In today’s article I will recount my top ten favorite games for the console that brought me out of my Nintendo days and into the world of grown-up gaming.
List…
In 1996 I asked my parents to get me a Nintendo 64 for Christmas, as I was absolutely in love with Nintendo consoles and my jaw dropped at the demo of Mario 64 I had played at Blockbuster. While at Best Buy asking an employee about the Nintendo 64, he apparently told them that “Playstation” was the future of gaming, and it was the superior system. Christmas morning I unwrapped a misleading shaped gift searching for the familiar Nintendo logo, and found a foreign Playstation logo instead. I held my anger in, as I didn’t want to be ungrateful, but I was crushed. Little did I know that it would introduce me to some incredible games, and even more incredible franchises. Here is my top ten favorite games for the PS1.
One thing to keep in mind while looking at this list, as in my other top ten lists: I didn’t play every game ever made for this system, and some games like Final Fantasy VII, and Castlevania – Symphony of the Night, I never played until well into the PS2 days.
10. Jet Moto 2
Ummm where’s the wheels? I literally said that out loud when i first played it, never playing the first title. I thought it was going to be a cool Excitebike clone…but no, it’s a hover bike that even goes over water. Crazy. The two player split-screen got many sleepless nights of heated competitions and my parents ducking their heads into my basement telling us to keep it down. My favorite memory from this game is when my friend first spotted the “Chef Boyardee” signs on the sides of the tracks. Weird.
9. Crash Bandicoot
Sure this is going to make everyone’s list, but in the same way that any Mario game makes a Nintendo list, Crash really became the Playstation mascot, and for good reason. It was such an interesting way to present a 3D platforming game and not make it a direct rip of off Super Mario Bros. The camera angles would shift around, making you run toward the camera, as well as away. It is a completely solid game, and the next two sequels were just as amazing.
8. Armored Core
What a crazy series to get into. I had never played ANYTHING like this. Playstation was so clever to release free demo discs to promote games a time before the internet. Most people will tell you that is where they found out about most PS1 games, and that is where I found this beauty. Armored Core provided me with a large assortment of guns, missiles, and jet-packs, and really, who doesn’t like giant robots fighting. From time to time I think about going through and playing the newer titles, but this one for sure captured my imagination and kept Playstation my newest love.
7. Dino Crisis
Okay, so now you are saying “Don’t you mean Resident Evil?”. Well, I am a huge fan of the RE franchise, but I do prefer Dino Crisis over the first Resident Evil. There isn’t much difference really, just substitute Dinosaurs for Zombies, but I just really love this game. Dino Crisis 2 is really good as well.
6. Covert Ops: Nuclear Dawn
Yeah, this isn’t going to make most people’s lists. It is set entirely on a moving train, and lets you use weapons AND hand to hand combat. It has puzzles and storage boxes like Dino Crisis, but way less loading times and a faster paced story. A lot of choices you make in the game affect one of the multiple endings you can unlock, causing the replay value to be quite high. This is one of the first Playstation games I can remember seeing an advertisement for on TV, and was really fun playing with friends.
5. Medal of Honor
Goldeneye blew the First Person Shooter genre wide open, but for me Medal of Honor paved the way for Call of Duty’s popularity. The weapons were authentic and had weight. The levels were VERY well designed, and the presentation made you feel like you were watching a World War 2 serial. Not to mention that the missions felt very important. The AI was great, the sound effects…I could go on and on about this game. Medal of Honor 2 was great as well.
4. Twisted Metal 2
Looking at the games in Wal-mart, at a time when I had no real way of seeing what new games were coming out because I never subscribed to gaming magazines, I would just look at the cover art behind the glass in the games section. This one caught my eye. I bought this game just based off the cover art alone. I mean…what the hell are we looking at here? Is that Paris on fire with some buff dude with Bigfoot tires for arms running over a race car underneath a random clown-face? Sold. This turned out to be one of the games I played so many times it actually scratched the disc until it wouldn’t read any more. Destructive environments mixed with a crazy amount of cars and upgrades to mix and match…the only thing I had left to want was me mounting a missile launcher on my Mom’s mini van. She said no.
3. Tomb Raider 2
This was another genre I hadn’t really ever experienced. To be honest, I didn’t really even know what I was supposed to do, because I hadn’t ever played the first game, and it took me quite a while to get out of the first level, which is just a giant pit in the Great Wall of China. The neatest thing about this game was the variety of locations and levels. The puzzles were complicated and plot intriguing, and I loved using the different weapons on the different bad guys. Humans and animals.
2. Syphon Filter
Wow this game is incredible. Playstation had a slew of Third Person Shooters, but this one set the bar really high. It combined spy themes with stealth game-play and an insane plot with a story arc that spans multiple games. Every level was so unique that it made the games pacing perfect. I can’t tell you how blown away I was the first time I set an enemy on fire when I held down my taser button too long. It’s a great way to release frustration.
1. Metal Gear Solid
I can’t even say enough about this game. It is number one because it continues to keep me engrossed all these years later. Hideo Kojima’s vision is second to none and every game he makes is a work of art. I played this one too on a demo disc, then rented it enough times to buy a hundred copies before finally owning it. It is one of the few games I replay once a year, every year. This game showed me how to properly present a game that COMPLETELY draws in the player in all aspects. The story line from this series is incredibly deep and complicated, and this game seems to be the nexus in which all of the series story crosses.
Well there you have it. Leave your own top ten list, or favorite PS1 titles in the comments. I am always interested in any awesome titles I may have missed that I can go back and play!
