PlayStation Plus Premium is a service that has saved PS2 games. 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 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 retains the original's charming environment, accompanied by the characters' smooth model evolved from their polygon model from the PS1 and the level design.
The shift to the new direction involved developers launching child-friendly franchises, starting with Jak and Daxter, to Ratchet and Clank and Sly Cooper. These franchises were 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 nostalgia-centric franchise, but Jak and Daxter and Sly Cooper are nostalgia-centric because these franchises haven't got a new game in this generation yet. But Astro Bot's wild performance can change everything.
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 along to a different studio to continue their franchises a go, 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 what makes them 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 3rd-party companies as a whole, like SEGA, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, Ubisoft, Koei Tecmo, WB Games, EA or Activision nostalgia-centric because these companies that produced PS2 games still exist to produce titles in this generation as they remain relevant in today's market. No, the ones that are centric to nostalgia were Namco, SquareSoft, Enix, Koei, Tecmo, Midway, Acclaim, Hudson, THQ, Eidos and Universal. These are the nostalgic ones that got defunct before we got to the later generations of gaming.
And let's not forget about nostalgia-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 half community who doesn't want to hold on to the past and move on and the other half 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 consoles of later generations 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 include 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 included 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 had the blueprints for 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.
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 and their new PS2 emulator did not backfire so far. Not one bit. Like the PS1 and PSP games, PS2 games 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 that were born in the 90s? 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 and has games we loved, ranging from NIS' nighttime quality PS2 games to Radical's two Simpsons games, platformers with a charming environment and Crash and Spyro's shift to the 3rd party era. 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 to include many games I have played back in the day.
Fast forward into now, this month's lineup of classics have dropped recently. And we're getting two classics this month instead of three. The lineup has MediEvil II, a sequel to the original MediEvil that never got remade despite it being critically acclaimed. 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 one of the games has met my expectations and that's Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings. So how did this game meet my expectations?
First off, an existing game developer that was formerly known as their previous name. We now have a retro game developed by a Canadian AAA developer, Artificial Mind and Movement or A2M for short. They are known for developing games based on forms of media under the A2M name, 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 like they are on that time before they rebranded themselves to A2M.
And next, a good flow of logos. The cinematic LucasArts and A2M logos came first. Then the logos with text below came on each page. There is even the Havok and Bink Video logos on the third page. We got a first PS2 game that uses Havok, but it's the current logo that is yellow and it has the intact circular blade used as an "o". The old one is black and has pieces of the two blades. I think it's possible for us to see a PS2 game that has the old Havok logo, which I like better than the current one.
There are PS2 games on the PS3's storefront and on PS Now. But none of the libraries had that much games I played back in the day. They just fell short. And not only that. None of the modern PlayStation consoles were fully backwards compatible due to the PS3's architecture being hard to develop for. But PlayStation Plus Premium has resolved this enigma.
It is on the process of getting a lot of PS2 games endlessly, including the ones I played back in the day because of their brand new PS2 emulator. They were even able to release games produced by defunct companies, like Namco and Eidos, 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 catalog of PS2 games and the PS3's catalog of PS2 games.
Possibilities and choices for endlessly releasing new PS2 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. Even Crash and Spyro games, which I am aware that none of them were critically successful as the original trilogies after looking at their Metacritic scores that produced mixed reviews and the sales and I know we already have remasters, but along with the original trilogies, they deserve to be on the catalog despite that because I wanted to revisit the charming goodness of them and the original trilogies' polygon models.
I went to CoolROM to look for PS2 games released on the PS Plus Premium so far. The games released so far that are not available to download on the website are the sequels to the first Sly Cooper out the butt, so this indicates that PS2 games that are not on CoolROM's list will be released on PS Plus Premium. It has 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 revealed, I'll be expecting at least one retro game to meet my expectations. My expectations include the following below.
-Produced by a defunct video game company and/or an existing video game company that was formerly known as their name (i.e. Behaviour Interactive, formerly known as Artificial Mind and Movement)
-Has at least three logos of existing and/or defunct video game companies, cinematic or not
-Has an old logo of an existing company
-Has a silent copyright screen and logos
-The one I played back in the day when I was a kid
-The one that is in my wish list
On what I said, PlayStation Plus Premium has literally saved PS2 games by having a new PS2 emulator to pave the way for new PS2 games with emulation features. 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 including many games I played back in the day 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. Here's to us gamers that were born in the 90s revisiting more PS2 games we loved as a child.
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