PlayStation Classic: Full List and Trailer

[Apex88]

But that's kind of what I'm saying here... it's not a core gamer's choice lineup, but more of a slice of mainstream hits. These are the games that we don't often think about in our top 50 lists, but carry cultural nostalgia in the greater populace.

All the people scoffing at Cool Boarders 2 and Destruction Derby... those are going to be the titles that turn the heads of lapsed gamer dads in their late 30s.

Click to shrink...

Destruction Derby is the single biggest must buy title for me. So many people listing obscure titles are missing the point of who this device is appealing to. It's a 'toy' for nostalgic gamers. Those expecting more really should hope someone cracks this open so we have the definitive device to play PSONE titles.

For me it's little more than something to stick on my shelf......or keep boxed up.

 

[BocoDragon]

No Net Yaroze games? Yikes. Hard pass.

Click to shrink...

Xi is on the Japanese list. I believe that started as a Yaroze game.

 

[Pancakes R Us]

Where's Crash Team Racing, yo??

 

[hersheyfan]

The Western game list is kind of iffy. I was so ready to just write this off... but the Japanese game list is significantly better! Hngggg.... frickin Parasite Eve and GDarius!

Also, I'm preeeetty sure I dont wanna play Saga Frontier 1 in 2018. I hated it back in the day, I'm sure time hasn't been kind.

 

[El Bombastico]

This list makes me wonder what a PS2 Classic would have. No Silent Hills obviously.

Click to shrink...

No Jak games either, probably.

 

[Suzushiiro]

The thing that made the NES and SNES classic work from a business/profit perspective was that most of the games people wanted on them were ones that Nintendo had the rights to, so they just needed a handful of third-parties to make it feel complete. The PS1, on the other hand, was largely carried by third parties so they'd have to fork out more money to other people per unit sold than Nintendo does if they wanted a truly satisfying game lineup.

 

[LinkSlayer64]

This list just sucks to me, while I'm pleasantly surprised with the inclusion of Intelligent Qube and Mr. Driller, why not include such incredibly hard to get classics like Tomba? What about Medievil (I don't care there's a remake, there's people arguing it's a nostalgia buy so the remake shouldn't matter.) What about Legend of Dragoon?

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

I'd go in for a JRPG Playstation Mini with games like Suikoden 1 + 2, Vagrant Story, FF Tactics, Legend of Dragoon, etc. Not terribly interested in the line up offered here. Many of these games did not age well.

 

[El Bombastico]

The thing that made the NES and SNES classic work from a business/profit perspective was that most of the games people wanted on them were ones that Nintendo had the rights to, so they just needed a handful of third-parties to make it feel complete. The PS1, on the other hand, was largely carried by third parties so they'd have to fork out more money to other people per unit sold than Nintendo does if they wanted a truly satisfying game lineup.

Click to shrink...

The worst part is I'm sure people would be willing to pay more just to get those games on the console.

 

[entremet]

It is, because it should be there as part of a core PS1 collection.... Except for the real car licenses making it insane to include.

Click to shrink...

Nah.

GT was always a showcase of the tech. The PS1 is not cutting edge anymore obviously. Tim Rogers mentioned this on his Twitter account and he's right.

If you wanna play GT, you get the latest one.

 

[Deleted member 47318]

Wouldn't it have been possible for Wipeout to become releaseable simply by replacing tracks with ones from the recent Omega Collection?

 

[Deleted member 2340]

Not a good list in my opinion. Some of those choices are... weird. I don't see any worth in getting this. Cancelled my pre order earlier today.

 

[Elios83]

Lineup is not bad except for a few big omissions like Tomb Raider and Gran Turismo.
But the problem is that 20 games are simply not enough to capture the quality and variety of the PSX lineup. It needed 50 games.
Truth is that this product has no ambition. It seems like it was made with the mandate to simply copy Nintendo to make some easy cash.
This Playstation Classic initiative deserved much more, first of all an hardware capable of running a HD emulator and then the possibility to expand the memory with a microSD to buy and download the classics already available for PS3/PSP/Vita on the store. In this way it would have been a cool product.
As it is I'm definetly not buying it.

