Sony’s inaugural console had a pretty deep library, so it’s no wonder the list of standout titles is so long. It’s also a well-loved console, so the PS1 is well-trodden territory now. What would go on a “best of” list is generally well-solidified for most people.
So, this isn’t a ranked list, and it isn’t a list of the best, but rather games you might have overlooked. I don’t particularly like ranked list, since I don’t think they’re that useful. I say this as someone who’s written a few. There’s no accounting for taste and comparing something like Metal Gear Solid to Twisted Metal 2 isn’t very insightful. Also, I don’t really like Metal Gear Solid, and you probably already know how you feel about it. Me throwing it at a low rank isn’t going to change your mind.
I prefer to just talk about games and make recommendations. So, rather than being insincere, I’m just going to list X games you should play on your PS1 if you haven’t already. Maybe you haven’t heard of them, maybe you have. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but let’s start with these, and then you can get back to me.
Um Jammer Lammy
Parappa the Rapper is a staple of the PS1 library. When I think of its most prominent titles, it sticks out. We eventually got a direct sequel in 2001’s Parappa the Rapper 2 on PS2, but before that, the formula was revisited in Um Jammer Lammy Instead of following the lyric-spewing dog(?), you play as Lammy, the riff-rocking lamb. That is to say, she plays a guitar rather than rap.
It’s quirkier than the original, and while there’s nothing quite as good as Cheep Cheap’s rap, the soundtrack is overall a bit better. Parappa also focused and pretty normal teenager problems like taking a drivers test and having to poop really bad. The only problem here is that the North American version of Um Jammer Lammy changed the part where Lammy is sent to Hell. Rock & Roll is the devil’s music, after all.
Bloody Roar
Or Bloody Roar 2, honestly. I like fighting games, but it’s hard for me to get invested these days without a rival. Also, when I play them online, I get really jittery from nervous adrenaline that it makes me physically uncomfortable and I need to stop. However, I still try them out when I can. Bloody Roar is the first 3D fighting game in a long time to really get its hooks into me.
Bloody Roar sort of follows the Virtua Fighter formula, but has walls around the ring like Fighting Vipers. That’s the only real distinction. Oh, no, wait, the characters can also transform into furries. That is to say, anthropomorphic animals. You have a bar that fills up over time, and whenever you’ve got it full, you can transform in a blastwave of energy and immediately be given a whole new repertoire of dangerous moves. It’s a surprisingly effective twist that adds an unexpected layer of strategy to the fighting.
Rogue Trip Vacation 2012
After a confusing series of contracts and acquisitions, Singletrac, the original creators of Twisted Metal were unceremoniously ripped away from the series following Twisted Metal 2. They went to make a range of games before they were closed down. One of these was a similar vehicular combat game titled Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012.
While the premise still involves cars flinging missiles at each other, it also includes a monetary system that allows you to trade cash earned from shuttling around tourists for upgrades. Was it better than Twisted Metal 2? No. Vigilante 8? Not really. But is it a better option than Twisted Metal 3? Most definitely.
Incredible Crisis
I have a personal grudge against Titus. Most of the games the publisher released are terrible, such as Carmageddon 64 and Superman (also N64, but that’s not actually in the title). I always say, “Ain’t no fun if there’s a fox on the box” when picking up one of those game. But one of the best things they ever did as a publisher was localizing Incredible Crisis.
Incredible Crisis is actually a bakage (stupid/weird game) from Japanese arcades. It follows a family of four as they try to make it home to celebrate their wrathful matriarch’s birthday. Unfortunately, nothing goes as planned as they get involved in explosions, bank robberies, and an alien invasion. Gameplay is actually just a series of mini-games, which may give you whiplash as you try to figure out new styles of play on the fly.
Germs: Nerawareta Machi
I was originally going to keep this list specifically focused on North American releases, but I don’t want to. There’s some bizarre stuff that never made it out of its home country. Take Germs: Nerawareta Machi for example, which plays like the basis of Deadly Premonition. You’re let loose on a desolate but fully explorable city that is having trouble with a strange virus. This virus is possibly being spread by aliens. I don’t know, you’re the reporter, you figure it out.
It’s an ambitious game. There’s a full day/night cycle. To find your way forward you often need to return to your office to take calls from people and check your email for where to go next. You can get there by driving (or walking, if you’re determined) or you can catch a ride on the subway. When you get to certain scenes, you need to pull out a gun and engage in some very Morrowind-esque real-time RPG combat.
