I am not ashamed to admit it either. I even made the effort to get the PS2 ports of the two games that released on PSP, however I still need to play those.
It is a goal of mine to have every single R&C game playable on my PC. The only one I’m still waiting on is the PS4 version, and it’s only a matter of time with ShadPS4.
I haven’t tried the R&C collection on RPCS3 yet even though I have a copy. The compatibility list has it under In Game with some graphical bugs and glitches, but it was last updated nearly 5 years ago, so things may have improved.
Luckily since you have a Deck, you can realistically change your thumbsticks should they get damaged.
No one mentioned the Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank games. Those were my childhood growing up and in my opinion hold up gameplay-wise to this day.
Plus the Jak series have a native launcher called OpenGOAL.
While I never played them myself, I have heard good things about the Sly Cooper series.
Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc is where it’s at. I consider that peak Rayman. Would love another game with that vibe.
The only issue with Stuntman on emulators is it’s one the last remaining games not playable on PCSX2. There’s been consistent issues with the AI pathing on one of the levels and they haven’t been able to patch it after all these years.
I’m not saying it won’t ever be, but it may continue to be unplayable on non-native hardware for a while longer.