The Top 10 Most Challenging PS2 Games of All Time - IGN (original) (raw)
In this era of mainstream gaming and watered-down difficulty settings, it's quite a challenging proposition to find new games out there that are actually… well, challenging. Gone are the days of old, when we spent week after week polishing our skills to beat relentless bastard end-bosses like those of Ninja Gaiden and Whip Rush. Rarely do we have to worry about fighting for our very lives as we slash, punch, and kick our way through a persistent wave of merciless minions like we did in Batttletoads and the The Adventures of Batman and Robin. Instead, today's games are all about accessibility and friendliness, and experiences that leave you feeling like a fluffy little Digimon every time you play. But you know what? Screw that. We want some games that are going to kick our ass.
With that idea in mind, we settled in with a fond remembrance and searched our library to find the most difficult PlayStation 2 games around. We wanted to remind ourselves that even in these days of perpetual weaksauce, hardcore gamers still had somewhere to go for humble pie. Admittedly this was a hard list to compile, as the number of cakewalk titles out there is pretty high. But after spending a countless amount of time going back and checking through some of the best games that the PS2 has to offer, we found plenty of proof that challenge is not dead -- and we have a list below that proves it.
But what were our criteria for today's exploration into difficulty? It's easy, if a game's default difficulty setting pushed our brains, reflexes, or a combination of both to the limit, then it qualifies -- as long as it was available for the PlayStation 2. And so, without any further ado, we now present to you The Top 10 Most Challenging PS2 Games of all time!
Why We Picked It: According to ex-PS2 guy Douglass C. Perry, Manhunt is "...essentially the jail-bound, drug-taking step-child to the TV show Survivor, except you're not kicked off the island. You're hunted down and bludgeoned to death -- for fun, entertainment and, because in some strange way, it's sexy." We don't know what the hell that means, but the game is pretty hard.Basically you're a convict who has been abducted by a snuff film freak and now gangs of thuggish jerks are trying to beat you to death. Hiding from them is hard. Fighting them is hard. Completing the game is hard. Doug continues, "Granted, in the first mode, Ford Competition, you're forced into Easy mode, so you're forced to race easy competition." And finally concludes with, "It's hard, but it's a great challenge. One thing I LOVE about its steep learning curve is that it's never, ever cheap. If you die, it's because you messed up."
Genre: Action | Released: 11/18/03
RANK #9
STUNTMAN
Published by Infogrames | Developed by Reflections
Why We Picked It: Reflections' first PlayStation 2 racer is terrific fun -- and one of the few remaining videogames out there that absolutely forces you to be perfect. Last minute directional changes, varying physics for each of the 20 vehicles, and some of the craziest stage designs around is more than worth than price of admission (and it's only twenty bucks). Expect to spend as many as 30 minutes struggling your way through a single stage, but it's fun the whole way through.
Genre: Racing | Released: 6/26/02
RANK #8
JAK II
Published by SCEA | Developed by Naughty Dog
Why We Picked It: It goes like this: Die, scream, break inanimate object, repeat until the nice men and their comfort cuffs show up with a brochure to a lovely little cell you absolutely cannot opt out of. Yep, the action in Jak's second quest got to be a little much at times. While our bad boy and his mammalian miscreant of a sidekick had access to a wealth of dark superpowers, vicious electro-claws and other assorted attacks weren't always enough to best waves of mechanized bastards.By topping the combat off with a couple of choice platforming segments that bordered on bloody infuriating, Naughty Dog made one heck of an experience they then decided to make even more difficult by including a lot of back and forth city navigation. If there were just a few more instant death scenarios we all would've killed ourselves years ago.
Why We Picked It: Longtime RPG fans already know that Grandia Xtreme's story was nowhere near the quality of the regular series, but the kickass battle system and never-ending hordes of enemies more than made up for it. This is without a doubt the hardest role-playing game ever released on the PlayStation 2 -- which is quite an accomplishment when you're up against Shin Megami Tensei. What's so interesting about Grandia Xtreme, though, is that it gets its difficulty from a sheer volume of obstacles -- not an overly aggressive AI. So while the enemies you meet may be a bit lifeless, the thousands of them attacking you simultaneously makes the whole thing incredibly challenging.
