The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling console of all time, with Sony shifting more than 160 million consoles over its lifespan. The PS2 represents a golden age for home consoles, which is why it’s so perfect for emulating today.
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PS2 Games Run on Almost Anything
The PS2 was released in 2000, so if it was a person it would have graduated college and have a job by now. The good news here is that the platform’s age makes it relatively easy to emulate on modern hardware.
You can now run PS2 games on a broad range of devices, big and small. Gaming PCs and modern Apple Silicon Macs are plenty powerful enough to run much of the console’s library with flawless results. That same is true of less powerful devices like laptops and potato PCs.
This is great for handheld gamers who rely on devices like the Steam Deck or ROG Ally since these can comfortably take the PS2’s catalog on the go. I’ve spent a lot of time recently using my Steam Deck specifically for PS2 emulation and after a quick setup with EmuDeck, I’ve been very impressed. Battery life in most titles is comparable to a native indie game, and the form factor is perfect.
If you’d rather go smaller, take a look at dedicated devices like the $219 Retroid Pocket 5, older versions like the $175 Retroid Pocket 4, and the $185 Anbernic RG556. All are capable of PS2 emulation, but less powerful devices tend to cap out at N64 emulation.
Retroid Pocket 4
Game on the go with the Retroid Pocket 4! This powerful handheld console offers retro gaming in HD, multi-platform emulation, and a sleek, portable design. Perfect for retro gaming enthusiasts and portable play lovers.
PS2 games are relatively small (typically less than 1GB to around 3GB) compared to modern games, and the price of flash storage has dropped which means you can find a 1TB microSD card for less than the price of a new PS5 game.
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There Are Some Excellent PS2 Emulators
The easiest route to playing PS2 games on modern platforms is just to use a PS5 and Sony’s catalog. While original PlayStation games have received some love from Sony, the same isn’t true of PS2 titles. These games can still disappoint and suffer from jittery performance, screen tearing, and poor upscaling.
With a little more effort, you can install something like PCSX2 (Windows, Linux, and Mac) and get a much better experience. This longstanding project claims “playable” support for over 98% of the PS2 catalog. On a handheld like a Steam Deck or ROG Ally, you can use the EmuDeck installer to get everything set up (including PCSX2) in one fell swoop.
Multi-system emulator frontend RetroArch also has support for a PCSX2 core, though many claim that using a standalone emulator is a more stable experience. Unfortunately, the iOS and iPadOS version of RetroArch lacks the PS2 support seen in the Android version (assuming your device has enough oomph to handle it). Xbox owners can also install RetroArch, and support for the PCSX2 core makes it possible to run PlayStation titles on Microsoft hardware.
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How to Set Up RetroArch, The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Games Emulator
Emulating the classics has never been easier.
Picking an emulator like PCXS2 over Sony’s official releases gives you more granular control over visuals, control settings, and access to performance tweaks you can make if you’re having issues getting games running properly. You can also use save states to create game snapshots at any stage (not just at save points) and control the speed of gameplay.
Of course, no article about emulation would be complete with the usual disclaimer that you’ll need legally-obtained ROM and BIOS files for this. Downloading copyrighted material that you do not own is illegal.
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PS2 Games Polish Up Well
While the novelty of running PS2 games on my Steam Deck OLED wherever I like still hasn’t worn off, I’m perhaps most enjoying pushing these games to the hardware’s limit. This is possible by tweaking a few in-emulator settings.
By changing the native render resolution, you can display games at a higher resolution than running them natively on Sony hardware. This is a great way to get games looking sharper, though be aware that it won’t affect the textures which were designed for 480p display on a CRT monitor which is what gives them that early-2000s look.
You can make further changes, like enabling anisotropic filtering in order to improve the look of textures, especially at sharp angles (it’s great for racing games and 3D platformers). Some emulators support FXAA (fast approximate anti-aliasing) or other anti-aliasing techniques which are designed to reduce the appearance of jagged lines.
You can even force widescreen support for certain games within the render settings, with some games supporting widescreen patches. Full texture replacements are available for certain games, with a notable PS2 example being Gran Turismo 4 with the Spec II mod.