 

[Deleted member 3017]

But that's kind of what I'm saying here... it's not a core gamer's choice lineup, but more of a slice of mainstream hits. These are the games that we don't often think about in our top 50 lists, but carry cultural nostalgia in the greater populace.

All the people scoffing at Cool Boarders 2 and Destruction Derby... those are going to be the titles that turn the heads of lapsed gamer dads in their late 30s.

Click to shrink...

yeah, I actually don't think those two games are entirely out of place on this thing. Destruction Derby in particular is very much a game I think of when pondering the early days of the PS1. I think the omission of bigger games makes these stand out more as head-scratchers, but paired with stuff like Tomb Raider and Crash Bandicoot, they'd be totally fine.

At the same time, games like Clu-Clu Land and Urban Champion wouldn't have been entirely out of place on the NES Classic, but sometimes it's best to leave some of these titles in the past lol... I'm not sure many people are excited to play Destruction Derby again.

 

[Qwark]

For me the joy of the PS1 is that it is the console that attracted so many weird, janky, and off-kilter games often made by folks with little-to-no experience in game design before that point. I'm a huge sucker for unpolished experiences.

Click to shrink...

I mean, that's fine, I like some jank myself. But expecting those here is pretty ridiculous, and if that seals the deal for you, it makes me think you weren't intending to but it anyway.

Wouldn't it have been possible for Wipeout to become releaseable simply by replacing tracks with ones from the recent Omega Collection?

Click to shrink...

Lol that's not simple. They're not going to put that much effort in.

 

[jay]

Lol is this a serious post? Or are you talking about the Japanese version? Even then, woof.

Click to shrink...

I was holding out for Comsic Race myself, though I'd have thought about it for Discworld Noir.

 

[uncelestial]

The trades I'd make to be more like "this is the more canonical Playstation experience:"

Battle Area Toshinden -> Symphony of the Night
Persona -> Crash Bandicoot 2
Cool Boarders 2 -> Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Mr. Driller -> Mega Man X4
Puzzle FIghter II Turbo -> Puzzle Bobble 4
Syphon Filter -> Silent Hill

Oh well, hopefully we can hack the damn thing.

 

[Carnby]

I'm very disappointed. I have already cancelled my pre-order.

 

[chiraledge]

Kinda weird but having more unknown games on this makes me excited to try it. Interested in trying Persona as well, I've only played through 3-5.

 

[Terandle]

What if they introduced a store you could buy new PS1 games from. What if they put that same store on the PS4 so you didn't need to buy a redundant piece of hardware! *Mind Blown*

 

[Commodore64]

silent hill, bushido blade, gran turismo , parappa.

 

[Chittagong]

That's a pretty fantastic list. More third party games than I expected. And some unexpected, inspired additions:

- Persona
- Intelligent Qube
- Mr Driller
- Super Puzzle Fighter
- Wild Arms

I guess licensing issues held back Wipeout, Parappa and GT, but man how is Medievil not there? And damn at Japan getting Gradius, Darius and SaGa, that's great.

What in the world is Rainbow Six doing there tho...?

 

[RockyBalboa_]

Glad I pre-ordered when they were first available.

Going to enjoy it when I finally get my hands on it.

 

[Deleted member 6215]

Glad I resisted the urge to order one of these, the list of included games is a very large disappointment.

 

[poptire]

I went back and tried to play the original Twisted Metal over the summer. It's absolutely horrible. TM2 is better in every way. Why not put THAT on here?

 

[ScreamingMadden]

This list makes me wonder what a PS2 Classic would have. No Silent Hills obviously.

Click to shrink...

Only the greatest Hits in a collection of 10:

• Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Round 2
• Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness
• Cool Boarders 2001
• Resident Evil Outbreak
• Dr. Muto
• Jak X: Combat Racing
• Secret Agent Clank
• The Bouncer
• Disaster Report
• Fighter Maker 2

 

[Peradam]

Ah well.

 

[Plinko]

I'm really disappointed in that list--so much so that I canceled my preorder. That's not a Playstation "Classic."

