Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002) on the original XBOX is a beat ’em up / survivor horror game that is way better than you might expect. That is if we can figure out how to complete the tutorial 😉
Retro-Bit is partnering with SEGA to release new controllers for Genesis/MegaDrive and Saturn that are built to original specifications and also offer USB connections and more.
The Nintendo Switch is region free, meaning you can easily pick up physical versions of games in other territories and play on your US console…and often in ENGLISH!
GAMES SHOWN:
Capcom Belt Action Collection
Taiko no Tatsujin: Nintendo Switch Version!
Psikyo Collection Vol 1 & 2
Okami: HD Remaster
Child of Light / Valiant Hearts
Runbow – Deluxe Edition
Syberia
Opus Collection
Gal*Gun 2
Peach Ball: Senran Kagura
RXN -RAIJIN- [LIMITED EDITION]
Flashback: 25th Anniversary [Collector’s Edition]
VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION (English)
– Hey guys, Metal Jesus here. Now people often forget that the Nintendo Switch is region-free, meaning that you can easily pick up physical versions of games from other territories and have them play just fine on your console, and often in English. So in this video I’m gonna share some of the latest Switch imports that I’ve picked up recently. Also, be aware this is not a sponsored video. I’ve bought all these games myself, and I’ll share where I bought most of ’em with you.
The first one I want to share with you is the Capcom Belt Action Collection. This is a collection of seven classic beat’em up games from Capcom, including King of Dragons. You have Captain Commando, Knights of the Round, Final Fight, of course, Powered Gear, Battle Circuit, and Warriors of Fate. A couple things I like about this collection is that you can switch between either the English versions of the games or the Japanese, and you can also adjust the difficulty. These being arcade games, they are notoriously difficult, so you can either lower it, if you’re just looking for a more casual experience, which is pretty cool, or you can raise it, if you’re looking for a little bit more challenge. And then I’ll quickly show you three of the games here. This is the King of Dragons, a game I wasn’t really familiar with, but as you can see, it’s kind of based on medieval D&D. And then here you have Armored Warriors, or also known as Powered Gear in Japan. And as you can see this one is a mech-based beat’em up, something really cool you don’t always see. And then here you have Warriors of Fate, which I guess is part of the Dynasty Wars franchise. I had no idea, but I like how you can ride on a horse here, that’s a nice touch.
Here’s a game I was really looking forward to checking out, this is Taiko no Tatsujin, Nintendo Switch version. This is typically called Taiko Drum Master in English, and as you can see here, it is a Japanese drum/rhythm game. By default the game uses the Joycon’s motion control for fairly subtle emulation of the real Japanese drums. I mean, it’ll even detect if you’re hitting the center of the drum, or the rim, and also how hard. But I guess there’s also a real drum controller for this as well, I kinda wanna pick that up. Now I haven’t gotten very far in this game yet, ’cause I just picked it up, but supposedly there’s about 20 songs included on the cartridge. You get tunes from Disney, Studio Ghibli, as well as Splatoon 2, and even Super Mario Odyssey. And I guess there’s up to 70 songs that you can download for this in the e-shop. Haven’t gotten there yet, but I’m enjoying it so far.
Now here’s something I have put a lot of time into, and that’s the Psikyo Collection. I’m gonna start off with Volume One right here. Volume One includes four games on the cartridge. So you get Strikers 1945, you get Sol Divide, Samurai Aces, and the original Gunbird. Sol Divide is a two-player horizontal shooter, which, in my mind, actually looks pretty cool, because it has those pre-rendered sprites. Definitely reminds me of a little bit like Donkey Kong Country. Samurai Aces is a vertical-scrolling shoot’em up, originally released in 1993. Now I think this is my first time playing this game, and I’m definitely getting a Strikers 1945 vibe from it, which is a good thing. Here is the second volume of Psikyo shooters. This one includes Strikers 1945 II, Tengai, Gunbird II, and also Dragon Blaze. All of these shooters are still a blast to play today and are considered stone-cold classics, it’s just a little lame that they only put four on each cartridge because I know they’re not very big. They could have easily doubled that, but what you do get, it’s definitely worth it.
