Hands On: They're Rough Around the Edges, But It's Awesome to Have PS2 Games Back on PS5, PS4 | Push Square

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Let’s try this again, eh? Sony originally released a batch of PS2 games on the PS4, but they were buggy, performed poorly, and lacked quality of life features. Now, with its well-established PS1 and PSP emulator, it’s giving the strategy another go – and including the releases in its PS Plus Premium subscription. But how are its efforts so far?

The first three games available are platformer Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, globe-trotting adventure game Tomb Raider Legend, and vehicular combat title Star Wars: The Clone Wars. All three releases can be played on either PS5 and PS4, and enjoyed as part of the platform holder’s top-tier subscription – or purchased a la carte.

The wrappers will feel immediately familiar to anyone who’s played an emulated PS1 or PSP title recently: there are four graphics filters, the ability to switch between NTSC or PAL versions (you’ll want the NTSC option for better performance), and a toggle to turn on «enhancements». This appears to enable and disable the Rewind feature, presumably because it’s draining a lot of computational overhead.

Rewind is obviously an excellent quality of life addition, because it makes some of these retro releases a bit more palatable, especially when checkpoints were a little more punishing back in the day. There’s also the option to create quick saves, which means you’re not at the mercy of the game’s own save system if you want to put down your DualSense and call it a day.

Despite the promise of uprendering, all three titles look like they’re running in their original resolution to our untrained eye, which means they look a little smeary and unclear. While you could argue this preserves the original experience, it’s a little disappointing we’re not getting a higher resolution option, as it can really make a difference to the overall visual quality.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is still a fantastically presented platformer, but it does feel a little dated compared to its PS2 successors. This