It’s been an outrageously slow month as far as review stuff goes, but I’ve been chugging away behind the scenes, testing out the Mclassic on a variety of Playstation 2 games to determine whether or not it’s a worthwhile investment for someone looking to improve their console’s visuals. But whereas the Nintendo Switch tests showed a noticeable—if sometimes perilously subtle—improvement, there are a number of problems that prevent the mClassic from being a good fit for the console. What’s especially discouraging is that many of these problems will also apply to other consoles and input sources that output at 480i.

First, an affiliate link for the Portta upscaler that’s a rockstar

Normally, I’d post an affiliate link to the mClassic, but it’ll soon become apparent that the 30-dollar Portta upscaler that I bought when I was comparing versions of Destroy All Humans! is doing the heavy lifting.

The mClassic doesn’t upscale 480i, weirdly enough

And why do we need an additional upscaler? Because the mClassic doesn’t upscale 480i content for whatever reason. I don’t know if there are more resolutions that won’t upscale or if the device refuses to upscale/process anything that’s interlaced, but if you use a simple component-to-HDMI converter (I use this one, also by Portta) and then feed that into the mClassic while playing a game that doesn’t have a progressive scan option, you’re left with the same small image. And 640x480 is just too tiny a resolution for the mClassic’s processing to do anything. Sadly, most games that released for the PS2 were 480i only, so there are few of them that can switch to 480p and then be upscaled using just the mClassic.

Figuring out the best upscaling methods before proceeding

Full disclosure—I didn’t realize that 480p content could be upscaled using the mClassic until I sat down to write this. Part of the reason for that is that I chose Trapt, one of my all-time favorites on the system, to determine which configurations were worth testing. The two games I tested that can be set to 480p and upscaled using just the mClassic are SoulCalibur III and Destroy All Humans!, and I’ll have a video at the end where I show off video for both games that was upscaled that way and compare screenshots with those that were captured through the Portta, just to avoid skewing the results against the mClassic.

But the sad fact is that most games on the Playstation 2, including Trapt, max out at 480i. Recording them at that resolution is a bad idea, as you can see in the video above where I record both of the mClassic’s “on” settings (blue and green appear to be identical, save for blue squeezing 1280x720 video into what looks to be a 4:3 aspect ratio). It’s not beyond saving, of course, and this is pretty much the method I used to capture screenshots and video when I reviewed Trapt (though back then, I used my glitchy Hauppauge HD PVR). It’s not a terrible image, but the bump in clarity that the Portta upscaler provides is obvious.

Using the video above and a comparison image I made (which you can view here, though be aware that it’s a 4K .png file that stitches together four 1920x1080 screenshots, so it may be slow to load), I determined that the best-looking options were the 1080p Portta upscale, the 1080p Portta upscale with the mClassic set to its green setting, and the 720p Portta upscale that uses the mClassic to further upscale to 1080p. Interestingly, the antialiasing at 720p appears to be more aggressive than it is at 1080p, suggesting that the mClassic is designed to function differently depending on the input resolution.

Finally, the comparison screenshots of Catalina highlight the problem with comparing the same frame in different interlaced videos; that interlacing can result in parts of the screen rendering in an odd way during that particular frame in some videos and not others, which is something that I did my best to work around through trial and error. Interlaced video is truly one of the most evil things in the entire world.

Way of the Samurai

The first thing you’ll notice is that the 720p Portta upscale + 1080p mClassic upscale option stretches the image out more. As far as I can tell, that’s a quirk of the Portta, which also seems to look less sharp at 720p. The second thing you’ll notice is that the mClassic doesn’t seem to be doing much at 1080p, and the 720p image is simultaneously blurry and oversharpened (which is possible thanks to the sharpening radius being turned up so much that it’s not “vivid” so much as “nearly-embossed”). Honestly, the low resolution and blockiness of the PS1/PS2 days has always struck me as being part of the charm, so I prefer the look of the 1080p upscale without the mClassic enabled at all. Everything else looks like a lazy attempt to smooth over some of the edges while also adding plenty of sharpening halos. It’s not bad, but it’s not good either.

SoulCalibur III

SoulCalibur III is one of the rare games that allow you to switch to 480p mode, and it results in a more detailed look with plenty of shimmers. On this one, I think I prefer the Portta’s 1080p upscale + the mClassic since it cleans up many of those tiny shimmers without oversharpening the image or losing the charming blockiness of the art style. The 720p + mClassic video looks smoother, undeniably, but just look at how blurry and undefined the text becomes while areas like the clock tower are oversharpened. Bleh.

Destroy All Humans!

Destroy All Humans! is the last game on this list with a 480p option, and again, it and SoulCalibur III will get a bonus video at the end of this article showing off what they look like being upscaled from 480p to 1080p using just the mClassic. Upscaling it through the Portta, though, an interesting twist emerges: in blurry games like Destroy All Humans! where text and other elements are big and undefined to begin with, the 720p + mClassic mode helps to squeeze out some clarity because the large sharpening radius emphasizes those bigger elements and not the tinier details. This helps to separate important elements.

Trapt

I could see an argument being made for the superiority of all three upscaling variations here, which makes sense since Trapt was the game I used to determine which upscaling methods to include in the first place. I think I slightly prefer the 1080p upscale without the mClassic, but it does add a little “pop” to the text.

Metal Gear Solid 2

Metal Gear Solid 2 is a blurrier game than I remember it being, which means that this is another example of the 720p + mClassic version coming out ahead by emphasizing the important parts. It must be said, however, that upscaling and sharpening something that starts out blurry is pretty much just putting lipstick on a pig, and you’re not going to get something brilliantly sharp and defined. Still, it’s a nice surprise that the 720p version’s blur helps the text to look more consistent with my memory of the game. It becomes apparent when upscaling some of these games that their text is jagged and weird.

Odin Sphere

Odin Sphere is an interesting case, because while I love what the 720p + mClassic version does for the art style, I abhor what it does to the text and menu elements. I suppose that the 1080p + mClassic is a middle ground of sorts, but at the end of the day, any improvements made to this game or others is too small to be worth the $99 that the mClassic costs. Especially when you need an extra upscaler that does the heavy lifting and upscales everything despite being three times cheaper. It’s just not worth it for PS2 games.

Final Fantasy X

Finally, we have Final Fantasy X. I loathe this game, but that’s neither here nor there; it looks ugly and blurry at every option, and not even the 720p + mClassic version can prop it up. It’s beyond saving.

Lastly, the promised SC3 & DAH! + mClassic 1080p upscale

The best way I can think to describe the look of 480p content upscaled through the mClassic is “blurry but cohesive.” It’s actually kind of stunning how excellent the antialiasing is when you go this route, and while that comes at the cost of sharpness, the entire image comes together in a very pleasing way in SoulCalibur III. Destroy All Humans!, on the other hand, becomes way too blurry and ends up being significantly worse than the Portta, so this method won’t look great on everything. Regardless, this is a very promising result that may prove to be a good fit with the Nintendo Wii since most of its games output natively at 480p.

Unfortunately, we’re currently talking about whether the mClassic is worth it for Playstation 2 games, and it just isn’t unless your library of most-played games include a large number of the rare games that allow you to switch from interlaced mode to progressive (usually by holding X and triangle when the game is starting up). Outside of that exceptionally narrow scenario, this is going to be an expensive paperweight.

Is the mClassic worth it for Playstation 2 games? No, and I have three hours of video to prove it first appeared on Killa Penguin