PlayStation 2
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50 free PlayStation 2 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The PlayStation 2 arrived in 2000 and went on to become one of the best-selling consoles ever made. Its library ran to thousands of games, from blockbuster crime sagas and sprawling role-playing epics to oddities that could only have existed in that era, and the machine itself kept turning up in places nobody expected. This quiz covers the console and its games together. There are questions on the hardware, the launch, the controller and the add-ons that plugged into it, alongside the heroes, villains, studios and series that made their names on the system. A few questions nod to the party and quiz games that had whole families shouting at the television. It is pitched for anyone who owned a PS2, borrowed one, or simply remembers the startup sound. Most questions are friendly, with explanations that add a story worth retelling; a handful are for players who kept their memory cards.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What did University of Illinois researchers build by networking 70 PS2 consoles together?
A supercomputer
A supercomputer took shape when the university's computing center ran the consoles as a single cluster for scientific work. Its director called the machine hand-made.
Q 02Japan put export controls on the PS2 in 2000 over fears its chips could power what?
Missile guidance
Missile guidance relies on processing high-quality images quickly, the very job the console was built for. Shipping more than one machine out of Japan needed a government license.
Q 03In the PS2's Japanese launch period, the best-selling disc was not a game but a DVD of which film?
The Matrix
The Matrix outsold every launch game because many early buyers wanted the console mainly as an affordable DVD player. Launch software was thin on the ground.
Q 04Which demon-hunting PS2 series starring Dante began life as an early concept for Resident Evil 4?
Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry became its own game once Capcom's staff felt the project no longer fit their horror franchise. Its director based it loosely on the Italian poem Divine Comedy.
Q 05Kingdom Hearts began as a chance elevator pitch from a Square producer to which company's executive?
Disney
Disney and Square once had offices in the same Tokyo building, which let producer Shinji Hashimoto make his pitch between floors. The game reached the PS2 in 2002.
Q 06Which PS2 music game came bundled with a plastic controller shaped like a miniature Gibson SG?
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero was made by Harmonix for publisher RedOctane, who wanted to bring a game like Japan's Guitar Freaks to American players. It arrived on the console in 2005.
Q 07Which Sega console was discontinued in March 2001, months after the PS2's launch crushed its sales?
Dreamcast
Dreamcast sold 6.5 million units in 22 months, while Sony shipped 10 million PS2s in under 15. Sega then left the console business altogether.
Q 08Sly Cooper, the master thief of a PS2 stealth-platformer series, is what kind of animal?
Raccoon
Raccoon suits a thief, mask markings and all. PAL regions sold his first game simply as Sly Raccoon, and his partners in crime are a turtle and a hippo.
Q 09Which Spartan warrior, wielding the chained Blades of Chaos, is the star of the PS2 hit God of War?
Kratos
Kratos begins the series as a servant of the Olympian gods, with Athena wanting him to kill Ares. His twin blades hang from chains wrapped around his wrists and forearms.
Q 10Grand Theft Auto: Vice City recreates the neon-soaked 1980s of which real American city?
Miami
Miami was scouted on field trips by the developers, who also kept the TV series Miami Vice playing throughout development. The story is set in 1986.
Q 11Which extreme-sports series produced the first PS2 game to support online play, its third entry?
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Tony Hawk's third game went online before Sony's own network adapter launched, so early players connected through a USB adapter instead. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 was also the final official Nintendo 64 release.
Q 12Before release, the press billed Sony's PS2 shooter Killzone as the 'killer' of which rival series?
Halo
Halo was the Xbox's flagship shooter, and several publications cast Guerrilla Games' Killzone as Sony's answer to it.
Q 13Which board game's PS2 edition, subtitled Unhinged, lets players bet on how their opponents will do?
Trivial Pursuit
Q 21Final Fantasy XI could only be played on a PS2 fitted with which optional add-on?
A hard disk drive
A hard disk drive slotted into an expansion bay on the back of the original console. The thinner redesign dropped that bay, so it could not take one.
Q 22Which connection did the slimline PS2 build in, sparing owners the separate network adaptor?
