PSX2

First Impression

This app is really for people who don’t mind getting their hands dirty with tech stuff. I am not one of those people. I just wanted to play Crash Bandicoot on my iPhone 14 like I used to. My old emulator app got weird after an update, so I saw PSX2 and thought, “Five dollars, no ads, let’s try it.” Right away, I was lost. The app is just an empty box. You have to find the game files and this other thing called a BIOS yourself. I spent my whole Sunday afternoon Googling and moving files around, which is not how I wanted to spend my weekend. When I finally got a game to boot, the iconic PlayStation logo popping up on my phone was a genuine “whoa” moment. That feeling faded pretty fast when I realized the on-screen buttons were huge and in the way.

What It Does Well

Once you actually get a game running, it can be pretty cool. The picture looks great on my phone’s screen. I was playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 on my lunch break yesterday and the graphics were way sharper than I remembered from my old TV. The quick save feature is a lifesaver. I could save right before trying a stupid-hard trick line, fail a bunch, and just reload instantly. It made the frustrating parts way less annoying. You can also move all the buttons around on the screen, which helps a little if they’re blocking something important. For the games that work, it feels powerful, like my phone can actually handle this old tech just fine.

Where It Falls Short

The biggest issue is that nothing is guaranteed to work. My copy of Metal Gear Solid ran okay, but the audio kept crackling during codec calls, which totally ruined the mood. Another game just crashed back to the menu when I tried to start it. The controls are the other big problem. Touchscreen buttons for a PS1 controller are always going to be awkward, but here they feel especially slippery. I’d miss a jump in Spyro because my thumb slid off the virtual X button. The app itself also feels a bit barebones and clunky to navigate. It doesn’t guide you at all; you’re just expected to know what to do.

Is It Worth the Price?

For five dollars, I expected something a bit more polished. If you’re the type of person who enjoys tinkering with settings and hunting down files online, you might get your money’s worth. For a casual user like me who just wants to tap and play, it feels overpriced. You’re paying for the potential to play games, not for a smooth, ready-to-go experience. I’ve had cheaper apps that did less but worked perfectly the second I opened them. This one makes you work for it, and that makes the price tag harder to swallow.

Developer & Support

I had an issue where my saves disappeared after I closed the app. I emailed the developer through the contact in the App Store on Tuesday morning. I got a reply back late Wednesday, and it was just a link to a forum page with some general troubleshooting steps that I’d already tried. It felt like a copy-paste answer, not someone actually trying to help. The response was slow and didn’t solve my problem. It left me feeling totally unsupported, like I bought this thing and now I’m on my own. The app does get updates, but if the support is this hands-off, it doesn’t inspire much confidence.

Privacy & Safety

The app itself seems fine. It only asked to access my files, which makes sense since it needs to read the game files I put there. I didn’t see any ads or get asked for weird permissions. The real privacy concern is on you. Since the app doesn’t come with any games, you have to go find the files yourself on the internet. You have to be careful about what sites you use, because the app doesn’t control or check any of that. Your safety there depends entirely on where you go looking.