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Best PS1 games not available on modern platforms?

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::HUGS::
 
This answer is SO easy for me.

Return Fire was an absolute blast.

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It was a single-player Capture the Flag game where you infiltrated enemy bases with tanks, helicopters and jeeps. You could use any vehicle at any time, slowly chipping away at their defenses before you rushed in with your speedy jeep to nab the flag.

Every vehicle had its own classical theme music. The hellicopter was Ride of the Valkyries. The jeep Flight Of The Bumblebee.

Such an awesome title. It controlled like a dream and just felt great to play.


I'd kill for a modern port on Steam or something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-QO51zqe10


Return Fire was a pretty cool game, but it was not a PS1 exclusive. The game was originally created for the 3DO, but was later released on Windows 9x. There was also a Sega Saturn port in development, but that one was cancelled, but the game was leaked online. But the PlayStation version is probably the easiest one to find a copy of.
 
Ok, too many mentions to ignore... be honest: standout game or just another decent 5th gen JRPG? The reason I ask is the price.

One of my favorite JRPGs. Playing as a child was so fucking hard though. The combat system is nice once you advance more in the game. The OST is also pretty good.
 
Dude, it's not hyperbole. What's the appeal of of playing a crossover fighting game where you effectively don't get the crossover part!? And that's before you throw in loading, missing frames of animation, and all the usual stuff that 2D fighting games on the PS1 suffered from.

If you own a Dreamcast, or a PS3, and still decide to go for the PS1 version of Marvel vs Capcom 1, then you're going for the certifiably worst version of the game that exists on consoles. That, my friend, is not hyperbole :-)

EDIT: The "or a PS3" part of the above sentence may not apply... I can't remember if the game was delisted from PSN.

It did get delisted, sadly... maybe now that MVC4 is confirmed we'll get to see them all again for a while. Doubt it, though...

And yes, like you and I said they are indeed the worst versions available, but it is still hyperbole on your part. It becomes a different game but is still very much a fun experience.
It's still a crossover game, man, it just stops being a team based one.

I wouldn't recommend anyone pick this version up over the others (same goes for XMVSF and MSH), but it's still pretty decent.


Both are on PSN, man...

Alundra
Elemental Gearbolt
Gunners Heaven
In the Hunt

Tobal series if you don't have access to JP PSN

Doesn't everyone in the world have access to JP PSN? Genuine question. Tobal is NOT on JP PSN and Gunners Heaven is, btw.

Elemental Gearbolt looks awesome. Shame about no PAL version. =/

dunno if it's on jap psn, but yes unfortunately never released outside JP. That's a shame.

It is on PSN.

Don't know where you heard that - Lunar 2 is generally considered noticeably better than the 1st game (especially the SCD version which is DRASTICALLY better than Lunar 1 SCD), but like Persona 3/4, some people prefer the first game for the cast. Also, you probably see more people talking about Lunar 1 because there are a million versions of it, whereas Lunar: Eternal Blue is only available on the Sega CD and PS1 (and Saturn if you import). It's like Earthbound vs Mother 3 - Mother 3 is almost universally considered the better game but Earthbound gets talked about a lot more because fewer people have played Mother 3.

For what it's worth, Lunar: EB is one of my favorite games of all time, whereas I think Lunar 1 is just a decent RPG.

Anyway, the main issues with Lunar 1 PSP are the loading music issues (music stops playing whenever the game has to load between maps which is incredibly annoying, especially in towns), dumbed down maps (no world map exploration & the dungeons are drastically smaller & simpler) and unbalanced easy combat (whereas the SCD & PS1 games have much better combat balance).

Duly noted, will keep an eye out. Gonna be a while, though, not released in Europe.

As for the bolded, I played the PSP version after (about 10 years after) the SCD version and I'll be honest, it didn't feel inferior to me at all. The music issues are not "incredibly annoying", they're a slight niggle, relax. Dumbed down maps and easy combat I didn't even realize were an issue and quite frankly they really didn't affect my enjoyment of it at all. I'd say these are issues only the most hardcore of fans is going to realistically care about, let's stop acting like it's an unacceptably broken mess.
Same applies for Lenneth and BoF3.

Thanks for the info. My post seems like a weird one to single out with your comment though. I guess I didn't have the most up to date info on one game out of the ten that I posted? Sorry my dude.

Actually, 4 out of the 8 games you posted are currently on PSN, not just 1 out of 10 (50% as opposed to 10% is a big difference). One of the other 4 was on PSN in the past and 2 more have been remade, with one of them also being on PSN. Street Fighter EX2+ is the only game mentioned in your post whose inclusion is 100% accurate, and since I'm asking for good PS1 games, it's arguable even that one is out of place as the game is playable but hardly worth talking about in any way.


On PSN.

