• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Which PS1 games are still recommendable?

kenjisalk said:
I really don't get the whole "games don't hold up" thing. I mean, yeah the art direction/graphics don't always age particularly well with some titles but we should be able to appreciate older games keeping in mind the standards of the time.

From a mechanical perspective, a large chunk of PSone games hold up VERY well. Hell, I'd put the PSone library right on up there with SNES in terms of the variety of interesting and innovative titles.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess some genres advanced too much afterwards and I personally don't have the nerves for anything but ,,simple'' games on my NES, but generally I can go back to most games that were good back in the day (even on the original hardware).

I NEED SCISSORS said:
Policenauts (still has a better story than 95% of games today)
Click to expand...

Do you have to play Snatcher first or is this a standalone story?
 
Spieler Eins said:
Going by some wikipedia list, PS classics in EU are really sparse compared to other regions - wth is up with that? :/
I'm a fan of my physical copies anyway, but some games I will probably have no choice about and get them digitally (lol, ~100€ for a copy of SotN...)
Click to expand...

Oh. That kinda sucks. I should have thought of Europe. :(

Anyway, I guess I'll recommend the same stuff:

Silent Bomber
AHDy27m.png


Really fun action game which is a mix of 3D action and Bomberman. You run around a stage fighting enemies while heading toward a goal, most of the enemies are robots, and you can aim and shoot bombs out and detonate them. Fast paced, really fun, gets pretty hard towards the end.


Tail Concerto
LPH7n90.jpg


Anime style game where you control a police dog in a world of floating islands where dog people and cat people live together. The cats are oppressed and turn into criminals. Story gets pretty crazy with ancient technology and stuff.


Einhander
7nKwNiG.png


Squaresoft horizontal shmup with lots of cool weapons and bosses. Not exactly the best shmup ever made, but it used 3D graphics and effects really well, had really nice stages, and it's not too hard for people who get turned off by the genre.


Bushido Blade
bAutRoE.jpg


Squaresoft fighting game using swords. It's unique in the genre for the sense of realism regarding swordplay. You can kill an opponent with a single strike, and the gameplay is built around positioning and defense before striking when there is an opening. It's really great to play with friends, because matches can be over really quick, but yet feel satisfying.
 
Surprised people are recommending Metal Gear Solid 1. It is a great game, but its controls haven't aged well at all. If someone has played any of its sequels, they will probably find MGS1's controls very stiff.

Final Fantasy Tactics is timeless. That game still looks great and plays well 15 years after release.
 
SquallLeonE said:
Surprised people are recommending Metal Gear Solid 1. It is a great game, but its controls haven't aged well at all. If someone has played any of its sequels, they will probably find MGS1's controls very stiff.

Final Fantasy Tactics is timeless. That game still looks great and plays well 15 years after release.
Click to expand...

I totally disagree with this. I feel MGS has aged better than MGS2. The camera and design of MGS are so tight that when playing the game I hardly feel constrained. Whatever the game needs me to do, I can, and it feels like a 2D game anyway, so there isn't any urge to move a camera around or to use first person aiming outside of the Hind-D fight.

MGS2 on the other hand feels like a hybrid between 2D MGS and modern MGS, and without full camera control at times I feel like I'm playing with a few fingers missing on my right hand. When I'm looking around a corner I instinctively try to do things from MGS3 or Peace Walker, and it takes a moment to realize these mechanics don't exist in the game.
 
Which of the Syphon Filter games are worth getting? Been thinking of revisiting the classic games.
 
Oh wow, I always thought Soul Reaver was a PC game. Good to know that I can play it on a PS.
Thanks for the responses so far, gonna go through it in a detailed fashion afterwards. Definitely interested in several games such as Parasite Eve and Tombi now, after only knowing about it from hearsay. I definitely wouldn't mind some RPGs, but there's so many good ones apparently that I can't go trough all of them anytime soon, lol.

duckroll said:
Tail Concerto
LPH7n90.jpg


Anime style game where you control a police dog in a world of floating islands where dog people and cat people live together. The cats are oppressed and turn into criminals. Story gets pretty crazy with ancient technology and stuff.
Click to expand...

Seems kinda hard to find after a quick search. Is the DS sequel any good? That's dirt cheap to get.
 
Spieler Eins said:
Seems kinda hard to find after a quick search. Is the DS sequel any good? That's dirt cheap to get.
Click to expand...

