15 Best PS2 Ports

Virtua Fighter 4 came out in arcades in 2001 and reached the PS2 in 2002. The graphical detail was reduced for the PS2 port, particularly the textures, but the fighting survived the trip. In the US it was only released as part of the Greatest Hits budget range, so it was cheap, too.

Evolution is an updated version of Virtua Fighter 4 that followed it there in 2003. It adds two new characters, the Judoka assassin Goh Hinogami and the Muay Thai boxer Brad Burns, and adjusts every other fighter on the roster. In the US it also came with Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary as a bonus. Players still name it in the same breath as Dead or Alive 2 and Soulcalibur II when someone asks for the PS2's best fighters.

Dead or Alive 2 came out in arcades in 1999 and reached the PS2 in 2000, early in the console's life. In Japan it was a launch title, on March 30, 2000. Tomonobu Itagaki and his team had only two months at first to produce the port, and the PS2 version looks more jagged than the Dreamcast one because of how its engine drew the picture. Several enhanced editions followed, including Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore for the PS2.

It borrows heavily from Virtua Fighter, but its whole fighting system rests on a circle of three move types: blows, throws and holds. A stunned opponent cannot attack or guard, but they can still hold. It is a staple of PS2 fighting game recommendations to this day.

The PS2 version of Soulcalibur II is an expanded port of the 2002 arcade game, with new modes and Heihachi from Tekken as its guest. Each console got its own guest fighter, with Link on the GameCube and Spawn on the Xbox, and Heihachi was only the backup plan here. The deal to bring Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII over to the PS2 version was canned at the last minute.

The game was originally meant for Sega's NAOMI arcade board before Namco built it on its own System 246 board. All three home versions also got Necrid, a new character created by Spawn's creator Todd McFarlane. Players still recommend it as one of the console's great fighters.

The Sims came out on PC in 2000, and this home console version, developed by Edge of Reality, followed in 2003. Designed by Will Wright, the game lets you create and control virtual people called Sims, build and furnish their homes, and manage their needs, relationships, careers and household finances.

The console version has a Get a Life mode, where you complete objectives as you go through life. You start out unemployed and living in Mom's house, and end with enough money to buy a yacht. Wright was reportedly inspired to create the series after a house fire forced him to rethink how he would rebuild his life and what he really needed. A sequel, The Sims Bustin' Out, followed on consoles in 2003.

Crazy Taxi hit arcades in 1999, and Acclaim Studios Cheltenham ported it to the PS2 for 2001, with Acclaim publishing it outside Japan. You barrel through traffic and jump off parking garages to scare up as many fares as you can before time runs out. In Crazy Taxi, time is money, so the clock matters as much as the driving.

Passengers can still ask for Pizza Hut or Kentucky Fried Chicken in this version, a detail later re-releases swapped for generic businesses, most likely because of licensing. The port did well enough to earn Greatest Hits status on the PS2. There is no story to follow, only the next fare and the clock. Players still call it a fun one.

Viewtiful Joe started on the GameCube in 2003, and the PS2 port that followed adds an easier difficulty, Sweet, and a new playable character, Dante from Devil May Cry. The same design team at Clover Studio ported it. It is 2D side-scrolling action wrapped in 3D cel-shaded graphics, and its VFX Powers let you slow down or speed up time.

According to creator Hideki Kamiya, the team talked about adding Dante, and two days later someone had made a model of him on their own. Fight Dante in the PS2 version and the boss Alastor, himself a nod to Dante's sword, scolds him for forgetting him. Players keep it on their lists of PS2 favourites.

Gauntlet Dark Legacy came from the arcades in 2000 and reached the PS2 in 2001, the follow-up to Gauntlet Legends with that game's characters and levels included. It is a direct port, with the new characters and levels from the arcade game and a few extra levels thrown in. You can pick from eight characters at the start, from the mighty Warrior to the chaotic Jester.

You fight through hordes of evil creatures on the never-ending quest for more gold, with friends if you have them. Up to four players can join in, and you can choose between a slow, strong attack and a quick, weaker one, which Legends did not offer. Players still call it a great couch co-op game.

Vice City Stories began on the PSP in 2006 as the follow-up to Liberty City Stories, and both handheld games came to the PS2 afterwards. This one goes back to the city of the second PS2 game, Vice City, in 1984. You play Vic Vance, an army corporal stationed at Fort Baxter who is trying to make money for his dysfunctional family.

