The 10 WORST PS2 Games
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VOICE OVER: Mathew Arter
WRITTEN BY: Mathew Arter
The PS2 gets a ton of praise, but today we're looking at the worst it had to offer. For this list, we'll be looking at the releases that tarnish the good memory of the PlayStation 2. Our list includes “Fight Club” (2004), “Army Men: Green Rogue” (2001), “Celebrity Deathmatch” (2003), “Little Britain: The Video Game” (2007), and more!
Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re looking at the 10 worst PS2 Games. For this list, we’ll be looking at the games that ruined Christmas for a generation of kids. Whether they were underdeveloped or are just objectively terrible, they’re all on out naughty list. Were you unlucky enough to get your hands on one of these games? Let us know in the comments below.
A lot younger viewers might not remember the cultural phenomenon and cult classic that was the Army Men series, after the raging success of the first few games, developer 3DO, went on to release more in the series and frequently, with ever declining quality.. Army Men: Green Rogue was the 13th game they released in 3 years. You heard that right. This game featured a rail system which minimized the player freedom; the only thing the other games had going for it, Throw in game breaking glitches and an overall sense of sloth, and the franchise soon found itself dishonorably discharged.
A game based on the beloved Eddie Murphy classic should have been a slam dunk. It wasn’t. Stealth sections? An original story with none of the movie’s charm? A character model that made Eddie Murphy look abysmal?! But wait, it gets worse. With a cover system that doesn’t work, no respect for the source material and the fact that if you play this game always crouched you won’t take damage because the AI isn’t programmed to look down/ This game has 1 star all across the board.
Making a game based on a movie, TV show, or any established pop culture medium is always a risk for gamers because publishers have created a culture of cash grab development. Fight Club on the PS2 is a shining example of how cash grabby cash grabs can get. If you don’t have the money to license the two lead characters from a film, you should probably move on to your next idea, but developer Genuine Games pushed on without Edward Norton or Brad Pitt, instead using a cast of playable characters from the film that they COULD license, most of which only appeared in a scene or two. If the gameplay was good we might have forgiven them, but with an uninspired set of moves and animations that make a highschool stop motion project look great, this game was destroyed by critics upon release. Also…Fred Durst?!
When a film is released with an 8% Rotten Tomatoes score, there’s only one right thing to do, let it die and move on .. Or ignore that and try and make a game about it. Catwoman for the PS2 was a dumpster fire of graceless gameplay that showed gamers that the worst thing to come from the Catwoman film, wasn’t even the film. A recurring theme with bad games that are based on movies is the inability for the developers to get the original actors, which adds even more insult to injury when you have to listen to the godawful dialogue in this game come out of not Halle Berry’s mouth.
Nothing annoys gamers more than feeling like they’re being pandered to. It’s very obvious when a marketing team gets behind the development of a game and tries to create it for a demographic they have no connection with, and this is painfully clear with the half naked Charlie’s Angels flip flopping all over the place. You know what gamers like more than half naked oblong shaped protagonists? Good gameplay. This thing deserved all of Lucy Liu’s wrath!
Terminator 3 was expected to be a hit. Taking the world of the Terminator and bringing it into a first person shooter format seemed like a good idea on paper, but as with most of the games discussed, the developer spent little to no time making the mechanics feel good. The success of this game appears to be resting solely on the players enjoyment that they are playing as the titular character. However - the AI is atrocious with no brain power or direction, the gunplay had no weight to it and resulted in a boring and slow game. If any game needed Arnie to help elevate it, it was this.
This game is terrible, let’s start there, but the terribleness doesn’t come from the gameplay. Don’t get us wrong, the gameplay is awful and the perfect cop/bad boy bar still makes us cringe. But, it’s the writing, voice acting, and story that almost makes this game SO bad that it’s good again. Without even a whiff of irony, Bad Boys takes on some of the worst tropes of action cinema without realizing it stands against everything that made the source material so great. Bad boys for life? How about Bad Boys for 10 minutes before going in the trash.
We can encapsulate everything that’s wrong with the majority of the games discussed today by taking a look at Celebrity Deathmatch, truly the reality television of video games. The game is based on the MTV stop motion cartoon of the same name. While the show was able to change week to week to stay fresh, the game leaves the players stuck in time with a product that focuses less on gameplay and more on gimmicks that really have no benefit in the players success in the ring. The moves get less and less funny with each repeat. Celebrity Deathmatch is boring, and rightly deserves the VERY low user reviews it received upon release.
Racing games are limited by their nature, throw in as many roof mounted guns and droppable spikes as you want, you still need to have variety in your tracks and racing moments. If the driving feels boring you will kill your game's success before it’s even had a chance to say “Michael, please drive me into oncoming traffic so I can feel something”. The graphics in Knight Rider 2 look polygonal and the e driveable maps are all boring as can be. Kitt doesn’t help the situation by feeling weightless and on the verge of annoying with every sentence uttered.
The fans of this game, although few, chalk the public reception of this game up to PC culture gone mad, but in reality, Little Britain's most crass and vile features come from the gameplay itself. The whole thing is made up of a bunch of minigames based around the sketches of the titular show, unfortunately with both input lag and an uninspired developer, they’re all barely playable. Even if you did want to try and get a highscore, you’d be fighting the game to make that happen. Crass comedy and video games can blend together marvelously, but this just comes across as wasted effort. If there was any to begin with.
