around to 3, even though that's the one that started the rock.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, exactly. I'm with you there too.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I remember seeing the commercial or, like, trailer or whatever it was and being like, man, I really want to rock bottom somebody in a video game because that's what they had in Spy Hunter 3. But Spy Hunter 1 was a game that, like, at that point, whenever I got Spy Hunter, I had learned what bad video games were. And when I first played Spy Hunter, thought it was a bad video game. As a kid, I was like, oh, this is boring. Oh, man, this is. There's so many requirements to complete a stage. Basically, if you're unfamiliar with the PS2, Spy Hunter, it's a pure driving game, but you're playing as a spy, and so your car has a bunch of gadgets and you're going through these stages and, like, trying to fulfill the objectives while also getting to the end of the stage. And for the first maybe month or so of having this game, I was like, this kind of sucks. I don't know what changed in my time playing it, but I grew hooked. Like, I think I just. I just learned to understand what it won for me. And after I got into the flow of that game, one of my. It ended up being one of my favorite just driving games by Hunter 1

[Tim Gettys]

for me was a. I rented it once, never beat it. But I played the demo so many times. I really loved the converting the car into Like a motorcycle type thing. Like the like hydroplaning and stuff like that. That was so, so much fun. And yeah, again it all these games look identical but like it's a look we like. God, this looks so stretched.

[Barrett]

Yeah, I think this is probably, yeah 4K 60 frames per second.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

But yeah, it's funny, you reticle in the middle like you have all the, you have like the machine guns essentially you can shoot at your car. You then I think circle was how you shoot your like tracker I think because there's always an objective that was like oh, track this thing. And then if you take enough damage on your car, your car will then transform into a motorcycle is like a last ditch thing.

[Tim Gettys]

So talking about PlayStation 2 games that I, I feel don't get enough love now at the time they did. But don't get enough love when we look back is Time Splitters. Yes. Yeah, because we obviously had Goldeneye. We had Perfect Dark on N64 and those revolutionized console first person shooters. Party couch, co op or not co op, couch, multiplayer first person shooters. Right. Gadgets, gizmos, fun, chaos. That team ended up making Time Splitters and It was a PS2 launch title or at least PS2 launch window. I, if I remember correctly, was it launch itself or was it like two weeks later?

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

It must have been weeks later. I don't think it was in the original.

[Tim Gettys]

Something like it was very, very close. Like it was between October and December of that year. Time Splitters one came out and it was all the fun that we had of goldeneye but just with leaning into the kooky characters and the fun of like everyone loved Jaws and odd job in GoldenEye. It's like what if all the characters just had some weird gimmick like that, like something about them. And Time Splitters one was great, but Time Splitters two was phenomenal. Yeah, the amount of maps it had, the amount of weapons, the amount of just fun in style. And then Future Perfect was like a legitimately great game. The third one. But yeah, this franchise was so damn good. And like it's so PS2 coded because if I remember correctly, one was exclusive on PS2 and then it went multi platform. And most of my memories are actually playing this on GameCube just because GameCube kind of became our like party system, you know, like we're playing Mario Kart and Smash and all that. So we just continued the fun there. But in opposition to Xbox, which was our Halo system. But this didn't feel like Halo. This felt more like Mario Kart and Smash.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah, man. Shout out to Timeslitters and I think you might have been right, actually. I think that might have been a launch title now that I'm looking it up on ign. Which the PSU launch late. Bigger than I. Than I would have guessed. I think when I. When I think about a launch slate. Right. Like I would have thought division.

[Tim Gettys]

Spy Hunter, Madden 01.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I don't think Spy Hunter was on there. Well, no, it's not on the list here.

[Tim Gettys]

Not.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

No. It definitely was early though. Because playing Spy Hunter, you could tell that that is from early PS2.

[Tim Gettys]

Tekken tag tournament.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yes.

[Barrett]

Yep.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Midnight Club.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I don't think I realized I was launched. That's crazy. Did you say SSX?

[Tim Gettys]

Nope. SSX.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

That was one for sure, dude. Street Fighter X3.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Which I played at my friend Samuel's house all the time.

