Cool and Shocking PS2 Reboots of Beloved Old 80's Arcade Games

[@Kim_Justice]

Have you played any of these, then? Any you enjoy? Have a shout in the comments, and thanks for watching :)

[@ramrodbldm9876]

I hope you're not trying to be a female

[@mamehaze]

I don't think I have, I guess by the time the PS2 came around these weren't really being promoted heavily. It's possible I rented one of the Spy Hunter games back then but even if I did it didn't leave much of an impression. Nightmare certainly looks interesting, and deserving of a modern rerelease if it hasn't already had one. I can kinda see what they were going for with the Space Invaders game, and with the bullet patterns it looks a bit more like a Cabal clone but pacing is key for that kind of game and it looks even from the footage that everything just takes too many hits leading to a game that drags. Had they made it a bit quicker, and cut all the story elements, I could see it working as an arcade game, but not as a mainline Space Invaders title.

[@triplestar100]

I was SO looking to see "NARC" among the already chosen titles...its absence saddens me, but oh well! at least you gave your takes in the unapologetic yet concise manner that' synonymous of your work! cheers from The Bronx!

[@hemangchauhan2864]

PS2 had EVERY kind of game, I swear

[@SomeOrangeCat]

That's why I love it so! It was like the SNES all over again!

[@MyNameIsBucket]

want to conduct an orchestra? be a mosquito? solve a fireworks puzzle? play a combination town builder and hardcore roguelike in anime style? roll objects into a ball? be a gangster in 1985? cause a 20-car pileup for points? take photos of ghosts? be a greek demigod warrior? escape your apartment? climb giants and stab them? ride a dragon? make a snuff film? be 50 cent?

[@SomeOrangeCat]

@@MyNameIsBucket It truly had something for everyone.

[@mustardegg2]

"Don't hate me because I kill you" is an emotionally devastating phrase.

[@jordanhazelwood2546]

Kim must be the only person on KZbin to mention PS2 Rygar and not say "So, God of War obviously ripped this off"

[@bigjoeangel]

Space Raiders: They made a game of the much loved snack food.

[@DixieDaydreamer]

"As soon as you start you're looking for excuses to stop." - I absolutely love that turn of phrase! Brilliant!

[@lilliputmoss]

Is it weird I now want a FromSoft Dragon's Lair?

[@nobodyinparticular9640]

Well, I suppose the game does fit a lot of FromSoft's schtick Especially dying over and over again, lol

[@BigSpud]

I got definite Duke's Archives vibes from some of the levels.

[@tyo101]

Love your retrospectives, thanks, Kim!

[@TerenceA72]

Awesome, a Kim vid is just what I needed :)

[@jasonrockley3724]

Cheers Kim. "Games that failed in 3D" would make for an interesting KJ video.

[@docwallace]

Of course, what would be dafter than making Dragon's Lair into a 3D platformer? Taking footage from said 3D platformer and turning it back into a laserdisc-type game! Unbelievably, what started out as a joke 'Classic Mode' for the main game was sold as Dragon's Lair 3 (not to be confused with the Amiga version). It got slated, and Digital Leisure basically don't mention it existing any more, for very good reason.

[@skywalkerranch]

Awesome stuff Kim justice knocks it out of the park once again. Thanks a lot, Kim, as this is greatly appreciated by myself and no doubt many others too.

[@bardofsteel]

0 Days without mentioning Tower of Druaga and/or Heiankyo Alien 😎

[@lilwyvern4]

It's alright, we haven't mentioned Xevious yet! ...Crap.

[@davidjames5043]

Turf Masters and Dodonpachi in the top 10 arcade games of all time! Bang on! They are amazing

[@AstralPhnx]

God I love the PS2. The library was absolutely batshit insane. You had absolutely peak games, experimental gems, weird licensed stuff and bizarre reboots. Truly nothing like it

[@dropout818]

It's about to be 9:00 am in Los Angeles CA and this is the earliest I've seen one of your videos, long time fan love you're stuff Kim 💖

[@EEPfehAGG]

Great topic KJ! You're really kicking ass at the minute with your videos :)

[@megadruretrogames]

I totally forgot about the Rygar remake, an arcade game I absolutely loved. I'll have to give this a try at some point. The Contra games probably fit within this subject, and the Sega Ages series. I can remember quite a few PS1 remakes/reboots like Galaga: Destination Earth. Another great video and a great subject to cover. Thanks Kim!

