I am very hyped to play and revisit PS2 games. I'll tell you why right now. Sony has a new and better PS2 emulator to allow PS2 games to run smoothly. This means PS2 emulation is coming to PS Plus Premium and this can definetely light the way for more PS2 games to be added. Let's jump right in.
We have some good news regarding playing PS2 games on the PS4 and PS5 through emulation. Sony is having a brand new PS2 emulator that allows PS2 games to run smoothly, courtesy of Implicit Conversions, the company behind emulation. This is where you'll facepalm and argue that it's bullcrap that there are already PS2 games on the catalog. It's true that there are PS2 games on the catalog and I have three of them currently, but the ones we have now are the ones from PlayStation Now.
PS2 games have been a recurring demand since the revamp of PS Plus and now that Sony has a brand new PS2 emulator, PS2 emulation and new PS2 games are coming to PS Plus Premium, finally. Gematsu shared their post on X saying that the first new PS2 game Sony is adding is Star Wars: The Clone Wars. This is coming in June. Hearing PS2 emulation finally coming to PS Plus Premium made me hyped to revisit favorites from back in the day. All I'm hearing in my head was "I can't wait to revisit The Simpsons: Hit & Run. This has been my favorite nostalgic game since I was younger," "NFSU2 is gonna be awesome to play on my PS5," "The Wrath of Cortex, here I come!" "Looking forward to revisit 3D era MK games," and so on.
Like the original PS1 and PSP games, PS2 games will have rewinds, save states, video filters and up-rendering. Chances are, this will be better than the PS Now era. In honor of that, I have made a separate wish list for PS2 games that will be updated as I think of one. I went to CoolROM to look at a list of PS1 and PS2 games to help me think of what to add to my classic game wish lists. Here's the link to my wish list of PS2 games.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XmFK2Y8tle13iNoRycy1cA2o2DLOk9JlpP-EDAohRdU/edit
And here's the link to my wish list of PS1 games.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jgCNlVyvoUP8NyDiB0j2jbZdScHmvWTGi6GTzBVg2oo/edit
Are you wondering why am I making separate wish lists? Well, my original wish list has all systems. It has more PS2 games than others and I listed it to have PS3 games. Where it stands now, I am making separate wish lists of classics I want by system. I might make a separate wish list for PSP games I want. If I do, I won't be putting the ones that are also available on the PS2 on there since we're playing PSP games on the big screen. A separate wish list of PS3 games however will not be made due to them being only available to stream. That's why they are no longer reverent to me. As such, PS1, PS2 and PSP are the three consoles that are easy to emulate while the PS3 isn't.
So I just want to get this piece of information off my chest on why PS2 games should be important to us. The PS2 era is known for having games that have a charming environment and music and use aspects we seen on the PS1 era. Copyright screens and logos are generally for all ages, but the PS2 era's are more charming.
And when PS Now was launched, no more PS2 games were added. Even though PS Plus is revamped, Sony was still struggling to add more PS2 games and they paused adding more of them until then. That is just a Satan or a Frankenstein mess of things that the PS2 games on the catalog are still on par with PS Now. Thankfully, PS2 emulation is coming to PS Plus Premium to pave the way for more PS2 games, starting with Star Wars: The Clone Wars, set to be added June 11.
After Star Wars: The Clone Wars, more PS2 games will be added as they can run through their new PS2 emulator and this is something we can expect. I can be able to re-embrace Coral Canyon's charming environment and listen to the theme of Gold Rush in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, re-experience the goodness of Springfield in The Simpsons: Hit & Run, re-experience tag team racing and combat in Crash Tag Team Racing and more.
The process of adding more PS1 and PSP games turned out smoothly so far and starting in June, the process of adding more PS2 games will come out smoothly, unlike PS Now. Once June comes, hopefully, PS2 games from PS Now should be patched to have emulation and the list of downloadable PS2 games on Wikipedia should be remade to match the algorithm of downloadable PS1 games.
On the previous post, I told you about Crash and Spyro games on the PS1. They became the source of fueling the charm on the PS1 era. I want them in the catalog to fuel the charm and PS Now never had a single one. And now that PS2 emulation is coming to PS Plus Premium to reopen the gates of PS2 software, our possibility of revisiting Crash and Spyro games in the PS2 era is happening and making a Bianca palette out of Annie really had its perks weirdly enough. The real crap starts in June. Let's freaking go. Maybe they might give us three PS1 games, three PS2 games and three PSP games every month to be like Nintendo. Either that or they might pick up the pace in adding new classics monthly.
But that will not stop here. I potentially have one more future post regarding revisiting PlayStation classics. I just want to express my feelings on this post on how excited I am to revisit PS2 games for reals since PS2 emulation is coming in June 11 when Star Wars: The Clone Wars makes its debut. Maybe they might give us three PS1 games, three PS2 games and three PSP games every month to be like Nintendo. Either that or they might pick up the pace in adding new classics monthly.