Good Playstation Games?

[Azuris]

So, i am searching for good Playstation Games to play on my Mister/Anbernic 351V.
I am underlining good, because i really mean that i am searching for those Games, that aren't outstanding good as Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy IX and are netherless on every must play List on Youtube.
I am searching for Games as Omega Boost and Pacman World, that are good 70% Games, but fly under the Radar because of that.
Would also be great if they are easy to pick up and play, so you could stop for a few Weeks and don't need "two" Hours to learn again how it works.

Ah and no RPGs... Have to many on my List haha :)

Anything in Mind :) ?


 

[Jello]

I'm sure you'll get plenty of responses. I was more of a Nintendo kid, so I didn't pay that much attention to the PS1, but off the top of my head, Syphon Filter, Soul Reaver, MediEvil, Silent Hill, Nuclear Strike, Armored Core, and WWF Warzone come to mind.

 

At least I enjoyed them, and they're a little bit more outside the obvious Final Fantasy 7-9 and Resident Evil 1-3 responses.

 

Edit: Oh, and Medal of Honor and Medal of Honor: Underground were extremely well made FPS games for the PS1. And I've heard good things about MDK, but I never had a chance to play it.

Edited September 8, 2022 by Jello

[Kinsie]

Armored Core
Bushido Blade
Bushido Blade 2
Castlevania Chronicles
Disruptor
Die Hard Trilogy
Einhander
Jackie Chan: Stuntmaster
Quake 2
Rage Racer
Robotron X
R-Type Delta
Small Soldiers
Soulblade
Spider-Man
Wipeout Series

Edited September 8, 2022 by Kinsie

[Devalaous]

This is just my personal favourite list that I either own or have digitally via the Duckstation emulator. I dont think I need to mention Doom or Final Doom here, as PC ports have us covered

 

The TC said 'no RPGs' but im listing mine anyway for other people that may view the thread and think 'I should try that'

 

• Tomb Raider series (all five games, seven if you count the two PC-only expansion packs that were converted to the PS1 by fans)
• Abe's Oddysey and Abe's Exoddus (Iconic legendary games for the platform that have modern remakes, but those remakes change a lot)
• Dino Crisis 1 and 2 (Resident Evil with dinosaurs, a series that never really went past the PS1. We ignore the Xbox game.)
• Shipwreckers/Overboard! (Pirate puzzle game, navigating a ship through water mazes , battling other ships and dodging turrets, collecting loot)
• Roll Away/Kula World (Addictive puzzle game, you'll know it as 'the beachball game on that demo disc' most likely)
• Tomba 1 and 2 (Absolute legends of the PS1 era, and theres nothing else out there like them)
• 40 Winks (Underrated platformer game, very fun and cutesy)
• Alien Trilogy and Alien Resurrection (The first is very Doom like, the second is regarded as the progenitor of modern FPS controls, so its very playable today)
• Medal of Honour and the sequel Underground (They have a modern control setup similar to Alien Resurrection)
• Quake 2 (Technical achievement and different enough to the PC release, but it controls like absolute ass today)
• The Gex trilogy (Underrated platformers from Crystal Dynamics, he used to be thier mascot, till he was abandoned)
• Lifeforce Tenka/Codename Tenka (Relatively unknown cyberpunk FPS from Psygnosis, can we bully Nightdive to revive this?)
• Disruptor (Another PS1 FPS, the first game from Insomniac, who later went on to do Spyro and Ratchet and Clank. Nightdive could do well bringing this back too)
• O.D.T. (Love it or hate it platformer with some amazing worldbuilding, but janky ass controls. Personal favourite 'guilty pleasure' PS1 game)
• Medievil duo (The first game has been remade and reimagined twice, the sequel is still PS1 only)
• Nightmare Creatures (Dark Souls/Bloodborne for PS1 pretty much. Stylish violent action game thats brutally difficult. Never played the sequel)
• Armoured Core trilogy (Three mech sim games that link to each other, fun but a little janky)
• Resident Evil and Silent Hill (These need no explaining)
• Grand Theft Auto trilogy (The 2D games are still stupid fun, although you'll want to get a hack for London that removes the disc check for GTA1)
• Gran Turismo duo (Still great games all these years later, and for me, they feel faster paced than the modern games)
• Destruction Derby 1 and 2 (Stupid cheesy fun)
• Blood Omen (2D vampire exploration game, legendary. Emulators can massively reduce the loading time issues)
• Soul Reaver (3D sequel to Blood Omen, similarly legendary, and likely the first game ever to use asset streaming to hide load times. Few games drip atmosphere like this one does.)
• Alundra 1 and 2 (Relatively unknown Zelda-like games)
• Dragon Valour (A fun action game that tracks one family across many generations, inheriting stat bonuses and so forth across multiple characters)
• Die Hard Trilogy (Three stupid fun games in one package)
• Darkstone (Console port of a Diablo clone, the PS1 version has no multiplayer and no NPC companion but has double the regions to explore and your single character hs a lot more focus. I prefer this version)
• Legend of Legaia (RPG notable for mixing martial arts and visible armour changes, was kind of a hidden gem)