[Tim Gettys]

Like that one at all.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Oh man. We got a lot more to talk about, including super chats to get to. But before we get there, I want to tell you about patreon.com kind of funny and YouTube.com kind of funny games where you can go and get the kind of funny membership which allows you to get shows ad free. And speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors.

[Tim Gettys]

This episode is brought to you by Arc Raiders, a multiplayer extraction adventure game where most of humanity shelters underground. But raiders rise to the surface in search of something greater. In the Rust Belt. Danger isn't the end of the story. It's the beginning of the adventure. Every journey above ground is a gamble against the relentless machines of Ark and rival raiders chasing the same dream. Explore lethal yet vibrant worlds scarred by old conflicts and reclaimed by nature. Where shifting conditions makes every high stakes run unpredictable. Adventure isn't a choice, it's the price of thriving. You've seen the boys playing Arc Raiders and they're absolutely loving it on all those streams. You can join them too. Arc Raiders available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series XS and PC.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

And we're back. I want to bring in some super chats into the conversation. Alex Fraser writes in and says, why do I associate Timesplitters 1 and 2 with the Gamecube rather than PS2? I didn't own it on either console.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I mean, I think it goes back to what I just said, just the style of the game and the memories of it. But yeah, Time Splitters one I don't even think was on. Actually I know it was not on

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

gamecube so strive says nobody talks about the bouncer for PS2 that was a sick ass game. Cut.

[Barrett]

I don't.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Barrett, show me the bouncer.

[Tim Gettys]

Think Streets of rage, but on PS2.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Okay.

[Tim Gettys]

Like squares that look like sora.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Oh.

[Tim Gettys]

So it's like, it's.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Oh, I remember the bouncer now. I've seen this.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. I. I think we talk about the bouncer the perfect amount.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah. I feel like it comes up as a meme all the time.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Wow. Yeah. Did you ever play Fighting Force back in the day?

[Tim Gettys]

No.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

This gives Fighting Force a little bit. I want to bring in one from Dave Sketch three who says shout out to Mark of Cree and. And Indian or they mean Indigo Prophecy.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Did you play Mark of Cree?

[Tim Gettys]

Those are two games I never played. But I. My friends loved Mark of Cree.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I. I played Indigo Prophecy because I had. I had a. I had a quantic dream era, Tim, which is not a great era to have. But like, honestly, they. They're the only ones that make the kind of games they do in the way that they do, which is like very cinematic in the choose your own adventure thing. And very like, just weird. And I. It weirdly speaks to me. I think the FMV fan in me just really likes what they do and the choose your own adventure fan likes what they do. And so after playing Heavy Rain and the one after Heavy Rain, which I can't remember beyond Two Souls, I went back and I played Indigo Prophecy. And when I tell you that David Cage has been on his bullshit, man, that's hilarious. David Cage has always been on whatever fuck bullshit that he's been on because that was a weird ass game. But also for the PS2 and it did stick out from the pack. That was a game that was doing really unique things with how it did its narrative and all that shit. But man, that's a game about a man who's just going through it.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Start seeing demons one day and shit goes wrong. Shout out Indigo Prophecy. Nazio writes in and says, Tim, DHD also had War of the Monsters characters.

[Tim Gettys]

Downhill Domination. Yeah. And all. War of the Monsters, that was another great one. Did you ever play that?

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I never played it, but I remember

[Tim Gettys]

big Kaiju games with not Godzilla and not.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

And not whatever that might have been an Addison joint. I'm going to that.

[Tim Gettys]

Super fun. Yeah. Again, not a game that I would necessarily recommend. Be like, oh, man, you gotta play it. But you get some friends together, four players, smash them up type stuff.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Very, very fun entity one says many fond memories of Final Fantasy 9 on PS2 and pulling all nighters. Were you a Final Fantasy 9 person at all.

[Tim Gettys]

Well, Final Fantasy 9 is PS1. But yeah, I love, I love nine. I went, nine was one. I played way later. But I mean ten was my first. So yeah, all the prior ones I went.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I assume this is a backwards compatibility situation because I had that as well where I played a lot of PS1 games on PS2 because I never owned a PS but sometimes I would get PS1 games. That's how I played. I had a demo disc which we're going to have the demo this conversation. But I had a demo disc that was a PS1 demo disc that had oh Brave, Fancy Musashi and NFL Blitz. It was one of the PlayStation Undergrounds chat, if you know which one I'm talking about. Name more games from that thing because I can talk about that all day.

