Why You Should Buy a PS2 in 2008

If you don't already have a PS2, or haven't had one in some time, why not pick one up? Older great games are still great, even if newer ones are, well, newer. (And have better graphics, online play, etc., of course.) Millions of people still play games on emulators of systems that are of legal drinking age.

A new PS2 is 1/3 the price of a PS3 or Xbox 360, and 1/2 the cost of a Wii. A new system with a warranty is $129.99; working used ones are $79.99 at EBGames.com and even less on Half.com or Craigslist. A $149.99 bundle includes Lego Batman. With no hard drive, PS2s are maybe a little more hardy than current consoles -- mine's at least five years old and works fine. And with 140 million units sold worldwide, there's a decent chance one of them will be at the next garage sale you visit.

As I write this, there are 2,333 PS2 games available on Amazon.com and 8,011 on Half.com. Have you played every great PS2 game? You have not. New games are being still being released for it, albeit at a trickle. You can get Rock Band and Guitar Hero III. Granted, the reviews came out in a different time and context, but some numbers: over at Metacritic.com, 62 PS2 games have a score of 90 or better. The Xbox 360 has 14, and the PS3 and Wii have 5 each. Their total number of ranked games for each console:

PS3: 193

Wii: 248

Xbox 360: 438

PS2: 1564

That's a big damn library of games, even if most of them suck.

Used PS2 games start at 49 cents on EBGames.com and 75 cents on Half.com. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a game that I played for almost two months straight while laid up with an injury, is available for $1.50. That's pretty good value for cash outlay, right there.

Parents of teens will, of course, be urged toward the PS3 or Xbox 360. But if you spent the bulk of the last generation of games busy elsewhere (Xbox, GameCube, PC games, starting a family, etc.), the PS2 is worth another look.