What are some of your favorite PlayStation 1 games? Any odd or unique ones worth playing?
Hi y'all,
I owned a PlaySation as a kid, but I don't remember playing it much. I was much more stuck to my Nintendo 64 playing Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and MegaMan 64.
Well, I got it in my head that I wanted to play MegaMan Legends 2, which only came out on PlaySation as far as I can tell. I've started playing through MegaMan Legends again before I get to the sequel, and I'm having a really good time.
I was hoping I could hear form y'all about some of your favorite games so I could dip my toes deeper into the PS1 library. What are some of your favorites? Anything particularly odd, unique, or with a very specific point of view? I'll try any genre. Some games I've dabbled with or had my eye on to play: Parasite Eve, Vagrant Saga, Xenogears, Koudelka, and most notably perhaps, Metal Gear Solid. I've never played any Metal Gear games, but the story and world building is so interesting from what I know about it that I really want to give it a try. Also, if anyone knows of some cool Japanese only fan-translate games, would really love to hear about those.
tldr: favorite ps1 game? any weirdo shit i should play?
edit 03/31: the love for ps1 is HUGE. thanks to everyone for all of the great responses. will respond in time. been taking time to sample a bunch of these. my experience with tildes's gaming community has been awesome.
I'm surprised no one mentionned Crash Team Racing, which imo hit the perfect balance of fun, arcade and skillful racing gameplay.
The spyro games are also very fun.
I bought the CTR remake on my Switch and thought it was awesome. Have you played it? How do they compare?
As someone whose entire childhood and sibling bonding was PS1 Crash Team Racing, I am SO excited to be able to speak to this!
First, I really enjoyed the reboot and I'm so glad it brought more people into the CTR fold. However, it did have some subtle but critical physics differences that completely fucked up my muscle memory (particularly around jumps).
The most important thing to mention in terms of differences is that Sewer Speedway is INCREDIBLE on PS1 - just like, one of the best levels, an ASMR delight to slide on and take shortcuts for - and is a hollow shell of its former self on the Switch. I had a Godfather-esque "look how they massacred my boy" moment when I first played it haha.
That being said, is that one level worth spending a bunch of extra time/money for? Probably not, but if it's cheap for you to "find" (yarr harr) and try out, I still totally recommend it!
Oh wow. Thank you for sharing this!
I have the fondest memories of CTR from the PSX and Sewer Speedway was one of my favorite levels. It was a joy to play — I could reliably hit the high shortcut, and boosting in the level felt like a dream.
When I played the remaster, however, it felt awful, but I chalked it up to me being bad at the game (my skills and reflexes are not what they used to be, and I’d been away from the game for well over a decade). I had no idea it was that different from the original.
I used to complete the whole game on PSX, then delete my save file and start it fresh again. With the remaster, however, I hardly got through a quarter of the game before putting it down for good.
Hahaha I'm so glad another totally random stranger out there had the same experiences as me! This is what the Internet is all about 😂
I definitely had a moment of questioning whether or I simply had the case of the Olds but thankfully there are many other fanatics like us out there who validated the fact that the level/game itself had changed!
Fantastic video! That was a super detailed rundown and thoroughly explains why I felt so “off” in the remake — especially on Sewer Speedway.
Thanks for the info and connection, totally random internet stranger! 😂❤️
I liked the CTR remake, it's pretty faithful. Spyro remakes were also good.
The only real issue the original has is that it's a PS1 game, requiring 20 year old hardware. (Or, like, an emulator.)
You could also play it with a MiSTer! That's new hardware! :P
I did play the remake, yes! I thought it was faithful to the original and worth the buy.
Legend of Dragoon was a fun one that often, in my experience, got overlooked due to the Final Fantasies.
I always enjoyed the Cool Boarders games, mostly 3. I actually wore that disk out.
If you wanna go weird though, Pepsiman exists, same with Incredible Crisis.
Tomba! and Tomba! 2 are solid games as well, and if you haven't played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on the PS1, you're missing out.
EDIT: Oh man, I forgot about Ehrgeiz. That game is... Interesting on many levels.
Seconding Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and suggesting Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 even more! They are a great series!!!
I put THPS on my PSP and I have to say it honestly feels like it was made for the form factor.
Sitting and waiting somewhere? Two minute run for high score.
I 100%'d the game as every skater over a few months just playing it in two minute bursts.
And did you also discover that Rodney Mullen is the GOAT through those games? I sure did. I still watch his stuff from time to time even though skateboarding in general is not incredibly interesting to me (it's not not interesting, just not interesting enough to keep up with all the time).
Legend of the Dragoon was one of my absolute favorite PS1 games. The battle system is so unique and so much fun. I might have to see if I can find a way to play this again.
I heard rumblings of a Fan Made PC port a few weeks back, let me look into that and see if I can find a link
I found this link that I had read a while back regarding the fan remake
https://www.pcgamer.com/modders-resurrect-forgotten-first-party-playstation-rpg-with-a-pc-port-thats-already-better-than-the-original-and-promise-4k-and-60fps-in-the-next-few-months/
And here's a link to the project's page where you can download it.
Wow, this looks very promising! Thanks!