Silent Bomber

On PSN.
 
What about Valkyrie Profile? It's on PSX and PSP, I don't think it's on PSN.

Nope it's not. Both versions should be, though! Been mentioned before, too... and I have Lenneth (sold PSX original because frankly the small improvements it has over Lenneth aren't worth the price difference).
 
Sad that we've gone through 3.5 pages of posts and no one has mentioned Jet Moto. This game is ripe for a remastering.

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Edit: Okay so you can play it on a Vita or PS3...not sure if those are really modern enough. I say no because I don't own either. :-)
 
Sad that we've gone through 3.5 pages of posts and no one has mentioned Jet Moto. This game is ripe for a remastering.

Jet_Moto_Coverart.png


Edit: Okay so you can play it on a Vita or PS3...not sure if those are really modern enough. I say no because I don't own either. :-)

There are still plenty of games coming out for those systems actively, of course they are modern.

Edit - I suspect the reason nobody mentioned it is that it came out around the same time as Wave Race and Hydro Thunder, which eclipse it. =\
 
As for the bolded, I played the PSP version after (about 10 years after) the SCD version and I'll be honest, it didn't feel inferior to me at all. The music issues are not "incredibly annoying", they're a slight niggle, relax. Dumbed down maps and easy combat I didn't even realize were an issue and quite frankly they really didn't affect my enjoyment of it at all. I'd say these are issues only the most hardcore of fans is going to realistically care about, let's stop acting like it's an unacceptably broken mess.

It's not that it's unacceptably broken mess, it's more along the lines of there's no real point to the PSP version. Why play a bad remake of a good 1999 remake of a pretty good 1993 JRPG? I'm not saying that the PS1 game is a must-play (at this point, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but hardcore old-school JRPG fans), but you said yourself that you weren't too impressed with the SCD & PSP versions.

And I'm sorry, but if people can complain that games like Bloodborne are unplayable because of frame pacing issues, I can complain that I can't enjoy the PSP version of Lunar because of long load times & frequent music interruptions. The soundtracks are half the reason I play these games.
 
It did get delisted, sadly... maybe now that MVC4 is confirmed we'll get to see them all again for a while. Doubt it, though...

And yes, like you and I said they are indeed the worst versions available, but it is still hyperbole on your part. It becomes a different game but is still very much a fun experience.
It's still a crossover game, man, it just stops being a team based one.

I wouldn't recommend anyone pick this version up over the others (same goes for XMVSF and MSH), but it's still pretty decent.

You should read your post again. Like, several times. It doesn't make very much sense. I think you just replied to try to tell me I'm being hyperbolic, but failed to tell me why, then proceeding to agree with pretty much everything I said. :-)

You asked for "best games on PS1..." Marvel vs Capcom for PS1 fails on two fronts: It can't be categorized among the best when compared against other PS1 games; and it is flat out the worst when compared with versions on other consoles.

But, let's give it a rest. If someone wants to beat up on Ryu or Mega Man while playing as Captain America or Spider-Man, and the PS1 version shows up at their door magically... By all means, have as much fun as you want with it. My own personal opinion, for what I want for me? I wouldn't touch that version with a 10-foot pole :-)
 
It's not that it's unacceptably broken mess, it's more along the lines of there's no real point to the PSP version. Why play a bad remake of a good 1999 remake of a pretty good 1993 JRPG?

Because one version is readily available at affordable prices while the other only saw regional physical release and demands too high a price these days without actually improving upon the experience in a significant enough way to warrant paying the exorbitant rate it goes for (and pay extra custom charges in EU citizens' case).
I'm certain it's the definitive version, but no amount of improvements can justify it for anyone who is not a super fan when the available version is already so good.

I'm not saying that the PS1 game is a must-play (at this point, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but hardcore old-school JRPG fans), but you said yourself that you weren't too impressed with the SCD & PSP versions.

And I'm sorry, but if people can complain that games like Bloodborne are unplayable because of frame pacing issues, I can complain that I can't enjoy the PSP version of Lunar because of long load times & frequent music interruptions. The soundtracks are half the reason I play these games.

I wasn't too impressed with the story, characters and world, which are what always gets praised (though realistically I very rarely am with JRPGs, despite being a genre I love it's clearly aimed at an audience which is still maturing and tends to result in entertainment driven plots which end up having very little to actually say other than telling a nice story). Mechanically it was a sound game. I'd rate it a solid 7, definitely worth checking out for genre fans! And that's a solid 7 in a scale that actually makes sense... as in everything above a 5 is above average, not that IGN generation "anything below 8 is trash" nonsense.

Don't point towards others' behavior to justify your own, that's fallacious. They're being idiots? Don't be like them, then. Comes across as pedantic and excessively privileged.
If you actually can not enjoy it because of it's slight problems though, I fear you're too far gone for this to resonate...