One of the key gameplay elements is empire building. The hidden packages of earlier games come back as 99 red balloons, a nod to Nena's 1984 hit 99 Luftballons. It was also the first game in the series to put a real celebrity in the game: Phil Collins appears in a number of missions and on the soundtrack. Players still list both Stories games next to the main PS2 GTAs.

Coast 2 Coast builds on the OutRun 2 arcade game from 2003 and features 15 cars, the most of any OutRun game, including the Ferrari F430. In Japan it was released as OutRun 2 SP, and only on the PS2. Some cars can only be unlocked on the PS2 by connecting it to the PSP version.

Stay at the starting line after the flagman waves you off, and he starts to stretch, then dance, and eventually moonwalks. Some unlockables from the earlier home version of OutRun 2 are missing, including the original OutRun from 1986. Players call it a great arcade racer that never got the love it deserved.

Psychonauts came out on PC in April 2005, and the PS2 got it that June. You play Razputin, a young psychic who runs away from the circus to attend a summer camp for aspiring Psychonauts, and the levels take place inside the minds of other characters. Raz uses psychic abilities such as telekinesis and levitation to fight and to solve puzzles.

Early in development the main character was going to be an ostrich with multiple personality disorder, which would have been a very different game. The game took four and a half years to finish, and its publisher Majesco left the video game market after a severe financial loss. It has since gained a cult following. Players still call it a favourite.

Splinter Cell came out on the Xbox in 2002 and reached the PS2 in 2003. You are Sam Fisher, an operative for Third Echelon, a secret arm of the NSA, and the job is to slip into terrorist positions and get out without a trace. Ubisoft Shanghai made the PS2 version, which has many small changes over the original and is generally easier.

The hallmark is stealth. A light meter shows how visible you are, so you creep through the shadows instead of shooting everything, and Michael Ironside voices Sam. Some copies even spell the title Splinetr Cell on them. Players still recommend the whole series on the PS2.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 hit arcades in 2000 and came to the PS2 in 2002, after the Dreamcast got it first. It is the fourth game in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. It switched the series to three-on-three tag battles and simplified the controls to four main buttons plus two assist buttons, to make it easier for casual players to pick up.

The characters are traditional 2D sprites, while the backgrounds and effects are rendered in 3D. Hold both kick buttons during a finishing super with Sakura and one of her friends joins her for a dance on the win screen. Players keep it on their lists of PS2 fighters.

Max Payne came out on PC in July 2001 and reached the PS2 that December. Max is an undercover cop framed for murder, hunted by the police and the mob, fighting to clear his name while he digs into the truth about his murdered family. It introduced bullet time to video games, slowing time down as you dive through gunfire.

To fit the PS2's 32 MB of RAM, the levels were broken up into smaller parts, which IGN said disrupted the flow and tension of the story. Remedy didn't have the budget to hire actors for the character models, so staff and friends lent their faces, and creative director Sam Lake became the face of Max himself. Players still keep Max Payne and its sequel on their PS2 lists.

Tekken 5 hit arcades in 2004, and the home version added new character customization options and a beat 'em up mode called Devil Within. That mode focuses on one playable character, Jin Kazama, who can also transform into Devil Jin. The home version also includes the arcade versions of Tekken, Tekken 2, Tekken 3 and StarBlade.

Tekken 4 and Tekken Tag Tournament also made the trip from the arcades, but Tekken 5 is the one players pick. Even the loading screen has a bonus: while the game boots on the PS2, you can play the first few minutes of Namco's old space shooter Star Blade, and the full game unlocks in Devil Within. There are 32 fighters to choose from, including five new ones. Players call it one of the best fighters on the system.

Resident Evil 4 started life as a GameCube game, and the PlayStation 2 only got it that October. The PS2 port had to make some cuts. Almost all of the GameCube's real-time cutscenes were turned into movie files, and the voices and sound effects lost some quality because of disc space and audio memory limits.

To make up for the late release, Capcom added minigames and documentaries to this port, and the biggest addition is a new sub-game starring Ada Wong. Code: Veronica X made the same trip from another console. Players list Resident Evil 4 with the PS2's best horror games, and they name it nearly three times as often as Tekken 5.