[Tim Gettys]

But demo discs, I mean let's just

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

talk about, let's just talk about.

[Tim Gettys]

Right, because there was the, there's PlayStation Underground, they would do that stuff. Then There was the PlayStation, the jam packs.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yes.

[Tim Gettys]

That you can get and you can actually like buy demo discs like in box. Like they sold them as a separate series. And I think that started maybe not with the PS2, but maybe it did start with the PS2. But to me it was official PlayStation magazine. Every month you spend 1199 for a magazine, which now is just normal prices, which is insane. Yeah, but back then that was crazy because magazines were like 399, 499. But you're paying for a monthly demo disc of PS1 games. And that was the best moment of my month, every single month. Because of course I love the magazine. But you're telling me I actually get to play a bunch of games and yeah. Was I playing 102 Dalmatians on the PlayStation 1? Sure I was, but I was having a great time.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

You're doing it and you're doing it probably over and over again, over and over again. The amount of games I played over and over again that had no business playing that much. But like I. When you. When for some reason as a kid when, when somebody gives you a taste of a game and that's all you have of it, you just keep going back like it's crack or something.

[Tim Gettys]

Yep.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I remember my next door neighbor Freddie, he friend who had the Xbox, I would go over to his place all the time to just play Xbox games and his dad just had a bunch of demo discs for PS2 for some reason that he was like, oh hey, here you have a PlayStation. I was like, yes I do. I'll take Those. And I forget what brand of demo disc it was, but it had Death by Degrees, which was the Tekken spin Off games. Star spin off game starring Nita Williams.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh my God, dude, that's another. That's like bringing something back to me.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah, it was the third person action game where she had like a special move that you would power up and you would break people's bones. Like you would target where you want to hit and then break their fudgeing bones. The demo of that was fucking fun.

[Tim Gettys]

Vic Rattler says Freddie Slop.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

There's Addison Slob and then there's Freddie Slop for sure. What else is on that demo disc? Because they had the Brave Fence Musashi sequel that I never really liked that much. In that demo disc they had. Oh, they had some fucking football games. I forget what else is on there.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, my demo memories, like the jam packs, there was a. They were real big on cool borders. That's what it was. They just kept making cool borders and I never liked any of them, if I'm being honest. But I played them so many Damn times. Obviously PS2, we had some great final fantasies. The Devil May Cry series gave birth on the. On this, the PS2. And yeah, DMC1 was such a moment. Like that was one of the first times, like you talking about Shadow the Colossus making you be like, games could be this Devil May Cry was one where in a very, very different way, the way that the camera worked and the gothic nature of the like castle you're in and the island you're on. It was definitely a moment for me of like, what the hell? Like people created this and yeah, how do their minds work that way? And it's like obviously that was the bloodline of the Resident Evil games and those games had isometric backgrounds and all that. But there was something about the pre rendered look of devil may cry 2 using the PS2 that was like so phenomenal. And that was the same era leading into obviously metal gear solid 2 and all that. But the Zone of the Enders demo, that Zone of the Enders itself, like

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

God, man, don't they cry. There was like an aura in that game or something. I remember that was one that I borrowed, I'm pretty sure from Madison as well. And for some reason as a kid didn't resonate as much with me. I think maybe I want to say it was Devil May Cry too, but maybe it was three. I mean, maybe it was one because three isn't a good one or three

[Tim Gettys]

is the best one.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Three is the best one, two is doo doo butter. Maybe it was two then. I think I borrowed two from him and just didn't enjoy it. But I remember playing one of these Devil May Cry games and being like, there's something that feels demonic about these games.

[Tim Gettys]

Felt demonic legitimately.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Like this feels dark. I don't know what it is, but I can feel it through the screen and it doesn't feel good.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. And then taking that, the not so much demonic, but Fatal Frame two, Crimson Butterfly, that to this day I haven't been that actually scared. That game gave me a recurring nightmare. Really?

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Like I would wake up in cold sweats thinking about Fatal Frame 2. And it's funny because now I look at it and think about playing a game, I'm like, no. Like there's no way it's that scary. But there was something that early not knowing about the tricks that video games could have to scare you and the vibes that they could create. Because we're so used to it now. We know every trick in the book, right?