I have others but im out of writing energy

[Sonikkumania]

• Tekken 2 might be my all time favourite fighter game classic. I prefer it over T3.
• Mortal Kombat Trilogy a mash up of the first 3 arcade games.
• Pac-Man World and Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness are fun little platformers. They differ over each other though.
• Crash Bandicoot titles are a necessary mention. Also Spyro the Dragon.
• Doom PSX port is an fun alternative to other versions.
• C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert, though imo they're inferior to PC ones.
• Syphon Filter, 3rd person shooter game, you could give that a shot.
• Resident Evil 1 - 3 and Silent Hill if you're into survival horror. Dino Crisis also belongs to this category.
• Soul Blade / Soul Edge, it's the 1st in the Soul Calibur series and basically Tekken with melee weapons.
• Kula World is a fun puzzle game with neat OST and psychedelic skyboxes.
• Croc is an innocent early 3D platformer. Might not be for everyone.
• Hugo games are arcadish trial & error type games. Again not for everyone.
• Bubsy 3D if you're into masochism.

[Dragonfly]

How about a super unknown PS1 title called Silent Bomber? I honestly think the gameplay still holds up well today, decently challenging, fast paced enough - I fully recommend:

 

[Xyzzу]

Gubble and Skullmonkeys FTW

EDIT: Lego Racers, too c:

Edited September 8, 2022 by Xyzzy01

[mrthejoshmon]

There is a lot of obscure but decent PS1 titles out, I have recently discovered the YouTube channel Sean Seanson that does really engaging comprehensive videos on almost exclusively PS1 titles that would be well worth checking out, either for finding new gems or just on the channel's own merit (It's really good imo).

 

One of my all time favourite PSX games is the original Armored Core, it is seldom talked about but it is a challenging and well crafted experience, not much of a pick up and play though.

 

Worms World Party on the PSX, somehow, is the definitive way to play Worms World Party nowadays (because the """"remaster"""" is broken beyond belief). An easy game to pick and play at any moment.

 

And, controversially, I'd say the PSX "Duke Raider" (Duke Nukem Time to Kill and Land of the Babes, also Danger Girl apparently) are actually quite fun. They've recently become punching bags for over acting YouTube personalities (who's criticism of the controls makes me actively question them? They're fine? Have they been spoiled by analogue?) but I will say they do not deserve the flak. They're quite fun when you spend five seconds to get the controls down.