You should read your post again. Like, several times. It doesn't make very much sense. I think you just replied to try to tell me I'm being hyperbolic, but failed to tell me why, then proceeding to agree with pretty much everything I said. :-)

You asked for "best games on PS1..." Marvel vs Capcom for PS1 fails on two fronts: It can't be categorized among the best when compared against other PS1 games; and it is flat out the worst when compared with versions on other consoles.

But, let's give it a rest. If someone wants to beat up on Ryu or Mega Man while playing as Captain America or Spider-Man, and the PS1 version shows up at their door magically... By all means, have as much fun as you want with it. My own personal opinion, for what I want for me? I wouldn't touch that version with a 10-foot pole :-)

We do agree, the hyperbole part is merely directed at "should be avoided like the plague". They're the worst version you can get but are still a decent purchase if all you have access to is that version. That's all, really, we agree on everything pretty much.
 
Don't point towards others' behavior to justify your own, that's fallacious. They're being idiots? Don't be like them, then. Comes across as pedantic and excessively privileged.
If you actually can not enjoy it because of it's slight problems though, I fear you're too far gone for this to resonate...

My point was that different people value things in different ways & something that is not an issue for someone can be a major problem for another. Saying that disliking an aspect of a game is pedantic & privileged is ridiculous - this isn't work, this is supposed to be entertainment, and if someone isn't enjoying a game, they shouldn't be playing it. Your 7/10 game can be my 4/10 game and that's okay.

The music interrupts is a pet peeve for me, but I might have stomached through it if they hadn't butchered the gameplay as well. That's a host of issues from removing world exploration, redesigned tiny dungeons, increased encounter rate, incredibly easy combat, slower paced combat (longer animations for moves), longer & more frequent load times, new gamebreaking abilities, and so on.

Okay, one last thing and I'm done...

Same applies for Lenneth and BoF3.

Lenneth & BoF3 on the PSP are ports. They're fundamentally the same game as the originals just with minor quirks (like a bug fix here or some slowdown there). You're playing the same game and though the experience may be improved or worsened, you're still fundamentally playing the same game. Lunar PSP is a remake. It's a different game than the SCD, PS1, and GBA games, even though there are also similarities. Also, how ridiculous is it that Lunar 1 has gotten 3 different remakes, 2 of which are generally considered to be worse than preceding games?
 
Doesn't meet your criteria because I am pretty sure its available on JPN PSN...

but Einhaner not being widely available is a CRIME.
 
One of the gems of the Squaresoft era. Overshadowed by the demo it got paired it.



One of the ps1's best rpgs, marred only by slow world map traversal. Really creative battle system that'supported never really been imitated by games after it.

Came here to say this. I need to be able to play Brave Fencer Musashi on my Vita, Square/Sony. Make it happen!
 
TearRing Saga. Imo the best PS1 game overall, as well. And even though it is only good and not amazing, Croc. It had awesome music and greta level design, just suffers from horrible controls.
 
Just in case not everyone has been keeping up with recent developments in PS1 emulation, it's pretty cool to see what PGXP does for these games:







Also:

This is cool but what's with the widescreen resolution? To improve the visuals of the game and then stretch it out to distort the art is perplexing to me.

Also I don't care for OP's dismissive and combative tone in regards to Lunar. Seems to be more than simple dislike of the games.
 
It's not that it's unacceptably broken mess, it's more along the lines of there's no real point to the PSP version. Why play a bad remake of a good 1999 remake of a pretty good 1993 JRPG? I'm not saying that the PS1 game is a must-play (at this point, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but hardcore old-school JRPG fans), but you said yourself that you weren't too impressed with the SCD & PSP versions.

And I'm sorry, but if people can complain that games like Bloodborne are unplayable because of frame pacing issues, I can complain that I can't enjoy the PSP version of Lunar because of long load times & frequent music interruptions. The soundtracks are half the reason I play these games.

Personally, i REALLY found Lunar on PSP quite boring and the whole graphics overall was quite unappealing for me..... And i consider myself being a very huge J RPG fan.

I'm being told that the Mega CD version is better... But what's better in the PSX version ? What version should i choose ?
 
People are going to debate this choice, but Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero. I thought it was fun despite it's flaws.
 
I had no idea Shadow Hearts had a prequel. =O
Few do... I have all 3 SH on my PS2 but I hesitate playing them before the original
Xenogears is on PSN.
No it isn't.
And no, I don't have or want to make a US PSN account. My library is on my Eu one, and if I'm going to be switching accounts and memory cards on my Vita, I might as well pirate the bloody thing and be done with it.