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Back then though, me and my friend Curran sat there and part of it. I've again told this story a million times, but we played in the. The only room that we could at the time with the tv. There was a lot of glare coming in like from the windows with the sun, so it was hard for us to see. So we had to get like real close to the screen and we would like. It was kind of the mic thing of like, you play, you play, you play. Like we did not want to hold the controller because the way that the rumb would work on the Dual Sense two was terrifying. And like, it's so funny to think about now, but it's like, dude, it was so scary.

[Barrett]

I love. I found the. We. We found the sequel to Mike and Rogers streaming series here.

[Tim Gettys]

They're remaking this.

[Barrett]

Oh right. They are.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

That's perfect. Damn, that's perfect, man. Yeah. This game is them back in those out, dude.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah. There's a chat that went by. I'm trying to see if I can still see it. It might, it might be gone now. There's somebody in chat mentioned. I hope they talk about Star wars. Battlefront Battlefront 2, dude. I mean, you want to talk about

[Barrett]

probably still my most played game of all time is probably still Battlefront 2.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Battlefront 2 might be up there for me as well. Like that was. I. I credit that game with being like my first foray into playing a class based shooter.

[Tim Gettys]

Right.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Like Star Wars Battlefront 2 just hit different for me. I hadn't played a game like that before where it's like, oh, I have all these units and I can be a sniper and you be this and you be that.

[Tim Gettys]

Right.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

And obviously that existed before, but Star Wars Battlefront being such a, like, amazing version of that, layering on the Star wars stuff on it. And then even into having the space battles. Right. Having being able to play as Luke for a second, being able to kind of like mowing down all these units. Me and Barrett did the stream last year, maybe two years ago. I forget when.

[Barrett]

Whenever that re.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Whenever the remaster came out, which man, I forgot.

[Barrett]

They also celebrated PI Day. I remember because we ordered PI as well. That might have been this year. That might have been March this year.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

There's no way was this year.

[Barrett]

Chat let us know.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah, I think that was March 14, 2024. Either way, though, like, you can go and watch the gameplay and watch how locked in I get.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Like, it legitimately is like putting a war veteran back into war after years.

[Barrett]

Like two. Especially like two I really adore because, you know, they. They do the story mode of, like, retelling, you know, the both trilogies of, you know, the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, but doing it from the perspective of the 501st.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Barrett]

And getting like, these kind of like cute little, like, intermission cutscenes between these battles of them dealing with Anakin being their leader and then slowly turning into Darth Vader and then it ending, I think on the battle of Hoth. Like, that was like, such a cool way to, like, hey, we're not gonna do, like, a full, like, cutscene thing. But it was still, like, a cool little different perspective to play. And then you had the. What was the mode that we played?

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Bless? It was the lack of conquest.

[Barrett]

Galactic conquest, which was like, that's why, like, I had so many hours in Battlefront 2, because my friends and I would play that. Like, we played this game for years.

[Tim Gettys]

Somebody needs to make a video essay about how Star wars games are just so good.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Oh, yeah, somebody should. And we should call it the Blessing Show.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, we should check it out now. YouTube.com/kind of funny games, but yeah. So many great Star wars games on PS2. So many Star wars games on PS2.

[Barrett]

Can I just want to shout out Revenge of the Sith? You got it really quick. Yeah, because, like, that game, Booty, not great. Like, very ridiculous. But I just. I love the ending because you can either choose to end it as Obi Wan, where you get the ending of the movie. Or you play as Anakin where you kill Obi Wan and then you kill the emperor.

[Tim Gettys]

It's pretty insane. I want to give a shout out to Jedi Starfighter, which was kind of a Rogue Squadron spiritual successor. Again, not that great, but I. I really enjoyed it because it's what I had. And then Star Wars Episode 1 Racers Revenge, which was also not as good as Star Wars Episode 1 Racer.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

But hey, we got a sequel to that game on PS2. Like, PSU just had everything, everything, the good, the bad, and everything in between.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I think it was just. It was at such a. I guess, such a specific time for the growth of video games where, like, you know, it came. Obviously it came after the first 3D generation. And so you had the space to make sequels. And so, yeah, you had so many sequels. You had the evolution of just the tools and so you could do different things and experiment a lot. And there was so much experimentation that just led to, like, most, like, so many pivotal games. Like, so many of the top games we Talk about on PS2 were games that fucking invented genres or like, did shit that really pushed the needle as far as what you expected out of video games.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Jordan Vickers in the Super Chat says the warriors needs a remake, But Final Fantasy 10 will always be the Goat. Also, Tim, try looking up fashionable cloaks. I mean, he said he trust me.