Some of you may recognize this as Okami, the HD remaster. Obviously this was a beloved PlayStation 2 and Wii game back in the day, and of course, here is the HD version, but physical, for Switch. Now obviously this HD remaster is also out on the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, but again, in North America, we never got the physical version for the Switch. And for a lot of fans like me that absolutely love this game, it’s great to have a physical version in my collection here. And as you can see, this game is just as revolutionary and as beautiful as ever. Such a fantastic third-person action puzzle/platforming game. And I know I haven’t mentioned it yet, but again, it plays completely in English, so you don’t have any problems having to try to read Japanese or anything like that, it just works great.
Here’s something I wouldn’t mind seeing a little bit more of and that is a compilation of two indie games on one cartridge. Many of you are gonna be familiar with Child of Light, because it won all sorts of gaming awards when it was originally released, and here we have the physical version, and it is the Ultimate Edition of this game for Switch. And what’s nice is that if you’re a fan of the game, well, this has a bunch of cool stuff, like an additional mission, extra skins, extra skills, as well as DLC packs already included. The other game included on here is Valiant Hearts, which is a game that I first heard of from by buddy Reggie. And that’s a hand-drawn puzzle adventure game about World War I. What’s interesting about it is that you get to see the effects of war from the viewpoint of an American, a Frenchman, a German, and a Belgian. It’s actually pretty heavy stuff, but obviously very beautiful, and again it’s cool to have the physical version of it.
Here’s a physical game I picked up at PAX in Seattle a couple years ago, and it was a total blind buy, I didn’t know anything about this, but it’s called Runbow the Deluxe Edition. This game was primarily designed to be a multiplayer party game both online and on the couch, but can also play it solo like you see here. And the premise is pretty simple, I mean, you just wanna be the first person to get the treasure at the end of the level. However, you’ll notice that the rainbow color washes over the screen, see that there? Well depending on the color, it makes part of the levels disappear and reappear. So this game is constantly changing, and way more tricky than it looks. It’s also more about timing and strategy than really just running as quickly as you can. This Deluxe Edition that I got at PAX comes with stickers. There’s also a lanyard in here, so you can hang around your neck. Also, it has all the DLC, and it comes with the soundtrack on CD.
Next up is the physical import version of Syberia. Many of you are already going to be familiar with this because it is a port of a classic point-and-click adventure that I think got its start on the PC back in the early 2000s. What I like about this game is that it really relies on puzzles. This is as old-school as it gets. However, I also like its kind of cool, steampunk look to the environments, and also the objects that you mess around with. And I’m hoping that you can kinda tell from the footage I’m capturing here that they slightly upgraded the 3D models, which look pretty good compared to the older backgrounds. This physical version came out in Europe, and it’s pretty easy to find on Amazon, that’s where I got my copy. But what’s cool is they also got a couple other versions also on physical, so they have a version that has the first and second game included together, as well as a physical version of the third game in the series.
And speaking of multiple games that come on one Switch cartridge, here is Opus Collection. This cartridge contains two games. The first one’s called The Day We Found Earth, and the second one called Rocket of Whispers. In the first game, you play as a lovable robot that is living millions of years in the future, and your mission is to try and find the original location of earth. This game is a trip, it kind of plays like a telescope simulator, where you try to use clues to search the cosmos for planets that might be kinda close to what earth is described to be like. It’s a fairly simple game, it only takes about two hours to complete, and I highly recommend it. It’s got a really cool story. And then the second game is completely new, but plays a little bit more like a traditional adventure game. Now both games are highly regarded, and definitely worth a play.
And now we get to two games that, well, they’re not gonna be for everybody. I’m not saying they’re pornographic, but they are a little perverted. So if that’s not your thing, then go ahead and just skip about two and a half minutes ahead.
Oh boy, here we go, okay. So the first one is gonna be Gal*Gun 2. Now this is an on-rail shooter, it’s a sequel. The original I played on the Vita back in the day, but, the deal here is, girls in your school are being controlled by demons, and you put on a special pair of VR goggles that let you see them. And then you use the pheromone gun, yes, that’s actually what it’s called. But you use this pheromone to shoot the demons and then defend against the onslaught of approaching and aggressive girls. Now if you’re lucky, or maybe you got a little bit of skill here, you can shoot the girls in what’s called Ecstasy Spots. Again, I’m not making this up, but that’ll stop ’em even quicker. Notice how the Joycons also use the motion controls for aiming, which is pretty cool. As if you couldn’t tell, this is definitely a silly game, but it’s got a surprising amount of challenge. I mean, it is not easy.