But what makes Germs so memorable is its strange atmosphere. The city is pretty empty aside from some key people. There is no color to most of the buildings, just slight splashes every so often. You’re given very little information to work off of a lot of the time, which leaves you free to just exist in this world sometimes. As I mentioned, it never made it out of Japan. However, a preliminary fan translation can help you figure things out.
Mad Panic Coaster
Speaking of bakage, I’m not even sure where to begin with introducing Mad Panic Coaster. Do you remember when 3D clones of Roller Coaster Tycoon started happening? One of the big selling points was often that you could ride on the roller coaster. Okay, now make the entire game that.
That’s sort of Mad Panic Coaster. You ride on a roller coaster, but rather than being strapped into your seat and sent down the rails, you have to do laps around the track while avoiding various hazards and not falling off the track. It’s not as easy as it sounds, especially since your cart moves at Mach 10. It can be difficult to the point of frustration, and it’s by no means a short game.
But what really makes it worth recommending is its outstanding soundtrack and expressive art style. It was created by a development studio not really known for making games, and by people who seemingly weren’t in the industry for long. Yet, despite that, it carries an immense amount of personality. There’s not much like it. It’s just unfortunate that it was never released outside of Japan and, even there, is extremely rare.
Parasite Eve
This one is a bit more high-profile, but I feel like a lot of people still missed it. It’s a Squaresoft title, but while they would normally lean into fantasy, Parasite Eve is more contemporary. It’s still an RPG, but while it uses an active-time system, it allows you to move in real time. It’s also stylish as hell, full of melty people and flesh monsters. The audience at an opera is set on fire, helicopters explode, and a dude jumps from a helicopter and is set on fire. Doesn’t get much better than that.
It goes in a few batshit directions when it comes to narrative, but works as a disaster plot. It absolutely hammers on the word mitochondria. A lot of what it spouts is accurate, but the whole plot hinges on your ability to believe a portion of your cells are able to gain sentience. Absolute batshit. It gets a little Kojima-esque with its exposition at times, and I don’t mean that as a compliment.
Unfortunately, the sequel drops the unique combat system and becomes a lot more like Resident Evil. But that just makes the original Parasite Eve a lot more unique.
Road Rash
I really don’t know why EA chose to just call this one Road Rash, as it’s not a remake of the original, and it came out on the 3DO before Road Rash 3 hit the Genesis. There’s also a sort-of downport on the Sega CD which isn’t the same as either the original or this version. It’s confusing, so a lot of the time, this one is called Road Rash 32-Bit.
Regardless, it’s probably one of the best titles in the series if you don’t find Road Rash 64 side-splittingly hilarious. While the gameplay follows the same formula of motorcycle racing mixed with bashing your rivals with crowbars, it plays a bit smoother on 32-bit consoles and features much more detailed 3D graphics rather than the old raster trick of the original. It feels pretty great and has a lot more personality. It also had some really tacky cutscenes, which is a good taste of how tasteless that era of gaming was.
Army Men Air Attack 2
I talk about the Army Men series often, and whenever I do, someone usually says, “Oh yeah, I liked the helicopter one.” There wasn’t a single helicopter one. If you only count original titles and exclude some markedly different ports, there were three of them: Air Tactics, Air Attack, and most importantly, Air Attack 2. Yes, a lot of (some) people talk about Air Attack and don’t even realize there was a direct sequel.
There was, and it’s fine. The gameplay is the same action-heavy helicopter action lifted from the Strike series (Desert Strike, Jungle Strike, etc.), and it still works. It doesn’t come close to the inventiveness of the first game and, to be honest, there are a lot of cut corners here, probably owing to 3DO’s very tight development deadlines. The series was already speeding downhill fast when Air Attack 2 came out. But, in general, Air Attack 2 still contains a lot of the same shooty winchy action. Plus, there’s co-op if you have someone in your presence. If you liked “the helicopter one” you may consider checking this out.
On second thought, I’m not sure why this is here. I guess because I wanted to include an Army Men game given my history with the series. PS1 was where it was most prolific. There were 10 Army Men games released on the console, and Air Attack was easily the best. Although, I do have a soft spot for the World War games (not Land, Sea, Air).
Moon
Okay, so we didn’t exactly get Moon over here in North America until 2020, but it’s one of the first examples of Love-de-Lic’s formula of helping people for the good feels. It’s technically a parody of the typical RPG, containing no real combat and the simple goal of spreading altruism about. You wander a strange world, talking to strange people, and helping them with their strange problems.