Tomba definitely looks up my alley! Legend of Dragoon does too, but I just recently watched a retrospective on it, and I'll have to wait until it's a little more fuzzy in my memory so I can enjoy the story beats.
what the fuck? I had no idea there was a Final Fantasy fighting game. Why would they drop the branding and call it "Ehrgeiz" lmao?
Ehrgeiz wasn't specifically a Final Fantasy game, though Cloud Strife was a playable character. It's more that they threw Cloud in to sell it, and then people weren't stoked that it wasn't really a FF game, which is why you've probably never heard of it.
Yeah but the Dungeon Crawler mode was oddly addictive to me in my younger days.
I only ever played the demo from the PlayStation Magazine disc back in the day. From what I recall, the controls were a bit too stiff and the flow of gameplay too stilted for me to get into it. It might have been a pre-release build, and there wasn't much to the demo, so I can't really make a judgement about its quality.
God damn, I miss demo discs. I would probably never in a million years have found Gran Turismo if it hadn't been for the PSM demos. Ditto Tomba. So much would have flown under my radar were it not for them. I'm vaguely surprised no one has revived the concept of demo digests like that. You'd think it would be a natch for indie developers to get some buzz going.
Steam Nextfest kind of acts in a similar capacity. I'm sure distribution costs would outweigh most benefits for a physical demo revival. Maybe a curated email though? A monthly digest of ten or so curated demos that people could download and peruse.
That's what I was thinking. Physical discs just don't make sense anymore for a lot of reasons, not the last of which is the fact that maybe most gaming PCs just don't have optical drives anymore, and console discs rarely consist of anything more than glorified installers.
Curated demos is more in line with what I was thinking. I remember the PSM demos had bespoke UIs, much like contemporary DVD menus. IIRC some had Easter eggs and other features as well. They could be true late-90s multimedia experiences.
Nextfest serves a similar role, I suppose, but that only ever happens once or twice a year, and there's not a helluva lot of vetting or curation from what I can tell. Maybe it's just a little less transparently done nowadays. I don't know.
I don't think it's super weird, but the original Final Fantasy Tactics on PS1 is the absolute best version of that game, my favourite tactics game and my second favourite FF game.
There is a good amount of challenge and variety. I love its version of the job system and Orlandeau is just the best.
If you didn't play it and have any interest in tactics games or FF it is definitely worth playing.
Came here looking for this comment. The PlayStation iteration was definitely the best one, and my favorite of the tactics genre.
Yes and yes!
I played some of the other FF games on NES and SNES and loved them to death. I met a far-away relative-in-law at one point in a long-past life and he said, "Actually, FFT is the best". I was, honestly... Offended, almost? I couldn't imagine that being a correct take.
Of course later I spent hundreds (thousands?) of hours playing it many times, memorizing the battle mechanics guide, loving the story (despite the bad localization the story is incredible, unmatched actually), and min-maxing the fuck out of every single thing in the game.
I was wrong all along, naturally.
Love it. I still consider FF6 the best FF, but Tactics is a close second. I still hope they remake it one day.
I played a fair bit of it on the PSX, but never picked it up after I got soft-locked due to being under-leveled for a compulsory one-on-one fight midway through the game on my first playthrough.
What about the PSX version made it the best?
Haha, yeah that can definitely happen in a couple fights and has happened to me.
FFT and FFTA are basically completely different games. They have similar music and tile based combat, but otherwise are very different.
FFT is a darker, political based story with various people trying to claim the throne. The game has better music, better game play, and a better story. It's not even close in my opinion. Sadly, because FFTA is newer, it tends to be most people's experience with FFT.
I thought you were refering to the PSP version with that comment. I really don’t like the translation of that version and the slowdown weirdly ruins the rest of the experience for me.
I actually like FFTA better. It’s much better balanced and I’m one of the weirdos who actually enjoyed the law gimmick. The more lighthearted story also really felt like a good match for a portable game. I also thought that stripping out the third dimension really made the art pop. It just feels like a more cohesive package to me.
Eww, to each their own I guess. I absolutely loved the dark, political story of FFT. It felt so different and adult from everything else at the time.
Kula World comes to mind. Very unique 3D puzzle like game where you play as a big beach ball
Omg I have a feeling this game would test my patience. I'm terrible at games like Super Monkey Ball that have ball rolling physics lol.
I'll give it a shot though!
It's not so much about ball rolling as local shifting gravity, that is, you can role around all 6 sides of free floating surfaces. This was also the first game that came to mind (probably not a surprise considering how many puzzle games I play). It's pretty long, so lots of value.
Definitely play Metal Gear Solid. The classics like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot are worth checking out. (Crash peaked at 3, Spyro peaked at 1 if you don't want to go for whole trilogies) Silent Hill is still spooky, Armored Core holds up, final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9 are all solid entries in the series, and if you never played Tony Hawk Pro Skater on anything else, it's an icon of the era. For some less commonly known stuff...
Tomba! Is a great 2D platformer with RPG elements. Quirky, charming, controls well.
Incredible Crisis is a very Japanese collection of mini-games that tell the story of a single day for an unlucky family.