Why We Picked It: Capcom's return to the grimy graveyards and haunted castles of its classic Ghouls 'N Ghosts series was a celebrated event for old-school gamers. Maximo studied its grandfather well, drawing inspiration for an all-new action game "inspired" by the beloved Capcom goblin-buster. And revived with that characteristic platforming play was the typically nail-biting challenge that went with it. Maximo was a punishing platformer in an era when developers were trained to throw a rope out every time gamers fall down. It wasn't necessarily the most impossible game ever played, but it stuck out like a dagger in your palm when compared to other modern platformers. Enemies could flood the screen with well-aimed attacks, and refused to go down at just a few flesh wounds. Your large weapons became difficult to wield in tight spaces. Warp spots rocketed you off to unexpected places that you may or nay not be ready for. And a brutal, old-school limited continue system made you start all over from level one just when you were getting good at a hard part. A real test for true-blooded action-seekers.
Why We Picked It: Boy howdy, that pudding monster sure is funny looking. Ah nuts, he killed me for the 128th time. Hey, what's this giant bee with the stinger all about? Oh, right. He's also there to kill me many times. Alien Hominid is what we call a classic pain in the ass. It's classic in the sense that it was inspired by two-dimensional shooters from years ago (not to mention that it's also quite damn good), and it's a pain in the ass because those little flashing balls the bad people shoot are hard to skip over when they come at our alien buddy in groups of thousands. Perhaps the hardest part of Alien Hominid, though, is focusing on the action without being overwhelmed by the terrific art and design. The game features imaginative enemies and vivid environments. Because of this, anticipating the next attack can sometimes be difficult.
Genre: Action | Released: 11/18/04
RANK #4
VIEWTIFUL JOE
Published by Capcom | Developed by Capcom
Why We Picked It: Don't let the cute cel-shaded graphics fool you, Viewtiful Joe is one title that will lure you in with some happy-happy intro and then smash your face into the pavement. After setting up the simple rules about the super powers that Joe can use, this game requires that players combine the skills and tweak in them in intricate ways as it throws out enemy after enemy. Keeping track of everything that's going on on-screen is nerve-wracking, but it's worth it. Get everything to explode in slo-mo with Joe looking like a smooth criminal in the middle of it all is the stuff that great games are made of.
Why We Picked It: Players should go into Shinobi expecting all the things that nostalgia usually makes you forget. Things like frustration, repetition, and falling into bottomless pits just inches away from the end of a stage, which boots you all the way back to the beginning. This is one mean bastard of a platformer.The stages are broken up into pieces like the old games -- 2-1, 2-2, 3-1, and so on -- but each of those pieces is very long, and has no checkpoints to continue from. Fall into a pit (or otherwise meet Hotsuma's maker, perhaps in one of the savagely crowded battles that pepper the later stages) and it's back to the beginning, which means you lose a substantial investment of time with each death. Death in turn can come quickly and often, and controller-breaking frustration usually follows not too far behind. Only true ninjas need apply.
Genre: Action | Released: 11/12/02
RANK #2
DEVIL MAY CRY 3: DANTE'S AWAKENING
Published by Capcom | Developed by Capcom
Why We Picked It: Dante's Awakening is frickin' hard. It's really, really hard. But that's what we like about it. Not only is each and every enemy in the game a relentless bastard with more aggression than seems possible, they're also equipped with enough attacks to be mini-boss characters themselves. Speaking of boss characters, Devil May Cry 3 has some of the best around; pissed-off grim reapers, giant three-headed ice dogs, angel things that love to teleport, and Dante's sword-wielding twin brother Vergil bring some serious hurt. Throw in a complex combo system, determined enemy AI, and some truly wicked stage designs, and DMC3 is not only one of most challenging action games around, it's also one of the best.
Why We Picked It: Contra has caused more funerals than cancer. Its brain hemorrhaging action is only surpassed by its utterly unrelenting difficulty. So challenging is this game that most people give up hope or just die after the first or second level. Those that do live disregard the entire universe as one big imagined mess, for nothing real could ever allow something so unreal to exist. Only those who persevere ever fully appreciate just how maddening this simple shooter is. Contra is hard, way freaking hard. The game moves at mach speed, throws a hundred million lethal things on the screen from a million different directions, and then just keeps pumping it. The only way to win is to repeatedly retry each and every single level until they have been so deeply engrained on the brain that they even take control of the neurons normally responsible for involuntary breathing.
Genre: Action | Released: 10/22/02
Did your favorite game make the cut or rank around where you thought it would? If not, then don't worry -- we want to hear what you think! If you liked our Top 10 Most Challenging PS2 Games of All Time or you hated it, don't forget to tell us what other PS2 All-Time Top 10 lists you'd like to see in the future too, as we'd love to tell you what we think.