[Tim Gettys]

I did trust me many times.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I mean, I.

[Tim Gettys]

You.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

You've probably heard me talk about the warriors video game. I love the Warriors. I put it up there as one of my favorite. Actually. I want to say one of my favorite Rockstar Games on PS2, but I can't because Rockstar is so goated during that era.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, obviously, number one, state of emergency.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I mean, yeah, of course, of course.

[Tim Gettys]

What a disappointment that was, Con.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

But, hey, they made up for it with so many other games I like.

[Barrett]

I know I'm always in the minority on here, but, like, the true goat to me for Rockstar in that era is Bully.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I love that you love Bully. That's awesome.

[Barrett]

I mean, that was, you know, for the longest time, like the, like, you know, growing up as a kid, a fan of the Harry Potter at the time of, like, wanting that, like, go to school kind of, like, thing, but, you know, not actually having to do schoolwork. Like Bully was that, you know, and like, doing this whole, like, prep school type of thing. It was fucking awesome.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

And now you have Persona.

[Barrett]

And now I have Persona. The bully to Persona, like, Pipeline is real.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. The top 10 games to get to know Barrett. Bullies definitely on it.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Oh yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. We do the Barrett version.

[Barrett]

I have not thought too much about it.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Bully Persona 5,

[Tim Gettys]

Breath of the Wild. Oh yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

One of them Zeldas. I don't know if it's.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean I asked thing about Zelda for sure.

[Barrett]

I think it might be linked to the past, honestly.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah, I can see that. Yeah.

[Barrett]

One day Donkey Kong 64.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

What else we got here in super chats? Ty Wilkins VO says my Deep Cut Yu Hakusho Dark Tournament. I was busy playing the Budokai games, but I have tried Dark Tournament and it's neat that it exists because I love you. Hakusho.

[Tim Gettys]

The. The big major square ones, right? Like Final Fantasy 10 brought up obviously. Like, what an amazing game. Like one of my games to know me. One of the best video games, period. First Final Fantasy with voice acting. Such an amazing story. Like, I do think one of the best stories in video games. Like debatably the best story in video games. Like, it's up there.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Damn.

[Tim Gettys]

And then Final Fantasy 11, the first online one. Final Fantasy 12.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I mean, Kingdom Hearts.

[Tim Gettys]

Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, man, like they were hitting who were hard.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

So who. Who are we calling? The publisher or even game studio MVPs of the PS2 generation.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, I think like rocks Rockstar.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. And Square. And it's funny, I think Square you much more associate with the PS1 because the.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

There's even just more dominance there. But like, I do think that we can't overlook the fact that Square didn't miss on PS2.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Like Final Fantasy 11. That. That one I think maybe can be a bit more. Take it or leave it. But 10 and 12, definitely like, yeah. Bangers.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I think Kingdom Hearts alone.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Like in that era.

[Tim Gettys]

And yeah, Square also had a bunch of other things too. But like those are the big franchises.

[Barrett]

Someone shouted out Pandemic, the developer who did work on Star Wars. Battlefront.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Barrett]

And Battlefront 2 one that I forgot that they worked on, which I. I hold near and dear to my heart. I know they don't age well, but destroy all humans one and two. Yeah. Like we, my friends and I were obsessed with.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I love how many of the games are talking about that are like, again, it's tough to talk about deep cuts with the PS2 because you can make the argument that there's a few deep cuts or everything's a deep cut. You know what I mean? Everything kind of exists in a pile of quality.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

But yeah, dude, like, I love how many of the games that we're talking about where it's like, oh, yeah, if, you know, you know, like, they also worked on mercenaries.

[Barrett]

You remember mercenaries?