Brave Fencer Musashi is my favorite "hidden gem". Published by Square, I think most people who are aware of it just wanted the Final Fantasy 8 demo disk it came with. It's an action adventure, you play as a legendary swordsman (child) summoned to save a kingdom under attack. It's loaded with puns, puzzles, memorable characters, many types of monsters, and it has really satisfying growth as you level up and find powerful equipment. It's a classic medieval fantasy aesthetic with an anime twist, and the reason I've always found the Zelda games to be over-rated. Might be nostalgia, but I think it's really, really good.
I really loved Musashi, but I just can't get into it anymore. Square later made Musashi Samurai Legend and I absolutely hated it. When I tried to get back to Brave Fencer, I just keep thinking to myself "OK, how long until it becomes terrible?"
Samurai Legend is terrible and I prefer to pretend it doesn't exist. It has almost no connection anyway. But I go back and play through Brave Fencer at least once a year. I should consider speed-running...
Ahhh…Incredible Crisis featuring the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra.
If PS1 comes into talk, we can't miss Resident Evil 2 and Gran Turismo 2.
I was absolutely HOOKED on Gran Tursimo as a kid. It's about the only thing I played on the PlaySation I had. I was obsessed with the license system. If I remember right, you had to complete very specific trials such as "go down this straightaway and break on this exact spot in 7 seconds". I probably spent more time on those than I did actually racing.
It's funny, I'm not particularly a big car person. I've hardly played a racing game since GT2, but I LOVED it. Are there any contemporary racers that have a similar game loop?
You should play Gran Turismo 4. I think it is the hardest one of them with the best career mode. And yes, there are licences. Actually there are... 80 of those with I believe over 30 driving mission (anotherhard thing after licences).
I’m way into racing games and I don’t know of anything from the last fifteen years that gets anywhere near that sort of progression. I’d like to be wrong about that.
There's several from the past that fit what I'm looking for like Gran Turismo 2, Choro Q 3, NFS Underground 2 and Racing Lagoon.
Can you make a recommendation for a modern racing game for someone who hasn't played one in a couple decades? Down for rally, f1, sim, whatever!
It’s a little rough, honestly, hence my comment lol. The only recent racing game that comes to mind worth recommending is Night-Runners, and that game is just a demo on Steam right now because it’s still in alpha. Dirt: Rally is fun, too.
Recently I’ve been hearing about some overhaul mods for Gran Turismo 2 and 4, and there’s also similar mods like Carbon Battle Royale for other games. Personally, I’ve been replaying old NFS games and I’m currently on Underground 2.
I actually played Night-Runners a little bit! During a Steam Next Fest I think, or I could've just wandered upon it. Either way, it seems pretty cool, looking forward to the other suggestions. I'll definitely look into some of those overhaul mods. Love a good overhaul mod.
Resident Evil 2 was THE game.
Oh, and Crash Bandicoot!
I worked at a games store when Gran Turismo came out. It was a in a busy pedestrian mall in the middle of the city and we had a huge rear projection screen in the front window playing the "cinema mode" playback of race.. People (most men, and mostly business men, let's face it) would literally walk past, double take, come back and just stare.
They would then come into the store, ask "What game is that?" and we would hand them a Playstation, Gran Turismo, a dual shock controller and a memory card and they would pay at the counter. I am not even kidding. It was like fish in a barrel.
Chrono Cross is one of my all-time favorites. It's got battle system that's actually fairly fun, if a bit simple, and a bespoke anti-leveling system that essentially means you don't need to grind, usually. But more than anything I love it for the breathtakingly beautiful soundtrack, visuals, and the themes of it's story. I can't hear the ending song without crying.
The Bloody Roar games are probably the best fighting games on the Playstation. Ignore all the Tekken fans; the new ones are great but the PS1 games were pretty sad.
There's actually a ton of good RPGs and strategy games if those are your bag. There's a ton of common recommendations, but I'll recommend you one that doesn't get talked about too much called Eternal Eyes. People didn't care too much about it in it's day, but I found it cute and engaging.
If you're a fan of rail shooters in the style of Space Harrier, there are two really good ones; Omega Boost and Vanark.
There is a game that is by all accounts terrible and appears to only appeal to me called Mort The Chicken. You could ignore it, or you could join me on the dark side of gaming. It's slightly better than Bubsy 3D.
Tekken 3 is pretty good! But yeah, Bloody Roar is dope.
3 is pretty good, actually; my opinion is just jaded from the first two.
None of these are as good to me as Virtua Fighter, though. Alas, no PlayStation release.
I watched a retrospective on Chrono Cross, and it is downright GORGEOUS. I love its visuals. This is definitely on my list. I know they're only loosely connected, but I still need to beat Chrono Trigger :(
I need to play Bloody Roar. I actually have some nostalgia for it because a lot of the Gamecube demo kiosks had a Bloody Roar demo back in the day, and I played it a lot! I bet I have several hours in the Bloody Roar 4 demo lol
Yeah, I'd say the good thing about Chrono Cross is you don't need to have completed Chrono Trigger to still enjoy CC but playing Chrono Trigger will definitely enhance that enjoyment and give you a greater understanding of the lore.
The first three Crash Bandicoot games are fantastic platformers. Play the first one all the way through to dip your toes in, but the second and third ones are where the series really shines. Warped is one of the best games I've ever played, and imo, no other core Crash game has come close to matching it.