And then the second game I have here is Peach Ball Senran Kagura, I hope I said that correctly, but as you may tell by that name, it is a spinoff of the main Senran Kagura series, but with sexy pinball. Just because. Now here’s an example of one of these imports where the main story is in Japanese, and there’s no English option for you, at least not one that I could find, so. But I’m gonna be honest with you, who cares? I mean, are you playing this game for the story? I don’t think so. But what do I think about the game itself? Well, it’s a decent pinball game with okay physics, but really the big problem I have with this is that the play field is just cramped and kind of claustrophobic. Also, the tables themselves feel pretty simple, especially compared to other better pinball games. I mean, that can be a good or bad thing, depending on, you know, how much you really get into pinball and how much challenge you like. After playing a while and meeting specific goals, you’re gonna activate something called Sexy Challenge, and basically what that is is it’s just multiball. And what’s funny about that is you can activate even higher levels of Sexy Challenge time, and, uh, yeah, I don’t know what else to say about this. I mean, is it a great pinball game? No, not really, I mean, I’ll be honest with you. It’s a fun game, DMP were playing it the other night. It’s silly, it’s weird, you kind of put it in if you want a good laugh, but honestly, after a couple hours, I don’t think you’re gonna play it much.
Moving on, we’re gonna check out an arcade-style bullet hell shooter called RXN, this is the Limited Edition here. And as you can see by the gameplay footage here, this is a game that is designed to run on a modern console, so it’s actually running in 16 by 9 as opposed to being squished and vertical. That can be good or bad depending on what your preference is. This game here I think is, overall, is just okay, it’s nothing really special. I think the gameplay itsel actually is really solid, it’s just that the levels are kind of boring. I mean, they’re really, really short, and they’re just not that interesting to look at. But the Limited Edition from EastAsiaSoft is pretty awesome. I mean, it comes with a physical copy of the game, which is of course region-free, and runs in English if you want. There’s a 48-page full color art book, but towards the back of it, it also has a novel that fills in some of the Story Mode. A numbered collector’s certificate, as well as a Steelbook with alternate cover art.
Now I know some of you are thinking, hey, wait a second, didn’t the Flashback 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition come out in the U.S.? And the answer to that is, well, yes, maybe it did, but I missed it, and so I went for the import version instead. And I wanna be clear, you can actually find the regular version of this game in GameStops no problem, but again, I wanted the Collector’s Edition, ’cause it’s got some really cool stuff in it. Here’s the full-color instruction booklet that comes with it, but check it out. In the back here, in the Bonus section, there’s the level design. So you can actually see all of the levels laid out, which is really handy. Of course you get a physical copy of the game, but it also comes with a digital copy of the Remastered Original Soundtrack. And then this is why I really wanted it. I mean, look at the steel case. This has to be one of the coolest looking steel cases ever. And that’s what’s great about the Switch being region-free is that sometimes if you miss these Collector’s Editions, or these physical versions that came out in other territories, well there’s nothing stopping you from picking up the import version. It’s awesome.
Well guys, that’s a quick look at some of the import games I have picked up for my Nintendo Switch, and if you couldn’t tell already, I am loving this. It’s so much fun to have physical versions of these games that I love to play sitting on my shelf forever, and as you can tell, the vast majority of them have an English option. Now most of these I got from PlayAsia or EastAsiaSoft, but some of these I also got from other sources. If you have specific questions on where to get them, go ahead and post your question down below. Also, if there are other import games that you think I need to have in my Switch collection, please post a comment. Alright guys, thank you very much for watching, thank you for subscribing, and take care.