 

[werezompire]

I'm kind of glad that the NA version doesn't have any great exclusives so I'm not tempted to buy it. If you have a PSP/Vita/PS3, you can make a far better personalized PS1 Classic for yourself by just buying PS1 games off the PSN for $6-$10 a piece (which will get you 10-16 games, all winners)! Your personal PS1 can easily include RE2, SotN, Tomb Raider, better RPGs, etc. And if it's on the PSP or Vita, it's even portable!

Some of these games listed are entirely for nostalgic value which is as it should be with these kinds of devices. Like Battle Arena Toshinden is a terrible game, but not including it would have felt wrong since it was a major system seller at launch.

Persona 1 is almost definitely included because of the Japanese market (where not only was it the start of a fairly popular series, but it also sold well itself) & once they got the rights, they figured they could use it to fill a slot on the NA version as well. Persona 1 is not a very good game, but if you do want to play it, I strongly recommend the PSP version over the PS1 - you get QoL improvements, the music is much better, and the localization isn't terrible (PS1 version is horribly Americanized & they removed a large part of the game).

And I've never understood why people love Parasite Eve 1 so much. Yes, it had a cool & unusual setting & premise for the time & like pretty much all Squaresoft games, the soundtrack is quality, but the combat is like a worse version of Vagrant Story, the writing is poor, and the fancy graphics & cutscenes haven't aged very well. I thought the sequel (which was a RE2 clone with added RPG stat system & high replay value) was much better, but that's the one that everyone dislikes (at least until the almost universally despised 3rd game).

 

[Celine]

It's always easier with Nintendo consoles cos all you need is the 8-10 key Nintendo first party hits (Super Mario , Zelda, Metroid, Mario Kart...), and almost everyone will agree with the list.

On PS1 though (and same goes for PS2), some bought for Gran Turismo, Crash, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Spyro, Tomb Raider, sports games, puzzle games, sim games, Lego games, party games, fighting games, horror games... and they weren't all the same games in each genre, there were options with all those genres. You could speak to 10 different people and get no duplication in their top 10 PS1 games.

Click to shrink...

It's true that on Nintendo console Nintendo's software tend to sell a huge percentage of the overall platform software sales (usually >30%) so it's easier for Nintendo to get a best of/most iconic selection for their consoles however I'd say that licensing issues aside even for PS1 it's possible to compile a list of most popular games (based on sales and critical reception afterwards).
For example I have no doubt that a selection based on picking up one game from each of the following series would have covered well the most iconic games on PS1 (for western markets):

Ridge Racer (original or Type 4?)
Final Fantasy (VII?)
Resident Evil (1 or 2?)
Tomb Raider (1 or 2?)
Tekken (3?)
Metal Gear Solid
Castlevania Symphony of the Night (not a huge seller at the time of release but critically acclaimed afterward)
Driver
Tony Hawk
Medal of Honor
Rayman
Crash Team Racing
Crash Bandicoot (1 or 2 or 3?)
Spyro (1 or 2 or 3?)
Gran Turismo (1?)
Jet Moto (1 or 2?) <- Despite selling really well I would probably exclude it because there are already too many racers
Cool Boarders (3 or 2?)
Syphon Filter (1 or 2?)
Twisted Metal (2?)
Intelligent Cube / Devil Dice / MediEvil / Wild Arms / Jumping Flash / Wipeout (that is another first party game chosen depending on what you want to give precedence)

Would people still bitch about the game picked up for a popular franchise instead of a sequel or prequel? Sure.
Would people still bitch about the exclusion of a more niche game? Absolutely but that's not something exclusive to PS1 either (even on N64 you would find people wishing for more niche games)
However this list contains all the most significative heavy hitters for PS1.
Of course the variety and genre representation is important and should be taken in consideration.

GTA was a small hit among my friends group as well, but Driver was undoubtedly king in this department and undisputably the bigger hit at the time.

As a title for which more people would have nostalgia I'd choose the first Driver, but the sequel might be a better contemporary analogue of GTA as we currently know it.

Click to shrink...

That's correct Driver is among Top 10 best selling PS1 games in US.
It sold several times more than GTA.

 

[VaporSnake]

They just about nailed it, Symphony of the Night + RE2 would have made this an easy purchase for me.

 

[Taker34]

I expected a worse list, though the lack of Silent Hill, Tomb Raider, Crash and shockingly MediEvil is a bummer. Until this thing is hacked, the revealed games should keep people busy.