It's all just tight platforming, secrets that reward dexterity, time trials, and it all stems from mastering really basic platforming mechanics.
Everyone knows about it because it was Sony's mascot when Playstation first released, and It's not particularly groundbreaking or innovative (there's a reason Naughty Dog originally called it "Sonic's Ass") but even then, I don't think it gets the recognition it deserves as a really solid, if not one of the best of its time, platforming game.
Honorable mentioned to Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash as great multiplayer/party games under the same franchise.
I've played a very very little bit of Crash Bandicoot games. They're definitely on my list.
I bought the remake of Crash Team Racing on Switch and thought it was FANTASTIC. I was enjoying the racing every bit as much as Mario Kart. Kart racers are a very cool sub-genre.
OK! PS1 is the best for weird games. Let's begin.
(Some of these have different names across regions)
More normal stuff
Japanese means Japan-only, nothing contains tons of text.
Plenty more if you let me know what sort of thing you like specifically.
This is an awesome list and exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for. Bookmarked. I'm especially interested in Rakugaki Showtime, but it doesn't seem to have an English patch.
I just learned about this game yesterday funny enough. Who would've thought they'd go from this to the premier sim racing game. Def going to give Motor Toon GP a try.
I wish PS1 had online, some of these games would've been a blast.
My pleasure.
No need for a patch for Rakugaki Showtime there's hardly any Japanese. You can use Google Translate app and an FAQ for the move list. It's better multiplayer though.
Regarding MTGP, people could definitely see GT coming after it ...because one of the unlockables signposts it. I'll say no more! Also, what we call MTGP in the West was actually the 2nd MTGP in Japan. And, I wrote the FAQ for it back in the day!
Maybe you can play PS1 online with RetroArch?
Could do similar lists for Wii and DS, also chock full of great weird games.
I love that you wrote the FAQ for it, I've been using old school GameFAQs walkthroughs a lot lately. They have a lot of charm. People put a lot of their personalities into the writing and ASCII art of them.
I don't have a Wii unfortunately, and I'm unsure of how emulation works. I've been looking at the DS though, I'm sure it has a lot of games I've not heard of. I don't want to take too much of your time, but if you have any favs you would recommend, I'd definitely check them out a bit! Love weird RPG's and platformers especially.
Maybe ask a separate question next week? Need to recharge my recommendation batteries. Wii is the greatest platform ever, imho. Get involved!
I spent all night playing Ape Escape at a friend’s house, unlocking all the toys to catch all the apes. It was pretty good and I’m surprised it never made more of a comeback.
I was going to mention Ape Escape! I never got too far into it, but a very unique concept for a game.
When I think of the PS1, Final Fantasy 7, Silent Hill, and Suikoden 2 are the games that immediately come to mind.
Suikoden is probably my favourite game ever! Suikoden 2 is technically better in every way, but the first one wins out on nostalgia for me. Really excited for Eiyuden in April!! And WAS excited for the remake from Konami finally, but they've kind of gone radio silent haven't they...
I love Suikoden, and am enjoying Eiyuden right now! It's on hold while I finish Unicorn Overlord though.
I think Konami will eventually release the HD Remaster of Suikoden 1 & 2 now that they aren't making as much money off gambl-- I mean pachinko.
MediEvil! The PS4 remake is absolutely amazing.
I REMEMBER THIS GAME! I always wanted to play it, but never got the chance as a kid. Def going on the list. It reminds me of a 3D Ghosts n' Goblins.
Parasite Eve and Legend of Legaia (such an underrated game). I'll toss Azure Dreams into the mix, too.
Parasite Eve is great. I'm absolutely looking anything in the same vein. Never heard of Azure Dreams, it looks grid tactics based? or maybe I'm misreading the screenshots. I've never been good at those lol
It's a standard action dungeon crawler. It'd be similar to Dark Cloud (PS2), not just with the dungeon crawling, but also the rebuilding of the city/town. It also had some Pokemon-esque stuff going on, since you had to find eggs and hatch them into familiars that fought for/with you inside the tower. Interestingly, it was a roguelike before roguelikes existed as a standalone genre. That I thought was one of the coolest parts; every time you went into the tower, it was different.
I actually didn't get to play it that much, since I didn't own it. I just rented it from Blockbuster a few times, and I rarely rented the same games over and over. But it was always stuck with me as one of the more unique games of the time.
I have fond memories of games like MGS and Twisted Metal, which were tons of fun but nothing matched the sheer enjoyment I had with Hogs of War. Basically a 3d Worms style game with pigs in a WWII themes world
I'm sure some of the stereotypes don't hold up well at all, but the core of the game itself was solid. I could go for another like it.
Twisted Metal gets my vote. I am assuming it does not age well but I still played the heck out of that game...well into the mid 2000s.
Hogs of War looks pretty fun to me. I actually watched a review for it years ago on one of my favorite YouTuber's channel: So I've Been Playing: HOGS OF WAR Review PS1
Loads of great games already mentioned like Final Fantasy 7-9, FF Tactics, Metal Gear Solid, Die Hard Trilogy, Twisted Metal, Chrono Cross, Spiderman, Medievil, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Parappa, Parasite Eve, Resident Evil etc.
Not sure if Dino Crisis has been mentioned but it's great fun, like Resident Evil but with dinosaurs instead of zombies.
