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There’s no doubt that the PS2 is one of the most iconic gaming consoles of all time. According to sales data, it’s still the best-selling gaming machine ever, beating out competitors like the Wii, the DS, and the Game Boy. There are many reasons for the PS2’s success; its excellent library of games, iconic controller, and ability to double up as a DVD player helped it to establish itself as a mainstay in many gamers’ homes. However, as the great Primus once said, they can’t all be zingers. Here, in no particular order, are the 10 worst PS2 games of all time.
Little Britain: The Video Game
If you weren’t around when Little Britain fever briefly gripped the nation, then you might have forgotten that Matt Lucas and David Walliams’ sketch show ever even existed. That would be a mercy, but it would be a greater mercy to forget that this execrable tie-in was made. Full of rancid minigames with terrible controls and lacklustre graphics, Little Britain: The Game was a cash-in for a show that had already arguably passed its prime by the first or second episode.
Catwoman
Halle Berry’s Catwoman is often remembered as one of the worst movies of all time, so when it comes to the video game adaptation, it probably won’t surprise you that it’s just as bad as its source material. Catwoman was a platformer that attempted to make the most of its lithe main character’s agility, but just ended up feeling clunky and unsatisfying to play. Couple that with some unconvincing set pieces and terrible storytelling and you’ve got a real dud.
Crime Life: Gang Wars
One look at the title will probably tell you everything you need to know about this one. Crime Life: Gang Wars was released as a shameless attempt to cash in on Grand Theft Auto fever, although if anyone on this game’s development team seriously thought they could keep up with Rockstar’s excellent efforts, then they were deluded. Crime Life is a terribly drab, dull third-person crime sim that attempted to blend mission-based gameplay with GTA’s free-roaming style and failed at both.
The Guy Game
There’s no doubt that The Guy Game is one of the most misogynistic gaming experiences ever created. It’s a softcore trivia game that tasks players with gradually uncovering more and more of a woman’s body by answering questions correctly, and that’s pretty much all there is to it. Not only should women and anyone else of any gender be offended by this, but men should be offended that The Guy Game’s developers think this little of them.
Bad Boys: Miami Takedown
Yep – there was a video game based on the popular action movie series Bad Boys, and its name really was tempting fate. The likenesses of main actors Will Smith and Martin Lawrence were…interesting, to say the least, and the plot was lazy and boring. There was at least a chance developer Blitz Games could salvage this project with some mindlessly fun shooting, but they botched that as well, with the gameplay coming across as repetitive and uninvolving.
American Idol
You wouldn’t think it would be that difficult to create a video game based on American Idol, would you? It’s a simple proposition: a karaoke video game that allows you to sing a variety of songs in front of the titular show’s judges, who will then grade you based on your performance. Unfortunately, this American Idol game had two crucial problems: it was released in the year before SingStar would revolutionise the music genre, and it was a cheap cash-in with no interest in innovating.
Charlie’s Angels
The Dead or Alive series is often criticised for the level of sexualisation that its female characters exhibit, but at least Dead or Alive also contains some fun fighting mechanics. Charlie’s Angels was crass, exploitative, and terrible; it has no redeeming features whatsoever as a gaming experience. The visuals are cheap and awful, and the gameplay is mind-numbingly boring and awkward. Do yourself a favour and keep as far away from this one as you can.
Fight Club
We have to admit that we’re baffled by this one. The idea of taking Fight Club – a movie with a subversive, rebellious message at its core – and turning it into a mind-numbing by-the-numbers one-on-one fighter is bad enough, but the fact that the final execution is so terrible is even more head-scratching. There are, we think, some characters in Fight Club who are supposed to loosely resemble their movie counterparts, but like the rest of this mess, that attempt fails.
Crazy Frog Racer 2
The next time someone starts waxing lyrical about how much better the 2000s were than the present era (whenever you might be reading this), remind them that Crazy Frog was not only a thing in the 2000s but was also phenomenally and inexplicably popular. That can be evidenced by this terrifyingly bad racing game, which simultaneously manages to bore you to death and annoy you to tears. This one’s so bad, it might actually be a deconstructive art piece intended to criticise fun video games.
London Cab Challenge
With graphics that would have looked more at home on the PS1 and gameplay that could charitably be described as “confusing”, London Cab Challenge might put you in mind of Crazy Taxi, if the last time you played Crazy Taxi was after a major head injury. This awful cab game sees you driving around what we are repeatedly assured is London, picking up fares and generally trying your very best to have a good time in the face of an entertainment product of which the creators should be ashamed.
