Sony · 2000–2013

SonyPlayStation 2

The best-selling console ever made, and a library to match: Kingdom Hearts, Silent Hill 2, San Andreas, Shadow Hearts.

[n] PlayStation 2 games available
Why it mattered

155 million reasons it still matters

In 2000 a DVD player cost more than a PlayStation 2 — so a lot of families bought the console. Thirteen years and 155 million units later, it is still the best-selling video game system ever built, and its library is the deepest of any generation.

That depth is the point for collectors. Beyond GTA and Gran Turismo sits a decade of Japanese RPGs, horror and oddities that never got re-released: Shadow Hearts, Rule of Rose, Digital Devil Saga, Haunting Ground. Many are worth more today than they cost new.

Explore the selections below

Find your next PS2 game

Start with a familiar favorite, explore a theme, or browse by what’s included.

Counts are listings in stock — the same game can appear more than once in different packaging.

The JRPG peak

Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts, Shadow Hearts, Persona, Suikoden, Valkyrie Profile — the PS2 is the high-water mark for Japanese RPGs.

Collector's corner

Sealed copies, first prints, special editions, Japanese imports — including the numbered Japanese ranges (Sega Ages 2500, Simple 2000) that make a shelf feel like a set of volumes. The copies that don't come around twice.

The blue-bottom club

Early and budget PS2 releases pressed on CD-ROM instead of DVD: turn the disc over and the underside is blue. Madden 2001, Smuggler's Run, Midnight Club, TimeSplitters, Summoner, Fantavision. Check the exact edition — formats changed between printings.

Silent Hill and the horror cycle

Silent Hill 2 and 3, Fatal Frame, Rule of Rose, Haunting Ground — the PS2 was survival horror's golden age.

The blockbusters

GTA, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Ratchet, Jak, Sly — the games that made 155 million people buy the box.

Sports, racing and party

The Friday-night shelf: Madden, NBA Street, SSX, Gran Turismo, DDR and the games four people can play at once.

The PS3 is already here

Released after the PlayStation 3 was already on shelves: Persona 4, Odin Sphere, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, and sports discs pressed all the way to 2013 — the PS2's long second life, using North American dates.

The playable cartoon gallery

Okami, Viewtiful Joe, XIII, Dark Cloud 2, Dragon Quest VIII, Sly Cooper, Odin Sphere, Gregory Horror Show — grouped by illustrated appearance rather than genre. The PS2's real house style, once cel-shading arrived.

The television is a nightclub

Rez, Frequency, Amplitude, Space Channel 5: Special Edition, Gitaroo Man, DDR, Fantavision — music, color and audiovisual spectacle as the whole identity. Turn the lights off; the television is a nightclub.

The red-label shelf

North American Greatest Hits: the red spine, the $19.99 price, the million-seller. Cheaper, later, the easiest way into a franchise. Pair one with its black-label original and you have the whole reissue story.

The reissue changed something

Silent Hill 2's Greatest Hits added Restless Dreams; Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, Persona 3 FES — reissues that added content rather than swapping a cover. Read the spine carefully.

Working Designs' final chapter

Gungriffon Blaze, Silpheed: The Lost Planet, Growlanser Generations — the last three releases from the localization label with the fancy boxes, before it closed in 2005. A small set with a clear ending.

The bonus-disc society

Silent Hill 3's soundtrack CD, the .hack anime DVDs, Zone of the Enders with the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo, Persona 3's art book, God of War's making-of DVD — editions that shipped with something extra. Plus the OPM demo discs and what they advertised.

The original .hack quartet

.hack//Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, Quarantine — four volumes, each with its own anime DVD, and an offline game that pretends to be an online one, desktop, forums and all. A shelf and a sequential playthrough project.

Sega starts a new life

Shinobi, Nightshade, Yakuza, Yakuza 2, Virtua Fighter 4, OutRun 2006, Sonic Heroes — the companion to the Dreamcast ports: Sega's new PS2-era games, from a company that used to make consoles.

The Irem ordinary-person universe

Disaster Report, Raw Danger!, Steambot Chronicles — Irem's PS2 games about ordinary people navigating extraordinary situations and surprisingly flexible daily routines. Earthquakes, floods, and a mechanic with a harmonica.