“Army Men: Green Rogue” (2001)
A lot younger viewers might not remember the cultural phenomenon and cult classic that was the Army Men series, after the raging success of the first few games, developer 3DO, went on to release more in the series and frequently, with ever declining quality.. Army Men: Green Rogue was the 13th game they released in 3 years. You heard that right. This game featured a rail system which minimized the player freedom; the only thing the other games had going for it, Throw in game breaking glitches and an overall sense of sloth, and the franchise soon found itself dishonorably discharged.
“Beverly Hills Cop” (2006)
A game based on the beloved Eddie Murphy classic should have been a slam dunk. It wasn’t. Stealth sections? An original story with none of the movie’s charm? A character model that made Eddie Murphy look abysmal?! But wait, it gets worse. With a cover system that doesn’t work, no respect for the source material and the fact that if you play this game always crouched you won’t take damage because the AI isn’t programmed to look down/ This game has 1 star all across the board.
“Fight Club” (2004)
Making a game based on a movie, TV show, or any established pop culture medium is always a risk for gamers because publishers have created a culture of cash grab development. Fight Club on the PS2 is a shining example of how cash grabby cash grabs can get. If you don’t have the money to license the two lead characters from a film, you should probably move on to your next idea, but developer Genuine Games pushed on without Edward Norton or Brad Pitt, instead using a cast of playable characters from the film that they COULD license, most of which only appeared in a scene or two. If the gameplay was good we might have forgiven them, but with an uninspired set of moves and animations that make a highschool stop motion project look great, this game was destroyed by critics upon release. Also…Fred Durst?!
“Catwoman” (2004)
When a film is released with an 8% Rotten Tomatoes score, there’s only one right thing to do, let it die and move on .. Or ignore that and try and make a game about it. Catwoman for the PS2 was a dumpster fire of graceless gameplay that showed gamers that the worst thing to come from the Catwoman film, wasn’t even the film. A recurring theme with bad games that are based on movies is the inability for the developers to get the original actors, which adds even more insult to injury when you have to listen to the godawful dialogue in this game come out of not Halle Berry’s mouth.
“Charlie's Angels” (2003)
Nothing annoys gamers more than feeling like they’re being pandered to. It’s very obvious when a marketing team gets behind the development of a game and tries to create it for a demographic they have no connection with, and this is painfully clear with the half naked Charlie’s Angels flip flopping all over the place. You know what gamers like more than half naked oblong shaped protagonists? Good gameplay. This thing deserved all of Lucy Liu’s wrath!
“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” (2003)
Terminator 3 was expected to be a hit. Taking the world of the Terminator and bringing it into a first person shooter format seemed like a good idea on paper, but as with most of the games discussed, the developer spent little to no time making the mechanics feel good. The success of this game appears to be resting solely on the players enjoyment that they are playing as the titular character. However - the AI is atrocious with no brain power or direction, the gunplay had no weight to it and resulted in a boring and slow game. If any game needed Arnie to help elevate it, it was this.
“Bad Boys Miami Takedown” (2004)
This game is terrible, let’s start there, but the terribleness doesn’t come from the gameplay. Don’t get us wrong, the gameplay is awful and the perfect cop/bad boy bar still makes us cringe. But, it’s the writing, voice acting, and story that almost makes this game SO bad that it’s good again. Without even a whiff of irony, Bad Boys takes on some of the worst tropes of action cinema without realizing it stands against everything that made the source material so great. Bad boys for life? How about Bad Boys for 10 minutes before going in the trash.
“Celebrity Deathmatch” (2003)
We can encapsulate everything that’s wrong with the majority of the games discussed today by taking a look at Celebrity Deathmatch, truly the reality television of video games. The game is based on the MTV stop motion cartoon of the same name. While the show was able to change week to week to stay fresh, the game leaves the players stuck in time with a product that focuses less on gameplay and more on gimmicks that really have no benefit in the players success in the ring. The moves get less and less funny with each repeat. Celebrity Deathmatch is boring, and rightly deserves the VERY low user reviews it received upon release.
"Knight Rider 2: The Game" (2004)
Racing games are limited by their nature, throw in as many roof mounted guns and droppable spikes as you want, you still need to have variety in your tracks and racing moments. If the driving feels boring you will kill your game's success before it’s even had a chance to say “Michael, please drive me into oncoming traffic so I can feel something”. The graphics in Knight Rider 2 look polygonal and the e driveable maps are all boring as can be. Kitt doesn’t help the situation by feeling weightless and on the verge of annoying with every sentence uttered.
“Little Britain: The Video Game” (2007)
The fans of this game, although few, chalk the public reception of this game up to PC culture gone mad, but in reality, Little Britain's most crass and vile features come from the gameplay itself. The whole thing is made up of a bunch of minigames based around the sketches of the titular show, unfortunately with both input lag and an uninspired developer, they’re all barely playable. Even if you did want to try and get a highscore, you’d be fighting the game to make that happen. Crass comedy and video games can blend together marvelously, but this just comes across as wasted effort. If there was any to begin with.
