#dreadwhoop

(Want to hear what I felt about a PS1 - 25th Anniversary Platinum Edition back in 2017? Refer to the link below)

Today, 25 years ago, on the 4th of March 2000, the greatest videogame console launched in Japan and would later in the same year grace much of the whole world. By the end of 2001 it had reached over 20 million sales and by the end of its lifespan around 160 million - surpassing the 102 million of the PS1. Despite Nintendo's impressive legacy of consoles not even the DS or the Switch have effectively passed those numbers as of this writing. To put it in perspective, the PS5 hasn't even reached HALF of the PS2 sales.

Sony attempted to find fortune in a 'PlayStation Classic' back in 2018. It was a mixed result ultimately ending in being a forgotten curiousity. Just what were the decisions behind their inclusions and exclusions? Why use the PAL versions for some games? Was leaning on their own exclusive library a good idea or a cheap and lazy gamble? Do you have one? To say it was a commercial failure would be an understatement - it's effectively a forgotten piece of gaming history when it was supposed to be a celebration and preservation of such history.

Rare is it a company gets a 2nd chance to succeed based on the good faith of their celebrated past in contrast to the ill-concieved future they tried to force - Astro Bot has revitalised a keen interest in such franchises.

(Celebrated Past = Astro Bot)

If Sony wants to take one important lesson about last year, 2024, it's how they now have a golden opportunity to correct course on a lot of lost revenue and win back the demographics spanning several generations. What the PS1 did to establish franchises, mature audiences, and all the stuff I wrote before, the PS2 galvanised in becoming the true heart and soul of Sony's dominance in the industry which has now surpassed all other forms of entertainment media. This is the ideal time to make a PS2 Classic - not remakes or remasters and not sad sequels to nostalgia grab - a genuine article of celebrating a historic timeline of career-defining, genre-defining, videogame masterpieces. A truly incredible celebration of when Sony was invincible and rightfully had the entire industry in the palm of their hands. It can happen again if this time they listen to what Astro Bot did right. Would a PS2 Classic sell millions? It might!

Because Sony loves celebrating milestones this should be their magnum opus of such things. £100/$100 would be an ideal price for this, double this would be pushing the limits, and anything in-between can be argued as fair - after all it's meant to be a 1:1 PS2 (minus playing DVDs…) and you know what people will do to it. As a bonus, and a means of paying homage to the original, the PS1 Classics should also be backlogged onto this device - PS2 could play PS1 games after all - so it also allows those who felt the PS1 Classic was a bad deal to justify its inclusion here and make the development loss a little less painful overall. This time it should be an international release not regional versions. One PS2 Classic for all. Curating down to an ideal is not easy - the PS2 library is dense with amazing choices. I think 25 is enough, 25th Anniversary and all, but which ones? The discussion is varied to even which one of a series should be included when multiple choices are correct - there are no wrong answers below but I want to try and base my overall choices on a number of critical factors - genre saturation, exclusivity, popularity, if recent remakes exist of some choices, IP originates from videogames, sales of the game on the PS2, the year it came out so to try and palette the lifespan of the PS2 accordingly, and enough variety for the PS2 Classic to justify many tastes - if Astro Bot also included it then it has a good chance! Will this cover everything? Probably not but restricting to one game per franchise is best. Licensing is a big factor so stuff like The Simpsons: Hit & Run, Lord of the Rings games, or the original Star Wars: Battlefront II are excluded. EA Games are, as you may also notice, missing because EA is a notoriously difficult company to justify supporting. Also, sadly, games which utilise a special peripheral have to be excluded - sorry EyeToy, SingStar, and Guitar Hero fans! Remember this is all for fun and to remember the console for the greatness it is. Please enjoy!

Here are my suggestions - the main representative are shown in larger images alongside reserve/substite considerations in smaller images. Should one not be enough when including is your choice though it limits variety unless you add the amount to represent: personally I feel inclined to let people swap out for the other. No more than 3 will be shortlisted per entry to prevent bloat.