[heliumlamb]

• the first 3 King's Field games: all 3 incredibly bleak dungeon crawlers, but the third one is probably the weakest. king's field II (just king's field in ntsc-u and pal, regional bad numbering misorder like final fantasy) is my favorite game on the playstation. it's absolutely ugly and janky, incredibly slow but you only get one loading screen. all of them start out more like a survival horror but up feeling more like a walking simulator towards the end.
• PO'd: console exclusive first person shooter made first for the 3DO, then ported to the playstation. you play as a chef or something and throw knives for your first weapon. visually it's one of the strongest examples of that "90's cgi ugly" that's trying its damndest to be as grossout ugly as possible. it's ugly in many other ways, just a strange game.
• Power Shovel: an arcade game produced by taito in cooperation with komatsu. keep ambitious!
• Jumping Flash 1&2: POV - you are a mechanical rabbit and do some jumping. some of the best tank controlled platformers.
• Ghost in The Shell: same developer as jumping flash, a licensed first or third person shooter where you play as one of the spider-like robots, you can climb on the walls. great licensed soundtrack as well.
• Clock Tower (2 in ntsc-j, regional bad number misorder strikes again): Exquisite point and click horror.
• Densha De Go! 2, Kisha De Go!: Arcade trains, very relaxing.
• Echo Night: A first person adventure from the same developers as king's field.
• Motor Toon Grand Prix: a kart racer where braking is necessary
• Runabout 2: Chaotic arcadey driving game, doing errands of sorts i guess.
• Wipeout 2097/XL: better than any f-zero except for ax/gx.
• The Aquanaut's Holiday: you get to explore under the sea!
• Simple 1500 Series Vol. 69: THE Putter Golf: Nice. really! along with, hot shots/everybody's golf, this is my favorite golf game for the playstation. i do not like real life golf, mind you.
• Kileak: The DNA Imperative: feels very similar wolf3d but with robots that feel too small for those hallways.
• Overblood: kind of silly survival horror.
• Running High: Arcade racing, on foot.
  
  bonus:
• Cosmic Race: all i must say about this one is the fact that it was the first playstation game ever published by a third party.

that's what i've been able to dig out of the recesses of my memory,

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

53 minutes ago, mrthejoshmon said:

Worms World Party on the PSX, somehow, is the definitive way to play Worms World Party nowadays (because the """"remaster"""" is broken beyond belief).

So many dumbass decisions made with this great series. I hear Armageddon is patched up nicely now, but after Armageddon on PS4, that 3D "remaster/collection", World Party "Remastered", poorly thought-out experiments with 2D gameplay, mediocre entries that rehash everything, NFT shit, etc. I wish someone new would take over. I even liked the ambitious-but-cumbersome 3D titles on PS2 back in the day. Actually, "cumbersome" is an understatement, the controls and camera were only remotely acceptable if it was your first time playing a video game sober and without car parts in your ass.

[mrthejoshmon]

17 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

So many dumbass decisions made with this great series. I hear Armageddon is patched up nicely now, but after Armageddon on PS4, that 3D "remaster/collection", World Party "Remastered", poorly thought-out experiments with 2D gameplay, mediocre entries that rehash everything, NFT shit, etc. I wish someone new would take over. I even liked the ambitious-but-cumbersome 3D titles on PS2 back in the day. Actually, "cumbersome" is an understatement, the controls and camera were only remotely acceptable if it was your first time playing a video game sober and without car parts in your ass.

Not to go too far off the discussion, but as a Worms fan dating back 20ish years when I first achieved sentience, no series has been as maligned, butchered and floundered as hard as Worms, I adored the OG 2d era games (Except Blast, fuck Blast), I liked the first couple 3D games (that being 3D, 4 and a little bit of Forts) but almost every subsequent entry passed that has been a complete disaster.

 

The wheel need not reinventing, we didn't ask for a battle royale/real time game in the TURN BASED ARTILLERY GAME SERIES.

 

The Armageddon patch was good at least, very nice surprise, Worms World Party Remastered is one of my 2 negative reviews on Steam and to put it in perspective I rarely actually post reviews on Steam.

[vyruss]

Not sure if this violates any rules of your constraints in the OP, but would also recommend Twisted Metal 2. (Yes, there were other games in the series also present but I must say that 2 is the strongest of them all IMO.)

[Solmyr]

Edit: terrible recomendation for what OP seeks as an ideal PSX game.

Edited September 8, 2022 by Solmyr

[Kinsie]

Whole lotta people not reading the "absolutely no RPGs" notice in the OP. Or reading OPs at all, really.