Alundra is a fantastic Zelda-like adventure game, I had great fun playing that back in the day and I'm pretty sure it still holds up pretty well.
Syphon Filter was another game I had a lot of fun with, 3rd person shooter, the taser weapon that set enemies on fire was crazy!
Jackie Chan Stuntmaster was also pretty slick if I remember right, went through a phase of playing that non stop.
I don't remember much about Syphon Filter, but I remember it being awesome
I have the whole collection of PS1 games for some reason.
I really don’t know why. I played one of them and enjoyed it as a rental but I somehow managed to collect all three. I tried to play through the series at one point and couldn’t get past the terribly dated control scheme of the first game.
I'll list my top 3
Einhander
Spyro
Twisted Metal 4
Love Einhander's cover. I'm trash at shmups, but I enjoy them.
There's a whole world of weird and interesting PS1 games. I'll give you one that I personally really enjoy and then a bunch of fan translations. I'm not guaranteeing quality here, just tossing out some things I recently came across that might be interesting.
My personal favorite is Armored Core: Master of Arena. AC has been fundamentally the same thing for its entire existence, you collect up stuff to build a mech and then go fight mechs in it. MoA has the most content of the PS1 titles and gives you the most leeway when you lose. There are versions of these with a mod pre installed to make the analog sticks work, I would highly recommend them.
Fan translated stuff:
JRPG's: Linda3 Again, PoPoLoCrois, Racing Lagoon (yes, a racing RPG, by Square of all folks), Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, Asuncia: Matsue no Jubaku
Tactical RPG's: Escaform, Brigandine Grand Edition (there is a modded version too with some balance changes on top of the translation), Goujin Senki, Front Mission 2
First person: Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, Germs: Nerawareta Machi, Baroque
Adventure/survival horror (these tend to be very bad lol, but not always): R?MJ: The Mystery Hospital, Call of Cthulhu: Prisoner of Ice, Aconcagua, Iblard: Laputa no Kaeru Machi, ...Iru!, Mizzurna Falls, Clock Tower: The First Fear
Hopefully that'll get you going. You can find all of these pretty quickly/easily with patches pre-applied. Too, if you do end up needing to patch stuff, it tends to be pretty simple.
Armored Core 1 was one of the few games I played on PS1 as a kid. I loved it to bits, but I ended up kind of forgetting about it until I was older. When Demon's Souls and Dark Souls started catching on, like many, I learned it was the same developer who did Armored Core. Besides that I liked the atmosphere of the Souls series from videos, them being the same developer steered me towards finally giving Souls games a shot.
Once I fell in love with FromSoftware's contemporary games I started wishing for a new Armored Core, and I'm glad they finally granted that. Armored Core 6 is a ton of fun. I'm looking forward to unlocking multiplayer. Still, I do have a craving for some of the more vintage AC titles.
Racing Lagoon has been on my list for a while. It oozes style. The story seems a bit cheesy, but that only endears me to it. I've actually played Moon: Remix RPG! I bought it on my Switch. I've only played a few hours, but yeah it's absolutely a perfect game for me. I like it a lot.
Thanks for all the recs. We still to share some tastes so I'll be sure to check out what you listed. Much appreciated!
Racing Lagoon is very cheesy. I can't say I ever imagined "90's Squaresoft's Fast and Furious", but that's pretty much what you're in for. The characters are ridiculous, street racing is your entire life, the whole goal is to become the BIGGEST LEGEND. Strikes a decent balance between going over the top and taking itself just a tad too seriously.
That one was a real treat to come across because I just can't imagine Square Enix of today ever producing it. When I played it I couldn't help but think, this kind of thing is what I'd like to see get remade and enhanced. It would crack me up to see it given the FFVII-R treatment, I'd buy it day one.
I've played a lot of the games recommended to me since making this thread, Racing Lagoon being one of them. It is EXACTLY the kind of thing I love. I truthfully have only played the first hour because I had so many games I wanted to sample, but that hour was enough to go on my "Games to Beat in my Lifetime" spreadsheet.
So so much cheese and style. And the music is phenomenal!!
Baroque also has a remake for PS2 and Wii for those who would prefer it. I’m not sure if it’s really better in any way, though.
This is probably showing my northern US side of me, but top couple games I played were:
NHL 99
Sledstorm
Also played a lot of Crash Team Racing
Dude. Sledstorm and Road Rash with my brother and cousins. All night video game party with a bunch of Mountain Dew. Listening to our parents hang out in the kitchen.
Good times.
Sled storm has a great soundtrack as well
Yes so good!
All three of these are really great, though not particularly odd or unique. Sometimes you just need a good dose of normal.
Castlevania symphony of the night is still one of my all time favorites. Someone else mentioned Tomba and I second that!! What a weird cute game. Spyro the dragon definitely.
I haven't seen it mentioned, but Bushido blade is a pretty unique fighting game, especially for the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido_Blade_(video_game)
Bushido Blade remains my favourite fighting game ever, and I don't really like fighting games at all.
The tenseness of the fights as you wait, switch stances, feel out your opponent and then STRIKE STRIKE, game over.
Or, in the case of me and a mate, me taking out his legs and him rolling around the dojo for ages as I vainly try and end him but keep missing.
