PixlBit

Sorry I didn’t participate in BaD this year.  With game reviews to write over at GamerDad.com, plus my regular job, one extra blog here a week is all I have time for.  But as we wrap up the BaD month, I wanted to go out with a bang with this blog.  So I hope you read and enjoy it!  It’s the 20^th Anniversary of the original PlayStation!  Well, technically 2014 was, since it was released in Japan in 1994.  BUT, I’m counting the US release, which was 20 year ago.  So in honor of that, here is a list of my favorite original PlayStation games!  Keep in mind that list this isn’t in any particular order, though.  All right, let’s begin!

Well, before we begin, a little bit of background info.  While the PlayStation had many milestones, which you can read about elsewhere on the Internet, it was a milestone console for me personally as well.  It was the first non-Nintendo console I owned in ten years.  My first gaming consoles were an Apple][+ PC and an Atari 5200.  But after I got the NES, I was a Nintendo only console household up until the N64.  The N64 was great, but it had a serious lack of games at first.  I was reviewing games for The Dallas Morning News at the time, and wanted to review as many games as I could (because I was actually getting paid for it back then).  And the N64 just wasn’t cutting it.  The year that Diddy Kong Racing was Nintendo’s ‘big’ holiday release (don’t get me wrong, it was a great game), that was the same year I got a PSX.  That was a couple of years after the console’s release, though.  When the PSX first came out, I was still happy playing games like Chrono Trigger and Yoshi’s Island on my SNES.  When I bought a PSX, I was in college and really couldn’t afford it, but it was one of the best gaming purchases I ever made.  After I bought one, I was reviewing games left and right for that thing. 

Even though the PlayStation isn’t my favorite game console (that would be the SNES), I would say it’s probably in my top five.  While the PS2 was more refined and had more polished games and could play DVDs, there was just something charming about the original PlayStation’s simplicity.  That’s why it was more memorable to me for some reason.  Also, at this time it seemed that with the new CD-ROM medium, the possibilities were endless and game developers had a whole world to explore waiting for them.  That was the same kind of attitude I had in college (which quickly crashed and burned once I got out in the real world).  But since I got my PSX in college, it was a good pairing.  And finally, back then it seemed like game developers were making games on that console with their heart, not their wallets.  You can tell that in many of the games on my list.  Remember that as you read onward. 

Namco Museum vol. 1 to 5

The five Namco Museums on the PSX are probably my favorite games on that console, as well as one of my top five favorite game series of all time.  Namco Museum vol. 2 was the first game I got for my PlayStation, and I was excited to be able to play Super Pac-Man again.  The opening cutscene just blew me away back then.  Plus, you all know I like classic Namco arcade games anyway.  But what was cool about this game was that you could walk through a virtual 3-D museum, with facts on each game and a special themed room where you played the arcade cabinet.  This was back when the Internet wasn’t so big and you couldn’t get all sorts of info on old arcade games.  And ‘multimedia’ was still a buzz word.  But what was really cool about this was that when I was little, I imagined a theme park where you could play arcade games in themed rooms.  Like a Pac-Man room.  And the Namco Museums were almost exactly what I imagined, so that was really cool.  Of course my park had rides, too, like a Centipede roller coaster.  But because of all those things, that’s why I really like the Namco Museums on PSX.  Arcade collections started getting lots of games during the PS2 era, but I still played a lot in college on the PlayStation.  Aside from the Namco Museums, my brothers and I enjoyed playing the Konami Arcade Classics and Bubble Bobble collections mostly.  But on the Namco Museums, Jeff loved Ordyne.  He would ask to play it and call it “The Flying Game.”  Anyway, I could write whole blogs about the PSX Namco Museums, which I have, but I’ll stop right now.

Ridge Racer Type 4

Ridge Racer is kind of synonymous with the PlayStation for many reasons, but the arcade game was a launch title for the system.  I didn’t get into it then, but my dad sure loved playing it in the arcade.  Back then, Namco’s slogan was “Powered by Namco” but they should’ve called it “PlayStation Powered by Namco” because they helped carry the system and many of the best games on it were from Namco.  Anyway, when Ridge Racer Type 4 came out, I didn’t get it right away because I was still a poor college student.  But I wish I would’ve gotten it so I could’ve gotten the JogCon controller that went with it.  I did find Type 4 really cheap later on after college at a flea market, still new, so that’s when I got into Ridge Racer games.  Type 4 had a good amount of tracks, tons of cars to unlock, and excellent graphics at the time.  I also thought the Ridge Racer race queen Reiko Nagase was cool for some reason, even though she didn’t do anything in the game.  Many people on the Internet say she was modeled after a guy, but that doesn’t surprise me because many animated characters are designed by whoever made them, and even will look in the mirror to base facial expressions off of them.  If anything, I feel sorry for the guy she was designed after because he must’ve been a really feminine looking guy!  Anyway, Ridge Racer Type 4 was really fun and it’s what got me into the series from them on.