With over 1,800 games released for the PS2, there are lots of Hidden Gems to discover and here are 10 more:
PS2 Games Shown:
Seek and Destroy
Extermination
Nitrobike
Dual Hearts
Space Chimps
Kill.Switch
Hypersonic.Xtreme
Asterix & Obelix: Kick Buttix
Project Snowblind
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION (ENGLISH)
– [Metal Jesus] Hey guys, Metal Jesus here. Now, over the years I’ve released four PS2 Hidden Gems videos and let’s be honest, with over 1,800 games released for the PS2, it’s no wonder I keep finding more. So with that in mind, here are 10 more PS2 hidden gems you might wanna add to your collection. All right guys, let’s go ahead and get started with a game called Seek and Destroy. So, this is part of the Choro-Q, Penny Racers, franchise. At least, Choro-Q is what it’s called in Japan, but we over here in the States know it as the Penny Racers franchise. And basically, instead of this being a RPG based around cars, as you can see by the footage here, this one is based around tanks. Yes, you heard that correctly. When I said a tank RPG, I really mean it. I mean, this game is like a lot of other RPGs where here you get to talk to NPCs, you’ll get missions from them, there’s a big world to explore as well as smaller towns to discover. You’ll cruise around those towns and you’ll shop for equipment, it’s a crazy game. As you win battles, you’ll also get new tanks with different stats and then you can customize pretty much every aspect of it. For instance, here you’ll see I’ve equipped missiles and a machine gun on my tank as well as I’ve customized the camouflage. And then once you’ve gathered up enough money you can upgrade the engine, you can add radar, and a lot more. What’s weird about the series is that it’s characters are not pilots on the inside of those tanks, but instead the tanks themselves are the characters. It kinda reminds me of the Pixar movie Cars. As you can see here, the graphics definitely don’t look that good, but the environments are pretty much destructible, which makes blowing up stuff really fun. This is definitely a really interesting game, I mean, it takes itself pretty seriously, but it’s also really fun. There’s also a decent challenge to be had here if you’re looking for it. I would say if you end up liking this game, definitely check out Road Trip, also on the Playstation 2. Same universe, same franchise, but just with cars.
Next up, we have Extermination. This is a survival-horror game that is exclusive to the Playstation 2. In this game, you play as a special forces soldier sent to a secret military base in the Antarctic, where you quickly learn that a virus outbreak has occurred and is wreaking all sorts of havoc. Right off the bat, I feel like this game is a mix of say, Siphon Filter with obviously Resident Evil and maybe even a little Half-Life with its Black Mesa-like environments. However, it has a fixed camera, which definitely feels a little dated and frustrating because you can’t really control it. But I guess that kinda plays into the tension of the whole survival-horror gameplay thing, just not my favorite. However, it compensates for that a little bit because it has a lock-on ability with your rifle. I mean, that definitely helps kill enemies, especially when so many of them are kinda wiggling around the level and the camera isn’t always showing you what you need to see. Thankfully, the game doesn’t overstay its welcome, as it’ll only take you about six or seven hours to complete. Now, I’ve seen this game for sale for as low as $10 for a complete copy, so if you’re a fan of survival-horror games and looking for something new, definitely check it out.
Next up is Nitro Bike, published by Ubisoft. So here is an arcade racing game that really flew under the radar of almost everybody like me, who loves these kind of games. This was developed by Left Field Productions, which also made Excitebike 64 for, obviously, the N64 and there also was a version that came out for the Wii. And as you can see by the footage, this is an arcade dirt bike racing game that controls and feels very similar to Excite Truck, also on the Wii. If you played that game, you know how much fun it is and this is definitely like that too. I mean, right off the bat you’re gonna notice there is just an insane sense of speed here, especially when boosting. I like how the perspective stretches, almost like you’re warping and bending time. It’s a cool effect, especially for long stretches of the track. There’s also a bit of a trick system and it feels very similar to SSX or Tony Hawk, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, although here it’s definitely less complex. Now as you guys know, I’m a big arcade racing fan and I like to find these lesser-known games that have their own look and feel. This is a surprisingly fun game, so if you like dirt bikes and over-the-top action, this is highly recommended.
Dual Hearts, this is an action RPG that is exclusive to the Playstation 2. This game came out around the same time as another popular action RPG. That is the original Kingdom Hearts and therefore I think it kinda unfairly got overlooked and I get it, it’s hard to compete with Disney and Squaresoft characters. In this RPG, you wander around Sonno Island in search of a legendary dream stone. What that means is that you enter people’s dreams to look for lost keys, treasures, and other items to move the plot along. And as you can see by this footage, gameplay is often compared to say, Super Mario 64 or the 3D Zelda games, but the dream concept really reminds me of Psychonauts. Like other action RPGs, in this game you have two main attacks and you can charge up those attacks by holding down the button a little bit longer. Now that’s used both in combat and also in puzzle-solving. You can also jump on that weird, pig-like companion there. That’ll give you the ability to jump even further or do different styles of attacks, again which is used in combat and also in puzzle-solving. Now, I’m not gonna lie, boss battles can be a bit on the challenging side, even a little frustrating, but there’s plenty of other gameplay to be found here, too. It’s gonna take you about 20-plus hours to get through the game and there’s a lot more to discover if you wish. Is it as good as Kingdom Hearts? Of course not, but fans of the action RPG genre should definitely give the game a chance.
