PlayStation Plus Premium is a service that has changed everything in the PS2 department just by having a bigger PS2 game catalog. I am going to explain on how did PS Plus Premium save PS2 games, so let's jump right in.
Hello, everyone, and I am back with another post that is gonna be interesting to talk about. So, as we all know, the PS2 became the best selling console by Sony. So what is it on what makes the PS2 so special? There are several things on what makes it so special.
The PS2 has platformers that have their charming environment, like Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, which got remastered, but still has that charming environment, accompanied by the characters' smooth model evolved from their polygon model from the PS1.
The shift to the new direction involved developers launching child-friendly franchises, starting with Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank and Sly Cooper. These franchises are considered child-friendly so that any child can play these games since they are rated E10+. The franchises as a whole became prevalent in the past market. Ratchet and Clank is not a nostalgic franchise, but Jak and Daxter and Sly Cooper are because these franchises haven't got a new game in this generation.
You know the part where after Naughty Dog and Insomniac parted ways with the Crash and Spyro franchises, they shifted to the 3rd party era where their games were also released on non-PlayStation consoles? The PS2 era allowed Universal to give passing it along to a different studio to continue their franchises, and I believe that there is one interesting thing that was created.
Twinsanity and A Hero's Tail came along to be open world to shake up the franchises a bit. And lo and behold, both franchises were shaken up to be beat-em-up games where Crash and Spyro are given the ability to perform combos against enemies after being passed to a different studio. Both franchises were caught into an abyss of confusion just by passing it on to different developers. And to be honest, that was interesting to experience that.
There are Fox Interactive and Radical's two legendary games based on the Simpsons, Road Rage and Hit & Run. These are the two legendary games developed by Radical and they were all polished up on a silver platter. Except that the scoring differed that Road Rage received a mixed reception over poor graphics and bugs while Hit & Run received a positive reception. I'll have a post in regards to going into detail about two of the Simpsons games developed by Radical and why they are so special to us Simpsons fans in the future, so stay tuned for that.
The PS2 era has top down RPGs with 2D sprites by the hands of Nippon Ichi Software, or NIS for short. We don't deem Disgaea or Atelier as nostalgic because these franchises got iterations on modern generations. But the Atelier series is no longer under the NIS umbrella because it is now under the Koei Tecmo umbrella since Atelier Ayesha. There are PS2 games by NIS that have games in the franchises that are nostalgic, like of course Disgaea 1 and 2 and Atelier Iris, as well as Mana Khemia and Ar Tonelico. The fun thing among them is that they are charmingly nighttime-evident -- remember the phrase? I used that term because the PS2 games by NIS are well playable at night. And it's nothing to do with the fact that the characters in these games say bad words at a mild to moderate level I am not allowed to say.
We don't consider existing companies as a whole, like SEGA, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, Ubisoft, Koei Tecmo, WB Games, EA or Activision centric to nostalgia because these companies that published PS2 games still exist to publish modern titles in this generation. No, the ones that are nostalgia-centric were Namco, SquareSoft, Enix, Koei, Tecmo, Midway, Acclaim, Hudson, THQ, Sierra and Universal. These are the nostalgic ones that got defunct before they go to the later generations of gaming.
And let's not forget about nostalgic-centric elements and middleware PS2 games use, like Renderware, Dolby Pro Logic II, THX, Sofdec and ADX. The ones that aren't nostalgia-centric are Havok, Unreal Engine, Criware, Unity, Wwise and Bink Video.
And that's it. Those are the things that make the PS2 so special. There is a bit of a concept that you take the community who doesn't want to hold on to the past and move on and the other who likes to revisit the past. Unifying them is extremely difficult and quite the balancing act. And sadly, the PS2 database has landed in a very awkward spot.
After the PS3 came out, Sony tried offering PS2 games on its digital storefront. And it pretty much flopped with having a small selection of games that doesn't have the ones that I played back in the day. Then PS Now came to have multiple catalogs. There were PS2 games on there and it only had a few games that I played back in the day. The library is small and it's how PS Now became a terrible service.