The other issue is that everyone has their own set of nostalgic games. For me it'd need to include Digimon World for example.

 

[SkyMasterson]

That's a pretty fantastic list. More third party games than I expected. And some unexpected, inspired additions:

- Persona
- Intelligent Qube
- Mr Driller
- Super Puzzle Fighter
- Wild Arms

I guess licensing issues held back Wipeout, Parappa and GT, but man how is Medievil not there? And damn at Japan getting Gradius, Darius and SaGa, that's great.

What in the world is Rainbow Six doing there tho...?

Click to shrink...

They are remaking it...

and yea, Rainbow Six is an absolute waste. May as well be 19 games on the list.

 

[Richietto]

Y'all acting like it ain't a bad thing they didn't include what many believe to be the must haves of PS1. Not having Crash and stuff would be like the SNES classic not having Mario World or DKC. This list of games is straight wack. Rainbow Six, Persona, and GTA are soooo off the mark and look like choices made because of the current games in those franchises doing well and not to sell a console of nostalgia like the NES/SNES Classic. The PS1 has a ton of games, and making a list of 20 is hard, but this is not even close to the right 20, not at all.

No Crash, Symphony, Tomb Raider, GT, Wipeout, Spyro, Medieval, THPS2, the list goes on. But ayy you want 3 puzzle games?

When I look at the list of NES classic games, I think "that's pretty darn good". When I look at the SNES Classic I'm thinking "damn that's real good". When I look at this I'm thinking "you want me to pay 100 bucks for THAT library?"

 

[Mechanized]

No Tony Hawk 2, no Gran Turismo 2. No buy. I get why having those two would be hard, I get it. But those games defined the PSX for me.

 

[Braaier]

Still widely available online. Think I may cancel my preorder too.

 

[Korezo]

I've only played 10 games on that list, so the other half must be trash. This thing really needs hacking.

 

[ScreamingMadden]

Y'all acting like it ain't a bad thing they didn't include what many believe to be the must haves of PS1. Not having Crash and stuff would be like the SNES classic not having Mario World or DKC. This list of games is straight wack. Rainbow Six, Persona, and GTA are soooo off the mark and look like choices made because of the current games in those franchises doing well and not to sell a console of nostalgia like the NES/SNES Classic. The PS1 has a ton of games, and making a list of 20 is hard, but this is not even close to the right 20, not at all.

No Crash, Symphony, Tomb Raider, GT, Wipeout, Spyro, Medieval the list goes on. But ayy you want 3 puzzle games?

When I look at the list of NES classic games, I think "that's pretty darn good". When I look at the SNES Classic I'm thinking "damn that's real good". When I look at this I'm thinking "you want me to pay 100 bucks for THAT library?"

Click to shrink...

Crash Team Racing should at least be in here instead of Rainbow 6. CTR never got remastered, gives you a Crash game and a fun local multiplayer kart racer.

For puzzle games, I'm warming up to I.Q.'s inclusion. It's a super rare game to find these days and many claim here to be some of the best puzzle games ever. I like that Puzzle Fighter is on there, but I honestly thought Street Fighter Alpha 3 was gonna be the other Capcom game besides Resident Evil.

Also get Battle Arena Toshinden (I know of its significance with the PS1, but still), Cool Boarders 2 and Mr. Driller (sorry) out and get a Tomb Raider, FF Tactics (or another Square RPG), and Wipeout 2097 to replace them and this library would look more like a definitive PS1 Classic library.

 

[newmoneytrash]

Imagine not even having a Tomb Raider game on there. And I know it would be a licensing nightmare, but Tony Hawk should be there as well

They also chose the wrong Resident Evil, GTA, and Twisted Metal

baffling decisions that don't really speak to the nostalgia for the Playstation the way it should. glad I don't have a preorder

 

[Richietto]

Crash Team Racing should at least be in here instead of Rainbow 6. CTR never got remastered, gives you a Crash game and a fun local multiplayer kart racer.

For puzzle games, I'm warming up to I.Q.'s inclusion. It's a super rare game to find these days and many claim here to be some of the best puzzle games ever. I like that Puzzle Fighter is on there, but I honestly thought Street Fighter Alpha 3 was gonna be the other Capcom game besides Resident Evil.

