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Sudden absurd PS2 launch year nostalgia...

P

Pachinko

Member
When I say Launch year , I'm refering to the time period of October 26th 2000 through to December 31st 2001, it's actually 14 months and some change, just FYI, I'm aware not everyone loves the launch day lineup

I'll preface this with a shout out to Maximillions twitch channel, his recent playthrough of The Bouncer spurred these nostalgic thoughts.

Of all things to recall fondly, let's all take a trip down memory lane to the North American Launch of the greatest selling home videogame console of all time (ALL TIME).

October 26th 2000 was a grand day for those who managed to secure a pre-order for Sony's second home system. You had over 2 dozen games to choose from but chances were high there weren't any memory cards (even third party) to go around so whatever you decided to buy would have to go without a save file for at least a few weeks. But man, the choices you had back then - 29 titles available in 1 day. Every genre you can think of was represented with at least 1 game, most with 2-3 titles. There may not have been a stand out MUST OWN title in the bunch but the quality of the launch was generally pretty good. Like many others, I was always partial to SSX but hell, over the course of the year after launch (I didn't buy the system myself until the following March) I played most of these games. I had a generous friend that got one on launch day, it was one of the few nights I pulled an all nighter and myself along with a few other people stayed up and unlocked every costume in DOA2 hardcore despite not having any way to save our progress :(.

Armored Core 2 - Tactical shooting action
DOA2: Hardcore - fighting
Dynasty Warriors 2 - beat em up with hundreds of troops
ESPN International Track & Field - sports
ESPN Winter X Games Snowboarding - sports
Eternal Ring - RPG
Evergrace - RPG
FantaVision - Arcade/puzzle
Gungriffon Blaze - Shooting action
Kessen - strategy
Madden NFL 2001 - sports
Midnight Club: Street Racing - racing
Moto GP - racing
NHL 2001 - sports
Orphen: Scion of Sorcery - arcade QTE filled movie game
Q-Ball: Billiards Master - pool
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 - fighting
Ridge Racer V - racing
Silent Scope - arcade shooting
Smuggler's Run - arcade mission racing
SSX - arcade racing/sports
Street Fighter EX3 - fighting
Summoner - RPG
Swing Away Golf - arcade sports
Tekken Tag Tournament - fighting
TimeSplitters - shooting
Unreal Tournament - shooting
Wild Wild Racing - platform racing
X-Squad - squad based shooting

The fun didn't stop there , 2001 was a fantastic year for the PS2 just in terms of how many games came out for it that are now considered genre defining classics or even just expensive mistakes.

Silent Hill 2 came out in February followed shortly thereafter by The Bouncer and when March did roll around it brought with it the first Onimusha Game as well as Zone of the Enders which included a copy of the most played demo ever - Metal Gear Solid 2. Resident Evil Code veronica was finally ported off the dreamcast that summer and included a playable demo of Devil May cry. Another summer survival horror game was the mostly forgotten Extermination.ALSO released over the summer of 2001 - Gran Tourismo 3 - the reason many people probably bought the console. As well, Twisted Metal Black saw the return of the TM1/2 developers to the franchise. Fumito Ueda brought us his first big release with Ico later in the fall.

But the biggest games were yet to come October 2001 brought with it Devil May Cry and Grand Theft auto 3 and finally, in November we got Metal Gear Solid 2. Just as you thought the year might be done with big hits- Square manages to translate Final Fantasy X and have it out just before Christmas.

And thus, 2001 finally came to a close and earns a spot in the history books alongside other defining years like 1998. It's strange to me because 2001 was the year I really loved my PS2 but by 2002 I'd also purchased an Xbox and eventually a gamecube , this split my gaming time up enough that my PS2 usage dropped down to mostly a glorified dvd player outside of a few games. It could be argued it took quite some time before the PS2 had a year of quality hits like 2001 again. What are your own experiences gaf ?
 
K

Krejlooc

Banned
If we're talking about nostalgia from that time, I remember ribbing my friend who got a PS2 at the time with quite a few games that my Dreamcast collection destroyed what his PS2 had to offer at the time, haha.

MGS2 is what made me get a PS2, which I got the following year along with Silent Hill 2.
 
S

super-famicom

Member
I reserved my launch PS2 at a Toys R Us. The very first game I bought was DOA2: Hardcore. I only had one controller and didn't buy a memory card until a few weeks later (I was in high school and didn't have much disposable income). I still have it, and the box it came in!
 