These are just suggestions, and most emulators won’t enable them by default. A lot of the stylistic choices of the time have held up, although this obviously isn’t true for every game. While many PS2-era games still look decent even in their “natural” state, there’s a reason older game graphics are never as good as you remember.
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The Catalog is Phenomenal
The PS2 has the biggest game catalog of any console, with more than 4000 games released for the platform over the course of 13 years. While a large catalog doesn’t necessarily mean a good catalog, the PS2 dominance back in the day made it a prime target for publishers to get their games into as many hands as possible.
In this case, the catalog is phenomenal. Some of the highest profile releases include two versions each of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, Sony’s best-in-class simcade racer Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec and 4, survival horror masterpieces Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil 4, and three Rockstar open-world Grand Theft Auto games including III, Vice City and San Andreas (back when we didn’t have to wait decades between releases).
The console was also home to cult hits like Japanese roll ‘em up Katamari Damacy, what was often described as “PlayStation’s Zelda” Okami, and Harmonix’s pre-Guitar Hero rhythm action game Amplitude. Also of note are Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, two PlayStation hits that have earned a die-hard following.
Many of these games are timeless and have gone on to receive remakes and remasters, so a PS2 emulator might not be the best way to experience them. In spite of this, there are plenty of under-appreciated “leftovers” within the catalog to explore.
Some of these are bizarre products of their time. I’m talking about titles like Mister Mosquito, a game where you play as a literal mosquito; City Crisis where you must rescue people from burning buildings with a helicopter; and Gauntlet Dark Legacy which is the most faithful home console port of the four-player arcade classic.
I’ve been having fun with racing games like the original Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero (which looks great when you pump the visuals up), EA’s Need for Speed: Underground, and what is arguably Criterion’s best work in Burnout 3: Takedown. I’m also having fun exploring the grimy, moody, and needlessly violent Manhunt.
The PS2 marked the start of many franchises, including God of War (which was quite a different game back then), Insomniac’s still-kicking Ratchet and Clank, and neglected mascot platformers like Jak and Daxter and Sly Cooper. If you pine for the days of mascot platformers there are plenty more to choose from including games in the Spyro, Klonoa, Crash, Rayman, and Vexx franchises that have never been ported anywhere else.
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The Controls Are Mostly There
Sometimes, the hardest part of playing older video games is enduring outdated control schemes. Thankfully, the PS2 is modern enough that it helped cement the control scheme that the entire industry ended up adopting. You almost certainly own a controller that will give you a period-appropriate PS2 experience.
Dual sticks were normalized by the time that the PS2 launched, and they haven’t gone anywhere. Rumble was also a thing, and many emulators have support for native PS2 rumble features (some of which translate impressively to modern haptic feedback).
There is some unfortunate wonkiness in a few games, sometimes spanning entire genres. For example, racing games hadn’t quite adopted right or left triggers (or R2 and L2) to accelerate and break. Some games settled on R1 for acceleration in alternate control schemes, while others opted for face buttons like X (which were pressure-sensitive on the original hardware).
On top of this, camera control in 3D platformers and other third-person games hadn’t been perfected either. The same is true of first-person shooters, which iterated more on what Nintendo achieved with Goldeneye on the N64 by devaluing vertical aiming. It took Microsoft and Bungie to blaze this trail with Halo: Combat Evolved on the Xbox.
Despite this, many games control exactly as you’d expect. If you’re really bothered, you can even amend button mappings within your emulator (which is especially useful considering the existence of game-specific profiles).
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RetroAchievements Add a Modern Twist
Last but not least, if you consider yourself a bit of an achievement hunter then you might get a kick out of enabling RetroAchievements in your emulator of choice. PCSX2 and the RetroArch front-end both have support for this community-maintained trophy system that adds modern Xbox-style achievements to old games.
It can be fun to go back and rediscover your old favorites with a modern twist, with support for both “softcore” achievements (which allow for the use of save states and other enhancements) and “hardcore” achievements (which disable these modern conveniences).
Whether the PS2 was a huge part of your youth or you’re just a younger gamer looking back at platforms you might have missed, there’s never been a better time to jump in.
