I'm a big fan of the R-Type series, and R-Type Final plays very well on the Deck.

Also:

Katamari Damacy - Really weird concept for a surprisingly fun game. Roll up the world!
Devil May Cry - The high-speed brawler that launched a genre.
Tales of the Abyss - A good RPG with likeable characters and some great twists.

The legend of dragoon

Ratchet & Clank and Going Commando are great.

One of my favorite eras to live through and emulate!

Aside from Dark Cloud 2, mentioned already, I also really love:

Katamari, but on Deck the native version is better and includes the sequel.

The Jak and Daxter trilogy, simply amazing games! The first or the second are usually the favs. 1 is a solid mascot platformer. 2 also is, kind of, but adds guns and cars and a slightly GTA inspired open world. 3 is also fun but leans harder into vehicles and generally isn't regarded as highly.

Odin Sphere. All the VanillaWare games are great, but OS is one of the most beautiful games ever drawn, and has really fun brawler\rpg combat. GrimGrimoire is another of theirs, also good, kind of a side scrolling RTS.

Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 are both a lot of fun, especially if you love Disney or SquareEnix games. If not, they're still pretty fun and have an... interesting, if convoluted, lore. I probably wouldn't recommend if you dont care for Disney though. Probably worth playing Final Fantasy 7 first as well. It's referenced quite reverently and is a great standalone game (and PS1 still counts I think, haha).

Devil May Cry 1 and 3. You can skip 2, even the fans and creators don't care about it, and 3 is a prequel. DMC1 is a landmark game, and is required playing in my opinion for being both important and incredibly fun. It can be quite hard though. 3 is arguably the best in the whole series, and holds up really well near the top of the genre to this day.

God of War 1, 2, ~~and 3~~. They're fantastic action games, and pretty influential still. I dont like them as much as DMC, but they're still pretty fun.

There were actually a lot of pretty mediocre DMC clones on PS2, like Gungrave or Bujingai. If you love the genre, they're neat and OK fun. God Hand is quite funny and kind of unique, probably the best of the 3 listed here.

I see Okami in there and I approve! Although I think the remasters released on other platform more recently are a better way to play. I also preferred the Wii version back in the day.

The Sly Cooper games and the Ratchet and Clank games are also both really excellent series. I liked Jak more, but they're distinct games with their own neat elements. Sly's particularly unique as a mascot stealth game.

Metal Gear Solid series and the Tony Hawk games are obviously excellent, but you've got so many other ways to play those I'm not sure they're worth emulating.

Zone of the Enders, 1 and 2. ZoE 1 is infamous as being the game that came with the first MGS2 demo on it. The game is fine but short, and mostly serves to set up ZoE2, which fucking rules! You pilot a badass mecha and it just has a really fun plot, great music, and good action. An underrated gem!

Not your jam I'm sure, but I'd be remiss if I didnt mention the many hours I spent playing Capcom vs SNK 2. Still one of my favorite fighting games, legendary roster and soundtrack.

If you'd like a roguelike, I'd suggest Baroque or (PS1) Azure Dreams. Both pretty fun, quite long games with lots of replay value. Baroque is uh... well titled, kind of challenging to get into.

Ah, there were so many good games in that era. Truly one of the most stacked console lineups ever.

The original Fatal Frame trilogy are some of the best horror games I’ve played. Not only are they genuinely scary without using a lot of blood, but they have difficulty that connects well with the scariness.

It occasionally feels “unfair” and makes you feel vulnerable, but is still relatively doable so that you don’t get overwhelmed. At times you’ll be retreading old ground just trying to solve a puzzle when another ghost will come at you out of nowhere.

Onimusha 3 is a banger

I just finished up a playthrough of SSX3 about a month ago, and I used PCSX2 for the playthrough. With the resolution unlocked and better texture filitering, the game's graphics hold up nicely. Locked 60fps (except for one level), and just a really stylized grahpical presentation that still feels modern.

In terms of gameplay, the controls definitely have a learning curve with having to preload jumps and sheer amount of button combinations the game expects you to use and remember, but boiled down you are usually just holding dpad for a spin and then your modifier button + a trigger. The game isn't particurally hard unless you are going for Platinum medals, and I found the soundtrack pleasant enough to listen to as it ebbs and flows with how well you are doing on the course.

I definitely spent way more time with SSX Tricky as a kid, but after playing through SSX3 as an adult, I would definitely say 3 is a much more polished and approachable game than Tricky.

I recently went through a ps2 games phase. Some already mentioned but the lesser known standouts for me were;

God hand (probably the best game on ps2 and released really late in the life of the PS2 so many people missed it),

Odin sphere (best looking game on the system and really fun),

urban reign,

steam bot chronicles (robot action rpg really satisfying game play)

robot alchemical drive (ride on the shoulders of huge gundam style robots, really unique game)

champions of norrath, (action rpg based on EverQuest universe, really fun)

psi ops, (fps like game with stars wars style force powers, crazy fun)

Drakan: Ancient gates, (action rpg, fly on a dragon, one of the best magic systems ever where you have to trace the pattern to cast. The reason I started my ps2 phase was to replay this game, loved it as a kid and still holds up)

Simpsons: Road Rage is my all-time favorite of any game on any console..

