8 Best PS2 Board and Card Games

Konami published and developed Tag Force Evolution for the PS2 in 2007. In Japan it carried the full mouthful, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX: Tag Force Evolution, and Europe trimmed it to Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Tag Force Evolution. Tag Force 3 followed on the PSP in 2008, and that one was never released in North America.

It is a plain Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, built from the GX years of the show, and it does not try to be anything else. Players who name it list it among their favourite PS2 games. If you grew up on GX, this is the card game you remember from the cartoon. If you did not, the other Yu-Gi-Oh! games further up this list are friendlier places to start.

Risk: Global Domination is the board game Risk on the PS2, developed by Cyberlore Studios and published by Atari Interactive. Xbox and GameCube versions were planned but cancelled, so it stayed a PS2 game. The rules follow the board game. Classic asks you to control all 42 territories, and two other modes swap that for capitals or a secret mission. The computer opponents are eleven Generals based on historical military leaders and statesmen, Catherine the Great among them.

The game received mixed or average reviews. Players remember it more kindly, and it still turns up among their PS2 favourites. It is Risk with the dice rolling and the grudges intact, minus the hunt for a table nobody needs for six hours.

Duel Masters was made for the PlayStation 2 and is based on the Duel Masters trading card game franchise. High Voltage Software developed it. If you missed the cards, Duel Masters was the other anime card game of the early 2000s, the one that lived in Yu-Gi-Oh!'s shadow on the toy shop shelf.

Critics were lukewarm. It received average reviews, and PlayStation Magazine and X-Play both gave it 3 out of 5. Players still list it among their PS2 favourites anyway. That says a lot about how few proper card games the console had outside Konami's. It is the pick for anyone who wants to play a full trading card game on the PS2 that is not Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Capsule Monster Coliseum was published by Konami and developed by WinkySoft. It came out in Japan on July 29, 2004 and reached North America on October 26, 2004. Konami had tried the monster capsule idea before, with Monster Capsule: Breed and Battle on the PlayStation in Japan in 1998, and Coliseum brings it to the PS2 with the Yu-Gi-Oh! cast.

Despite the name on the box, this is not the card game. Players describe it as chess with Yu-Gi-Oh! monsters, and that is the quickest way to explain it. You move monsters around a board instead of playing them from a hand. If the card game never clicked for you but you liked the monsters, start here. It is also the one Yu-Gi-Oh! game you could hand to a friend who has never seen the show.

Dokapon Kingdom was released in Japan on November 22, 2007, and Atlus USA brought it to North America on October 14, 2008. A port to the Wii followed on July 31, 2008. Players describe it as Mario Party with RPG battles where the minigames would be, and that is a fair summary of a game that takes whole evenings.

The real game is the other players. One player summed up years of it as "So many hours spent playing that game screwing each other over." That is the best review it could get. Dokapon Kingdom is built for a room full of friends who are happy to stay friends afterwards. Mostly.

Culdcept is a strategy and board game that combines elements of Monopoly and Magic: The Gathering. It is the sequel to the Saturn title Culdcept, and the PS2 game is an enhanced version, Culdcept II: Expansion, released in Japan on September 26, 2002. In North America it was marketed simply as Culdcept and published by NEC Interchannel in December 2003. It has 480 different cards, and its arenas were designed by tournament champions from Japan.

GameSpot called it "surprisingly fun and addictive", with a warning that the luck-based matches will cause you some frustration from time to time. Players explain it by reaching for the same two games, Monopoly and Magic: The Gathering, and they mean it as a compliment. It is the deepest board game on the PS2, and the one most likely to end a friendship over a single roll.

Chain of Memories started on the GBA as the second game in the Kingdom Hearts series, set about a year before the events of Kingdom Hearts II. Sora explores Castle Oblivion while battling Organization XIII, and the fights use a card-based battle system instead of the first game's real-time combat. Re:Chain of Memories is the PS2 remake, with polygonal 3D battles and worlds that use the same graphics as Kingdom Hearts, plus voice acting and an improved soundtrack.

Every attack is a card. Break an opponent's card and you cancel that attack and briefly stun them, so building a deck matters as much as your reflexes. Players name it in the same breath as Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, as the middle chapter you should not skip. It is an action game on the surface and a card game underneath.

The Duelists of the Roses follows Forbidden Memories and is loosely based on the Wars of the Roses. It was Konami's first Yu-Gi-Oh! release for the PlayStation 2. Using designs by creator Kazuki Takahashi, the game's battle system is based on a chessboard-style battlefield, with over 800 cards from the franchise. Each monster card features updated 3D models, and dialogue and visuals were changed to allow distribution in North America and Europe.

Critics were not kind. It scored 59 out of 100 on Metacritic, and most of the criticism went to the gameplay and the high difficulty. Players disagree, by a wide margin, and recommend it more than any other board or card game on the PS2. They describe a card game played on a board, closer to chess or a tactics RPG than a normal duel.