S

Shanks D Zoro

Banned
I bought my PS2 with my xmas money when I was 12 but couldn't afford any games. But that SSX demo was well worth a months worth of play before I bought the full game with a memory card
 
H

HideyoshiJP

Member
Oh, man. Remember not having to do large day one patches from overloaded servers? Worst thing was forgetting your 8MB memory card.
 
Aesius

Aesius

Member
I found the PS2 to be pretty underwhelming in late 2000, to be honest. It wasn't until Gran Turismo 3 came out in summer 2001 that the console really picked up steam for me. And then of course MGS2, FFX, and GTA3 all came out that fall.

For most of late 2000/early 2001, I was still pretty hooked on my Dreamcast. It just had better games at the time.
 
B

bigmac996

Member
I've got very fond memories of this time. SSX, Tekken Tag and Timesplitters were my first 3, followed shortly by Midnight Club and Armored Core 2. I remember renting Orphen, thinking it'd be a great Zelda-style adventure game and was sorely disappointed.

I also replayed the Tekken Tag intro over and over. Loved it, loved the music in it at the time too.
 
Northeastmonk

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I had Kessen and Tekken Tag Tournament. I had been a frequent arcade person, so TTT was one of the best fighters to date. It looked fantastic on console too. 2001 and on was when everything got better. I do remember the 8 MB memory cards being sold out. I had to go to Best Buy in order to buy one and a DualShock 2 controller. I never did buy the stand.

I put down reserve after reserve at Babbages for games. I practically purchased all the titles in 2001 thanks to a job and parents that supported it. What a great year that was.

I had the PS2 reserved at Babbages, but I had to go on the day of release. I didn't attend the midnight launch, but I did get one on launch.
 
D

Dr. Feel Good

Banned
I remember PS2 being sold out everywhere and people paying ridiculous amounts for the hardware and could not understand why. The library of games was unbelievably generic. There were games, but mostly unmemorable and generic which were surpassed by their sequels (SSX, Tekken, Timesplitters, etc. )

Dreamcast was godly at that time and was simply ignored.
 
A

AmyS

Member
The 15th anniversary of PS2's launch in Japan is of course coming up in just a couple weeks, on March 4
 
O

OverdriveOtaku

Member
When PS2 first launched in the states, my dad was a trooper and told school that I was very sick and needed to stay home. My dad and I got the last PS2 at a Sears of all places, since all of the game stores were sold out by the time we were set to get it launch day.

I got Armored Core 2 with it and loved it... but we couldn't find a freaking Memory Card for the damn thing. I had to keep starting the game over and over for like a week :/ Also owned Evergrace and Unreal Tournament.

Great console, loved it. Played my Dreamcast more toward the beginning of owning the PS2, then naturally, since the Dreamcast fell, it left a lot of time for PS2 stuff until Xbox and Gamecube came scurrying along.
 
B

bigmac996

Member
I remember people were paying 1000s to get one for the holidays. I'd genuinely thought my 12 year-old self wouldn't be getting one for Christmas from my ma because of the short supply, but she just casually stepped into Electronics Boutique and asked if they had any extra. Dude at the counter said one person neglected to pick up their preorder, so it was hers.

When it was under the tree I'd guessed it was a PS2 by feeling the back of the box for the serial number, but still couldn't believe it would be there. I was floored when I opened it, one of the best Christmases ever after a really rough year. Much respect to my ma for that, I'll never forget it.

This thread's got me all nostalgic now.
 
M

mrlion

Member
bigmac996 said:
I remember people were paying 1000s to get one for the holidays. I'd genuinely thought my 12 year-old self wouldn't be getting one for Christmas from my ma because of the short supply, but she just casually stepped into Electronics Boutique and asked if they had any extra. Dude at the counter said one person neglected to pick up their preorder, so it was hers.

When it was under the tree I'd guessed it was a PS2 by feeling the back of the box for the serial number, but still couldn't believe it would be there. I was floored when I opened it, one of the best Christmases ever after a really rough year. Much respect to my ma for that, I'll never forget it.

This thread's got me all nostalgic now.
Click to expand...

Your ma must be a really cool person.
 
