Recommend PS2 games to play with my 13-year-old

Cafe Society
1

My son would like me to spend some quality time with him playing his PS2 game system. The problem is, I’ve been out of playing video games for a long time (I used to be killer on Galaxian). The PS2 controllers are too small for my hands, and have about 32,000 buttons on them. All of his games are about reaction time and dexterity. Quick, push A, push R, up, left, square, B, down, triangle. I’m dead before I find the cursed “A” button.

I have always enjoyed thinking games: Colossal Cave, Zork, Jeopardy, Scrabble, crosswords, soduko… I like puzzle solving, not pushing buttons until my hands cramp up.

Please. Suggest some PS2 games that might be enjoyable both for me and for my son.

2

We Love Katamari. You want that. Go now. Get it!

What, you need an explanation? Fine. You control a little guy who rolls a ball around, picking up objects that stick to the ball. As you collect more stuff, the ball will grow, and you may start a stage by scrounging thumbtacks and end up plucking giant trees out of the ground. Usually you’ll just race the clock to see how large the ball can get in a certain length of time, while other missions are slightly more objective-based (grab as many fireflies as you can). It’s very lighthearted and very [strikeout]insane[/strikeout]absurd.

The entire control scheme boils down the the two sticks, like driving a tank. Push both forward to go forward, both back to move back. Turn one up and the other down and you’ll turn the ball. Wiggle 'em both back and forth to dash a little bit. Easy-peasy.

Multiplayer consists of competition (have a bigger ball at the end) or cooperative, in which one player controls the left half of the ball, the other the right. Expect much good-natured shouting as you both try to steer the thing in a desired direction.

If your son complains that there are too may hearts and flowers and pastel colors and speeches about loving your fellow man, smack 'im. Once you’ve destroyed Tokyo by rolling a sphere made up of apartment buildings and cruise ships and geriatric Godzilla clones across the city, you’ll never look back.

3

I played the new Tak game with my six year old for a couple of days before the rental ran out. There were some challenges that required two players, but one could do them by switching characters. It seemed like an ideal game where a “Dad” player could drop in and out as needed, or play along the whole time.

Similarly, Lego Star Wars was a fairly fun game that could be done with one or two players. Dad can drop in as needed, or Kid can battle things alone. It worked pretty well for us, although the game was fun for probably just a week, in retrospect I’d just rent it.

4

How old is your son?

5

I second Katamari Damacy. It is all kinds of awesome.

6

He’s 13.

7

OK, then we’re probably talking more along the lines of multiplayer Halo fragging rather than Lego Star Wars. Does your kid have Mad Skillz at games, is he a n000b like you?

8

Another possibility for father/son bonding: MMORPGs. Form two characters, join a dungeon match, and kick butt as a team.

9

He’s very skilled with the reaction time/dexterity games, and plays all the new stuff–especially first-person shooters. If I’m going to play a game, I’m more likely to pull up something on the computer that has a five-minute learning curve and requires thinking rather than finger-twiddling.

He wants to use the PS2 console, not my computer.

10

I guess that was in the thread title, wasn’t it? :smack:

11

How about an RPG where you two play on the same side in dungeons and whatnot? Something like Baldur’s Gate?

12

Pish post, there’s only (counts in his head) 14 buttons. Plus two analog sticks, each of which have eight directions and can also be pushed down in each one of those directions, plus in the center, making a grand total of…50 (or so) different pars of the controller that can be mapped. That’s really not that many. :stuck_out_tongue:
Oh, and if you think the PS2 controlelr is small, wait until you get a PS3. Imagine the PS2 controller, then make it narrower, skinnier, and curve it so that it’s the shape of a boomerang.

(Hell, I remember when the SNES came out and everyone thoguht that having SIX buttons (not counting start, select, and the direction arrows) were far too many. And considering many games didn’t use L or R, and had some duplicate button mapping, they were right. :smiley:

13

I play Xbox, and only local multiplayer games. (As opposed to online. I play against people in the same room.)

Assuming that the fanboys are right, and the extensive PS2 catalog has all the Xbox stuff plus a billion more, I’m just going to list the Xbox games I play and figure PS2 has them as well.

Top Spin: It’s the greatest tennis game since pong. Very fun, extremely simple and straightforward control scheme, and you have your choice of head to head or gang up doubles style against two comps. (Or head to head doubles with one comp player per side.) This game rocks, and is exactly your speed. Trust me.

X-Men Legends: Or whatever it’s called. Very fun. Minimal inventory maintenance, where you only equip maybe 3 total items per person, and each character has maybe 6 mutant powers to level up. Simple button controls, no dexterity required. It’s perfectly suited for both you and a 13 year old.

