10 PS2 Games That Actually Need A Remake

We’re not going to be blowing anyone’s minds here when we say that the PS2 has a vast library of games. It’s one of those statements that everyone immediately agrees with, like “Sonic ‘06 is a pile of trash” or “pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza”. Nothing contentious about that opinion at all. With well over a thousand games on the PS2, naturally a good portion of them have been remade over the years to make the most of new hardware, but there’s some that we reckon could shine with a proper second chance.

Narrowing down the PS2’s library to just 10 games that could use a remake is a herculean task, and we’re definitely going to have missed a few of your favorites, but for this list, we’re trying to focus on games that either didn’t receive enough love on the PS2 and could do with another go, didn’t release in the west, or games that would genuinely benefits from the power of more recent hardware to truly execute the game’s vision. With that in mind, let’s talk about the 10 PS2 games we believe are most deserving of a remake.

 

1. R.A.D.: Robot Alchemic Drive

Developer: Sandlot
Publisher: Enix

R.A.D. is a pretty accurate name for what the game is about, because playing as a giant robot who has to beat the crap out of aliens is pretty “rad” no matter what. R.A.D.: Robot Alchemic Drive has giant kaiju action in spades, but the real gimmick to the game is the fact that you’re controlling both the mech and the pilot separately, with the pilot forced to follow behind the mech, setting themselves up at a decent vantage point while trying to avoid being crushed.

R.A.D.: Robot Alchemic Drive is a prime candidate for a remake due to the fact it’s a pretty obscure game already, but with an amazing gimmick that could be explored further on current gen hardware. A more densely populated city with better graphics would really help sell the vision of R.A.D., but what would really improve the game is some enhanced destruction effects. It feels like there haven’t been many games that really let you loose on a huge city on current hardware, so now’s the time to change that.

 

2. Resident Evil Outbreak

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

We’ve spoken in the past about whether or not Capcom should do something with the Resident Evil Outbreak series, and the answer is that they absolutely should. Capcom has been killing it when it comes to the remakes of classic RE games, but they’ve also been missing the point entirely when trying to turn RE into a multiplayer game too. Resident Evil 3 came with Project Resistance, a pretty weak Dead By Daylight-esque clone, while the less said about RE:Verse, the better. Meanwhile the ideal solution for Capcom has been staring them in the face: just remake Outbreak.

An online multiplayer horror game for the PS2, Outbreak was years ahead of its time, considering the PlayStation Network hadn’t even been conceived at that point. The emulation community has kept Outbreak alive in more recent years, but with the runaway success of the Resident Evil games anyway, particularly the over-the-shoulder remakes, perhaps remaking Outbreak in that same style with some of the lessons learned from live service on Monster Hunter would lead to the next big Resident Evil hit. You could even release the maps from Outbreak File 2 as post-launch content too.

 

3. Urban Reign

Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco

The PS2’s library of beat ‘em ups is, well, it’s huge at least. We perhaps wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s absolutely brilliant, considering that said library includes stinkers like Final Fight: Streetwise, Beatdown: Fists Of Vengeance and Death By Degrees. However, there’s some real bangers in there too, like God Hand, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks and Urban Reign. While all three could be ported today with just a simple resolution update and, in the case of MK and UR, online multiplayer, we reckon Urban Reign could do with a bit more of a remake.

It’s not because the gameplay of Urban Reign is bad. If anything, it’s one of the smoothest, most fluid and easiest to play brawlers on the PS2, if ever. A remake of Urban Reign would do well to keep the gameplay pretty much the same, but it’s the graphics where Urban Reign could do with a huge overhaul. Considering this PS2 sleeper hit was created by the same team who created Tekken, with Paul and Law even appearing as guest characters, it’d be amazing to see Urban Reign given the same coat of paint that Tekken 8 received.

 

4. Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction

Developer: Radical Entertainment
Publisher: Vivendi Universal Entertainment

Despite being one of the most popular and recognisable superheroes in all of fiction, the Incredible Hulk hasn’t been blessed with a lot of good video games. Much like Superman, given his nigh-invincible power, it’s hard to actually have him as a balanced protagonist, so he’s often reduced to a background or side character, which is enough to leave us in an incredible sulk. To date, there’s only been one good Hulk game, and that’s Ultimate Destruction, which actually focused on what mattered when capturing the essence of Hulk: smashing.

Following a similar story to the Edward Norton film, years before that forgotten MCU entry was even released, Ultimate Destruction sees Banner struggling with his angry alter ego, while an irradiated Emil Blonsky is dealing with an Abomination of his own making. While the main missions don’t extend beyond “go there” and “smash that”, it’d be amazing to play a Hulk game with proper city destruction, or with Tim Roth from the 2008 film returning to play Blonsky. This is an obscure pull, but a Hulk game using the destruction engine and physics seen in Frontier’s ScreamRide would actually be incredible.

Yeah, I did say it was a pull.

 

5. The Thing

Developer: Computer Artworks
Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games

Licensed games were ten a penny on the PS2, and while most were trash (see: most games based on kids films), there were a few golden nuggets to find. The Warriors from Rockstar, EA’s take on The Godfather, and Scarface: The World Is Yours by Radical Entertainment all managed to expand on the mythos of the original properties while providing an entertaining game in their own right. But if there’s any film tie in game that deserves a full on remake, it’d have to be The Thing. Considering the novella The Thing was based on has been remade a number of times already, remaking the PS2 game seems like it’s within the same wheelhouse.