Hopefully you guys agree with some, if not all, choices. Thanks for viewing - be sure if you have any suggestions on which games you’d substitute out and replace instead especially if you feel they make a worthier comparison to a SNES Classic choice. Long live the Playstation!

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Grand Theft Auto: Vice City/Grand Theft Auto III as reserves) - 2004 Representative

Gran Turismo 4 (Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec as reserve) - 2004 Representative

Final Fantasy X (Final Fantasy XII as reserve) - 2001 Representative

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater as reserve) - 2001 Representative

Tekken Tag Tournament (Tekken 5 as reserve) - 2000 Representative

Kingdom Hearts II (Kingdom Hearts as reserve) - 2005 Representative

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King - 2004 Representative

God of War II (God of War as reserve) - 2007 Representative

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (Jak II/Jak 3 as reserves) - 2001 Representative

Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (Ratchet & Clank/Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando as reserves) - 2004 Representative

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (Sly 2: Band of Thieves/Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves as reserves) - 2002 Representative

Silent Hill 3 (Silent Hill 2 as reserve) - 2003 Representative

Persona 4 (Persona 3/Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne as reserves) - 2008 Representative

TimeSplitters (TimeSplitters 2/TimeSplitters: Future Perfect as reserves) - 2000 Representative

Bully - 2006 Representative

Okami - 2006 Representative

Devil May Cry (Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening as reserve) - 2005 Representative

Resident Evil 4 - 2005 Representative

Hitman: Blood Money (Hitman 2: Silent Assassin/Hitman: Contracts as reserves) - 2006 Representative

Tony Hawk's Underground (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3/Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 as reserves) - 2003 Representative

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Prince of Persia: Warrior Within/Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones as reserves) - 2003 Representative

Soulcalibur II (Soulcalibur III as reserve) - 2002 Representative

Monster Hunter 2 - 2006 Representative

Katamari Damacy - 2004 Representative

Rez - 2001 Representative

2000 Representatives - 2 2001 Representatives - 4 2002 Representatives - 2 2003 Representatives - 3 2004 Representatives - 5 2005 Representatives - 3 2006 Representatives - 4 2007 Representatives - 1 2008 Representatives - 1

Spoilers for Sun/Moon mechanics and other general stuff ahead.

In this revised Edition it takes into account any playthrough of Pokemon rather than simply a blind playthrough of Sun/Moon. I will be using Sun/Moon as the default example as some subsets of a rule require further explanation although you can tweak to apply to other games - for example SOS Battles and Horde Battles can be considered under mutually inclusive rules. If something doesn't fit though I'll have to address it another time. For now let's read up the new ruleset:

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0 - As before the objective is to reach the end credits of the game - usually attained from defeating the Elite Four and its Champion. Sun/Moon doesn't quite end there as you have to fight Tapu Koko so for Sun/Moon specifically your objective is to catch/defeat Tapu Koko before considering Super Torment Mode complete.

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1 - During any battle, assume every Pokemon you have is under 'Torment’ as in you cannot use the same move twice in a row but, more specifically, you cannot use a single move again until you expend your other moves first. The rotation of moves is set by the order of the moves you used and is reset after every battle or if you swap a Pokemon out during battle.  

1.1 - In the event of choosing a move which is denied through a status infliction such as Confused (as in you hit yourself) or Paralyzed/Flinched/Infatuated/Sleep (thus you miss your turn) the move you selected is still considered to have been used. 1.2 - If your Pokemon has 'Taunt' used on them or you become inflicted with a situation which shuts off your move (such as Cursed Body) then consider the moves 'locked'/suspended from the rotation and thus doesn't need to be factored in when selecting a move. 1.3 - If equipped, Z-Power moves are considered a '5th' move in your rotation - you select them as part of the rotation and once used they are gone until the next battle. 1.X - Disqualification Rule - Your challenge fails if you miss 3 attempts to rotate out moves according to the ruleset - this carries over the course of your challenge no matter which battle it happens in so tread carefully when starting out! Especially against the Bonsly who uses Mimic at the school!