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

I had Defender 3D and Dragon's Lair 3D. I quite liked Dragon's Lair too, it was charming. Defender was quite tough and I got a bit bored but I've got it again to try once more... Lovely work, Kim! That SpyHunter does look great!

[@Nokia3310do]

Another brilliant video. Most of these names had skipped one or two console generations and went in wrong directions on PS2. It was the industry growing, still learning to make good 3D games... and still trying to figure out what to do with franchises from the 2D era.

[@jonbourgoin182]

36:16 okay Kim, if you're not going to crack a joke about the fact that in this game you fight a henchman named "Ho Daddy", then I am certainly not going to pass on the opportunity. ...on second thought, I've got nothing. That fact alone basically is the joke.

[@EpicallyCasual]

Yay, new video! But also, aw, I miss the opening music 😢

[@ShadowBasch]

Excited for eventual part 2. This was a very fun video to watch

[@joedent3323]

Cheers for this Kim. A really interesting subject and great video. 😊

[@directive-4]

Great vid Kim! Looking forward to part 2!

[@DJTwenty2020]

Another quality video Kim, so good!

[@PatrickTCAPIreland]

I know there are control issues but I’m liking the angles used in the Rygar footage!

[@davidjames5043]

Great video!

[@Monkey_SK]

Great video. Now i know what to avoid in my PS2 collection pick-ups

[@campsaints]

John Woo really did well not being involved in The Rock Spyhunter movie

[@kumquatqueen5975]

It's a blessing to humanity that it's locked away in development hell. Nobody needs to be involved in that travesty.

[@MrSaltyDogz]

great video. Glad you played some of these games, so we don't have to :)

[@BrothaKyo]

Story goes that Shinji Mikami made God Hand to spite Final Fight Streetwise, since Final Fight was one of his favorite games, and wanted to show how a proper 3D brawler should be done.

[@teeveeparty]

Weird that Dragon's Lair 3D for PS2 never came out in NA.

[@AfterBurnerTeirusu]

The Xbox version of Dragon’s Lair supports both 720p and 1080i. I wouldn’t recommend the latter though. It tanks the framerate, and the progressive mode just looks nicer.

[@talesfromiDEATH]

Can't bring myself to hate Space Invaders: Invasion Day as back in high-school my pals and I played through it in one go one day and we were pissing ourselves laughing at it the whole time.

[@AcornElectron]

16:30 ugh! That weird chibi Heihachi always pissed me off. Looks balls.

[@AFourEyedGeek]

I didn't know about Final Fight - Seven Suns, I think it looks really fun.

[@JazzemYT]

Today I learned what Welcome to Mooseport is But at what cost

[@TheBeird]

Thanks goodness you didn't cover the PS2 Altered Beast. Yet

[@ethanlaborde]

Aww, no love for Rampage: Total Destruction? I played the hell out of that game as a kid!

[@skeletorrobo]

I guess I'd give Dragons Lair a shot, for the faithful artwork.

[@pappachook]

Great watch, as always.

[@lunamorley]