An incredibly ambitious horror game, The Thing on PS2 was set after the events of the Carpenter movie, with players controlling Captain Blake as he tries to determine what the hell happened on this remote outpost. The answer: shapeshifting aliens. What made The Thing so unique were its NPC interactions, with multiple classes of characters accompanying Blake, along with mechanics such as fear, trust and infection determining how effective NPCs are, whether they suspect you’re The Thing, or whether those “friendly” NPCs are actually infected and will try to eat you later on. Cue the imposter Among Us music.

Give it some modern controls and some next-gen body horror graphics, and this’d be a real whipper.

 

6. State Of Emergency

Developer: VIS Entertainment
Publisher: Rockstar Games

Admittedly, doing a remake of a game that simulates riots might be a controversial one, given how much general discontent there is in the world at the minute, but State of Emergency is absolutely a game that was failed by the technology of the time to execute its vision. At its core, SoE was a beat ‘em up that saw a group of resistance fighters known as Freedom inciting some riots across the US to try and take down The Corporation, which is about as cookie cutter as dystopian fiction gets.

What makes State of Emergency a compelling remake idea is the idea of a fully interactive world to mess around in. During the original game, it felt like most of the horde of people you were a part of were just set dressing rather than actual people you could interact with. Basically, we’d want a game that truly simulated the chaos of a riot, but make sure it’s done in a silly way. If we have to sit through another wave of headlines about some evil game that lets you open fire on a group of people, we might just lose our minds.

 

7. Shadow of Rome

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

Despite the fact that, according to TikTok, men think about Ancient Rome more than they think about their own family members, there hasn’t really been a lot of games set during the time period. There’s your usual crop of management games, while titles like Civilization give reference to the time period, but for those who want to be boots on the ground during the reign of Caesar and the like, there’s not much to choose from besides Ryse: Son of Rome. It’s why Capcom would be able to corner a gap in the market pretty effectively by remaking Shadow of Rome.

An action adventure epic, Shadow of Rome tells a fictionalised version of the infamous Ides of March, where Caesar was introduced to a bunch of pointy things. You play as Agrippa, whose father was framed for the assassination, who now has to survive the gladiatorial gauntlet, and Octavianus, who tries to prove the innocence of Agrippa’s dear old dad. A remake would be a boon for both halves of Shadow of Rome. Agrippa’s combat became the inspiration for Dead Rising, so Capcom could perhaps use the more modern DR engines and tech for some bloody combat, while Octavianus stealth sections need all the improvement they can get, honestly.

There’s only so many times that weak little twink can get stabbed by guards before you start bashing your head against the wall.

 

8. Under The Skin

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

You might be thinking that Capcom has appeared quite a bit on this list, and that’s fair enough, but when you’ve got a back catalog as vast and varied as theirs, it’s only natural that a lot of them would actually make for excellent remakes. Of all of Capcom’s PS2 games however, perhaps none are as weird and experimental as Under The Skin, which has absolutely nothing to do with the Scarlett Johannson film of the same name. That was a different kind of weird and experimental, though both did involve aliens landing on Earth.

Playing as a cute little mischief maker called Cosmi, you’ve traveled to Earth in order to, well, make mischief. Across the game’s eight levels, you disguise yourself as one of the humans then use their unique abilities to cause chaos in some form or another. That’s the basic premise, and while it’s about as simplistic as it gets, some new features like online multiplayer could help this remake achieve additional success. Plus, one of the levels is a parody of RE3: Nemesis, so think what Capcom games an Under The Skin remake could parody second time around.

 

9. Obscure

Developer: HydraVision Entertainment
Publisher: DreamCatcher Interactive

There’ve been a lot of horror games that have tried to walk along the same trail that Resident Evil and Silent Hill blazed, and as you’d expect from copycats, most of them failed. However, a couple of them at least tried to do things a little bit differently than its forebears, with Obscure being the prime example of this. While you can play both Obscure and its sequel right now on Steam, both games are prime candidates for a remake, as again, they’re pretty novel for the horror genre.

Taking inspiration from schlocky, b-movie horror films, Obscure sees a bunch of teenage students dealing with a mutant infection that’s causing havoc in their local high school. Players can switch between five different characters throughout the course of the game, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and players could even plug in a second controller to continue the game in co-op. Update the controls, and chuck some online co-op in there, and an Obscure remake would be a real treat.

 

10. Namco X Capcom

Developer: Monolith Soft
Publisher: Namco

Look, we promise this wasn’t bought and paid for by Capcom. Promise. At least this one was published by Namco.

Anyway, good remake candidates are games that never received a full launch across the entire world, with Monolith Soft’s Namco X Capcom being a prime example. A strategy game featuring all of the best and brightest from both of the Japanese publisher’s biggest franchises, Namco X Capcom is considered a bit of a precursor to the popular Project X Zone series on the DS, but NXC never made it to Western shores. Maybe it’s time to change that.

In fairness, history has been kind to Namco X Capcom in the West thanks to the work of passionate fans who have managed to release English patched version on emulation websites, but it’d be great to see both companies work together again to create a crossover as big and bombastic as Namco X Capcom. If nothing else, it’ll probably be better than just another Street Fighter X Tekken, and we’d be able to see some truly ridiculous match-ups. If your head went straight to Ivy from Soulcalibur versus Lady D from RE8, congratulations! You’ve won one free trip to horny jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect £200.