T

TakeItSlowDude

Member
Aesius said:
I found the PS2 to be pretty underwhelming in late 2000, to be honest. It wasn't until Gran Turismo 3 came out in summer 2001 that the console really picked up steam for me. And then of course MGS2, FFX, and GTA3 all came out that fall.

For most of late 2000/early 2001, I was still pretty hooked on my Dreamcast. It just had better games at the time.
Click to expand...

Other than SSX I also found most of the launch games underwhelming. The release of Twisted Metal Black was when the PS2 started to pick up steam for me, then all of those games you listed started to come out.
 
I

I-hate-u

Member
ps2box1026.jpg

Just seeing this blue box makes me gush. Such a GOAT launch that will never be touched. Tekken Tag is enough playtime for years.
 
JimmyRustler

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
Pachinko said:
Silent Hill 2 came out in February followed shortly thereafter by The Bouncer and when March did roll around it brought with it the first Onimusha Game as well as Zone of the Enders which included a copy of the most played demo ever - Metal Gear Solid 2. Resident Evil Code veronica was finally ported off the dreamcast that summer and included a playable demo of Devil May cry. Another summer survival horror game was the mostly forgotten Extermination.ALSO released over the summer of 2001 - Gran Tourismo 3 - the reason many people probably bought the console. As well, Twisted Metal Black saw the return of the TM1/2 developers to the franchise. Fumito Ueda brought us his first big release with Ico later in the fall.

But the biggest games were yet to come October 2001 brought with it Devil May Cry and Grand Theft auto 3 and finally, in November we got Metal Gear Solid 2. Just as you thought the year might be done with big hits- Square manages to translate Final Fantasy X and have it out just before Christmas.
Click to expand...
Woa.... I can't be the only one who has troubles remembering that all those games were released in such short intervals, can I? I remember it taking much longer.... :-/
 
Petrae

Petrae

Member
I didn't jump in at launch on the PS2. I jumped in after the late January 2001 announcement from SEGA that it was pulling the plug on Dreamcast. I immediately gathered up all of my Dreamcast stuff and traded it in at my local independent game store towards a new PS2. They were still in short supply then, but I got lucky and scored the last one the store had.

Paying the difference from the store credit I got from unloading the Dreamcast stuff, I bought the PS2, SSX, Swing Away Golf, NHL 2001, Madden 2001, and Ridge Racer V... along with the requisite 8MB memory card. I've had a PS2 ever since, although I've had to replace a couple over the last 14 years because I've used the systems so darned much.

Of those launch titles the OP mentioned... I have 13 of them in my library currently, and I'm still keeping my eyes open to grab the games in that lineup that I'm missing.
 
T

theSlacker

Member
k9L81YH.jpg
Click to expand...

It may not my my absolute favorite console, but damned if it didn't try. The only thing holding it back is more nostalgia for older ones.

Had a doctors appointment on launch day so just went straight from that to the store. Was a week before I could find a memory card, and I had started Evergrace and Armored Core 2 over several times by then. Still have the shitty third party one I finally got. Was oddly shaped with a black rubber piece on it for no reason at all.

I wish I still had that glorious blue box it came in.
 
P

Poltergust

Member
Honestly, it wasn't until 2002 that I took interest in the PS2 (when games like Sly Cooper and Kingdom Hearts came out). I was mostly playing on my 5th-gen consoles + GameCube up until then.

That launch list didn't (and still doesn't) have a single game I was interested in.
 
B

bigmac996

Member
TheExorzist said:
Woa.... I can't be the only one who has troubles remembering that all those games were released in such short intervals, can I? I remember it taking much longer.... :-/
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm with ya. Seems absurd that Zone of the Enders came out just a few months after launch, and Onimusha as well. Felt like ages.
 
P

Pachinko

Member
I suppose it says something about perception of time in general that many of you recall the PS2 taking forever to get some good games, especially exclusives.

We were flat out spoiled for good content 1998-2001, I'd actually say games have been on a decline ever since , the big releases kept getting bigger and more expensive and releasing further apart , the middle of the road studios started to disappear and with this past generation of gaming the Japanese studios just flat out stopped releasing any games.

- I Tried to think about all the games that were released in this time frame a little more and this is perhaps a more accurate list of iconic titles that came out before the end of 2001.