 

2 hours ago, Devalaous said:

• Quake 2 (Technical achievement and different enough to the PC release, but it controls like absolute ass today)

TBH, I'd recommend playing Quake 2 PSX on the Duckstation emulator on the PC, since it has full PlayStation Mouse emulation. Between that, some artful keybinding and the emulator enhancements, you can play it KB+M at 1080p and witness the game's differences from the PC in full comfort.

[PKr]

- Bushido Blade 1/2 - meets your criteria. One hit kill gameplay. Awesome character and weapon set with unique movesets and abilities. A must.

- Apocalypse - super fun. Meets your criteria.

- Spyro 1/2/3 - super easy, relaxing and fun collectathons. Meets your criteria. My favorite is 2. The most advanced of them all is 3. Some swear by 1. All three are great.

- Vigilante 8 - one of the more obscure games of PSX era. At least I never hear anyone talking about this game. Meets your criteria. Super fun gameplay, awesome secrets, fun in multiplayer.

- Fighting Force - meets your criteria. Super fun in coop. Fighting Force 2 doesn't meet your criteria but is a really awesome game nonetheless.

- Need For Speed 4 - meets your criteria. One of the best arcade racing games of the time in my list.

- Ace Combat 3 - somewhat meets your criteria, but I guess you'd need to readjust to controls every time you'll make a break between gaming sessions.

- Jackie Chan: Stuntmaster - meets your criteria. Very fun gameplay.

- Spider Man - somewhat meets your criteria. I guess you'd need to readjust to controls every time you come back to this game. Not sure how things are now with the latest titles, but back in the day Spider Man games were always fun to play.

- Tekken 3 - Somewhat meets your critera, except for controls... You'd need to spend some time to memorize all the moves.

- Gex 3 - somewhat meet your criteria. That said you'd probably get lost if you'll play with long breaks in between sessions. One of the best collectathons of all time, yet it's still somewhat obscure and doesn't appear on "everyone's top list".

Edited September 10, 2022 by PKr

[Herr Dethnout]

I'm surprised nobody talked about Klonoa... Yes, is not a "obscure game" but is a still is a great PS1 game.

Other games I recommend:

Alundra 1: An obscure Zelda clone. Pretty long and Hard game but easy to learn and great story
Vampire Hunter D: DMC before DMC based on the movie Vampire Hunted D: Bloodlust
Soul of the Samurai: Onimusha before Onimusha by the Good ol' Konami
70s Robot Anime: Geppy-X: An fairly simple Shmup that pays homage to the Mecha Genre (It literally has THOUSANDS of FMVs to mimic a TV Anime, including commercials), more specifically Getter Robo and Mazinger Z

[Devalaous]

I entirely forgot about Spyro, largely because the remakes are so accurate that I never felt the need to replay the originals again.

[Rudolph]

I am currently playing Saiyuki: Journey West. It is a tactical role-playing game loosely based on the Chinese novel Journey To The West that notably inspired Dragon Ball, hence the presence of a character named Son Goku. It is nice so far, although not very difficult - which is fine by me.

 

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete are nice Final Fantasy-esque turn-based role-playing games without random encounters, and the team behind them went on to work on spiritual successor Grandia. Mega Man X4 to X6 are nice too; X5 and X6 have their share of problems, although there are fan-made patches out there to alleviate those. Mega Man Legends 1 and 2 are action-adventure classics, even if they have relatively little in common with other Mega Man games.

[Casketkrusher]

Probably the most epic game series ever made

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen and Soul Reaver PS1

 

Devil May Cry PS2

Ratchet & Clank trilogy PS2

Ninja: Shadow Of Darkness PS1

Tombi PS1

Spartan: Total Warrior PS2

Fatal Frame PS2

Jak & Daxter PS2

 

These have some decent remakes:

Spyro The Dragon trilogy PS1

Crash Bandicoot trilogy PS1

Resident Evil 1 and 2 PS1

 

Got a little collection.

