Took me a while but now I'm solid in my support of the PS2.

The PS3 is finally starting to justify itself as a system, but we’ve lost the wonder that is backwards compatibility. There are still a few of you PS3 owners that have this feature on your system, but there are also a lot of you that still have a PS2 sitting around somewhere, praying that you remind it of the glory days. I am here to remind you of said glory days. Here are 5 Must-Own PS2 Games.

God of War:

It’s not a kid’s game, but it’s also not a game you should pass up should you be old enough to play it. Both God of War and its sequel pushed the hardware to the absolute limit, but in doing so they gave us Kratos, the most extreme character seen this side of King Leonidas. Kratos is tricked by Ares, the Greek God of War, to become his servant. This results in Kratos accidentally killing his own family (I hate it when that happens). So the only solution is to get back at Ares and kill a god. That’s a premise worthy of praise, and so is this game.

If given the choice between the first and the second game, go with the first. Both are fantastic, and together they’re great (don’t forget to look out for the HD two-pack being released on the PS3), but as a single game, the first God of War has the second beat since it actually has a resolution. Otherwise, expect to sit with your eyes popped as you witness the sort of things they allow to be in video games, and by things I mean insane fatalities against enemies that really had no business messing with you in the first place.

Over the course of the game you will definitely respect the PS2 as something more than just a decent DVD player. You will get to tackle a game that decided how good combat needed to be in a game before it can be considered really good. Many have tried to imitate God of War and few have succeeded.

Dragon Quest VIII:

If you’re a fan of Final Fantasy games, then you may just be a fan of Dragon Quest games as well. Dragon Quest VIII came out and I was shocked to learn that there was not a universal lifting of jaws off floors since the game was clearly made at a level of care usually reserved for overly protective parents. Every single aspect of the game jumped out at me and impressed me. The musical score is beautiful, the graphics are lively, and the voice acting is in my top 5 best for all games.

However, the game is hard. At some points, painfully so. Most players will die over and over and over again before they decide to either level grind for a few hours or give up entirely (wrong answer!). If you stick with it, Dragon Quest VIII opens up into a game that just does everything right. You’ll be shocked to find out that Final Fantasy X isn’t on my list. That’s because Dragon Quest VIII is good enough to take its spot.

Katamari Damacy:

You’ve probably seen a Katamari game released on the current system o...