Top 5 games of 2002 | Geek Node Archive

Published February 3, 2016

This entry is part 16 of 26 in the series Top 5 Games of the 25 Years This week I will highlight 2002

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2)

This week’s list kicks off with arguably the best soundtrack in gaming history. There are few moments as memorable as getting on a bike and hearing Billie Jean play. 2002’s best-selling game also had perfect casting (Ray Liotta was perfect as Tommy Vercetti, rivaled perhaps by Samuel L Jackson’s Tenpenny in GTA: San Andreas).

Ratchet and Clank (PS2)

Ratchet and Clank remains one of my favourite franchises (outing my second favourite ‘Sly Cooper and the thievius raccoonus). While recent games have seemingly lost their way (this is me subtweeting at Ratchet and Clank: All4One), the original trilogy (and to a lesser extent, Gladiator) set the tone with fun action, great humour and beautiful graphics. The best thing about Ratchet and Clank games was that the more you use a weapon, the more it evolves and gets better, so even if you die a bunch of times it doesn’t feel like a waste as your weapons keep upgrading -great mechanic. Here’s looking to this year’s reboot.

The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (PS2)

I’m a huge LOTR fan and the two action games (Two Towers and the Return of the King) are underrated bags of licenced goodness. It’s a pity that these games were forgotten so easily when people create their ‘best licenced games’ list, but when you’re competing with Arkham Asylum and Goldeneye, it’s not too hard to figure out why these games are on the bench. This wasn’t the longest game in the world, but measuring a game’s value by the amount of hours you get out of it isn’t always a good thing.

Burnout 2: Point of Impact (PS2)

Keeping with this week’s theme of pitting similar games against each other, it was a toss-up between Burnout and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, with each racer providing compelling reasons to make the cut. In the end I went with Burnout because it was simply, more fun. Let me know if you remember ‘crash mode.’

Virtua Tennis 2 (PS2)

The last game in what is clearly the Playstation 2’s year (and beating out Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance), Virtua Tennis 2 was the best arcade tennis game I’ve played (best tennis game overall of this era would probably go to 2003’s Top Spin Tennis on the Xbox). For those still jamming PS3, check out Virtua Tennis 2009.

To ensure consistency, here are the rules I follow when compiling these lists

I will only write about games I’ve played Even though I played most of these games a few years after they released, I will stick with the year they were released (otherwise this list will be all over the place)

Due to the second rule, it does mean I won’t be able to list gems like Super Mario Brothers and Circus Charlie

This entry is part of 26 in the series Top 5 Games of the 25 Years << Video Game Feature: Top 5 games of 2005 Video Game Feature: Top 5 games of 2006 >>

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MJ Khan

Gaming / Entertainment Author at Geek Node

A veteran gamer and award-winning strategist, MJ enjoys eating chocolate eclairs and watching WWE. He completed his Masters coursework on videogame theory and enjoys writing about representation in games.