The 10 rarest PlayStation 2 games you should track down

The Playstation 3 is well and truly here, which means the glory days of the PS2 are long-gone. Scattered like debris in the wake of the PS3’s explosive arrival are the games that time (and most gamers) forgot. Here’s a quick run-down of the rarest games you will find for the PS2, and just how much you can expect to pay for them.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (Limited Edition) Made distinguishable from the standard issue of MGS3: Subsistence by its blood-red cover, the Limited Edition of Subsistence is one of the most sought-after PS2 games, for obvious reasons. Only a very few were ever produced, a large number of those quickly snapped up by eager fans via online pre-orders. Currently, the game sells for a whopping $195 dollars (that’s 100 English pounds!) on Amazon.com, but don’t expect to find it anywhere on the high street.

Space Channel 5 Part 2 Here you must sing and dance, both in tune and in time, in order to save humanity. That counts Britney Spears out of the running, at least. SC5.2 will cost you £85 from Amazon.co.uk, and a slightly more humble £50 on ebay. Not a lot to ask for endless hours of intergalactic dance mat disco fever.

Rez A quirky little game that sees you taking control of a humanoid … thing, the aim being to create sprawling electronic soundscapes by blasting the crap out of everything in your path. Put simply: you shoot things, they make blippy noises. Probably as a result of poor sales, not a great deal of these were made, and so it is now quite rare to find a copy. While buying one for the PS2 will set you back a not-too-extortionate £20, the even rarer Dreamcast version of the game sells for an impressive £80 on Amazon.co.uk.

Silent Hill Collection Before Christophe Gans got his mitts on it, Silent Hill was a relatively low-key franchise, reserved solely for those gamers who liked their survival horror a little more serious than the guns-and-zombies affair of the Resident Evil games. As you’d expect, Silent Hill Collection gathers together Silent Hills 2, 3 and 4: The Room (although, curiously, not the first instalment) and presents them in some suitably scary packaging. Expect to pay around £55 for this on Amazon.co.uk

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 If you’re one of those people who’s ever said “who would win in a fight between ….?” well, here’s your chance to find the answer. The holy grail for any comic book/ games geek. Revel in such dream death matches as Spider-man vs. Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk vs. pretty much all of the X-Men, and, er, just about any other match you can think of. If you grow weak-kneed at the thought of such carnage and want to experience it for yourself, it’ll cost you upwards of £30 on ebay.

Zone of the Enders 2: The Second Runner As with Rez, the first Zone of the Enders was not a huge success, certainly not by Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid)’s standards. Consequently, not too many copies were produced of this sequel. While it’s not the rarest to find, it’s another you’re not likely to find waiting for you on the shelves in Game. Worth it, however, if you’ve ever longed to punch someone so hard they smash backwards through several buildings before exploding in a ball of flame.

We Love Katamari And so will you. Absolutely insane. You play a tiny sprite who must roll around a big ball that other things get stuck to (lamp posts, sheep, houses, pencils, people) until your ball is undeniably huge. Amazon.co.uk sell this slice of Japanese joy for around £30.

Final Fantasy Bit of a complicated one. The Final Fantasy games are not exactly rare, as there are probably enough copies circulating in the world for everybody in every home to use one as a coaster. But people do not part with their beloved Final Fantasys very easily, and so they’re extremely popular on eBay. Take into account that the Platinum editions will only earn around £5 or £10, whereas the original editions with the black discs net close to £20 each. Not bad if you’ve been an avid collector of the series and own all 12 instalments.

Ico Again, another game that isn’t easy to find in the shops. Your best bet is – surprise! – eBay, where you can usually get one for around £20. Ico‘s smash-hit sequel, Shadow of the Colossus, is another to watch out for.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Take control of the new kid in a Japanese High School, study hard, take exams and make friends by day, and destroy evil demons to protect the school by night. This will set you back either £15 on ebay, or £20 on Amazon.co.uk.