So much so that I bought the game without having the console to even play it 🫣

I have a bit of an odd one for you; Ephemeral Fantasia. It's a jrpg for very eclectic tastes. It's a game in which you're dealing with time loops. You can think of it as a mix between Groundhog Day and your average jrpg. Little bit like Majora's Mask but more extreme I'd say.

So judging from the comments, there is your ps2 games recommendations: the entire PlayStation 2 library.

• The Mark of Kri
• Maximo
• Jake and Daxter
• Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3
• Timesplitters
• The Warriors
• Tourist Trophy

I'm playing through Yakuza at the moment and never bothered with HD textures before so will have a look at that myself.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

Super underrated. The first one.

No Final Fantasy because I'm not even sure where to start!

Final Fantasy is somewhat of an anthology: each major installment (just "Final Fantasy" plus a roman numeral, nothing else) takes place in an entirely different world and thus includes its own tutorial. You don't need to know anything before going into one of them. You can start anywhere, like Final Fantasy X, which was one of the most acclaimed FF releases and happened to be on the PS2.

Lots of good suggestions already, but I don't think I saw anyone mention Twisted Metal: Black. It's very dark and lots of fun.

Seconding someone else's suggestion of Psi-Ops - a really cool game that I think flies under the radar a little bit.

Gun is also really cool.

The early Red Faction games are also fun but a bit dated.

Party Girls

Ghost Rider

Ultimate Spider-Man

LEGO games, like harry potter and batman

Ratatouille

Beyond Good and Evil

Devil May Cry, DMC2, DMC3

Ghostbusters

Kuon

X-Men Origins Wolverine

Scarface

Mister Mosquito

I think that you're going to likely get more-helpful suggestions if you list some games or genres that you like, something beyond "No Final Fantasy" and "No GTA".

This Reddit post has a list of PS2 games that "still hold up", without genre restrictions. There's nothing there that I glance at and say "oh, I loved that and one needs to go back and play it", but it's probably a reasonable starting point. Like, I enjoyed Max Payne (which I recommend playing on the PC rather than console) when it came out, but I don't know if I'd go back and play it as an FPS in 2025.

If you want a wacky, unique rhythm game: Gitaroo Man

For the PS2 entry into one of the best shoot em up series of all time: Gradius V

For a fun, anime themed, voice acted tactical RPG that you can just literally play forever because it seemingly invented the "looping, start over but with better base stats" mechanic that idle games use these days: Disgaea

(As a bonus, the original PS2 version of Disgaea has a different voice for one of the characters than it does in other releases because they lost the rights or some thing like that, so you get to experience it in a slightly different manner than most other people.)

Kingdom Hearts

Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Destroy All Humans! Shadow of the Colossus, The Matrix: Path of Neo, Psi Ops: The Mind Gate Conspiracy, Burnout Revenge, Gitaroo Man, God Hand.

I’m sure there’s more but that’s off the top of my head. Also some of these can definitely be found in newer versions or ports, but they started on PS2 so I listed them anyways.

If you can get a webcam working for Eyetoy games, we played a fuckton of the window cleaning game. Even though its objectively shit.

This is an obscure one, and not high on most people's lists, but my personal favourite PS2 game is Steel Lancer International, a game where you build mechs and take them into arena battles in a post-apocalyptic future.

There are some good PS2 Crash Bandicoot games-- any of the platformers, or the racing ones (I had Crash Nitro Kart and can confirm it's a good time).

You could also try Kingdom Hearts (+ the sequels, Re:Chain of Memories and KH2) if you want to be confused

I had a ton of fun with Unreal Tournament. I got into the zone while playing Instagib CTF.

Road Trip Adventure is one of my favourite racing games. It's like Disney cars before then. You get to drive around a world doing side quests outside of races.

Driving can feel clunky and it feels really bad in the beginning, but most of it is due to the fact you start off with bad parts. As you upgrade your car the game starts to feel better and better as it goes on. Eventually you get parts to fly and go under water.

...

Also when it comes to final fantasy, there is no one place to start, each game unless a direct sequel (like X-2) they are all completely standalone. None of them are in the same world or universe. They share similar themes but that's it.

You have to... No, You NEED to Play Downhill Domination. There is NO WAY you won't have fun playing that, trust me.

Oh! And Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3! You don't have to be a DBZ fan to have fun with that, is amazing and so chaotic!

Also, have you consider trying Devil May Cry 3? (Don't worry about the number, it's a precule). It's kinda hard but so fun and satisfying.

No Final Fantasy because I'm not even sure where to start!

I had the same problem too, but after trying to play them chronologically (and failing), I learned that you can play any FF game at any time, cuz they are very unique and don't actually relate one another.

Final Fantasy X is a great pick, for example, it helped me overcome my despise for Turn-base combat RPG.

And, if you're up to some Big Robot Fight mayhem anime style, Zone of The Enders is Amazing.

edit: AND YAKUZA! HOW COULD I FORGOT YAKUZA!!?? YOU HAVE TO PLAY THE FIRST YAKUZA ASAP!!

(unless you want to play / already played the kiwami version, which may be a better experience)

Gun

Tmnt