GameCube and PS2 Games You Can Play With Just a D-Pad

The sixth generation was when the analog stick took over. Most GameCube and PS2 games assume you've got one, which is a problem if you're building an arcade cabinet with a joystick and buttons, putting emulators on a handheld with only a d-pad, or you just like the click of digital controls better.

The good news: there's still a lot you can play without one. These are my lists.

GameCube

A short list, because the GameCube was designed around its stick. Most of what works is 2D, a collection of older games, or a fighter.

Genre	Games
Fighting	Alien Hominid, Bloody Roar: Primal Fury, Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Naruto: Gekitō Ninja Taisen! 3 (JP; the 4th one isn't d-pad friendly), Soulcalibur II
Platform and action	Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Donald Duck: PK (EU), the Frogger games, Viewtiful Joe
Puzzle	Mr. Driller: Drill Land (JP), Nintendo Puzzle Collection (JP), Puyo Pop Fever
Retro collections	Mega Man Anniversary Collection, Mega Man X Collection, Midway Arcade Treasures 2, Namco Museum, Sonic Gems Collection, Sonic Mega Collection, and the NES games on The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition
RPG	Pokémon Colosseum, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (a few functions on L and R)
Shooter	Ikaruga
Survival horror	Resident Evil (the remake), Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3, all with the classic tank controls

Note

The Resident Evil games are the surprise here. Tank controls were built for a d-pad in the first place, and they play just as well on one.

PlayStation 2

The PS2 became a home for 2D games right when everyone else was going 3D, and its library of 2D fighters and shooters is huge. Almost every 2D fighter works on a d-pad by nature.

Genre	Games
SNK fighters	The King of Fighters '94 Re-bout (JP), '98 Ultimate Match, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, XI, NeoWave and 2002 Unlimited Match, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Samurai Shodown Anthology, Samurai Shodown VI, SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum
Capcom fighters	Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, Street Fighter EX3, Hyper Street Fighter II, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom vs. SNK 2, Capcom Fighting Evolution (Capcom Fighting Jam)
Arc System Works	Guilty Gear X (and X Plus), Guilty Gear X2, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus
Other 2D fighters	Arcana Heart, Arcana Heart 2, Matrimelee, Melty Blood: Act Cadenza, Melty Blood: Actress Again, Spectral vs. Generation, The Rumble Fish
Vertical shooters	Mushihime-sama (JP), ESPGaluda, Dragon Blaze, Raiden III, Psyvariar 2, Trigger Heart Exelica, Twinkle Star Sprites: La Petite Princesse
Horizontal shooters	Gradius III & IV, Gradius V, R-Type Final, Thunder Force VI
More shooters	Castle Shikigami (Mobile Light Force 2) and Castle Shikigami 2, Chaos Field, Shienryu and Double Shienryu (JP), Silpheed: The Lost Planet
Everything else	Metal Slug 1 to 6, Onimusha 1 and 2, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Code: Veronica X, Tetris Worlds

A lot of the Japan-only PS2 titles here play fine without reading Japanese, since fighters and shooters don't need much. On real hardware you'll need a Japanese console or a mod; in an emulator, it doesn't matter.

Tip

A lot of these are also great on a real arcade stick. If you've got one, a cheap adapter lets it work on real PS2 hardware, and any emulator will take it directly.

Where these lists earn their keep

• Arcade cabinets. Joystick and buttons, no analog stick. Everything above maps cleanly.
• Handheld emulation. Handhelds with one stick, or a vertical shape with only a d-pad, handle these far better than a typical 3D game.
• Personal preference. Some games just feel better with digital precision.

If you're lining up a cabinet, pair this with the PlayStation arcade ports by generation, which has more of the same idea going back to the PS1. My own cabinet is the 4:3 CoinOPS build. And if you want to know which small handhelds can actually run GameCube and PS2, that's the top tier in emulation handhelds by chipset.