[Doctor]

No. I'm sure that many people expected Tidus to come back in X-2, and to be a part of the game. But that was the problem--it would have been expected, and therefore, too predictable. Besides, it makes more sense to see him in the special ending, because if one recalls at the end of FFX, after the credits, we see Tidus floating around in the water, and suddenly, he decides to swim up to the surface, and then we see no more. That little bit doesn't make sense UNTIL YOU SEE THE SPECIAL ENDING TO FFX-2.

Of course, another scenario could have been that, if Tidus was "revived" at the BEGINNING of X-2, then that little scene might have made sense. After all, he popped up back near Besaid, right? Would it have really mattered either way?

In my mind, though, it still makes more sense for me to see Tidus come back to life in the special ending, when Yuna finally finds him after she quests through the main story.

This is probably waaay too much to be thinking about for such a simple question, but these are the thoughts that come to my mind when I think about it. I'll repeat my answer, though--it doesn't really bother me that Tidus wasn't "in game", as you put it, Peridot Fayth. XP