 

[Rudolph]

Wait, I see suggestions of Playstation 2 titles. I thought the OP was asking for Playstation 1 game suggestions. :o

[Casketkrusher]

5 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

Wait, I see suggestions of Playstation 2 titles. I thought the OP was asking for Playstation 1 game suggestions. :o

Sorry dude, blasphemy of me to throw in some of my favorite PS2 titles. They basically walk hand in hand. 

[heliumlamb]

11 hours ago, Kinsie said:

Whole lotta people not reading the "absolutely no RPGs" notice in the OP. Or reading OPs at all, really.

dont get it twisted. king's field might have numbers and levels but i might have had to look at them one time each during the 4 games. closer to system shock in its overall structure than anything else on the playstation (progression is mostly determined by exploration and inventory). it's an exploration-heavy real-time game with action sometimes, and only ever alludes to it being inspired by rpgs at the stats screen or when it notifies you of leveling up, which happens very naturally with exploration.. if it were an rpg i would have never been interested enough to play more than 1 of the games. even ultima underworld is closer to a true rpg, compared to king's field.

[Rudolph]

11 hours ago, Kinsie said:

Whole lotta people not reading the "absolutely no RPGs" notice in the OP. Or reading OPs at all, really.

Well, the suggestions might be useful for others.

[Jello]

3 hours ago, Casketkrusher said:

Sorry dude, blasphemy of me to throw in some of my favorite PS2 titles. They basically walk hand in hand. 

Yeah, whenever anyone asks me what the best Mario game for NES is, I tell them to play Super Mario All Stars. 

[Rudolph]

Fear Effect and Fear Effect 2: Double Helix are Resident Evil clones that borrow heavily from Tomb Raider and also Ghost In The Shell, weirdly enough. They have their fans and there is definitely a lot to love about them, but I find them to be atrociously difficult.

[scalliano]

Most of my suggestions have already been posted, but here's a few more:

 

RayStorm (JAPAN VERSION - the Western release got Working Design'd)

Darius Gaiden

G-Darius

Gradius Gaiden

The Raiden Project

Raiden DX

Thunder Force V Perfect System

Space Debris - good budget Star Fox 64 clone

Kurushi/Intelligent Qube

Kurushi Final

Codename: Tenka

Rapid Reload

The Adventures of Lomax

Fantastic Night Dreams: Cotton

Cotton 2

Evil Zone

Kula World

R-Type Delta

Soukyuu Gurentai

Soviet Strike

Nuclear Strike

Colin McRae Rally 2.0

 

[heliumlamb]

i forgot to mention

nanotek warrior: one of the less than 20 arcade "tube shooters" released since tempest in 1981. one of about 5 that aren't from the indie og llamasoft. Matt Furniss (of "hello hacker fucker" fame) on the soundtrack.

[Rudolph]

Huh, browsing through a list of Playstation 1 games, I came across a series called "Arc The Lad", which was localized by the same studio as the first two Lunar games. Is it any good? I have been playing a lot of tactical role-playing games lately, so I might as well check that one out as well.

[Skeletonpatch]

I was gonna list half of my PS2 collection before noticing that this is only for PS1 games...

 

I only have three PS1 games:

1. Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase
2. Spider-Man
3. Space Invaders 1999

I can wholeheartedly recommend Spider-Man ans Space Invaders, those games are great. Scooby Doo isn't very good, though, but it's playable I guess? Spider-Man is excellent, and probably been recommended tons of times already. Space Invaders 1999 is always a great time.

[Artsmen]

Skullmonkeys (Great hard as balls platformer)

Doom (Duh)

Clock Tower: The First Fear (Japan exclusive however, but one of my favorite Horror Point n' Click games out there)

Klaymen Klaymen: The Mystery of Neverhood (a Japan console port of "The Neverhood" for PC. Another great Point n' Click game.)
Earthworm Jim 2 (Same as Skullmonkeys, does require a PAL console iirc though)

Powerslave/Exhumed (If you are willing to power thru the low framerate ofc)