Moon just feels meaningful. While the gameplay is simple, it feels deep and profound. You get insight into the lives of the game’s inhabitants and experience a new perspective on things. It helps that there is a fantastic soundtrack (largely by one of my favorite composers, the legendary Hirofumi Taniguchi) that you actually have to collect and compile in a playlist and an art style that continues to influence developers to this day.
While Love-de-Lic would only release three games (none of which were released in the West) before disbanding, the feel-good formula would be carried on by its star players who broke off into their own studios and made games like Chibi-Robo and Chulip. Unfortunately, for a long while, the genre was doomed to frequently overlook a North American release with later games like Endonesia and Giftpia staying exclusively in Japan.
Medal of Honor Underground
If there’s one area that the N64 trounced the PS1, it is in first-person shooters. While Goldeneye 007 and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter haven’t aged the greatest, what did the Playstation have? Not none, but while I can list off quite a few decent N64 games in the genre, with the PS1 it’s a bit more difficult without adding the caveat “I guess.” Medal of Honor, however, is easy to appreciate since it helped launch the WWII shooter sub-category that dominated the shooter space after.
Medal of Honor: Underground is one you might have missed, however. A big score for me was its female protagonist, Manon Baptiste, but it also added enemy tanks and friendly soldiers to the mix. It isn’t necessarily better than the original, but it is more of the same that you might not have already experienced.
Vagrant Story
Another one of Squaresoft’s often-overlooked PS1 titles, Vagrant Story is a ridiculously deep RPG with a number of intricate systems all mashed together. It’s something that shouldn’t work, almost doesn’t, but somehow does. At the very least, it requires you to develop a great deal of familiarity in its systems to truly make the most of it. You play as Ashley Riot, with the task of investigating a cult in the city of Leá Monde and the ruins beneath it.
Like Parasite Eve, Vagrant Story stands out because of its unique style. It actually won a bunch of awards from various publications, but unfortunately released alongside games like Final Fantasy IX and Chrono Cross. Because of that, Vagrant Story is often left out of many discussions of Squaresoft’s glory days. We’re long overdue for a remaster.
King’s Field
In the wake of Dark Souls’ success, the often-overlooked King’s Field series has been re-examined. That’s because Hidetaka Miyazaki has stated that Demon’s Souls is something of a spiritual successor to that series. Don’t go in expecting too many similarities, however. Both games are distinct from one another, essentially just sharing their dark fantasy leanings. It shares more with early PC dungeon crawlers than it does with later FromSoftware titles.
The localized King’s Field for PS1 is technically the Japanese King’s Field 2. It’s a shame we never got the first one, but the second title presents the same dungeon-crawling goodness. Beyond just being a nicely stiff and enjoyable action adventure, it also feels distinctly PS1 in its level geometry and texture work. It’s a look that defined the console.
Tecmo’s Deception
Speaking of looking distinctly PS1, Tecmo’s Deception was the progenitor to the long-running series (last seen in 2014 with Deception IV). Despite that, this plays almost nothing like later games. Oh, sure, the gameplay based around setting traps for your enemies is still there, but it’s very rudimentary compared to what would come back. While later games would have you set up Rube Goldberg-style combinations of traps, that wasn’t even possible in this game. Instead, traps work more like RPG spells; you lead an enemy into them, then trigger it at the right moment.
However, it had charm that later games lacked. You could customize your evil mansion in a lot of ways. This was largely a useless feature, but there’s something satisfying about creating the backdrop to your murders. It also has a pretty unusual plot where you more or less play as the villain in the story. It’s packed full of bad design choices to the fact to the point where I’d have a tough time describing it as a quantifiably good game, but, at the very least, it is one worth seeing.
Ghost in the Shell
I’ve never actually watched the Ghost in the Shell movie, which is maybe okay since this game is based more on the manga. But, like, I’m not familiar enough to know what the difference is. Anyway, you play as a member of Public Security Section 9, and the action takes place with you firmly planted inside of a spider-like tank. It’s maybe not what you’d really expect from the license. Yet, despite that, it’s actually a really great tie-in.
It has extremely interesting combat with your tank being able to climb on walls. However, it’s most fondly remembered for it’s era-defyingly terrific controls and strikingly well-executed art style. It has its flaws and can be a bit frustrating, but it’s so strong that it counts the most that it’s practically timeless. It’s apparently even better if you’re already a fan of Ghost in the Shell, but I wouldn’t know anything about that.