As a lover of classic arcade games and the sixth console generation in general, this was a treat and I have a fair few of these games in my collection. Defender (PS2) has always been weird for me. On one hand, I'm impressed with how they translated things mechanically. On the other hand, it's very dull. It feels like a VERY trimmed down take on the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron games. Those were very much a special blend. Arcade replay-ability, pacing and pick up and play nature, some simulation queues from the likes of Escape from Fractalus (which the first game was originally going to be a sequel to) and the X-Wing games, and an emphasis on strategy and multitasking, with the later games even adding mechanics to command your troops. Defender starts WAAAAAAAAAAY too slow and from what I've played, things really don't pick up that much. The game lacks the clarity and intensity that Factor 5 managed to pull off so damn well. That said, I'm always trying to find other flight games that scratch that itch. Saying a game is 'like' Rogue Squadron is genuinely the fastest way to get me to buy a game. So, I do end up having a weird soft spot for it just because it's a game I can put in that list. SpyHunter on the other hand is excellent, at least the first one anyway. I've never played the third game but I really don't want to. Don't get me wrong, I love playing bad games if they're interesting or engaging enough, but this just looks like the padded and boring kind of bad that made me wanna jump ship during the 7th generation. Pac-Man World Rally is a personal favorite of mine. Something that's really fun to mess around with that one is the physics, oh lord. So the jump isn't just something superfluous before doing a slide, the jump itself has a purpose. If you press the jump button right before flying off an incline and then press it again right before you land, you get a speed boost. Also the physics on the karts are very bouncy so you can get sufficient height even off of hills or the borders of the track. Combine them together and you have a deliciously high skill ceiling. It's a game that's good and fun enough on surface level and the complexities don't make the game any less approachable, but it's a game that if you know well, you can do some truly crazy things in it. Pac-Man Fever is a hilarious disaster. I also had it as a kid. During the World era, Pac-Man ended up attracting a new generation of fans. There's a reason why those games are talked about as much as they are, they're OUR Pac-Man. So, being a Pac-Man obsessed kid at the time, I of course found that game under the tree one Christmas, along with the rather infamous Pac-Man World 3 (which was Pac-Man's attempt at trying to be like Jak 2 and incorporated grittier environments, a darker plot, and absolutely insipid combat). For me, the minigames being basic and bland isn't even the main issue for me. It's the board game sections. They all play the damn same, they're all way too drawn out, and there's so little variation because everything is just a straight line. Mario Party has branching paths and the various ways you can impact the other players is not only more clear but you have more agency in. Pac-Man Fever is more like, you start it up and the game does whatever the hell it wants with you until you get a minigame. You're not playing the game so much as you're just watching it, even when it's your turn. It's absolutely asinine and yet somehow I 100% completed it. To call it a grind would be a grave understatement, but at least the game has a monkey tossing anvils at you.

[@vermithraxplays1615]

new video. noice. my sunday morning coffee is saved

[@Right_Said_Brett]

I owned a copy of Space Invaders: Invasion Day and personally thought that it was fine for what it was; a budget PS2 title. It only cost around £20.

[@robinboyns2753]

Final Fight Streetwise was an absolute travesty, but is now inexplicably quite pricey. I enjoyed Invasion Day for the first five minutes...

[@RallyandTrail]

Ooooh I’m gunna enjoy this when I get in from work 😎

[@stevensgoodallsg]

Another outstanding vid

[@DeaDGoD_XIV]

That Space Invaders game looks like it should have just embraced the Shovelwareness of it and released it as something other than Space Invaders

[@MINI_JasperJunior]

It's like this video was made just for me 😍

[@kirbyinhalesjotaro4471]

Altered Beast would be great for a sequel! Also the fact that Yakuza was made the same year makes final fight streetwise even more embarrassing

[@voteDC]

I'd never heard of the SpyHunter game with Dwayne Johnson. I'm going to have to try it out, even if it does turn out to be terrible it should be worth a few laughs.

[@poil8351]

can you do an in-depth look at all the pac man games. i would love to find out more about some of the more obscure pac man games that nobody usually talk about.

[@danielmclaughlin2190]

Dragon's lair on og xbox is an awesome game!!

[@orderofmagnitude-TPATP]

Hmmmm what an intriguing and original, interesting topic choice Ms Justice... Yeah... One day I'll be potentially commenting whilst drawing a pension saying "iVe BeEn WaTcHiN 2 DeCaDeS n0w"....😂 - mainly due to subject matter like this. Dammit Kim- if ever a small dream, I'd love to hang out with you, Joe from game sack, and Mr lord X for an afternoon of absolutely nerding out about "vidyo garms!" Keep it comin. Because right now you are litterally keeping the counterweight of sticking around for a purpose, rather than never getting out of bed ever again through crippling depression. Best wishes. Riley

[@BURRITO44]

Awesome

[@antsinflowers]

Guess some classics just can't be modernized without losing their magic!

[@Mace2.0]

It's a shame on how Final Fight: Streetwise came to be. I mean, development troubles for one, Dave Siller got booted by the higher-ups, and Maximo 3 was cancelled over this (then again, I think Maximo 3 wouldn't be good anyways since it was taking the wrong direction).