Me and a friend used to play this! I think we initially rented it because we thought it was just a traditional fighting game with samurai. What we got was something a bit more unusual. I remember being initially a bit disappointed with it. After we gave it some time though, we had a blast. Definitely going on the list, thank you!
Lots of comments in here, and I didn't read them all so if I mention one that's already been mentioned I apologize. I'll mention a few oddballs that I think most people have never played.
Tobal #1 (An odd Dungeon-Fighter)
Brigandine (a tactics RPG similar to Dark Wizard on Sega-CD)
Poy-Poy (my absolute favorite ps1 party game)
Einhander (not very odd, just a good game)
Brave Fencer Musashi (chibi samurai time)
Azure Dreams (fantastic mystery dungeon style game that was a lot of people's first experience with the genre)
Vagrant Story (another unique rpg experience)
Ehrgeiz (mediocre fighting game at best, but Cloud was in it)
Just throwing this in here, because I think it's the best PS1 RPG: Suikoden II
Oh man tobal was bonkers weird. I'd forgotten all about it!
You might literally be the only other person on the planet earth besides myself who has ever heard of Dark Wizard.
Great recs, I've played several of them since making this thread. I can't seem to overcome my patience with the Tobal controls. Do people like it for its dungeon mode or 1v1's? both?
I've never played any Suikoden games, but am aware the creator passsed away recently. Are you anticipating the new game he helped create before passing?
I liked the RPG Saga Frontier as a child.
Word of caution though, you will probably want to follow a guide. The game mechanics and plot events can be pretty tough to try and figure out on your own.
I kinda liked the jank of it though.
It got an enhanced port not too long ago with some of the cut content restored. Might be worth a revisit if you haven’t.
I preferred the sequel. You could call it a weaker entry but I absolutely adore the art and the timeless soundtrack by Masashi Hamauzu. It also has two incredibly unique combat systems.
As a Nintendo loyalist I don't have any personal input, but I stumbled on this wikipedia article a while back that is useful for questions like this: List of video games considered the best
I love Nintendo, too, but there are so many Nintendo-level quality games from other developers on other systems. Don't miss out!
Definitely, that's why I have that list bookmarked. :)
Klonoa, Fighting Force and I guess Ridge Racer(?, the one where you customize your car's paint job).
Afaik Fighting Force wasn't well liked but as a kid I loooved that couch coop.
Edit. Rollcage was pretty rad conceptually too but it got old. Worth a look anyways I suppose.
These are awesome recommendations. Klanoa looks PERFECT. Will def give it a try later today. Ridge Racer looks great too, I've been meaning to get into.
I hope Fighting Force is as corny as the name implies as far as story. Love some 90's video game story cheese.
I hope you love Klonoa! It was one of my favourites
Updated question about Ridge Racer: which PS1 is Ridge Racer is generally considered the definitive Ridge Racer experience?
It depends. Personally I prefer RR Type 4, and check out its bonus disc. Rage Racer is also great.
Ridge Racer 4 is awesome. Has a great OST as well, recommend listening to Move Me. I actually found the game through that song which was sampled by JPEGMAFIA on Bald. Great song
i fucking love JPEGMAFIA. You definitely sold me on playing RR4
I preferred Fighting Force 64, honestly.
I put a lot of hours into Tekken 2 and WipeOut 2097, back in the day.
Was Micro Machines on the PS1, I can't remember..
Tekken 2 seems awesome, but I don't have anyone who would want to play local multiplayer. Is fighting bots/going through the campaign fun enough?
No :( Wikipedia says NES, Amiga, Game Gear, Master System, Mega Drive, MS-DOS, CD-i, SNES, Game Boy
Micro Machines V3 was PS1 (I wrote an FAQ for that, too!)
This was my go-to for playing with friends. Loads of fun. Especially the mode where you share a controller between two people so you can play with 4 people :)
This was the first game I purchased. Together with the console. Good memories. Getting the steering with the air brakes just right, was so satisfying.
I never managed to beat it completely in my teens, but after re-installing my PS1 at a LAN party in my late twenties (I think), I managed to complete the whole thing in a single night. Good times :).
Katamari Damacy is great but for PS2
Oh! Totally mixed that up, thanks
I've been meaning to play Parappa for as long as I can remember. When I was little I adored the visuals, but never bought it because I was intimidated by the rhythm gameplay.
Silhouette is is spot on for a game I'm looking for, will definitely give it a go. The cover art is awesome.
If you end up enjoying Parappa, check out Um Jammer Lammy too.
There’s a guy on YouTube that I like to watch sometimes who has an entire video series covering weird and obscure PS1 games, what makes them interesting or fun or things that don’t work about them, and his recommendations if they’re worth trying or not. There are some games in there which I remember thinking looked interesting, and since your question reminded me of it, I figured his channel might be up your alley: Sean Seanson
That YouTube channel is EXTREMELY up my alley. That you for suggesting it, I've been looking for a youtuber like this. Love his thumbnails.