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2 - During and after any battle, if your Pokemon KOed it stays fainted until you box it (blacking out requires you to box your team ASAP) and it remains boxed until a free space opens up in your main lineup - this is to encourage players early to keep with the same ones they have so not to feel too pressured by early game RNG as in crits. If you have less than 7 Pokemon then obviously you don’t box because the process is redundant.

You must box KO'd Pokemon as soon as you reach the next Pokemon Centre. Boxed Pokemon should be 'queued' up as in the first Pokemon you box is top of the queue and the next feeds behind it with the one at the top being the one you swap out when a space opens in your team due to another Pokemon KO'd. You cannot just pick any Pokemon unless otherwise stated - you must pick the one at the top of the queue and every boxed Pokemon from thereon is shuffled up until they are at the top.

2.1 - The "Rule of Forward" applies to you not backtracking to previous Pokemon Centres rather than the next one. This means later on, when you can Fly with Charizard, you can only go back to a Pokemon Centre this way if you're on the same Route as the Centre - if you've moved past you cannot unless otherwise stated later on. 2.2 - You cannot apply any healing items to revive them nor apply potions to heal them. The battle damage is carried over to the next battle. 2.3 - If you receive a mandatory heal which cannot be avoided then any Pokemon revived are allowed to be used again. However it is strongly advised you do not talk to NPCs and other characters which are optional healers (such as the Miltank at the Paniola Ranch who can heal you instantly). 2.4 - Berries such as Oran and Sitrus can be held by Pokemon as can Leftovers. I would strongly advise you capture a Munchlax when you can to get Leftovers. 2.4a - One other trick you can potentially do, which applies to how Rule 3 works, is you could find a Magikarp or something which can't really hurt you and then do the boring but legal technique of 'soft-healing' with Leftovers and using moves which don't hurt (such as Protect) then swapping and then repeating until running away. So long as the Pokemon doesn't KO themselves during your attempt to heal through their relatively useless attacks it's fine so long as you're on the route for it. I famously had to use this on Route 8 to prevent some battles going worse than intended but this might just be me. I thought counting this as an official subrule will clear up any confusion if it's allowed or not. 2.5 - Using the Pokemon Refresh section to 'heal' status effects (such as Poison) and generally care for your Pokemon by feeding them Poke Beans or petting them is all legal. It's highly encouraged. 2.6 - Using PP items (PP Up, PP Max) are all allowed both in and out of battles. Using other items like EV boosters (e.g. Iron) are also allowed. Rare Candies are allowed - I'd advise you pay close attention to the amount of Poke Beans you feed because the Coffee vendor gives you Rare Candies upon feeding a set amount of Poke Beans to your Pokemon. Several times I've used candies specifically to force a level up evolution and it has helped out immensely. X-Boost items (such as X-Defence) are also highly encouraged to use as much as you want - they were critical to me clearing the game. 2.X - You cannot heal at Pokemon Centers. If you talk to the Pokemon Centre nurse at any time during your run you are Disqualified. If you use a healing item directly on a Pokemon you are Disqualified. Your challenge also fails if you talk to an optional NPC who heals your Pokemon 3 times so if you really badly need a heal you have 2 allowances before disqualification. Use wisely! You can’t simply 'force’ a Pokemon to KO - when in battle with Rule 1 applied you must go through their abilities or, where applicable, capture or run.

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3 - Upon encountering a Pokemon you have yet to capture you MUST capture it. If you encounter a Pokemon you have already captured you MUST run from it. If for some odd reason you encounter a Pokemon you cannot capture because you are out of Pokeballs then you must run from it, get Pokeballs ASAP, and then return to capture it before moving on. Same if you get a Blackout from a Pokemon encounter - you cannot move on from the location you saw it until you capture it.