Ethernet
Ethernet port included, the slimline model also swapped the motorized disc tray for a top-loading lid and moved its power supply outside the case.
Q 23PS2 games shipped on CD-ROM instead of DVD can be spotted by what color on the disc's underside?
Blue
Blue tinting marked the earlier CD-based titles, while most of the library was distributed on DVD-ROM. The console also plays audio CDs and films.
Trivial Pursuit went Unhinged with board spaces that teleport a piece, spin the board or remove two wrong answers. A Classic mode plays exactly like the tabletop original.
Q 14Which Australian singer and former Neighbours star voiced the host of the PS2 quiz series Buzz!?
Jason Donovan
Jason Donovan voiced Buzz in the English versions. The games are played with a set of four buzzers, each carrying a big red button and four colored answer keys, to mimic a TV quiz show.
Q 15The EyeToy, a PS2 accessory that launched a wave of family party games, was what kind of device?
A webcam
A webcam built by Logitech, the EyeToy used computer vision and gesture recognition, so players could control games by moving their bodies in front of the television.
Q 16Which studio, already famous for Crash Bandicoot, created Jak and Daxter for the PS2?
Naughty Dog
Naughty Dog conceived the game while making Crash Team Racing, its final Crash title. Daxter spends the adventure as an ottsel, a made-up cross between an otter and a weasel.
Q 17Tidus, the main character of Final Fantasy X, is a star athlete in which fictional sport?
Blitzball
Blitzball is an underwater minigame of strategy and tactics. One match is compulsory early in the story, and after that players are free to ignore it.
Q 18Which Rockstar Western series began in 2004 with a PS2 gunslinger game subtitled Revolver?
Red Dead
Red Dead Revolver began as a Capcom-funded project, was cancelled, and was revived after Rockstar acquired the rights in 2003. It is the first entry in the series.
Q 19What name did Sony and Toshiba give the custom processor at the heart of the PS2?
Emotion Engine
Emotion Engine was envisioned as a chip for more lifelike and emotionally resonant games. Sony promoted it as more powerful than most personal computers of the era.
Q 20What did the DualShock 2's face buttons gain that the first DualShock's on-off buttons lacked?
Pressure sensitivity
Pressure sensitivity came in 255 levels across the directional pad, face buttons and shoulder buttons, so a game could tell a light press from a firm one.
Q 24Sony's official kit for turning a PS2 into a personal computer ran which operating system?
Linux
Linux for PlayStation 2 came with a keyboard and a mouse, and it was one of the few ways to send the console's picture to a VGA computer monitor.
Q 25Which film director, known for surreal and dreamlike movies, also made commercials for the PS2?
David Lynch
David Lynch also shot adverts for Dior, Gucci and Calvin Klein, along with music videos for Moby and Nine Inch Nails.
Q 26Which Sony studio developed Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, the best-selling PS2 exclusive?
Polyphony Digital
Polyphony Digital's racing simulator sold over 14.8 million copies, with Kazunori Yamauchi, who made the first two games, again in charge.
Q 27Ratchet, the mechanic of PS2's Ratchet & Clank, belongs to which fictional feline-like species?
Lombax
Lombax is the name of Ratchet's kind. He meets the escaped robot Clank when it crash-lands on his home planet, Veldin, at the start of the first game.
Q 28Which character, hidden from Metal Gear Solid 2's trailers, takes over from Solid Snake as the lead?
Raiden
Raiden was hidden so well that preview trailers showed Snake in battles Raiden actually fights, such as one against a Harrier jet. Players only met him after buying the game.
Q 29Which Sony engineer overruled fears that a DVD-playing PS2 would hurt the company's DVD player sales?
Ken Kutaragi
Ken Kutaragi, called the Father of the PlayStation, had enough clout after the first console's success to win the argument. He reportedly began planning the sequel back in 1994.
Q 30The PS2 has only two controller ports, so which add-on did four-player games require?
Multitap
Multitap is the common name for Sony's Multiplayer Adapter. Early reviews criticized the console for shipping with just two ports.