SSX
Dead or alive 2 hardcore
Tekken Tag Tournament
Dynasty Warriors 2
Silent Hill 2
The Bouncer
Onimusha
Zone of the enders
Rumble Racing
Gran Tourismo 3
Twisted Metal Black
Dark Cloud
Resident Evil Code Veronica X
Extermination
Ico
Ace Combat 4
Baldurs Gate Dark alliance
Jak and Daxter
Devil May Cry
Grand Theft Auto 3
Metal Gear Solid 2
Final Fantasy X


As I mentioned in the post that opened the thread though, by 2002 I overwhelmed myself with entertainment options - had my first PC by then, an xbox and a gamecube. This meant that my memory of 2002 and beyond was one devoid of hit games on the PS2. I honestly can't think of anything outside of Kingdom Hearts and GTA vice city having come out that year. It felt like it took until 2004/2005 for the system to catch up with releases again.
 
stuminus3

stuminus3

Member
PS2 was the most useless overhyped underpowered overexpensive piece of plastic, silicone and crap at launch to me. I was a PC gamer (still am of course), and nothing in the console space was as worthy as the blue skies of Sega at the time.

Then came Grand Theft Auto 3.

The rest is glorious history.
 
J

jblank83

Member
Launch was awful. I spent months playing Dynasty Warriors waiting for anything good. Eventually I got so sick of Dynasty Warriors that I threw the disc into a canyon.

It took almost a year for decent titles to release.
 
R

revolverjgw

Member
It wasn't until late 2001 with games like MGS2, Devil May Cry and Silent Hill 2 that the PS2 really endeared itself to me. So I don't have a lot of nostalgia for the early stuff, and when I went back to play some of those games, they had already aged horribly.
 
O

Outtrigger888

Member
My mom worked part time at toys r us for extra income that holiday it launched. So she was able to get me one for Christmas. Much respect to my mom.
 
E

Elios83

Member
Still have the blue launch box in my room :D
I enjoyed the launch: Ridge Racer 5, Tekken Tag, SSX, DOA and FFIX (through BC) made a really nice launch window for me. Then Zoe, Shadow of Memories, The Bouncer and Onimusha all before summer 2001.

But the PS2 launch wasn't generally considered to be good, people complained about no games, serious aliasing/image quality problems (and it was true for many of the early titles) plus continued shortages. PS2 took off during fall 2001 and then it became legend.
 
R

Rival

Gold Member
I wanted on so bad on launch day. Didn't find one in stock until about 6 weeks later! I bought that beautiful blue box along with an extra controller, memory card, armored core, swing away golf, and Moto gp.
 
Digital-Hero

Digital-Hero

Member
I was lucky to snag a PS2 at launch because I worked at Software Etc. at the time. I purchased 3 games for launch. SSX, Tekken Tag and Ridge Racer V. A great launch by today's standards.
 
M

Mozz-eyes

Banned
Looking at those launch titles, there's literally nothing that excites me. Perhaps SSX or Time splitters at a push...

GameCube launch, in the other hand, mother fuckin Rogue Squadron 2 and Luigi's Mansion! Boom. Much more suitable for a 10 year old. Actually, much more suitable for my tastes at any age.

That ps2 2001 lineup, though. Christ. Those are some frighteningly good games.
 
D

daveo42

Banned
I got a PS2 at launch with Timesplitters, SSX, and Orphen. I remember playing FFIX on my PS2 that year as there weren't too many games right after launch, but then 2001 came and with it a shit-ton of awesome games. I always forget we got so many good games all in the course of a single year.
 
Nameless

Nameless

Member
Somehow, some way I convinced my parents to let me take that day off from school, so me and some friends went and saw Drunken Master then camped out at the nearby Best Buy where I worked. Got Madden, SSX, and Tekken Tag Tournament with the system, and Timesplitters a week later.

By the time I got home that morning I was too cold and tired to really enjoy fuckin thing. Made it through a game of Madden before passing out playing Tekken. When I woke up it was almost time for work where I got to smugly turn countless people away who had the audacity to waltz into Best Buy at 6pm on launch day looking for a PS2. We did a shipment of something like 14 more systems the following evening , though.
 
C

Confusion Illusion

Banned
I got PS2 spring of 2001—best early birthday gift ever. Onimusha, SSX, Tekken Tag, were amongst the first batch of games I played. The games that sold me on the system (Mgs2, DMC, GT3) were yet to be released. I also had my PSone games as well.
 
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