I enjoyed playing Solatorobo, but it definitely isn't the same as Tail Concerto. It's a much easier and dumbed down game, and it's also much, much longer, which means it's filled with filler padding stuff. Tail Concerto is a better game in probably every single way. TC had really nice anime FMVs too.
 
Tomb Raider 1-5
Spyro 1-3
Dino Crisis 1-2
Tombi 1-2
Final FantasyVII,IX
Breath of Fire 3
Front Mission 3

(i'm not mentioning the Resident Evil games since you have played them)
 
Metal Gear Solid
Final Fantasy Tactics(I would recommend the PSP version over ps1 version)
Final Fantasy IV, VI, VIII and IX.
Front Mission 3

I'd need to think about some others before recommending them.
 
Metal Gear Solid
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
FF 6, 7, 8, 9
Vagrant Story
Alundra
Crash Bandicoot Series (and Crash Team Racing)
Worms Armageddon
Star Ocean: Second Story
Vigilante 8 2nd Offence
Micro Machines V3
Klonoa
Parappa the Rapper
Suikoden 2
Rival Schools
Mega Man X4
Valkyrie Profile
Darkstalkers 3
FF Tactics
Grandia
Street Fighter Alpha 3
GTA 2
Chrono Cross
Resident Evil 2
Soul Reaver
Xenogears
Tekken 3

Probably missed tons out, but personally I could go back to any of those today and still have a great time with them.
 
Gran Turismo 2: Covers the most fun era of cars with a soundtrack that will stick in your head. The racing itself works out amazingly well, and manages to be a better game overall than GT5 even with it's age.

Metal Gear Solid: It's great, moody, and makes great use of textures

Vigilante 8: Interstate 76's spiritual cousin as Twisted Metal done better. There's a sequel, but sadly the series was cut short.
 
Einhander
R-Type Delta
One Piece Mansion
Vanark
Mega Man 8
Arc The Lad (series)
Breath of Fire III
Breath of Fire IV
Xenogears
Tales of Destiny
Suikoden
Elemental Gearbolt
Front Mission 3
Ghost in the Shell
Heart of Darkness
Oddworld (series)

and one you absolutely cannot miss out on if you like JRPGS

Grandia (<---- If you only play one from this list... you must play this. This game is better than most modern day JRPGS, combat is great and its full of charming characters/story)

I excluded most Squaresoft stuff only because they have been mentioned many times.

EDIT: Ohhh and hopw could I forget..... SILENT BOMBER
 
Final Fantasy VII, IX, and Tactics -- Don't miss these! True classics, and marvelous, beautiful games.
Spryo trilogy
Tomb Raider I, II, III, and The Last Revelation
Metal Gear Solid
Tomba!
 
Castlevania Symphony of the Night is about all I can recommend today. Better to play new games.
 
If you're into Nintendo games, you'll love Tomba!, the Crash trilogy, and the Spyro trilogy. Obviously, don't miss the first Metal Gear game either. I think the Syphon Filter trilogy holds up really well too.Instead of Parappa the Rapper, try Um Jammer Lammy, the music is better IMHO.
 
Tombi,Abe's Odissey, Broken Sword, Discworld II, Heart of Darkness, fucking Crash team racing, Pandemonium, Overboard,Crash... all these games are still top notch!
 
jvm said:
Castlevania Symphony of the Night is about all I can recommend today. Better to play new games.
Click to expand...

Can't say I like where nowadays' mainstream is going. There was nothing shown that would make me want a PS4 yet and proper Wii U games will probably be mostly delayed until 2014.
So it's time to play some classics.
 
duckroll said:
I enjoyed playing Solatorobo, but it definitely isn't the same as Tail Concerto. It's a much easier and dumbed down game, and it's also much, much longer, which means it's filled with filler padding stuff. Tail Concerto is a better game in probably every single way. TC had really nice anime FMVs too.
Click to expand...

I remember playing the demo and loving it. Never got to play the full game.
 
Gooster said:
In recent memory, I don't think I've played a PS1 game where I've turned it off because something in its design felt "archaic."
Click to expand...

I find these archaic games pretty interesting. It was a transition era from 2D into 3D so it's nice to see how developers were experimenting and learning the new dimension.

There are also lots of 2D masterpieces in the PS1 library so maybe you should try them? Nothing archaic about those games.
 