Oh boy, here we go, this is Space Chimps. And I know some of you are looking at this going what the heck? Have I lost my mind? Well admittedly, this came out on a number of other consoles because at the time, this movie was expected to do better than it did, but it basically bombed. I mean, I barely remember this movie was a thing, so obviously it was pretty forgettable at the time, but this is a surprisingly well-made 3D platforming game. I mean, it’s way better than you would expect for a licensed movie game. 3D platforming games live and die by the controls and thankfully the controls in Space Chimp here are very intuitive and gamers that are used to playing Ratchet & Clank are gonna feel right at home. Now in my mind, it’s really the level design that really stands out. I mean, it’s full of really interesting things to find and discover. Now, I particularly like that some of the platforms tend to kinda move around, making timing your jumps all that more challenging. Now admittedly, on the Playstation 2, the graphics are a little choppy with some frame rates kind of dipping here and there, but honestly it’s nothing that should hinder your enjoyment. Now be warned, this is not a very challenging game overall and it’s got some pretty brain-dead enemy AI. Also, it’s a little bit on the short side. But it’s way better than the movie it’s based on and it’s definitely a hidden gem.
Here’s a game that I originally reviewed back when it was new and it blew me away then. So this is one of the first cover-based shooters that I certainly ever played, and like I said, I was very impressed with it. So it’s really exciting to go back and re-play it for this video. Now, I know what you’re gonna say. This looks really generic and I would have to say that the level design is somewhat on the generic side, but don’t let that fool you, ’cause this is all designed for big battles and lots of strategy. So again, the big selling point for Kill Switch was its cover-based shooting. And maybe other games came out that tried to do it before, but this was the game that really tried to perfect it, and I like how it just uses the L1 button to make you stick to walls. I kinda feel like this has been lost on newer cover-based shooters where they try and guess if you actually wanna hide or not, sometimes leading to kind of frustrations like in games like Uncharted. I mean, Uncharted’s great, but this one it’s very precise, it’s very clear, and it works very well. And again, despite fairly generic level design, it’s still really exciting to kinda work your way slowly through a level taking cover and just trying to survive. I mean, I have to say this game is still really fun to play even today. It’s a really cool game. If you haven’t checked it out, usually you can get it pretty cheap, so definitely pick up Kill Switch.
HyperSonic.Xtreme, oh yeah baby, you know it’s great when it’s got the Xtreme in the title. Maybe to no one’s surprise, HyperSonic.Xtreme was released as a budget title. This futuristic racing game is immediately going to be compared to say, the Wipeout or F-Zero series, and it definitely takes a lotta inspiration from both of those, but I feel like for the better. Like those classic games, you control a hovercar as you glide across these futuristic landscapes, and also like those games, you use the shoulder buttons to control your turn. It allows you to kind of glide around corners with a little bit more control and that’s definitely the key to winning races. Also, jumps are a big part of this game, so knowing when to boost off big jumps will determine whether you’re gonna come in first or last. There’s also a really track level editor that is very intuitive to use. You see me using it here and again, you don’t have to have any experience creating tracks to just have a lot of fun with this, create something really wacky. Now obviously, there are a ton of games that kind of tap into this F-Zero-like style, but I’ve seen this game sell for as little as $5 used, and for that price you can’t really go wrong, especially if you like these type of racing games.
