I want to get a couple of PlayStation 2 games for my nephew (twelve) and niece (eight), preferably two-player games so they can play together. I know they enjoyed Kingdom Hearts but don’t know what else they’ve played. Can anyone suggest something appropriate?
- Kingdom Hearts 2 (no multiplayer)
- Katamari Damacy (some multi) and/or the sequel We [heart] Katamari (lots of multi)
Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero 2.
That’ll give them 2 games, 2 guitars and hopefully, an appreciation of good music. No swearing or violence.
The SSX snowboarding games are kind of fun to play. I second Katamari Demacy - and Guitar Hero is cool, but make sure you get guitars that they can play - some smaller children have problems getting their hands to fit right on the guitar keys.
~Tasha
Threads of Fate is a rather short RPG for beginners. It’s a PS1 game, which means you should be able to pick it up cheaply. It’s not a two player game, but there are two characters to choose from. The Katamari games are fun to watch as well as fun to play.
Heresy! The SSX series of games* are not “kind of fun” they are the very definition of fun! Seriously, SSX 3 is, in my opinion, the best game ever for PS2.
War of the Monsters is entertaining – playable with one or two players, you get to be giant monsters destroying cities and fighting other giant monsters.
Not multi-player but along the lines of Kingdom Hearts is the Final Fantasy series. The latest is Final Fantasy XII: This Time We Mean “Final” For Real!**
Any of the Dance Dance Revolution games might be good – things that get them (and you) up off the couch and moving are always a positive. Along the same lines, the Eye Toy and its accompanying games are really entertaining. I had a party last weekend, and the last hour or two had pretty much everyone entranced watching (and playing) the simple games in Eye Toy: Play. It’s really fun to get to be on screen karate-chopping bad guys into the air.
*With the exception of SSX On Tour, which sucks really really bad.
**Okay, I made up the subtitle. Aside from the silliness of a 12-plus series of “final” anything, they’re really good games.
Moved from IMHO to CS.
Lego Star Wars is fun.
Thanks for the recommendations. I’m checking with my brother to see which of these they’ve already got.
One of the best PS2 games, although not multiplayer, is Shadow of the Colossus. A great example of a game that was well conceived and executed. It won Game of the Year at the last Game Developers Conference, and it’s different from any other game I’ve played. Might be a little on the slow side for 12 yr olds tho.
As mentioned earlier, the best multiplayer game for PS2 is the Guitar Hero series. Only problem is that its a little more $$$ than your average game, cuz you have to buy the peripherals as well, but its totally worth it.
I heard back from my brother, who said that they’ve tried but didn’t like the Katamari games, SSX Snowboarding or the Final Fantasy games, but he had not heard of War of the Monsters. As I said, the nephew is twelve and the niece is eight, so they might be the wrong age for those games. I’m looking at the Wikipedia page for Guitar Hero, which looks like fun, except, as someone said, the niece might not be able to hold the guitar. And I wonder how loud the game is?
I like the idea of Dance Dance Revolution, but I would think the typical soft plastic dance pad would move around too easily on the floor. But then I’m reading the Wikipedia article which suggests some ways of stiffening it, like taping it to an office chair mat. So perhaps.
I cannot believe that nobody has mentioned Metal Gear Solid!! Freakin’ awesome game!
But then if you want something easier to play yet quite entertaining check out [Ratchet and Clank] and [Sly Cooper].
According to Wikipedia, Metal Gear Solid is rated M and it’s a single-player game, so it won’t be appropriate for the twelve year-old and the eight year old who are the intended recipients.
Ratchet and Clank, while very entertaining, might be a bit too difficult for the eight year-old at least. I second the Eye Toy, which is fun for everybody. Along the lines of Guitar Hero or the Dance Dance Revolution, there are a couple of singing and dancing games that are fun (Sing Star and Dance Star, I think, there are a couple of incarnations)
Another little game that my friends and I enjoyed a lot was a small multiplayer game called Crash Bash: Any game where you have to push your opponent off a tilting ice floe while a walrus lobs fish at you needs to be more recommended IMHO.
I forgot to say, when I recommended a PS1 game, you’ll need a PS1 memory card for a PS1 game. There are many, many PS1 games available in new and used, and they’re mostly very reasonably priced. There are some arcade game collections, but I don’t know if your niece and nephew would like such old style games.