[@darthwiizius]

Mario Kart: Double Dash was made by Namco. They reused the engine a lot.

[@FezTheSpaceBiker]

I'm actually terrified to play Pac-Man Fever because everytime I've put it in a PS2, it never fails to stutter and make horrible grinding noises, and that's with multiple different copies

[@nobodyinparticular9640]

The solution seems simple to me: use an emulator?

[@FezTheSpaceBiker]

​@@nobodyinparticular9640sure, but then I'd be playing Pac-Man Fever.

[@poil8351]

invasion day seems more a run and gun than a shoot em up. it is kind of missing the whole spaceship thingy.

[@ShanetheFreestyler]

16:19 The only thing Pac-Man Fever has over Pac-Man World Rally is that it runs at 60 FPS vs Rally at 30 or less, which I believe no racing game from the 6th gen onward should _EVER_ do. You need that smooth motion and fast reaction times! 19:23 I remember renting the PS2 SpyHunter back in the day and I wish I bought it. It was a straight up blast to play! Missed out on the second for some reason. And looks like I didn't miss much for not playing Nowhere To Run. At least The Rock likes to take digs on how the game ended up and the movie never happened. Ironically, he would eventually star in a film adaptation of a different Midway arcade title, Rampage. Will there _ever_ be a SpyHunter movie or will we get some other arcade movie adaption? Who wouldn't want to rush out to see Paperboy or Tapper? 26:38 I understood that reference! 27:50 I like the Mystery Dungeon series! I'm surprised I never heard of this one. I'll have to check it out sometime. 33:18 "Not American enough". If I recall, this was during the time Capcom was trying to appeal more to western audiences by making western-style games. One of those higher ups later said in retrospect that it was like "flying to Japan for a hamburger instead of sushi" or something like that. They just went too far from their style and that's why they stumbled for a number of years until they made a comeback with SF4.

[@mamehaze]

There wasn't much on the PS2 that targeted 60, or even maintained 30, so I'm a bit surprised by this comment. The games that were released still somehow handled better than the ones that drop frames / run at 30 today though; I can get out my PS2, and play some games that drop to 10fps in places and never really feel like I'm not in control whereas some of the games today, even at 30, feel rough.

[@ShanetheFreestyler]

@@mamehaze I take it you didn't own a lot of games, did you? 90% of what I owned on PS2 ran at a rock-solid 60 FPS with some exceptions like GTA Vice City running at 20 or less. Everything else, from racing to platformers, FPS, WWE, THPS, Ratchet & Clank, all targeted 60 FPS while some of the same games on PS3 and PS4 only targeted 30. There's a stark contrast between the original R&C and the PS4 "reboot" running at half the framerate (and half the content, but that's a different story.) And in the cases where a game _didn't_ target 60 FPS on PS2, they probably did on Gamecube or Xbox. The 6th gen simply had more 60 FPS games. (Though at least some PS5 and Xbox Series games give you an option between more eyecandy or more frames. You kinda have to when you advertise 120Hz support.)

[@mamehaze]

@@ShanetheFreestyler I mean, literally hundreds, but OK. I like the PS2, and think it was a great system - probably the last true golden age we had, but most of it (at least for the games I did own) was 30 or lower (well technically 25, as I'm PAL region) Even Jak X (one I still have at hand) which I seem to remember specifically being praised for targeting 60 back then in reality only manages that during the less busy tracks and chugs quite badly in other places.

[@Blacknight8850]

Oh god, that Rygar redesign! I dunno if it's just this render in particular, but it looks like you've photoshopped another character's hair onto him yourself as a joke!

[@poil8351]

the defender remake looks more like a terminal velocity type game compared to the orignal.

[@vermithraxplays1615]

i think the problem with these modernized classic games are they are basically trying to convert the old gameplay experience to modern technology and expectations. say if for example you pick up defender and play it. you see the old graphics, relive your nostalgia, have 10 minutes of fun, and put it down feeling good because you knew what you were gonna get and the arcade experience usually didn't take too long. but being so simple and going at it from a modern 3d angle awakens expectations. because nowadays we are used to something that looks like that being more complex and we tend to get bogged down for hours. the simplicity ends up getting boring really fast. i see it as a virtue to stay true to the old mechanics as much as it is a fault. maybe that's why i actually enjoyed the newer bionic commando game even if i wished the structure were more like that of the nes game, quasi hub based open maps.

