Help me find PS2 games for my girlfriend

Cafe Society
1

Over the past few months, my girlfriend has become slightly interested in my PS2, and hinted last night that she might like a game for Christmas. Unfortunately, she doesn’t like any of the games that I have, and I have no idea what to get here. Some hints:

-She doesn’t like shooting or fighting
-She doesn’t like driving
-She doesn’t like sports
-She enjoyed watching me play the Spiderman game, but never wanted to play
-She got kind of excited about the Pac-Man game that came out a while ago, but she lost interest when she saw it wasn’t like the original.
-I bought a disk full of old arcade games a while back, but she didn’t want to play those either.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

2

How about music games? I’ve heard good things about PaRappa the Rapper and there’s also a sequel.

Or you could pick up a cheap used N64 or Super NES with some Mario games. Although those might be too much like that Pac-Man game she dropped.

3

Oh, and there’s also The Sims. I enjoyed that on the PC but never played it on the PS2. Plus I don’t have any of the on-line equipment.

4

Might she like an Adventure game, if she may be into long games there is that early PS2 game about a Child caught in an underground beutifully drawn world (ICO I think was the name).

Bust-a-move was a favorit on the PS1 with a good female friend of mine. There are PS2 versions of that. Sims was good, and Sim’s busting out has just become available.
I hear and see good reviews for Eye Toy, that maybe her sort of thing…

5

lightingtool? Are you really chembug? No, wait, then she’d be your WIFE instead of your girlfriend. But she sounds an awful lot like me.

Anyway … would she like “Kingdom Hearts” or would the Disney angle turn her off? I think it’s a pretty cool game, lots of puzzles and problem-solving, and while there is some fighting, it is not even CLOSE to “real.”

(If it helps at all, I’m almost 30 years old, but I am also a dork.)

6

More info:

-She’s 27
-I don’t think she’d be into music games
-She liked SIMCity, but I’m not sure how much of that is in the Sims games.
-I think the Mario Bros suggestion is great. Any games like that for the PS2?
-Kingdom Hearts sounds good, but she works for Disney and would probably try to kill Goofy instead of working with him, and I don’t think she would care about King Mickey being missing.

Thanks for all your help! You guys are great.

7

I know you said no sports games, but the only console game girls at my apartment have played would be Virtua Tennis. That new Top Spin game looks to be worth a shot checking out. As for non-console, Snood is loved by everyone and has made some good Catholic-type girls curse like drunken sailors.

8

Platformers are really changing in how they work. I’d say if Mario might work just go and buy a used Super NES and some games. You could pick it up at a game store and even get a chance to return it if it doesn’t work. See if you can find Yoshi’s Island. That’s my favorite Mario game ever.

Jak & Daxter would be the closest one I know. Although I don’t have a significant gaming library myself. Perhaps you might try out a subscription of gamefly.com. It’s the gaming equivalent of Netflix. I’m thinking of trying that early next year.

9

Klonoa 2 is probably the closest PS2 game there is to Mario. It’s great and if she likes platformers like Mario she should love it.

10

And if you’re interested, I wrote a review of Klonoa 2 when it came out:

http://www.gamingtarget.com/SectionViewer.aspx?ArticleID=241&SectionID=904

11

The spiro the dragon games for PS1 and PS2 are great cute 3D platform games, might be worth a look.
Sega’s Sonic-hedgehog is coming to PS2 soon, but not sure when.

12

Just in case she sees this, she’s 26, not 27. phew

Thanks for the help, and keep 'em coming!

13

Maybe Final Fantasy X? I know it’s got fighting, but I’m not sure if you mean fighting at all, or just fighting games like Tekken.

14

Pff, just about every person I’ve known who’ve played Amplitude has a hard time putting it down.

Give that one a shot, seriously. Its a music game but I doubt your gf hates music.

Obviously you may as well rent a bunch of games and try them out beforehand, its what I would do.

15

Ico is incredibly beautiful and touching.

Rez is incredibly beautiful and psychadelic.

They’re two of the best games ever. Get. Them. Now.

16

You may have to face the possiblity that she’s just not a console game type of girl. I love PC games. I’ve never owned a console, though, because the only games I’ve ever liked on them are the mario brothers series, Tony Hawkes series, and the GTA series and a few non series games: a snowboard game, a simpsons game, 007 golden eye, krazy kats, tiny toons sports and a bass fishing game. That’s it for a whole life’s worth of console games… and my little brother has had every system ever made except X-Box so it’s not like I haven’t been exposed to many systems and games.

17

I second ICO, which is a fantastic game with an incredibly gripping storyline and characters. It does involve cartoony puzzles and fighting.

Get it for “both of you” with the disclaimer that if she doesn’t like it, you’ll get her something else. Or something.

In any case, play ICO now.

18

I’ve got four platformers for the PS2: Jak and Daxter, Jak II, Ratchet and Clank, and Crash Bandicoot 4. Five if you include Orphen, which is an RPG which really plays a lot like a platformer, but I don’t really recommend it, even though I like it. Except for Crash, they are all really, really good games. Jak and Dexter is the least violent and most traditional of the four, using attack moves and no weapons, with a heavy emphasis on collecting everything; Ratchet and Clank plays like a platformer but generally uses various weapons instead of attack moves, but it’s really well designed and a lot of fun; Jak II has a sorta GTA feel to it in that you’re based in one city doing missions for others, with no important emphasis on collecting, new abilities, weapons added, and it’s a lot darker than Jak and Daxter. All three of these have wonderful graphics, a great control scheme, good physics, and so on. The new Ratchet and Clank game apparently adds a bit of an RPG element as well, but the reviews are very positive. That’s next on my list to buy.

Crash Bandicoot 4 isn’t very good. It has horrendous load times and the physics are all messed up. I’ve blown myself up far too many times by hitting a nitro that Crash isn’t actually very close to. I blame this on the new development team, since Naughty Dog (who make the Jak and Daxter games) quit after Crash 3. I highly recommend Crash 2 and Crash 3, both of which were for the Playstation and are now available as greatest hits, but I played the original Crash after 2 and never really liked the design as well, plus the whole “must it make it all the way through getting all the boxes with no deaths to get the gem” thing, which was changed for 2 and 3.

Insomniac, the people who made the Spyro the Dragon games, make the Ratchet and Clank games. I’ve only played the original Spyro, but that’s another very good game and the reviews I saw for the sequels were also very positive. I believe there hasn’t been a Spyro release for PS2, although I know there’s been a couple games developed for the GBA. I saw somewhere a box set of the three Spyro games for Playstation.

So, honestly, that’s my suggestion. I don’t like a lot of games other than platformers and RPGs, and any of the following platformers are very good and could be just what you’re looking for:
Crash Bandicoot 2
Crash Bandicoot 3
Jak and Daxter
Jak II
Ratchet and Clank
Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando
Any of the Spyro games

19

I’m 27, can’t stand sports games, and had never played them before in my life, but when my boyfriend started playing SSX Snowboarding I got hooked. It just didn’t seem all that sporty at the time.

And if she doesn’t mind playing a kid’s game (hey, adults read Harry Potter!), then Herdy Gerdy was very cute and fun - you herd little animals around and try to save them from being stomped on by a giant pink bear-thing. Because it was a kid’s game, I found it more relaxing than exciting to play, but on a lazy Sunday afternoon that’s just about perfect.

20

The “PS2”?

Silly boy, IBM hasn’t made any PCs under that brand name since the early 1990s! And you spelled it wrong – there’s supposed to be a slash ("/") right before the “2”.