I just wanted to circle back and tell you how hugely influential this post has been! I've literally binged ALL of his videos sans the music only ones. Got so many great recs and now it's perfect background noise for when I'm wrapping up a night. Thank you for sharing!! Love it
Future Cop
Between the campaign with coop and the multiplayer tower defense type game no game is like it
It's worth mentioning the number of amazing fan-translated PSX games that have been released over the last few years. Unless you were in Japan and spoke the language, these titles were never available for English players despite being really interesting.
Here's a shortlist of some that I've enjoyed (that just all happen to be from the same translation team):
Racing Lagoon - A blend of RPG story and progression with Racing game play, creating an experience that feels ahead of its time and still unmatched today in many respects. It is perhaps most known for its moody 90’s aesthetic and jazzy soundtrack.
Aconcagua - An adventure game set in the aftermath of a plane crash in the Andes. It has a cast of unique characters that you can switch between as you all try to survive the frozen wilds of a frozen mountaintop in what can be described as a playable action movie.
b.l.u.e. Legend of Water - I love water exploration games like Abzu, Ecco, and Subnautica. This game scratched that itch and brought with it some zany PSX story and a unique dolphin AI system.
EDIT: Aw dang, these were already mentioned. Oh well, hopefully the links will make it easier to get access to the patches for those that are interested in new-to-you PSX games.
Thank you for the links!! I played some Racing Lagoon, but only for an hour. That was enough to tell me that I HAD to beat it sometime in my life. It's on my games to beat list now. It just has so many elements that speak to me.
oh, if you want peak weird, you may as well experience the glory of Pepsiman with your own two eyes. Truly a product of its time.
I loved Threads of Fate. It had so much style to it and I liked the monster transformation mechanic. It’s kind of simelar to Brave Fencer Musashi in some ways, but presented with a more serious story.
The PS1 was jammed full of great games. Most of my favorites have been mentioned, but I don't think I've seen anyone mention the following favorites:
My favorite weird/uncommon games would be:
I watched a review on this, and it looks charming as hell. I can easily see why you'd like it.
Someday I'd like to play the early Persona's, but I still need to be 3 Reload. I'm only 15ish hours in :(
If you decide to play Deception, I can only hope that the review didn't spoil the story and any of the endings (they are multiple). Persona 1 and 2 don't play much like the games afterward (none of the social management stuff), and I can't say if they have aged well, but they were stellar for their time.
I think it DID spoil the story BUT I'm often passively listening/watching youtube so I don't remember a thing about the story. Only the general gameplay mechanics, art direction, and the reviewer's positive opinion.
I'm not one to be too bothered by being spoiled. I mean don't get me wrong, I prefer to see things fresh with no spoilers, but it doesn't ruin it for me. I knew just about everything about Breaking Bad before I even started watching it and I still adored it lol.
TOCA Touring Car Championship!
First semi-realistic racing game I ever played. Got me into simracing. So may hours beating my older brother and best friend in the Audi :)
(this topic is making me sad I got rid of the console at some point)
I was really into 3Xtreme, The Unholy War, and Twisted Metal. These games may or may not be good but they're the ones I have the most memories of
Intelligent Qube
If you like DOOM style shooters (the OG), Disruptor is a fantastic game in that same genre.
I'm experienced with DOOM style shooters, but have played the original DOOM and some of the newer games that have come out during the current renaissance. Disruptor looks like one I'd really enjoy.
I really need to beat the OG Doom, Doom 2, and Doom 64
Gonna throw out Bishi Bashi Challenge which was one of my fav arcade games but is much more fun in arcade and you have to play against people
Holy moly, I watched a youtube video and this seems to have a ton of personality!
It is much better multiplayer (it's in my list too)
One of my favorite PS1 games is a game I rarely see anyone mentioned. It's a platformer called Pandemonium!. The gameplay itself is fairly standard 2.5D platforming, but the whole artstyle and vibe of the game is fairly unique. At times it's really dark and almost psychedelic in its visuals. I also remember the platforming being brutally difficult as a kid, but it might not actually be that hard for an adult.
I watched a video about Pandemonium! Pandemonium 2, it looks even more insane than the first game. Def going on the list to try!
Surprised nobody has mentioned Jade Cocoon.
Weird pokemon style game where you can breed the monsters and create hybrids. Very cool game.
I loved the demo for Jade Cocoon when I was a kid. It felt like the future! It was just so incredibly polished and it had fully voiced dialogue. And the gameplay was so fresh and unique.
Years later I finally got a full copy and tried playing it and it turns out that practically everything I loved about it then irritates me today. The beautiful art is not well represented by the limited resolution, the voice acting feels bothersome to my patience, and the gameplay works poorly for my particular flavor of neuroticism.
I don’t mean to stop anyone from trying it out because I know it’s a good game. It’s just not a good match for me.
Like most PS1 games, it's definitely a product of its time!
Other than a handful of racing games and maybe a couple of the animated 3d platformers, I find most PS1 era games to be completely unplayable by today's standards. We just didn't know what we were missing back then so what we had seemed amazing to us.
I think the controls are actually the biggest limiting factor on games from back then. The graphics don't bother me but every game feels like trying to play QWOP
Oh, I have another offbeat recommendation to try out: PO’ed. It’s technically the first full 3D FPS to be released, coming out on the 3DO a short bit before Quake.
I'm going to give you two; one fairly well known but unmentioned, and the other might just be me.