3.1 - The "Strategic Sacrifice" Rule applies as follows - say you have a KO'd Pokemon in your party and you have all slots (6) filled. Upon finding a 7th potential Pokemon you will be given the choice to swap out from your party or send to a box. You can swap out a new Pokemon for a KO'd one but NOT for one with health. If all are active and thus not KO'd then it must be boxed. This applies to Pokemon gifted or the Eevee egg you can get. 3.1a - Speaking of the Eevee Egg, if you already captured an Eevee prior to collecting the Egg you are allowed to have two Eevees on your team however they cannot evolve the same way. This is a special exemption. If you got the egg prior to capturing Eevee however you are not allowed to get a 2nd Eevee from the wild. 3.2 - SOS Battles - When a Pokemon calls for help and a 2nd Pokemon joins the battle you have to knock out the one called unless it happens to be a specific Pokemon only called from SOS battles (such as Sableye). In this rare circumstance you can KO the original Pokemon you were fighting unless you have both Pokemon in the SOS Battle in which you must run. You cannot of course KO the first Pokemon if you have yet to capture it and thus takes priority in the event two different Pokemon are in an SOS battle in which neither have been captured yet. Nice try though to bypass the rule for grinding. 3.3 - Island Challenge Pokemon cannot be captured so for the purposes of this playthrough they are able to be KO'd accordingly because you can't progress otherwise. 3.4 - Totem Battles also apply to the principle of KO'ing because you cannot capture however it must be made very clear - Totem battles will likely call a Pokemon in SOS conditions on their 2nd turn. Assuming you didn't KO the Totem Pokemon in 1 turn, you must then take their called Pokemon down first before you can resume attacking the Totem Pokemon. If the Totem Pokemon calls again for another SOS Pokemon you are then allowed to KO the Totem Pokemon before handling its 2nd called Pokemon. In other words - Totem encounters require you to KO in this order - 1st called - Totem - 2nd called. If you are feeling particularly confident you can in theory continue to only focus on the subordinate Pokemon and thus 'grind' but I'd cap the amount you can do at 5 called. After the 5th if you continue to abuse it (a 6th is called) the run is disqualified. 3.5 - You cannot capture evolved Pokemon of ones you can already capture. Some of the rare exceptions include late-game appearances of Granbull and Gastrodon who their pre-evolution forms do not appear in-game for you to capture. 3.6 - Quite far into the game you'll find things such as a Smoke Ball which automatically allow you to run from battles. I would encourage putting this item on due to the next rule. 3.7 - Sometimes a Pokemon may lock you from running away (Arena Trap) or may Self-Destruct or damage themselves (such as two Mudbrays in an SOS using an attack which hits everyone) or in general recoil attacks. For all these situations it can potentially circumvent the intentions not to grind EXP so here I'd advise you do not encounter those Pokemon again if you find one used such a move. This rule is hard to enforce without a Smoke Ball or a Pokemon who can Runaway naturally so my advice here is since this kind of situation seemed to be a problem I noticed on the 3rd island, same as where you find the Smoke Ball, I'd be careful not to abuse such a situation. If you are intentionally going out of your way to find Pokemon which will kill themselves then I'd be very suspect to find this as an abuse and thus a strike of which 3 strikes you are disqualified. 3.8 - Poke Pelago is a weird exception I can allow - there's an island you can build which effectively 'grinds EXP' for Pokemon. It's slow but it can be used - thing is it requires a set number of Pokemon to build so my logic here is it'd still take quite a lot of time regardless. Up to you if you want to cheese the ruleset this way but it's likely you'll take longer than me to complete Super Torment Mode and this would be embarrassing. 3.9 - If a Pokemon runs away before you can capture it (such as Abra) you cannot move on from the route you are on until you have successfully captured it. For the purposes of lingo a 'route' also includes towns/cities. 3.X - If you KO a Pokemon you could of captured you are given a strike - 3 strikes and you're disqualified. If you capture an evolved Pokemon you can find its pre-evolution form in the wild you are automatically disqualified.

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4 - In regards to Trainer battles - most routes have trainers. You must hunt and fight them all before moving on - no bypassing their fights. Some routes have special trainers who can only be battled when you have defeated all the other trainers of a route. You have to defeat them too so long as the route allows you to clear out Trainers (I believe Route 5 needs to be re-visited from the North side prior to Lush Jungle so yeah clear out the trainers on your 2nd visit then re-visit the route trainer to clear the route entirely).

