Masters of the Universe: He-Man: Defender of Grayskull (2005)

MotU: He-Man: Defender of Grayskull (2005)

Genre: Action / Adventure  |  Players: 1  |  Developer: Savage Entertainment

Your objective in Defender of Grayskull, if I'm not mistaken, is to advance through poorly designed and repetitive levels battling bland enemies, employing badly animated sword strikes to end their miserable existence. You can use a roll manoeuvre during combat in an attempt to add variety, but it's not necessary and you'll soon probably grow tired of even that once you discover that that it's quicker to simply lock onto them with L2 (if you're lucky) and hack and slash until they become a crumpled heap.

He-Man's burly physique is referenced often, in the piss-poor animation and in having his every step be accompanied by monotonous heavy footfalls that hammer the player's brain with each laboured step. He can also jump, which enables the awful platform sections to be properly cocked-up. At such times, collision detection in hinted at but largely absent.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (2002)

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (2002)

Genre: Sport  |  Players: 1-2  / Up to 8 online  |  Developer: Neversoft

If the shouty parts of the internet are to be believed, a majority of Tony Hawk game fans consider Tony Hawk's Underground (2003), aka THUG, to be the turning point for the franchise, the game where it went from strength to shambles. I differ in that I feel THPS 4 was that point because it was the title that changed the core structure upon which all else was built. THUG just took it to the next (lowest) level.

Gone are the quick 'arcade style' individual runs, replaced by a more open-world, free-skate environment called Career Mode in which tasks or goals have to be initiated by speaking to NPCs, and to do that you first have to find the damned NPCs in the now larger environments.

Making each area more expansive may sound good in theory, but in practice it means that there are less nearby objects to combo to and you have further to travel to find the next goal each time you complete one. You can choose goals from a list in the menu once you've discovered them, but why would you want to do that?

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (2001)

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (2001)

Genre: Sport  |  Players: 1-2  / Up to 4 online (PS2 only)  |  Developer: Neversoft

I won't bore anyone reading this with the tragic tale of where my first PS2 console went, a reliable as hell OG Phat version, but some years ago I bought a Slim version from eBay primarily for one reason: to play THPS 3 again.

THPS 1 and 2 on the original PlayStation console were both fun games, but sometimes even the simplest action was more difficult to do than it ought to have been, and the frame rate was inconsistent on the larger levels.

On the surface THPS 3 on PS2 doesn't do much radically different from its predecessors, but to play it is to discover that Neversoft successfully honed the formula to near perfection - basically, everything except the tricky frame rate.

.hack//Infection //Mutation //Outbreak //Quarantine (2002-03)

.hack//Infection, etc. (2002-03)

Genre: RPG  |  Players: 1  |  Developer: CyberConnect2

To clarify the confusing titling, there are four games in the series, each telling part of a lengthy story and each with the .hack// prefix. The games in order are: Vol 01 .hack//Infection | Vol 02 .hack//Mutation | Vol 03 .hack//Outbreak | Vol 04 .hack//Quarantine.

They're a traditional JRPG but resemble an MMORPG that remains one hundred percent offline. The story goes something like this: a popular MMORPG known as The World has caused a small number of players to fall into a coma. The game's creators attempt to hush the situation, but the scandal still breaks.

Despite the danger, a young boy named Kite selflessly enters the game to help his friend Orca, one of the coma victims. Kite believes the answer to the mystery lies within The World itself. He's a hero but doesn't know it yet; it's up to you to guide him to his destiny.

Ōkami (2006) / Ōkami HD (2012)

Ōkami (2006) / Ōkami HD (2012)

Genre: Action / Adventure | Players: 1 | Developer: Clover Studio (PS2) / HexaDrive (PS3 Conversion) / Ready at Dawn (Wii Conversion)

Ōkami is a strong contender for the finest Legend of Zelda game that Nintendo never made. I don’t use the comparison lightly. LoZ is one of my most treasured game franchises, so for anything to come even remotely close to it is an accolade in itself. It’ll draw comparisons with Twilight Princess mostly, principally because of the use of a wolf as protagonist, but TP didn't hit the shelves until over half a year afterwards; that they both involve a wolf is an unlucky coincidence.

Visually it's exquisite. As Amaterasu runs (hereafter 'Ammy' for short), flowers shoot up and blossom in her wake, similar to the Forest Spirit's passing in Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke (1997). (In the NA version of the game Ammy was genderless. A wolf god is okay, but a female god isn't, eh?) The painterly quality is inspired by traditional Japanese watercolours and Ukiyo-e wood carving art. The beguiling nature of that style is even more magnificent when backlit. No words can do it justice.

Shadow of the Colossus: Video Game (2005)

Shadow of the Colossus (2005)

Genre: Action / Adventure  |  Players: 1  |  Developer: Team Ico

Team Ico's follow-up to ICO (2001) is a very different kind of game. Nevertheless, there's the feeling that they both exist within the same fictional universe, making Shadow of the Colossus a spiritual sequel.*

It's the story of a boy and his horse. There's also the matter of a dead girl to address. Wander (the boy) will do whatever's required to bring her back from beyond the veil, even kill at the behest of a mysterious voice.

Combat is essentially a series of boss battles. The Colossi are the kind of thing you'd face at the end of a Legend of Zelda dungeon. Many are so large that they need to be climbed so that you can attack their vulnerable spot, but just finding the Colossi can be a challenge in itself because the game world is vast.

ICO: Video Game (2001)

ICO (2001)

Genre: Adventure / Puzzle / 3D Platformer  |  Players: 1  |  Developer: Team Ico

An adventure game unlike any that the PS2 had seen before. You play as the titular character (pronounced Eee-co), a young lad with horns on his head. His adventure begins in a large room inside a larger castle. You'll have a fair idea why he's there, but you won't know why he was chosen. Was it because of the horns or some other reason?

We also don't know why there's a second individual, a caged female, taller and perhaps a little older than Ico, who doesn't speak the same language as the boy.

If the two strangers are to escape before whatever it is they've been offered up to comes for them, they must somehow overcome barriers and work together.