Pac-Man World

Pac-Man World isn’t really that great of a platformer, but I have special memories associated with it anyway.  It was the first game I got to follow from start to finish in development as a game reviewer for the newspaper, and I got to know several of the members of the team who made it.  I enjoyed seeing them and their progress every year at E3, and they were really nice, too.  In fact, when Pac-Man World 2 came out, that was about the time that I was let go from the newspaper, and I emailed them and told them not to send me a review copy after all since I wouldn’t be able to review it.  Well they sent me a copy of the game anyway and they all signed the box!  I thought that was really cool, and I’ll never forget that.

Point Blank 1-3

I loved played Point Blank in the arcade.  It was a silly light gun arcade shooting gallery.  I had all three home versions on the PSX and even got two GunCon controllers so I could play it with my brothers.  I’m surprised Namco never made a Point Blank game on the Wii.  Seems like the perfect system for it.  They did release a weird DS Point Blank game where you used the touch screen to shoot, though.

Mr. Driller

I first played Mr. Driller in an arcade and loved it, and sat there for two straight hours playing it the first time I saw it.  It was a simple 2-D action puzzler that could’ve come out ten years before, but Namco had the balls to release it when they did.  When I got the home version, I discovered it had awesome music, too, and the game’s composer, Go Shiina, became my favorite video game music composer after that.  I wish we could’ve gotten Mr. Driller Drill Land in the US when it came out on the GameCube in Japan.

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile

Klonoa is an amazing 2-D platformer.  It impacted me so much I still use the name Klonoa for console nicknames when going online (like on the 360 and Wii U).  Klonoa had memorable characters, settings and music.  The play control was tight and the simple gameplay mechanics were used in so many creative ways.  And for such a cutesy game, it had a surprisingly sad ending.  The original game is hard to find now, but luckily you can play it on PSN (as well as the Namco Museums), and there was a pretty slick Wii remake a few years ago.

Final Fantasy 9

Back when I was in high school and college, I was a huge Square fanboy.  But you really can’t blame me, as that was when they were doing classics on the SNES like FF4, FF6, Secret of Mana, and Chrono Trigger.  All on Nintendo systems.  So it was kind of a shock when they jumped ship and started making games for the PlayStation.  That’s one of the reasons why I got a PSX.  I had just finished enjoyed Final Fantasy 6, which ended up being one of my top five favorite games of all time, so I HAD to play FF7.  Unfortunately, while I did appreciate Square trying to be different with FF7, ultimately after beating it, I decided I didn’t like it very much, and I never even bothered with FF8.  Some of Square’s other 32-bit offerings, like the depressing Xenogears, was the cause for me starting to get out of RPGs at this time (college and life commitments helped, too, so it’s not all their fault).  But then a glimmer of hope came with Final Fantasy 9.  FF9 paid homage to classic FF games on the NES and SNES, and it’s really what FF7 and 8 should’ve been.  It’s almost as if Square was saying, “Hey FF fans, thanks for sticking with us. We’ll be taking the FF franchise to bold and new directions in the future, so here’s one last game for you old school fans who fear change.  Go nuts.”  I wish Square still made games like that.  Sure you might get a FF Dimensions on iPad or Bravely Default on 3DS, but it’s not the same.

Brave Fencer Musashi

Another reason why I kind of got out of Square games in the 32-bit era was because they were all becoming all dark and angsty and depressing (and long and meandering).  But just when I was about to lose all hope, they released Brave Fencer Musashi.  It was an action adventure game like Zelda, but very silly and light hearted.  Later on, they made another action game on the PSX I liked called Threads of Fate, but it wasn’t as good as Brave Fencer Musashi.  They made a sequel on the PS2 called Samurai Legend Musashi, but it wasn’t very good at all. 

Chocobo Racing

The N64 did have better kart racers than the PSX, that’s for sure.  It took a few years before Sony would be able to compete with the likes of Mario Kart 64 and Diddy Kong Racing.  But once they finally released Crash Team Racing, Sony had a good kart racer to compete with Nintendo.  But for me, I really liked Chocobo Racing better.  It probably mostly has to do with the fact that I like Final Fantasy better than Crash Bandicoot.  A lot of reviewers bashed Chocobo Racing, but I didn’t think it was THAT bad.  It had some awesome FF themed race tracks and music, and lots of secrets.  You could even customize your own kart specs and unlock super-secret racers like the guy from 3-D WorldRunner!  I even liked the ending song.  It kind of symbolizes how I kind of got out of the Square loop and said ‘goodbye’ as a fan.  Go to YouTube and search for “Diamonds in my Heart” if you’d like to hear it.