Madden: The grandaddy of all games. Might be a bit involved, but if you both get into it, and each take a different team in a franchise, managing and playing your teams through multiple seasons is probably the most satisfying gaming experience there is to be had. If you do the two team franchise route, be sure your either a) both in the same division, or b) in different conferences. A third option would be to play as a single team (one calls plays and passes and the other runs and catches) against the computer in franchise mode, but playing against the computer is boring and pointless, IMO.

NBA Live: IMO, EA’s game (Live) is better than ESPN’s, but opinions vary wildly. We like Live because you earn dynasty points for doing good things (like a triple double, etc…) and can then spend those points either developing players in permanent training or buying temporary coaches to boost the entire team. Basketball in general is not nearly as satisfying in regards to multi-season franchise development, but the dynasty extras in Live make up for that. Plus, it’s the ultimate team game. One guy controls the perimeter (pass and shoot) while the other handles the baseline (blocks and rebounds.) Probably our current favorite for satisfying gameplay. Works equally well as a 2-player, 3-player, and 4-player game.

I get together with three other guys once a week and play Xbox games. While we also occasionally play Halo online, the above games are what we spend 99% of our time doing.

Personally, I think the best bet if you can get into it is Madden franchise mode. It draws you in with the managing of the rosters (drafts, trades, free agents, retiring players, player development through production / winning) which lends itself to strategic planning and conversations outside of playing. In other words, of all the games I mentioned, only a Madden franchise would come up in a random breakfast coversation between you and your son. Why would you talk about Tennis or X-Men? You wouldn’t. But you might find yourself talking about a Madden franchise a fair amount. (“So have you figured out what you wanna do about your injured starting running back yet? The trading deadline is next week, but remember you’re up against the salary cap, so you’ll likely have to put him on injured reserve to free up cap space.”) IMO, sports in general (and Madden) can be a wonderful conversation lubricant between a father and his teenage son.

We’re old guys, so what we find works best is to play once a week as I said, (most of us don’t even turn our Xbox on during the week) and play as follows:

1 week of Madden (4 games, or fewer if someone has a bye or head to head game)
1 NBA Live Game (10 minute quarters, allowing easy quadruple doubles)
1 TopSpin doubles match (5 sets, 6 games per set, like actual tennis)
1 checkpoint in X-Men, or at least a half hour

That’s a good solid night, is quite fun, not repetitive, and all the games are fairly easy to control without needing much dexterity. I highly recommend it.

14

And I third Katamari Damacy and it’s sequel We Love Katamari. Wonderful fun.

15

I just realized that you’re only two people. While my previous suggestions all still apply, we are limited to four person games. If we were only two people, as you are, we would likely add a baseball and/or a hockey game.

Baseball in particular is quite fun, but only supports two players. That may be more your speed if all the intricacies of the NFL aren’t your cup of tea. Not to say that MLB isn’t as (or more) intricate than the NFL, but the baseball intricacies tend to be less vague. (Salary cap? Injured reserve?)

Plus the rosters are much smaller, which eases the roster management. The 160+ games I’m sure can be reduced, but I doubt you could get it down anywhere near 16 games per season. That’s the real draw of Madden franchise…you can actually progress a few seasons into each version without too much effort. (MLB playoffs alone are as long as the entire NFL season plus playoffs.)

16

Thanks for all the suggestions. It sounds like I definitely need to check out Katamari.

The sports games don’t do much for me. If I’m in the mood for basketball, I’ve got a hoop and a ball. I’d rather be outside getting a little exercise than parked in front of a computer or console. My son spends untold hours playing Tony Hawk skateboard games, but can I get him to plunk his feet onto a skateboard? Noooo.

17

How about some of the games in the Midway Arcade Treasures series?

18

I also highly recommend Katamari Damacy (English translation = Virtual Sticky Ball).

And may I suggest “Champions of Norath”, a dungeon quest sort of game that 2 can play. The good news is that it is not hand speed based, more strategy and more time spent equipping your character, buying items, etc.

19

I second this one. I’m 28 now, but I still remember when I was 12 years old and my dad and I spent two months one summer finishing the original “Phantasy Star”. We spent hours building up points and drawing maps of various caves on graph paper. It was great and we were ecstatic when we finally beat the game.

20

I can’t think of any fun games that don’t require lots of button pushing, unless you like those dancing games where you hop around on a pressure sensitive mat, or a karaoke game where you sing into a mike. I’m guessing those are aren’t quite your kid’s style.

A compromise might be Myst III. I’ve played that. It mostly involves moving around really slowly, and thinking a lot. And looking a lot. And did I mention thinking a lot? And looking a lot?

Or, any of The Sims games. Also not too much button mashing, just moving around, thinking about what you want to do, etc.