What Are The Hidden Gems of the PS2?

Post by **Gamerforlife** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:16 am

God Hand's not quite as good as Clover's other efforts. Here's my thoughts on it and apologies if this is a bit off topic.

God Hand has some annoying design choices. The difficulty level system that keeps changing the game's difficulty is annoying and unnecessary. Players should be able to choose a game's difficulty setting and have the game actually stick to that damn difficulty setting. It's a poor judge of a player's skill too, and will often throw you into hard difficulty when you're not ready for it. Also, there is far too much randomness to the game. Items appear randomly, demons appear randomly, some enemies may or may not appear depending on certain conditions. You can easily get through an area one time with a few helpful items pickups, no demon appearance and the game's difficulty at normal. You could through that same area another time and find no health items or power ups, have some demon show up to torment you, and oh yeah, the game just bumped the difficulty setting to hard. This is a chaotic, inconsistent game and incredibly unaccessible.

The controls are awkward too and take some getting used to and the levels look pretty bland.

However, if you have the patience to put up with all that crap, you'll come to appreciate the deep combat system and the over the top, funny moves. Actually, everything about the game from the story to the music to the characters is funny, wacky and over the top. Definitely one of the game's strengths. Also, all of the things that make the game so unnecessarily frustrating initially(horrible difficulty level system, stupid randomness of everything) will become less and less of a problem as you find yourself slowly mastering the game. And it's one of the few so-called "beat'em ups" of today that really does feel like the beat'em ups we played years ago. The term beat'em up has so little meaning these days, as it describes tons of game that really bare little resemblance to what we called beat'em ups in the old days.

God Hand is pretty sweet game but some bone headed choices by the designers keep it from greatness and keep it from being as accessible as some of the other "hardcore" action games out there, which have not surprisingly done better critically and financially(Devil May Cry 1 and 3, Ninja Gaiden, etc.) Also, it's a shame us Westerners got shafted on this one. There's a very, very useful roulette technique that was taken out of the American version(it involves a bat tub hitting you on the head)and it was replaced by some crappy new decapitation move.

Overall, while God Hand is decent and gets better if you stick with it for awhile, I consider it Clover's weakest entry. Viewtiful Joe is a far better beat'em up and while Okami is a completely different type of game, it shows a lot more polish than God Hand does. Definitely not the best game for the studio to go out on.

Post by **ott0bot** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:39 pm

i agree! out of the 3 ps2 Clover releases, god hand is the weakest. till not bad compared to say...Crapcoms Final Fight Streetwise. Way to ruin a franchise that could have found some new fans.

Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:11 pm

Fire Pro Wrestling Return, I don't really have much to introduce here since the game does have a cult following, but I do think the game is overlooked by casual gamer/wrestling fans alike, since they only play the latest WWE game.

Post by **executioner** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 11:47 am

tough one on ps2 every good game is pretty popular. some games mentioned that I have not played but can confirm my friend's playing and giving good word for are shadow or rome, okami, yakuza, enthusia and fatal frame.

The ones I would recommend for the list are katamari damacy, gradius V, & one of the greatest fighting games on ps2: urban reign.

Maybe you can also include any megami tensei rpgs because they all have good reviews.[/b]

Post by **evyrew** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 12:15 pm

I would say that one of the some of the hidden gems would be some of the retro compilation titles that have/will be made. The games included might not be 'hidden' gems, but I think the compilation is. A few that come to mind are the SNK, Sega, and Capcom compilation titles. Some compilations seem to be printed in limited runs, and don't get much press. I didn't even know they were out there until a few months ago.

Post by **racketboy** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 12:37 pm

evyrew wrote:I would say that one of the some of the hidden gems would be some of the retro compilation titles that have/will be made. The games included might not be 'hidden' gems, but I think the compilation is. A few that come to mind are the SNK, Sega, and Capcom compilation titles. Some compilations seem to be printed in limited runs, and don't get much press. I didn't even know they were out there until a few months ago.

Excellent idea!

Post by **ott0bot** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 5:48 pm

So the "Hidden Gems" of other systems are now "Hidden Gems" on the PS2 via the comp releases? I love the comps, in fact the Sega Genesis one made me buy a PS2. But I found it at Target! That's a not-so-hidden gem. I saw the Capcom Greatest Hits Collections at all the major retailers.
Where are we hidding all these "gems" anyway? ew

However the SNK one was a little lesser know as were the Street Fighter collections.

Post by **RadarScope1** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 7:40 pm

I had no idea until last week there was a Street Fighter Alpha collection for PS2. If it were cheaper (it was $25) I might have picked it up.

I think this suggestion might be stretching it for "hidden" but what about the original Half-Life? I had never played it before. (I know, I know...) But I got the Orange Box for 360 and i decided to play through the first one on PS2, which I am doing now. Not exactly a low-profile game, but it's certainly a gem, and it might be worth an honorable mention for those console-centric gamers (like me) who missed out on it the first time around.

Post by **Psycho Penguin** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 5:04 am

Def Jam Vendetta is just about my favorite wrestling/fighting game ever, with an awesome control system and addictive points-based system, but a lot of people write it off because of the rap influence. I also think Wild ARMs 3 and Legaia 2: Duel Saga are underrated RPGs that got overlooked because of Final Fantasy X (which is an incredible game in its own right.)

Post by **executioner** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:12 pm

gonna bump this topic up with a game I just remembered yesterday: Robot Alchemic Drive or RAD. One of the first games I played on ps2, it had a funny cliche "giant robot defend you're country from alien invasion" story, weird voice acting with pauses that harmed the flow of the game but made it even more funny. It was made by Enix before joining Square.

What I loved was the concept of the game. Being able to control your giant robot trying to defend you're city while you are playing this kid that is on foot running around hiding through buildings, flying with your powers to a rooftop to get a better view so you can control it or just standing on your robot's shoulder to be closer to the action. Never seen another game that captured the feeling that you are controlling something that big. Not being able to get into the robot was what made this game so appealing and unique or frustrating for some. It might get boring after playing missions over and over with the same gameply but it was a blast playing with someone else and using the more complex control scheme.

Hope anyone here was also able to play it or can give it a look or a try now if you never heard of it before and you have an interest in mecha or giant robots.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=3NWxX4QPtks