Here is a game so man people told me about and I finally got a copy, that is Asterix & Obelix: Kick Buttix. And as you can see from this footage, it is a 3D action-platformer/beat-’em-up game based on popular comic characters. So the game takes place in about 50 BC, where two friends from a village are trying to push back a Roman occupation. Now, it may not look like it, but this is quite possibly the best game in this video and it’s certainly one of the most fun and polished. You primarily play as Asterix, but you do switch over to Obelix when a little more muscle is needed. And let’s not forget that you have a little dog that can be commanded to bite the butt of an enemy to help distract them. It’s hilarious and very handy if they have a shield and you need to like temporarily distract them when you open them up for an opportunity for attack. So like I mentioned, it’s a 3D platformer, which is to be expected but again, it’s very much a beat-’em-up, so you’ll be spending a lot of time taking out Romans of all different styles and different attack methods. Again, sometimes you have to switch between characters, you have to use your dog to distract them, it’s pretty cool. You’ll also spend some time puzzle solving, like say to get a door open so that you can move on to the next level. It’s really fast-paced gameplay, the controls are excellent. Like I said, it’s very enjoyable, it’s highly recommended.
Here’s something a little bit different. This is Project: Snowblind. So this is a first-person shooter game developed by Crystal Dynamics. They may sound kind of familiar because they are the makers of Gex, also Legacy of Kain, and the later Tomb Raider games. Originally, Project: Snowblind was conceived to be a multiplayer-focused version of the Deus Ex games, but then they turned it into its own game, but yet it still has many of the cybernetic super-soldier elements of that series. I think gameplay-wise, this reminds me of the first-person shooter Black, and that’s definitely a good thing. And like Black and Deus Ex, there are a lot of scripted elements here, a lotta scripted action, and thankfully it controls very well. Plus, because you are a cybernetic super-soldier, you have a bunch of different augmentations. Again, very similar to Deus Ex. For instance, one of your augmentations will allow you to look through walls and track the enemy, or perhaps you wanna slow down time and maybe move between bullets. Early on in the game, you get an energy shield that withstands physical damage and more as the game goes on. I’ll be honest, it’s not a super-polished game. I mean, I did run into some hilarious glitches and weirdness, plus it’s a little on the generic side, but I do think it’s a solid first-person shooter and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Oh yes, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. Another game I don’t think enough people are talking about. So while Hulk fans like me are waiting for a truly great Marvel movie based on the Hulk, in the meantime we got 2005’s excellent Hulk game by Radical Entertainment. By the way, if Radical Entertainment sounds familiar, well it’s because they went on to create the beloved Prototype games years later. Now, I do have to warn you that there were several Hulk games released at that time, but it’s The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction that you want, that’s the good game. What makes this game great is that it really let’s you feel like the Hulk and just smash everything in your path. I mean, they really nailed the power of what the Hulk is all about. And the combat is surprisingly deep and nuanced, allowing you to pick up almost any object that you see on a level and use it as either a weapon or projectile. Also, traversing the levels is a breeze as the Hulk because he can leap huge distances or even run up the side of a building. And as you play the game, you collect smash points that allow you to learn new abilities that essentially turn you into pretty much an unstoppable green smashing machine by the end of the game. For many years, this game was considered one of the best superhero games ever released, and for good reason. It’s also worth noting that this came out on the original Xbox as well as the Gamecube, so if you prefer those consoles definitely pick it up there, it should not be missed.
Alright guys, that’s another 10 PS2 Hidden Gems. I love coming back to this console. So many great games and of course I do realize that the term hidden gem is gonna be different for everybody depending on if you’re familiar with these games or not. Please let me know down in the comments below if there are other PS2 hidden gems that you would like to see in future videos. Alright guys, thank you so much for watching, thank you for subscribing, and take care.
As a musician, I draw inspiration from all sorts of genres of music. Here are my FAVORITE 15 ALBUMS that are NOT Hard Rock or Metal
Albums Shown:
Jean Michel Jarre – Oxygene
Dave Brubeck Quartet – At Carnegie Hall
My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
Queen – A Night at the Opera
Daft Punk – Discovery
Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic / Aja
Weezer – Maladroit
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
Prince – Purple Rain
His Name is Alive – Livonia
Billy Idol – Rebel Yell
Pink Floyd – The Wall / Animals
The Cars – Heartbeat City
Games Shown:
Burnout Legends
Burnout Dominator
Wipeout Pure / Pulse
Race Driver 2006
Gran Turismo
Outrun2006 Coast to Coast
MotorStorm Arctic Edge
Test Drive Unlimited
WRC: FIA World Rally Championship
Sega Rally Revo
Ridge Racer
Need for Speed Carbon Own the City
SBK Superbike World Championship
Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition
Midnight Club: LA Remix
Pursuit Force
Cars Race o Rama
Split/Second
Juiced 1 & 2
Flat-out : Head ON
Street Supremacy
RUSH
Three ATV Offroad games
Initial D: Street Stage
Hot Wheels: Ultimate Racing
Full Auto 2: Battlelines
Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars
It’s possible to output a standard PlayStation 2 (PS2) with High Definition graphics in either 1080i or 1080p, with NO MODS to the inside of the console. Here is an overview with gameplay footage.