Mega Man 8

Aside from Namco and Square, Capcom had a lot of games on the PlayStation I really enjoyed.  Around the time of Mega Man’s 10^th Anniversary, they made a bunch of Mega Man games that year, and most were really good.  Sure, Mega Man 8 has bad voice acting (which I think makes it more memorable) and there was that ‘jump, jump, slide, slide’ thing, but otherwise I really liked Mega Man 8 and I thought it was a very polished game.  I loved the cartoony graphics and while I liked the idea of future Mega Man games being 8-bit looking, I wish they would’ve made more modern cartoony Mega Man games as well.

Mega Man X4

I never was a big fan of the more ‘serious’ X series, but I will say that the first Mega Man X is exactly what the series needed at the time.  Most of the sequels were more of the same (aren’t they all), but Mega Man X4 felt significantly improved for some reason.  Plus you got to play as Zero.  X5 was at least playable, and was really the end of the series, but Capcom got too greedy and X6 was one of the worst Mega Man games ever made.  It went downhill from there, unfortunately.

Mega Man Legends 1 and 2

Remember when I said at the beginning of my blog that game makers back in this time were making games more with their heart instead of their wallets?  This is the perfect example of what I’m talking about.  The characters in these games were so likable and charming that Capcom still uses them in titles like Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Dead Rising.  I will say these games haven’t aged well.  I think if they would’ve waited until the PS2, the games would’ve benefitted from better controls with dual joysticks, and cel shaded graphics (they seemed to want to make the game look like a cartoon anyway).  I’m REALLY sad that Capcom cancelled Mega Man Legends 3 on the 3DS.  They just aren’t the same company anymore.

The Misadventures of Tron Bonne

Yup, the bad guys in the Mega Man Legends games were so popular, they got their own game!  I love, love, love this game, and it won my Game of the Year when it came out.  It even beat better games like Banjo-Tooie and Majora’s Mask (yes I am insane).  This was a unique mix of action, puzzles, RPG, and simulation.  I’m also really proud that I have this game still, because it’s REALLY rare!  Forget Mega Man Legends 3, I want Capcom to make a sequel to this!

Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo

When I saw this game really cheap, I snatched it up right away.  It’s one of my top favorite puzzle games alongside plain ol’ Tetris and Puzzle Bubble/Bust-A-Move.  Back in the day, I got REALLY good at it, too.  I bet I could’ve beaten all of you at it.  Luckily you can still download this game on many different consoles.  But I won’t challenge you anymore, I haven’t played it in a while and I’m probably out of practice!

Tail Concerto

Atlus used to make games I like, but not anymore.  This was published by Atlus and I loved it.  It’s kind of a cross between Mega Man Legends and Ape Escape.  You’re a police dog named Waffle and ride around in a mech and must catch little naughty kittens around town.  The game has a charming Miyazaki-like storyline with lots of animated cutscenes and voices.  The interesting thing is that more than ten years later, this game finally got a sequel on the DS called Solatorobo.  It was still fun, but not as charming as Tail Concerto.  This is another rare game I’m proud of.

Tomba 1 and 2

These were 2-D platformers that played like Monster World or Metroid games.  You played as a pink-haired cave boy and defeated evil pigs.  The first game used sprites with 3-D backgrounds, but the sequel was all 3-D but was still on a 2-D plane.  Both of these games are pretty rare now, but you can download and play them on PSN.  Just stay away from Tomba 2 on PSN, as it’s the Japanese version.  Goals were pretty unclear to begin with in English!  I still really liked these games, though.

Ape Escape

One thing that N64 had over the PSX was 3-D platformers.  The N64 had stuff like Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel, DK 64, and much more.  Sony’s platformers were not so good most of the time.  I never liked Crash Bandicoot, and the less said about Captain Blasto the better (although he was voiced by Phil Hartman, R.I.P.).  Even Sony’s better platformers, like Spyro and Medievil, were not as good as the ones on N64.  But late in the life of the PlayStation, when they released the Dual Shock controller, they also came out with Ape Escape.  You used gadgets controlled by the dual analog stick to catch monkeys.  The game was very cute and colorful and loads of fun.  They continued making sequels on the PS2 and I enjoyed those as well.  I wish Sony would still make Ape Escape games.  I might have a PS4 by now if they did.  Anyway, Ape Escape was really neat and they made sneaking up on monkeys really fun, and normally I don’t like stealth in games.

G-Darius

And finally, Darius is one of my favorite shooter series.  You shoot robot fish, yup.  The neat thing about this game is that you can capture enemies and they’ll be on your side.  You can use their weapons, make them be a shield, or even power up your super laser with them.  There was another shooter called Einhander from Square that was pretty good, too.  But I liked G-Darius a little more.

Conclusions

And that’s all for now!  In the comments section, let me know what you think of my picks, and tell me your favorite PlayStation games.  Later!  --Cary