Is Medievil 2 significantly better than 1 in any way? Used to love playing 1 at my neighbor's house as a kid. Bought it when it was on sale on PSN but I'll admit I never actually played beyond the first 30 mins or so as an adult...
M1 had the best atmosphere on PS1 thanks to it's amazing soundtrack and inspired locations. It was a blast to explore all those stages, finding the hidden paths and getting all those new weapons from the Chalices, unlocking background information in the process.
M2 was worse in all the above aspects but the in-game animations. It wasn't horible, but the atmosphere wasn't as strong, you couldn't grind your health back from old stages, the music not as memorable, and for some reason they seem to have switched the bad and good endings, showing you a good ending for just competing the game and a crappy ending for 100%ing it.
Still it is more Medievil and I need it!
 
My point was that different people value things in different ways & something that is not an issue for someone can be a major problem for another. Saying that disliking an aspect of a game is pedantic & privileged is ridiculous - this isn't work, this is supposed to be entertainment, and if someone isn't enjoying a game, they shouldn't be playing it. Your 7/10 game can be my 4/10 game and that's okay.

The music interrupts is a pet peeve for me, but I might have stomached through it if they hadn't butchered the gameplay as well. That's a host of issues from removing world exploration, redesigned tiny dungeons, increased encounter rate, incredibly easy combat, slower paced combat (longer animations for moves), longer & more frequent load times, new gamebreaking abilities, and so on.

Okay, one last thing and I'm done...



Lenneth & BoF3 on the PSP are ports. They're fundamentally the same game as the originals just with minor quirks (like a bug fix here or some slowdown there). You're playing the same game and though the experience may be improved or worsened, you're still fundamentally playing the same game. Lunar PSP is a remake. It's a different game than the SCD, PS1, and GBA games, even though there are also similarities. Also, how ridiculous is it that Lunar 1 has gotten 3 different remakes, 2 of which are generally considered to be worse than preceding games?

I meant same applies for Lenneth and BoF 3 in the sense that people need to stop complaining they're not exactly like the original.

Yeah, why exactly did Lunar get remade so many times? Oo

I'm pretty sure Legend of Mana is on the US PSN.

Ahah! So it is! Good, less clutter in the closet, another one for the sell pile! ^^

No it isn't.
And no, I don't have or want to make a US PSN account. My library is on my Eu one, and if I'm going to be switching accounts and memory cards on my Vita, I might as well pirate the bloody thing and be done with it.

It IS. You don't want to deal with the extra hassle, that's fine... but it is available. ^^
So are tons of other great games unavailable in the EU store (off the top of my head you've also got Chrono Cross, Breath of Fire IV, Castlevania Chronicles, Mega Man X4/X5/8, Persona 2 Eternal Punishment, Harvest Moon Back To Nature, Parasite Eve 1... and that's just PS1 stuff I can think of now, there's still a boatload of games more, not to mention PS2 stuff like Gradius V or Shattered Soldier and also some great TurboGrafx 16 games, PSP games, etc... it's your loss, really).
It's easy and simple to do, even. You can opt out all you want but you're gonna be waiting a loooong time if you want parity between regions, as far as libraries go.

You can play it on PS3 or PSP, if you have one of those. Hell, PS3 is the main platform as far as I'm concerned (and you can play everything through your european account, if it matters). Portable wise, my setup is Vita on EU account (main), PSP on US (secondary) and Jp stuff on PS3 only. I tend to alternate with PS1 classics, playing them on PS3 then transferring the save and playing them on Vita/PSP in bed. Good stuff. ^^

If you're ok with installing homebrew, there's an account switcher for Vita, too.

Regarding MediEvil, cool. Gotta sink my teeth into the first one, then I'll gauge my interest.

Was going to say Mad Stalker but that's on JPSN.

And it's fucking fantastic, too!
 
Polyphony Digital's first game. It still is quite fun and I always liked the weird stretchy polygon effect that was used to try and make the cars look cartoonish. It also has a sequel.

The Motor Toon we got in North America was the sequel, just renamed since we never got the first. Meanwhile, in Europe it was released as 2 despite never getting the previous game either.

Also, apparently the game is on PSN so it's all moot.
 
The Armored Core series is decent. Hasn't particularly aged well, especially as a Mecha, but it's worth a playthrough. Get used to bumper-jumper as the sticks aren't supported.

The first game's on PSN, but the sequels have yet to be added.
 
I can play it perfectly fine on my PS2? It doesn't play right on PS3 though, the count is off.

I had never personally tried it but I'd heard through the grapevine that the timing is off on the PS2 (though not as bad as it is on the PS3) as well. Huh.
 
Do yourself a favor and get a hold of the Gamecube versions of 2/3 and emulate them on Dolphin.

I already have and they look great. Especially Code Veronica :)

I just like having official versions of everything in my Steam library.
 
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