I love Colony Wars. It's a space dogfighter along the lines of TIE Fighter or Wing Commander, except made by Psygnosis. On the surface, it's your typical game within this genre. You've got a weapon to break down shields and a weapon to break down hull, all sorts of missiles, enemy fighters and capital ships, everything you'd expect. It also has a rather big branching storyline. Failing a mission is not game over. You just plug on and try to do better next time. It's not even a simple tree as success or failure in some missions can send you to an entirely different branch. It managed to make a space dogfighter replayable.
The other one I love is BRAHMA Force: The Assault on Beltlogger 9. It is the pinnacle of Genki's PS1 FPS efforts, with Epidemic and Kileak: The DNA Imperative being lesser predecessors. These are all ostensibly first person mecha games, but they play like any fast action FPS. It's fully 3D but it tries to do something other than being a corridor shooter with moderate success. There's some draw-in and enemies respawn almost as soon as you walk away from them. But the action is fun and it's got a little System Shock influence. I don't necessarily recommend going back to Epidemic or Kileak, but BRAHMA Force is worth playing.
Okay one more because I love the PSX. G-Police. It is dramatically hampered by draw-in but it's good helicopter style action in a futuristic setting. Controls take a bit of getting used to.
These all look really fun. Colony Wars looks the best to me, I'll add it to the list :)
I watched a video that went over all Psygnosis games, and there was so many winners in the list.
Jumping Flash was nice and weird. Probably the first first person platform game I can think of, and they nailed it. I generally associate 3D platforming with some frustration, but in this game, the camera automatically faces downwards when you are falling down, so you always have a good idea of where you'll land.
Definitely Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2. Hours and hours on those games on the PSX emulator on the PS Vita.. the graphics are a mess but the gameplay holds up extremely well! They're lovely games to play and impress for the era they're from.
THPS1&2 are amazing. I own the remakes, and they still hold their own. It's a shame we haven't had a quality entry in the series besides the remakes for so long.
Even the remakes I didn't enjoy as much as I did the originals. I suppose it's the fact I played the OGs on the Vita. Too bad I don't have it anymore :(
I never had a vita :( I want one now more than ever though. Seems like a great system to "hack" and use for emulation AND playing it's cool library.
I did not grow up with a PS1 (I am a 2000s kid), but I ended up playing a few classics on the PSP or emulators. I think my personal favorite games are the first 2 Crash Bandicoot games and Silent Hill, I ought to play more of them to be honest.
One recommendation I haven't seen in here yet: Silent Bomber
It's a 3D top-down action game where you attach bombs to things and blow them up. You can either spread out a bunch and detonate them together, or stack them up for larger explosions. I emulated it recently and felt it held up pretty well (though I save-stated my way through many of the less forgiving parts).
My recommendation is somewhat ironic, as I actually originally played the game on the Dreamcast rather than the PlayStation. It was never actually released for the Dreamcast, but after Bleem! released their short-lived emulation line, people were able to take the emulator and apply it to different PSX games, so you could pirate-boot a lot of the PlayStation lineup on the Dreamcast if you were willing to fiddle a bit with burning CDs correctly.
Additionally, my recommendation comes with a caveat: the game is buggy and you can end up in an unwinnable state. That happened to me on my most recent emulated playthrough. I still enjoyed what I played up to that point though.
Watched some Silent Bomber video clips! I'll give it a chance for sure. thank you!
Also, I had never heard of Bleem! so I looked it up. Glad you mentioned it, I didn't know such a thing had existed. I do currently have a Dreamcast, I'm actually pretty curious about giving this a shot.
I have some fond memories of a number of games mentioned: Tony hawk, Soul blade, Spyro, crash team racing.
Another personal favorite was Worms World Party. All the weapons and destructible environments created lots of good multiplayer
I feel like I’m missing some good ones and should dig my ps1 collection out of the closet.
I’m pretty bad at fighting games but one of the others I had a lot of fun with was Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi even if it wasn’t the best fighting game getting to play as Star Wars characters and leia with a double bladed “light saber” was cool
For weird games. One I rented from blockbuster a few times was Flintstones Bedrock Bowling where you ride a hollowed out half bowling bowl down various courses trying to avoid obstacles and knock down pins.
I skipped around a youtube video out of curiosity. Not at all what I expected lol. The voice acting seemed solid though.
If you're asking this because you have a physical PlayStation, there's a chance you also have a pile of CDs/DVDs around, and if you do--you need to play Monster Rancher 2. The game spawns the monsters you will train and battle with by reading discs you put into your console. You haven't lived until you've scoured the house for every disc you could get your hands on, your mom's awful Christmas albums, your grandpa's boring old movies, it was ALL treasure when Monster Rancher 2 came out. Sitting on the floor just going through the giant stack making monster after monster, taking note of all the cool ones. (Getting the main city music burned into your head.)
And when you were finally done, then you could fuse the monsters you generated together for further experimentation in finding the perfect partner!
I was the only kid I knew that watched the English translation of the Monster Rancher anime when I was a kid. I don't remember a ton about it. I remember there was a small duck like monster, a big yellow one-eyed monster, and something involving discs. I remember enjoying it though. I think I ended up playing a GBA Monster Rancher a little little bit.
I'll definitely give Monster Rancher 2 a look :)