[@devonwilliams5738]

I had no idea Spy Hunter was a trilogy. I played the first game and it just didn't appeal to me at all, despite me loving car combat.

[@SwannyTheMike]

It's weird, I remember hating Dragon's Lair 3D as a kid, but watching the gameplay here I don't see why I hated it so much when I've played far, *far* worse.

[@dduartegomes9]

I think Final fight blurs looks like they tried to do a gta3 ...

[@PhoenixNoKiseki]

I’m four minutes in and I’m laughing my ass off. Who thought THAT was a good idea…

[@neilyringworm]

As final fight is one of my favourite games of all time, streetwise was a painful letdown. At the time i guess i didnt think it was all that bad as im a nostalgia whore and seeing the characters i love was fun. This, despite it being in the absolute height of grimdark storytelling. Haggar in a run down repair shop was just depressing

[@thegaminghellyoutubething]

i beat final fight streetwise over the course of a single weekend and it makes an absolutely terrible first impression. it does, however, slowly ditch the gritty urban stuff to get incredibly silly, including scenes like kyle and guy being blasted from a building buddy cop-movie style, the very concept of drug zombies and the final section of the game which basically turns into zombie revenge. it very clearly doesn't take itself seriously beyond a certain point. edit: may as well mention, an anonymous source once told me that space invaders: invasion day was so universally reviled that internally, taito used it as an example of what to never, ever, *ever* do with space invaders ever again, and so far they've stick to that remit

[@gouravchakraborty9801]

You forgot Altered Beast PS2?

[@JazzemYT]

Kim reviewed this in her Altered Beast Series Review and Retrospective video 🙂👍

[@devonwilliams5738]

Forgot to mention that I bought Nightmare of Druaga as a gift for my mother, it was way too difficult for her, and even me. EDIT: The game is actually less mean than I recall, I could have sworn reading that the game *reset you to level 1* upon entering a dungeon, that does not appear to be the case.

[@Phoenix2312]

I know tis is Kind of Sad... But seeing so many talk about how bad SPACE INVADERS: INVASION DAY is... I actually want it so I can play an experience it! It is obviously TRASH... And yet somehow it has me intrigued!

[@Ramjet164]

Do any of these games contain the originals?

[@Kim_Justice]

To my knowledge Final Fight, Spy Hunter and Space Invaders do.

[@Ramjet164]

@@Kim_Justice thank u

[@lilhomiemouse1997]

So Pac-Man fever & final Fight street wise welcome to the sad and washed up old gits section

[@burbercat3558]

36:31 "stupid baskid" ?

[@Fellipe2k5]

Fixed camera >>>> third person

[@BixRibene]

Sorry, I have an ear infection and I am a bit muddled... Did you say From whence is came... From?

[@namtabmai]

That space invaders game looks like the sort of nonsense scam mobile game that gets advertised all over social media.

[@NNokia-jz6jb]

PS5 has nothing.

[@MyNameIsBucket]

I rather enjoyed the new Spy Hunter. Not a ton of replay value but hey...

[@MyNameIsBucket]

I don't mean the Rock sequel. Forgot that ever existed.

[@CondemnedToBeMe]

👍👍👍👍🕹🕹

[@PTRF_One]

"Not western enough" led to the creation of so many terrible games. Good lord, Japanese developers had a difficult learning period once the industry went HD. Final Fight: Streetwise didn't have to happen, nor did junk like PoP: Warrior Within. Granted, they weren't helped by western reviewers being very, very negative toward Japanese games in general as well. God Hand getting one specifically infamous negative review, for example.

[@Zebra66]

Final Fight Streetwise is all the worst things about PS2 games. It's irritatingly dark with crude blurry graphics. It's boring and forces you to sit through awful cut scenes for a totally unnecessary story. The PS2 has tons of amazing games. How did this pass Capcom's qc...