Also get Battle Arena Toshinden (I know of its significance with the PS1, but still), Cool Boarders 2 and Mr. Driller (sorry) out and get a Tomb Raider, FF Tactics (or another Square RPG), and Wipeout 2097 to replace them and this library would look more like a definitive PS1 Classic library.

Click to shrink...

I can get behind those changes.

 

[Lucas M. Thomas]

Hanging on to my pre-order, for the moment.

 

[entremet]

They really messed this up apparently lol. They should've announced the games from the beginning.

 

[KalBalboa]

No Jak games either, probably.

Click to shrink...

Huh?

Sony owns all the Jak titles.

 

[Dark Mantonio]

Click to shrink...

:(

 

[Falchion]

No Crash is criminal.

 

[Aaron]

Honestly do wish Castlevania made it on if only to create a stronger through-line with the NES and SNES Classic consoles.

 

[Biske]

Nintendo seems to have pulled it off for the most part, we didn't see this kind of pushback in the SNES thread. Sony has completely half-assed theirs.

Click to shrink...

I think Nintendo has the advantage cause so many games are theirs and they have absolute control over or in other cases seemed to easily be able to pull titles they wanted.

Sony's great games are much more fractured with different companies so maybe harder to make work?

This will get hacked and filled with all kinds of awesomeness so its not like it really matters, just interesting to see.

Why? The Arc the Lad series is great. A million seller actually.

Click to shrink...

I know, thats why it's rad. I love Arc the Lad.

 

[Deleted member 47318]

They are remaking it...

and yea, Rainbow Six is an absolute waste. May as well be 19 games on the list.

Click to shrink...

I can see lapsed gamers being more enticed by being able to play classics they loved (Crash, Spyro, Medieval) again at a relative impulse purchase cost, and that convincing them to splurge on a PS4 in order to continue the series in remade format, than them going straight to B in this case.

Also I'd say the second biggest issue here is that they blew the chance to make it feel like the natural successor/continuation/sequel to the SNES Classic. Legend of Mana and Megaman X4 would be obvious successors to their predecessors. Alundra to Zelda: ALttP, Castlevania: SotN to both Super Metroid and previous Castlevanias, Crash Team Racing to Super Mario Kart. FFVII is already included as counterpart to VI.

That would already be 6 out of 20 taken care of, each of them being a good argument in favor of a purchase to fans of the latest classic console to hit the market. From there on you're left with 14 titles to strictly define the PSX identity:

- Crash (arguably as Mario analogue)
- Spyro
- Medievil
- Metal Gear Solid (obviously)
- Ridge Racer Type 4 (good choice)
- Tekken 3 (unmissable really)
- Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey (contemporary classic)
- Any Wipeout (arguably sort of an F-Zero analogue)
- Tomba (contemporary cult hit)
- Driver (GTA before GTA3 was a thing)
- Resident Evil (nuff said)
- A Medal of Honor
- A Tony Hawk if possible / Keep Cool Boarders 2 otherwise

For the last spot I'd say choose one out of Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story and Chrono Cross. I'd argue the latter two because at least Tactics got modern releases that are more easily available, so the other two would make the device more appealing. Vagrant Story would probably hold up best graphically. Blood Omen also isn't available elsewhere. Maybe Xenogears in an attempt to ride the Xenosaga and current Xenoblade hype waves?

I'd say that's a solid list with some of the most agreed upon must haves and vital series represented. Some mature games, some family friendly ones. Mostly 3D (as it should be) but still with some decent amount of 2D/sprite based classics. Nothing too unaccessible to the casuals or mainstream, while still having a good share of big names that command respect from the "hardcore".

I guess a potential alternative title could be Bust a Move 4, and I want to say Harvest Moon: Back to Nature but I'm unsure if that holds up.

 

[SlothmanAllen]

Funny, just the other day I made a post about how shady it was they didn't announce the full list! Great to see them come out and name each game. I wonder if they will have save states or even what the menu will look like?

 

[Man God]

This does remind me almost too much of the Playstation All-Stars roster, only slightly improved by getting Cloud and Snake.