"Atlus published that?"

Beyond Persona: the strange and wonderful things Atlus USA brought over. Rule of Rose, Magna Carta, Digital Devil Saga, Steambot Chronicles.

Franchises taking a strange turn

The sequels that changed the rules: Shadow the Hedgehog with a gun, Crash driving, Lara in Paris, Final Fantasy X-2.

The city is the main character

Liberty City, Vice City, San Andreas, Los Angeles, Bullworth — games where the map is the star.

Capes and tights

Every hero with a movie deal got a PS2 game. Some of them are even good.

Nick, Disney and the licensed shelf

SpongeBob, Jimmy Neutron, Barnyard, Kingdom Hearts — the cartoon block on a DVD. Kids' games, grown-up prices.

The mall in 2003

Baggy jeans, nu-metal, Underground everything. SSX 3, Tony Hawk, NBA Street, The Sims, Enter the Matrix.

"Why does this movie have a game?"

Minority Report. The Thing. Driven. Fight Club. Somebody green-lit these, and we're glad.

The celebrity fever dream

Games that exist because someone famous said yes: 50 Cent, the Teutuls, Mark Davis, Pat and Vanna, John Madden.

Someone approved this premise

Mosquito stealth. Celebrity motorcycle building. Frog golf. Competitive bass fishing. The PS2 said yes to everything.

The insurance nightmare

Burnout, Stuntman, FlatOut, Crash Tag Team — a driving shelf built around spectacular damage. Gran Turismo, with no damage model at all, is not invited.

Animals with responsibilities

Save the world, find the dog, or eat the tourists. Ōkami, Klonoa, Crash, Shadow, Taz, a sponge and a mouse.

The plastic-accessory museum

Guitar Hero, SingStar, Buzz!, DDR, EyeToy, GunCon light-gun games — each peripheral is its own miniature platform with its own checklist. The living-room floor was never the same.

You are the neighborhood problem

Mister Mosquito, Destroy All Humans!, Under the Skin, Rampage: Total Destruction, Katamari, Jaws Unleashed, Bully — everyone else was having a normal day before the player arrived. Told from the visitor's side.

The couch campaign

Two controllers, one screen, no lobby: Gauntlet, Baldur's Gate, Champions of Norrath, Outbreak, TMNT.

The arcade in a box

Time Crisis, Crazy Taxi, Defender, Mortal Kombat, DDR — three-minute sessions, infinite continues.

Please stop chasing me

Vulnerability, pursuit and hiding — not horror in general. Rule of Rose, Haunting Ground, Clock Tower 3, Siren, The Thing.

The punctuation shelf

Colons, exclamation points, Roman numerals, 'Extreme' and 'Unleashed'. The PS2 was exceptionally well equipped for this nonsense.

The inconveniently large robot club

Robot Alchemic Drive, War of the Monsters, Transformers, Zone of the Enders, Armored Core. Scale and collateral damage.

Your weapon needs an explanation

Fatal Frame's camera, Ōkami's brush, Stretch Panic's scarf, the Mark of Kri's reconnaissance bird, Worms' exploding sheep.

Two games, one artistic conversation

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus — the cleanest two-game PS2 collection there is.

The Dreamcast diaspora

Games that also lived on the Dreamcast and found a second home on PS2: Rez, Crazy Taxi, Grandia II, Space Channel 5, Unreal Tournament.

Harmonix before the guitar

Frequency, Amplitude, Karaoke Revolution, EyeToy: AntiGrav — the experiments that led to Guitar Hero (and the first two Guitar Heroes themselves).

The Clover quartet

Viewtiful Joe, Viewtiful Joe 2, Ōkami and God Hand. One studio, four completely different games, all of them art.

FromSoftware before Souls

Evergrace, Eternal Ring, King's Field, Echo Night, Kuon, Armored Core — the studio was weird long before it was famous.

WATCH PS2 ON THE COOLECTION CHANNEL

From our YouTube channel — played on real hardware.

Silent Hill 2: original or remake?
Silent Hill 2: original or remake?

Silent Hill 2: original or remake?

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