Reddit user "Pshyched" is just like you - he loves video games. His favorite system is the PlayStation 2. Some of his favorite games include Dark Cloud, The Warriors, Ape Escape 2 and the Sly Cooper series. What sets Pshyched apart is that not only does he appreciate these games and Sony's historical console, he's aiming to collect every single PS2 game ever released in the PAL region. All 2,232 of them.
Pshyched posted his work-in-progress collection to Reddit in late June, garnering massive amounts of attention as well as a plethora of upvotes, likes, retweets and other Internet kudos. At the time, he had acquired 922 games; since then, he's steadily increased his stash to more than 1,000. Not too shabby, considering his journey didn't begin in earnest until roughly one year ago.
"It was around July 2014 when I found a website called 'Retro Collect,'" Pshyched told 12DOVE. "I decided to check all the games I had into the database they had on there, and that's when I saw that Playstation 2 had over 2,200 PAL Releases. I wondered if somebody had collected all the PAL releases, but not one person has that I could find."
"I found an article about someone who collected all NTSC PlayStation 2 games sealed - that's around 1,850 games. Seeing that really made me want to try and collect all the PAL releases. Thing is with PAL though, it's spread over a much larger area than America. There are specific releases in Germany, Spain, Switzerland ... But I just had this idea to just collect them all, something nobody has done before."
Living in Australia makes Pshyched's mission a bit difficult, especially with his criteria for a game's condition. Damaged or Greatest Hits versions - "Platinum" as they're called in Australia - simply won't do. Even when games are in good condition and on the same landmass, it can be more than an hour's trip to pick up a single copy.
Importing can also be prohibitively expensive, as is the case with the game Pshyched most desires to have in his collection, a horror title called Rule of Rose. Pshyched told GR+ that he once saw an original UK edition go for more than $1100 on eBay. An Italian release is far cheaper and plays in English, and Pshyched concedes he may have to go that route when he adds the game to his collection.
In the meantime, he has plenty to keep him occupied. Pshyched pointed out that there are 68 Singstar games, for example, and if he wants, he can always pop in what he admits is the strangest game he's seen to date: Demolition Girl. In this bizarre game, players use a helicopter to scan a 100-foot-tall woman in a bikini as she destroys cities, like a sexy Godzilla. She can also be distracted with pieces of cake. It was … okay look, it was a different time.
If all this talk of PS2 era games has got you feeling nostalgic, Pshyched has one game to suggest playing above all others. "War of the Monsters, without a doubt. This is a game where you're a gigantic monster fighting other monsters in crowded cities," he says. "I remember playing that game ages ago. I unlocked absolutely everything in that game and I kept playing it. I don't think I've seen anything quite like it released ever since."
Nearly halfway through his quest, Pshyched estimates that it will take six bookshelves and roughly $5,000 to complete his collection. "When I started, it seemed like an impossible feat," Pshyched wrote. "I think in the end it will be something amazing to look at. I mean six bookshelves full of every single PlayStation 2 game ever released - in the PAL region - would be a sight to see. Once I complete this I may even think about grabbing the NTSC only titles as well."
Good luck, Pshyched!
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