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I do remember mercenaries, yeah. I think. Oh, you know what? I was trying to think of mercenaries the other day, because I was. Which is. I know it's a crazy thing to say, but, like, what game was I getting mixed up? There was another game that was like Force something. Some force fighters fighting. Not fighting force. There was another game that I was trying to. I was trying to figure out what mercenaries was. But anyway, I digress.

[Tim Gettys]

Konami, we have to bring them up for your games, obviously, but also the Silent Hill games, and they're another one that. They just had a bunch of hits all around.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Freedom of Force. Thank you. Chat.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Alex frasian. Chat says DBZ, Budokai 3, of course. Shout out.

[Tim Gettys]

Gran Turismo 3. A spec. We didn't talk about, but that was that. That was a moment of PlayStation 2 where even if you didn't care, you wanted to play it, you wanted to watch someone play it because of how good it looked. I'm trying to think of like. Like the actual. Like working backwards from current PlayStation to. To there. Like. Like, it's okay. There's no Spider Man. Well, there was Spider man, but it was different back then. No Horizon.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I mean, if we're talking about God of War, I think the one that stood the test of time.

[Tim Gettys]

Absolutely right. God of War 1, 2. At the end of the PS2 life cycle.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

What's funny when you think about the two big PlayStation franchises that stood the test of time from that era. God of War and Ratchet and Clank. Yeah, like, Ratchet and Clank is the other one, which is wild.

[Tim Gettys]

Well, I mean, also, we've. We've danced around a little bit, but like. Like, let's just talk about the PlayStation 2, Jak and Daxter. 1, 2, 3, Ratchet and Clank. 1, 2, 3, 4. Right.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I mean, I. Deadlock. Yeah, yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

It's like. I mean, but I mean, I. Yeah, whatever you want. Was there only four? Was there five? I think there was four. But, like, that's insane. Sly Cooper. What? One and two, if I remember correctly.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah, that sounds right.

[Barrett]

Was three on PS3 or.

[Tim Gettys]

I think so. I think so. I was never the biggest. Slide.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah, I was never the biggest.

[Tim Gettys]

But, like, that's crazy, the amount of games that we're talking about. Trilogies plus. Yeah, like, that's.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

And that's when you're talking about, like, the PlayStation first party stuff. But then. Yeah. When you're talking about trilogies, plus, like, the fact that you had that many GTAs on a.

[Tim Gettys]

On a console, GTA is of that quality that are that legendary.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah.

[Barrett]

For what they did and how quickly they came out.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, it's nuts, man.

[Barrett]

And I'm talking about all these, like, gta, the Jack games, the Ratchet games. Like, it was insane.

[Tim Gettys]

Essentially. Like, I remember having a conversation. I was shoving breadsticks from Pizza Hut in my mouth, talking to Kern and Alfredo, and we're like, budgeting out our gaming for the fall and we're just like, what? Who's going to buy what? And then we're just going to like, lend it each other because it's just like, all right, I'm going to buy need for Speed Underground this year. Next year you'll buy need for Speed Underground too. I'm going to buy Prince of Persia Sands of Time. Next year you'll buy the sequel to Prince of Persia. Like, you know what I mean? It was like. It was crazy. And, like, as a new game would enter the fray, you kind of just had to plan, next year there's going to be a sequel. Yeah. Yeah.

[Barrett]

And it's like, I was thinking about this recently, specifically with like, the Ghost of Yote conversation. Conversation about, like, sequels now and people either being like, not like disappointed or, you know, feeling okay about sequels because they feel kind of the same and not, like, innovative of their predecessors and how much more of a conversation we have about those that now than we did back then. And I think part of the reason why is because of the anticipation and how long it takes to make games now like you expect.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

It's been six years since Ghost of Tsushima. Yeah, I want something that's, like, going to blow me.

[Barrett]

Whereas, like, back then it was like, we didn't think about it as much of like, oh, this needs to innovate because it's just been a year. So it's just like. Oh, yeah. It's like more of the thing that I liked already and I only waited a year for it.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. And also just game part of it, it goes down into just how games have evolved. Where I do think that problem we saw with Assassin's Creed, where Assassin's Creed was the next generation and it was annualized and that did have that burnout.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Oh, yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

But anyway, that's that up. Bigger conversation.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

But another publisher, I'll say I'll shout out, which is more of a. It's more of a sub brand, but EA Sports Big. That's my big three right there. You know what I mean? Fucking. Oh shit. What were the Rockstar Square and Sports Big?