4.1 - Backtracking to other Routes or Islands is not allowed until you defeat a Kahuna. When you defeat a Kahuna you are allowed to free-roam - no "Forward Rule" and no denial of Backtracking. All routes available to you can be re-visited regardless UNTIL you progress to the next island of which you are locked back to all the rules prior to the Kahuna defeat until you defeat the next Kahuna. Upon defeating Hapu you can effectively free-roam all islands at your leisure to find items you could not access before such as islands you need Sharpedo to smash rocks or boulders only Machamp can move. 4.2 - You cannot battle an Island Kahuna with your strongest Pokemon at the time (including Legendaries but excluding Farfetch'd explained in Rule 6) so box it and swap for another Pokemon before you challenge the leader. This is to prevent power creeping on a particular Pokemon such as your starter and encourage diversity. In the result of a level tie the Pokemon you got earliest is boxed. 4.3 - Battles you do not Blackout from (such as fighting Sina/Hau/Lusamine 1st battle) are ones you don't count as an official Blackout. 4.X - Although the 'locked eyes' rule isn't applied here if you are purposely avoiding battles and move on from the route before they are defeated you will be disqualified.

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5 - No traded Pokemon to your playthrough in Sun/Moon. There is one exception as explained in Rule 6.

5.1 - Event Pokemon can be acquired but they must be perma boxed and assumed not part of the playthrough which also applies to them technically not being 'captured' - this is why if you say got the event Munchlax you can assume you have yet to get a Munchlax but you cannot use the event Munchlax.

5.2 - Oh yeah in-game trades are also not allowed.

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6 - Farfetch'd Vs Starter Pokemon. Farfetch'd is completely exempt from all rules applied to Super Torment Mode - you can use it normally. There is a major caveat though: if you decide to import a Farfetch'd to your game the following special rules apply:

6.1 - It must be no higher than Level 5 when you first trade/import it over. 6.2 - You cannot use your starter - you must perma box it as if it is an event Pokemon. 6.3 - Farfetch'd cannot be holding any items until it acquires the Stick. 6.4 - Any special bred moves, EVs, and IVs included are allowed. 6.5 - It must be named DUX. 6.6 - You are only allowed to feed it Rainbow Poke Beans. 6.X - If you break any of these rules you are instantly disqualified.

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LUCKY 7 - If somehow in your adventure you encounter a shiny Pokemon you can ignore the ruleset above and capture it as normal and it can remain in your team as if you were playing normally without this challenge. This makes the luck of a shiny very valued. Furthermore, given the very real possibility it may be a Pokemon you already have captured, you can encounter and treat a shiny battle as if the rules don’t apply so catch it to your heart’s content!

7.1 - There are a couple things to address. Of course I'm talking about Adrenaline Orbs and SOS Battles. Here's the thing - you can't just buy Orbs only use the ones you find.

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Minor Rules (8) - These are just miscellaneous rules.

8.1 - EXP Share is allowed. 8.2 - Places such as Battle Buffet where you can fight a variety of trainers is restricted to once per Kahuna clear. 8.3 - I’m not sure where to factor in QR Codes. To outright deny them would be, whilst acceptable, also kinda dumb. On the other hand this could be abused. I am going to impose the same rule as Battle Buffet - you are allowed to scan until one Pokemon is traced in your location per Kahuna clear. I never did this in my playthrough. 8.4 - Pokemon who are met in Poke Pelago are usually boxed like event Pokemon yet if they happen to be shiny you can bring them to your team under the LUCKY 7 rule!

8.5 - No Breeding Pokemon.

...and finally...

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SHAME RULE (9) - If you have been defeated 5 times in a row by a single encounter you can CONSTRUCT A TEAM to defeat whatever wall is in front of you (including your strongest Pokemon if it happens to be a Kahuna) however you will need to box the entire team once done.

9.1 - If you have been defeated 50 times overall you can CONSTRUCT A TEAM for each wall in front of you. 9.2 - You can forfeit a match or 'pseudo-Blackout' if you feel you team is bad for a free reconstruction of your team.

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holy crap this game looks really good