Man the PS1 is a veritable treasure trove of games. Sure not all of them are AAA. But there's so many that are more than playable:

With help of Gamerankings to refresh my memory:

Tekken 2+3
MGS 1
Final Fantasy 7-9
Resident Evil 1+2
Colony Wars 1-3
Star Trek Invasion
Chrono Cross
Vagrant Story
Crash Team Racing
Crash Bandicoot 1-3
Spyro 1-3
Oddworld 1+2
Parappa + Umjammer
Blood Omen Legacy of Kain
Soul Reaver
Medal of Honor + Underground
Wipeout XL + 3
Syphon Filter 2
Spider Man 1+2
Rtype Delta
R-Types
Lunar 1+2
Grandia
Einhander
Fear Effect 1+2
TENCHU 1+2
Alundra
Point Blank 1-3
Tomba 1+2
Valkyrie Profile
Dino Crisis 1+2
Tobal No 2
Rage Racer + Ridge Racer Type 4
Suikoden 1+2
Rival Schools
G-Police
Roll Away
Roll Cage 1+2
Ace Combat 2+3
Silent Bomber
Dragon Warrior7
MediEvil 1+2
BUSHIDO BLADE 1
Brave Fencer Musashi
Future Cop: L.A.P.D.
Nuclear Strike
Wild Arms
Star Ocean
Parasite Eve 1+2
Dynasty Warriors 1 (very different from the later series)
Nightmare Creatures 1 +2
The Legend of Dragoon
Gex 1-4
Pandemonium 1+2
The Unholy War
MDK
One
MK Trilogy
Heart of Darkness
Turbo Prop Racing
Silhouette Mirage
Thrasher Presents: Skate and Destroy
Army Men: Air Attack 1+2
Micro Machines V3
Apocalypse
Disney's Tarzan
Grand Theft Auto 1+2+London
T'ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger
Motorhead
Shadow Madness
Fighting Force
Auto Destruct
Rayman 1+2
 
This might be a bit off-topic but I'm extremely interested in Love-de-Lic games and would like to know which are most recommended for non-Japanese speakers?

UFO: A day in the life is very intriguing and from gameplay summaries I've read about it it seems the puzzles don't require much reading, should I start with that one?
 
Why people are mentioning Tekken 1-3?
Fighting and racing loose a lot of their appeal once new versions come out.Who would want to play Gran Turismo 1 or Tekken 3 (2 of my most beloved games on PS1) when there have been other more improved versions on the same core mechanic (driving/fighting).
 
If you can find a copy of Devil Dice and maybe a friend to play with, you will experience the most intense, nerve wracking game that I've ever played. It's so much fun even to this day.
 
Oddworld Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus.

Ok, it's my logo, but you can't say these two titles have not stood the test of time. Still solid gameplay, still gorgeous graphics, still kicks farty butts after all those years.

Most PS One games now a days are unplayable.
 
220px-ISSPRO.jpg


International Superstar Soccer Pro

Was doing that thing you do before you play a older game where you try to justify that by todays standards this will suck. Yet it turned out this game did not need any of those preemptive excuses, it still stands up to the best sports games today.

Whereas FIFA and PES today are mostly all bout sim gameplay with slight arcade touches, this is roughly 50% arcade, 50% sim but 100% pure fun.
 
There are too many great PS1 games that stand the test of time to list. I still think the PS1 era was one of the great eras of gaming. There are a ton of classics produced during it.

Since I haven't seen someone else mention it, I will throw out Suikoden 2. It stands as one of the best games in its series, though you might want to play Suikoden 1 first to get the most out of it.
 
It is a big list :)

But

FF7-8-9

Legen of Mana

Valkyrie Profile

Crono Trigger

Legend of Dragoon

Vagrant Story

Parasite Eve

.
are my top
 
Crash 1 is garbage. did all the people in this thread listing it actually play it recently? it's got hilarious difficulty spikes, a poor camera, mediocre level design, terrible boss battles...the only redeeming feature is its place in history. do yourself a huge favor and just skip to the second game, because it's essentially the same thing if it was actually good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Console Gacha Games - Which?
8
403
Danjin44 replied
Can we get remasters of the PS1 Spider-Man games?
2
61
825
VulcanRaven replied
What are the biggest differences between PS1 and PS5 "era of platforms", except graphics?
2
97
172
Bigfroth replied
Which upcoming games are you most looking forward to?
49
895
ShadyAcshuns replied
Recommendations for Brutally Fast Games
2
81
395
MooMilk2929 replied
Top Bottom