– [Metal Jesus] Hey, guys, Metal Jesus here, and today I’m back again with a pretty cool video. This is a modded PlayStation 2 to output HD. However, what’s unique about this is that it doesn’t require any modification to the inside of the console itself. It’s completely software-driven, and it’s pretty neat. So I was contacted by this guy named Chris who said he and his buddy, Brian, had been working for quite a while to find the perfect mix of the software that’s out there on the Internet to bring it together, to figure out what versions are perfect to try to get the maximum amount of resolution and performance out of the PlayStation 2. Now, right off the bat, I do wanna mention that this is using the PlayStation 2 fat model, the original, because it also includes a hard drive in there, and obviously the slim model doesn’t support that. So to get this running, you basically plug in a custom formatted MagicGate memory card. And you see one here labeled Metal Jesus Special. You also plug in a USB thumb drive into slot one, and then also this one has a hard drive. One thing to know about the hard drives is that, originally, when the PlayStation 2 launched, it supported IDE hard drives, so that’s a older style connector of hard drives. However, for this one, he is using a third-party solution here that supports SATA. And this particular drive is 500 gigabytes.
Let’s go ahead and turn it on and check it out. So what Chris did is he basically did a bunch of research to figure out just the right version of an application called FreeMcBoot, and then he paired that with the right version of OpenLoader. And essentially what that allowed this to do is kinda push a standard PlayStation 2 console to be able to output most games at 1080i or 1080p, or true HD. He kinda described to me as though he’s sort of replacing the standard graphics driver with something that is way more optimized and way more powerful. Let’s very quickly walk through the menu here. So on this device you have installed uLaunchELF. So this allows access to the USB thumb drive as well as the 500 gigabyte hard drive and also the memory card. There you have listed ESR. So that is part of the FreeMcBoot package, and that basically allows you to play backups. So what that is doing is that’s actually tricking the PlayStation 2 into thinking that you’re putting in a DVD movie, when actually you’re really just booting up a game. Simple Media System I believe is part of a package that allows this PlayStation 2 to play DivX movies and some other video formats that you would download over the Internet. Not something I probably will use, but it’s cool to have it there.
Now, like I mentioned, this particular PlayStation 2 came to me pre-setup by Chris, so I actually don’t know all the ins and out of the applications and how to configure that stuff. So I’m not gonna go really deep into all of that stuff. Just know that there are a bunch of tutorials out there on the Internet, both on YouTube, and also the web, and I’ll link to those down in the video description below if you wanna make one of these yourself, but we’ll continue on. Notice that he integrated in CodeBreaker cheat program. That’s pretty cool. You basically launch that, and then there are hundreds if not thousands of PlayStation 2 games that you can tweak, enable cheats, and then launch right from there, and just go into the game, and, again, it’s very seamless. Also included on here are a bunch of emulators, so you have the original NES, Super NES, Genesis, Master System, GameGear. Probably not gonna use that too much, but it’s cool to have. The GSM is the graphics synthesizer mode selector, and it’s my understanding that’s kinda the nuts and bolts of this device. It’s what is allowing you to tweak the video performance and essentially get the most out of this.
Alright, so let’s go ahead and check out some games. So this is Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. And this is outputting from the PlayStation 2 at 1080p. Now, this game never officially supported this resolution, but, again, with this modded PlayStation 2, it’s now outputting at that HD resolution and it connects and looks great to your modern HD television. Here here is Return to Castle Wolfenstein. This is also outputting at 1080p. I should probably mention at this point that the way I’m capturing this footage is that I’m using the component cables that HD Retrovision sells. And that is connected to my original Elgato Game Capture. Also, the output is stretched to widescreen 16 x 9 to fill the entire screen. I’m not a big fan of that look, and thankfully, most HD televisions have the ability to adjust the aspect ratio. And I’m compensating for that in Final Cut, so just be aware. Here is R-Type Final. Now, this is interesting because this is a game that actually runs a little bit better, a little bit more stable, in 1080i. And so that’s what you see right here. And so what Chris and Brian did is that they went through a bunch of PlayStation 2 games to see which ones would run better in what resolution. And that’s what you see right here in this manual that they sent. It was at this point I was kinda curious how it would compare to my favorite way of upscaling PlayStation 2 games to HD and that is using my original PlayStation 3.