Brave Fencer Musashi
Not my favorite game on this list, but I do think it’s an extremely memorable one. Brave Fencer Musashi is an often-overlooked game from Square that falls outside the JRPG format that the company was renowned for at the time. It’s a strange game where you play as a diminutive samurai who is sucked into another world to fix its problems. And he’s not happy about it.
While the gameplay maybe didn’t click with me entirely, it’s hard to forget its attitude. Musashi was roped into this adventure against his will, and he’s not shy about telling people that. His catchphrase is practically “Not my problem, pal.” In a way, it feels like a parody of the usual action-adventure game where the protagonist will allow themselves to get wrapped into petty sidequests that don’t really concern them. With a day/night cycle and plenty of exploration to do, Brave Fencer Musashi is incredibly memorable, if nothing else.
Tail Concerto
The progenitor to the “Little Tail Bronx” series by Cyberconnect, Tail Concerto technically shares the same floating universe as Solatorobo: Hunter the Red and Fuga: Melodies of Steel. Each game is a little labor of love which makes it all the more confusing that you can only really download Fuga these days. The second-hand market has Tail Concerto, in particular, pegged at a ridiculous price.
Is it worth it? I’d probably argue that no game is worth as much as a North American copy of Tail Concerto, but it’s still one you should check out if you can. The story involves, erm, the oppression of cats. Dogs and cats are living together on islands that float in the sky, but the dogs are the majority and use that position to oppress the cats. It’s a bit like the leadup to World War 2, which is a bit distressing. You play as a dog, just to make sure you feel more uncomfortable.
Despite that allegory, Tail Concerto has bright, charming graphics, a simple but unique narrative, and inventive gameplay that harkens back to a simpler time. It’s easy to forget that it’s about an underclass trying to get out from beneath the boots of their oppressors. Or rather, you might not notice at all. It’s just unfortunate that it’s so short.
Street Fighter Alpha 3
This might seem like a strange inclusion because Street Fighter Alpha 3 is an arcade game, and that version is available in at least three collections on digital storefronts right now. But the reason it’s here is because there are a lot of added features that make it more at home on consoles. Specifically, I’m talking about World Tour mode.
World Tour mode has you traveling the world with your chosen character and gradually making them more powerful along the way. Not only that, you unlock characters as you progress, with more fighters on the roster in this version than there was in arcade. The added bit of progression makes the game more fun to play when you’re on your own without a rival to take on. Or you could just grab one of the online-enabled ports available today and play against others all over the world if you prefer, but there’s still value in World Tour if you think you’ve seen it all.
Colony Wars
The space combat genre (or 6DOF, there’s no name for this genre I’m happy with) has been stagnant for quite some time now, but it really shone during the early 3D era because of the fact that it was easy to render large environments when most of it is an empty vacuum. During that time, we got some cherished games like Star Wars: X-Wing and Wing Commander, but some excellent titles were lost in the cracks, such as Colony Wars.
Colony Wars isn’t too far removed from other games in the genre, but it impressively features a branching storyline and multiple endings. For the time, the graphics were impressive to see on PS1. Its depictions of large space battles was more spectacular than most at the time, helped by a rather striking lighting system.
Colony Wars was very well received at the time of its release, garnering awards from publications at the time. It spawned two sequels on the console. So, it’s kind of weird that it fell into obscurity. After the PS1 trilogy, it tumbled off the face of the planet, which is kind of ironic, since it takes place in space.
I.Q.: Intelligent Qube
If I had to choose a favorite on this list of outside-the-norm games, it would be this one, I.Q.: Intelligent Qube. If you were alive and gaming during the PS1’s lifespan, there’s a decent chance that you played it on a demo disc, but did you ever actually own it? I’m not sure if I had seen one in person until far later in life. It was hard to get attention in those days unless something was exploding, gushing blood, or getting wrecked.
I.Q. is just such a game. It’s almost like a puzzle game; that’s probably the closest genre you can relate it to. You play as a simple dude on top of a very cube-centric playing field while cubes roll toward you, threatening to chase you over the edge or crush you. Or both. Your job is to set bombs on the ground and wait for the right moment to detonate them to remove some of the enemy cubes. Some of them cause bigger explosions, others you need to avoid taking out at all. It’s hard to describe, really, but it takes a lot of concentration and can be almost zen to play.
What adds to the experience is a soundtrack that sounds like an orchestra scoring a bar fight and a reverb-soaked announcer who will give you a verbal pat on the back every time you flawlessly clear a set of cubes with a satisfying “Perrrrrrfect!” There’s a sequel, but unfortunately, the announcer isn’t as amazing, so that’s a shame.
Published: Oct 29, 2024 08:39 am