[Tim Gettys]

I. I do think that like legitimately, just in terms of sheer quantity and quality of releases and variety, you got to give a shout to just EA

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

in general for sure.

[Tim Gettys]

When you. I know it's like who gives a shit about Madden and. And blah blah. It's like a lot of people and a lot of people like in that

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

generation like I think did a lot of crystallizing what those were.

[Tim Gettys]

I bought and loved Madden 04.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Like same I was going to mention.

[Tim Gettys]

I was going to say that crazy

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

that like Madden 0405 era. Oh and I know plenty of people talk about was it Madden NFL 2K or something like that? Like it was. Is that the one that people.

[Tim Gettys]

That was that the NFL 2k was like 2k 5 was 2k 5.5, which

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I know people would say is like the greatest sports game of all time type. Which is like we're talking about that era.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. And then I do if we're talking about ea, gotta shout out Activision because Activision bring in so many of the extreme sports games. Right. Like the, the Tony Hawks. But even just that energy overall it's like God damn dude.

[Barrett]

So many another one that I want to bring up as just like a developer. We got to bring up Harmonics like Guitar Hero 1, Guitar Hero 2 and like rock bands at the very end of the PS2 era. Like harmonics like dominated those years as well.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh my God. Yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Yeah. To close out, I want to read through a few more super chats to give some shout outs here. Oscar Navaro says remember getting Kingdom Hearts 2 and being a struck demon hacker. Says sports games weren't gambling sims on PS2. I miss it. Nando writes in and says Capcom Forgotten Titles, Haunting Ground and Maximo. Like you could be making those up

[Tim Gettys]

and I wouldn't even know. Maximo was a ghost and goblins but in 3D.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Oh, that's cool.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I have never heard of that. Let's see here. Ed Reed fan says My most played PS2 demo disc included MTV Music Generator 2, Portal Runner and Army Men Spin Off, Eco Spy Hunter, Star Wars Super Bomb, Super Bombed Racing, Super Bomb Bad Super Bomb Bad racing. Thank you etc. Mani Bagel Boy Sanchez says Game of Hearts 2 is one of my top 10 games for sure. And I owe it all to the PS2. It was a system that made me fall in love with video games. And then I'LL end with this one washed up gamer says the pretenders to the throne can rest. Setting a birthday tax for the true king of Halloween, my son, who turns 4 years old today. Oh, yeah, Happy birthday, the real king of Halloween.

[Barrett]

One last one I want to shout out.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

What up? What up.

[Barrett]

Obviously the goat. Spongebob Squarepants Battle for bikini bottom. An underrated 3D platformer. You know, based off an IP. Those usually not great, but Battle for Bikini Bottom has stood the test of time and I think it should be recognized as one of the goats in that era of 3D platformers.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

So me and Tim talked during the break. We're going to do this top 10 PS2 or top 25 PS2 games of all time in the very near future. So look out for that. But of course we had to reminisce.

[Tim Gettys]

We had to, like, when you start

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

the conversation, it's impossible to end the conversation. And just think about how much that console means to us.

[Tim Gettys]

25 years of the PlayStation 2 and I bet you 25 years later, like these memories are going to be just as relevant and we're going to still have them. You know, we might forget the names of more of the games. I'm definitely going to forget Whiplash again. Maybe not. You know, maybe this has been seared into my mind.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

I mean, maybe we'll go back and play it. I would love to go back and play Whiplash.

[Tim Gettys]

Where's the Whiplash Remastered? You know, remaster.

[Blessing Adeiler Strife]

Come on, Limited run games. Come on, you're doing everything else. Honestly, this is one of those conversations where it's like on a day, like we could do, we could do a part two to this conversation if you wanted to. Like, I'm ending this because we have to end it. But like, why do we have to end it? Because we're about to go into game showdown. Oh yeah. And it's about to be a really fun episode, so stay tuned for that. Of course, this has been kind of Funny Games cast. Each and every weekday we get together and talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games, live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what you do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free, watch the cord them live and get a daily exclusive show. Catch Today's KHD on YouTube or podcast services and know then until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you.