So the first game we’re gonna compare is Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Alright, so here is a side-by-side. So, on the left you have the modded PlayStation 2 outputting to 1080p over component, and then on the right is my trusty PlayStation 3 running the same game, but that is going through its upscaler and it’s going through HDMI. The results are pretty interesting, don’t you think? I mean, in some regards, I actually like the PlayStation 2 modded better because I think the colors are brighter. They’re more vibrant. But you definitely are seeing the jaggies. It’s not quite as smooth of a picture where to the right, on the PlayStation 3, yeah, the colors and maybe the contrast is definitely a little bit less, but it’s perhaps maybe a more softer and pleasing video quality. I should also mention I’m not using the smoothing option on the PlayStation 3, although we are gonna try that in a bit.
Here is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, one of the best Star Wars games ever made. Once again, we have the modded PlayStation 2 on the left. That’s via component cables. And then on the right, we have the PlayStation 3. The differences between the two are just striking. I mean, wow, I had no idea until I actually put these up side-by-side. Now, obviously, the modded PlayStation 2 on the left, that’s a little on the dark side. Well, no pun intended. But I actually really like the sharpness of the graphics. I think it actually looks really good. I think in this case, because this game is so dark, I probably prefer the PlayStation 3, but as you can see, I mean, the modded PS2 holds its own.
Alright, now let’s try something a little bit different. Here is Freedom Fighters. This is a game I’ve been wanting to go back and play for a while now. And like before, on the left-hand side, you have the modded PlayStation 2. It’s important to know that, for this particular game, the best resolution was 1080i. And then, of course, on the right you have the PlayStation 3. As you can see, both versions of this look pretty close. Pretty identical. But I wanted to show you what it would look like with the PlayStation 3 and smoothing turned on. With a scene like this, if you look at his sleeves, you can definitely see on the right-hand side that the PlayStation 3 is doing a little bit of smoothing. But again, it’s not radically better. I also wanna mention that I did get a lock up, a hard lock up in this game after about 10 minutes or so. Now, you can always go back to the main menu and adjust the graphics settings. You can actually force it into, say, 720p or something like that; see if you get better results.
Now let’s go ahead and check out some original PlayStation 1 games running on the modded PS2. So this, of course, is Wipeout XL, and it is outputting at 480p. Looking and running great. However, Soul Blade is not doing so hot here. As you can see, my character is having some problems with the polygons. While the game is perfectly playable and kind of hilarious this way, but yeah, you wouldn’t wanna play it this way for very long. Not sure what the problem is here, or maybe if there is a fix through the settings, but yeah, it’s kind of funny.
SO what do I think about this thing? Well, man, I think from a technical standpoint, I think it’s actually kind of amazing how it is taking a standard PlayStation 2 and basically just with better software forcing higher resolutions and pulling it off. I mean, these games actually look pretty good. As a hobbyist project, I think it’s actually pretty impressive. And the good news is, there are literally tens of millions of these PlayStation 2 fats out there. I mean, it doesn’t require any modification to the inside of the PlayStation 2, so if this one, you know, a couple months from now dies on me, well, I’ll just swap it over to another one. They’re not that expensive. The compatibility can be an issue. Like I mentioned previously, I did experience some lock-ups in some games, but there are a ton of options to play around with. And for this particular model, he tested about 160, 200+ games and most of ’em work just fine. Obviously, I didn’t include instructions on how to actually set this up, but I’ll include links to tutorials down in the video description below. And then, again, a huge shout-out to Chris and Brian for sending me this. It’s such a cool device. It’s such a cool project. Thank you so much for sharing it with me. I’m probably gonna use it going forward when I need to capture footage and test things. It’ll be pretty awesome. Alright, guys, thank you very much for watching. Thank you for subscribing and take care.
