The From A to Z series lets our editors go back and take a look at games from past generations that are classics, overlooked gems, or just titles they remember fondly. The idea behind this is to pick five games from each letter of the alphabet, once a week to showcase. This delivers 26 weeks and 130 games to talk about. Hopefully it sparks some conversation, and of course plenty of memories.
Our second series will focus on Sony’s sophomore entry into the console business, the PlayStation 2.
Let’s continue with the letter “D”.
Dark Cloud
While I put DMC 3 over the first game on my list, I’m going to put Dark Cloud over the sequel here. I fully admit I believe DC2 is a better game than the first, but Dark Cloud was one of the first RPGs I played on my PS2. I still hold it close to my heart. Not only an RPG, Dark Cloud had a building mechanic in it that felt like I was actually rebuilding the world. A ton of genres mixed together for a pretty great experience.
Darkwatch
Do you like spaghetti westerns? How about vampires? Well, that is what you get with Darkwatch. A gunslinger fighting vampires in a pretty fun first person shooter setting ends up being a great addition to the PS2 library. The developer, High Moon Studios would eventually go on to make some pretty good Transformers games along with a game starring the “Merc with a Mouth.”
Def Jam: Fight for NY
I’m a sucker for this series. I found the fighting to be fluid, fun, and brutal. With the novelty of being able to play as and fight against some of music’s greatest rappers, it was a blast to play. Fight for NY was a better game to me both in presentation and in mechanics. Fighting game and wrestling fans should try this game out, even if you’re not a big hip-hop fan, but it does help.
Destroy All Humans!
A 3rd person shooter with a different take, the adventures of Crypto had me entertained for a time with its humor, and crazy weaponry. Unfortunately, after the 2nd game, the series really fell off. Maybe one day we’ll see a new one that can capture that zaniness.
Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening
I put DMC 3 on this list because while the first game set the bar for character action games, Dante’s Awakening was the game that pretty much perfected it. One of the best action games on the PS2, this game was hard as hell and never apologized for it. Any action fan should have this in their library.
Tune in next week for the next collection of titles.
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