Rewind back to 2022, Sony has confirmed a new service that can compete with Xbox Game Pass, the beefed up PlayStation Plus. It has three tiers, with the Essential tier offering the same benefits the original PS Plus has, the Extra tier offering PS4 and PS5 games and the Premium offering game trials, cloud streaming and classic games released on PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP. The process of releasing classics turned out well, but there has not been a new PS2 game for two years because their old PS2 emulator backfired. Now, they have a brand new PS2 emulator to run PS2 games well, paving the way for more PS2 games.
Starting June 2024, we're finally getting new PS2 games releasing on PS Plus Premium and the process of releasing them is turning out to be smooth. Their new PS2 emulator did not backfire and like the PS1 and PSP games, they have up rendering, rewinds, quick saves, video filtering and the option to switch between the NTSC and PAL versions.
We were wondering if the PS2 games that have the PS Now algorithm are gonna get a patch to give them emulation features. Apparently, despite the fact that PS Plus Premium versions of existing PS2 games are being available, the PS Now versions of them will remain available. It pretty much went well with Siren. Then the first Jak and Daxter came along during the 30th Anniversary celebration.
Now, how did the PS2 games get saved to appease and excite fans? Well, the only thing that changed everything is PS Plus Premium. It became the hero to revive retro gaming. PS2 games have been a recurring demand that it became the bestselling Sony console. Sony was able to release new PS2 games well because of their brand new PS2 emulator after two years since the launch of the new PS Plus. They laser-focused on bringing back their cherished games monthly and allowing the catalog of PS2 games to grow.
Fast forward into now, this month's lineup of classics have dropped recently. And we get two classics instead of three this month. The lineup has MediEvil II, a sequel to the original MediEvil that never got remade. And Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, in preparation of the new Indiana Jones game that might be powered by Unreal Engine 5. I believe that this month's lineup came with someting interesting.
The lineup has one of the games that got a good flow of logos and was developed by a Canadian game developer, Artificial Mind and Movement (A2M for short). That really met my expectations that we got a retro game developed by a AAA developer that are known for developing games based on movies and TV shows, like Monster House, Scooby-Doo!, Happy Feet, Teen Titans, the Ant Bully and more. They still exist, but they are now once again called Behaviour Interactive, so that's technically an existing company that has the former name.
There are PS2 games on the PS3's storefront and on PS Now. But none of the libraries have that much games I played back in the day, including the Simpsons games. They just fell short. But Sony has finally resolved this enigma.
PlayStation Plus Premium's PS2 catalog is getting a lot of games I played back in the day as it is growing monthly because of their brand new PS2 emulator paving the way for more PS2 games. They were able to release games produced by defunct companies, existing PS2 games with emulation features on both PS4 and PS5 like Siren and the first Jak and Daxter and the games in the original Sly Cooper trilogy, indicating that they have the technology to release new PS2 games well, allowing the catalog to be much bigger than PS Now's PS2 games catalog and the PS3's catalog of PS2 games.
Possibilities and choices for releasing new games, meaning if and when more existing PS2 games with the PS Now algorithm and games produced by Midway and other defunct companies are gonna be released, they can be able to release these PS2 games well. And sure, I am aware that after Crash and Spyro undergone a shift to the 3rd party era where their games are also released on non-PlayStation consoles, none of them were critically successful as the original games in the PS1 trilogy. I am willing to revisit them, so I put them on my wish list. Honestly, I felt a lot more charm on Spyro than I have on Crash because of the fact that the franchise has two of the best goddesses.
I went to CoolROM to look for PS2 games released are on the PS Plus Premium catalog so far. The games released so far that are not on the website are the sequels to the first Sly Cooper. Do not worry. PS2 games that are not on the list in CoolROM will be released on PS Plus Premium. It has a less room for error that I went on ahead and add a few more of them to my wish list. Now, if February's lineup of classic games is posted, I'll be expecting at least one PS2 game to meet my expectations that include a PS2 game I played back in the day, a PS2 game that has a good flow of logos and a PS2 game that was produced by a defunct company.
On what I said, PlayStation Plus Premium has literally saved PS2 games by having a new PS2 emulator to pave the way for more PS2 games. It is something that Sony was struggling to do when the digital library of PS2 games came out on the PS3 and when PS Now came. But this endeavor is finally achieved with PlayStation Plus Premium and 2025 is gonna be a fresh year for the retro titles department now that we're seeing new PS2 games get added, along with PS1 and PSP games.
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