Weird PS1 games you loved that weren't smash hits?

[8byte]

Does anyone have that weird PS1 game they loved, that wasn't exactly a breakout success (or didn't get a sequel, etc).

For me, there were two games that I absolutely loved, but they just didn't get the traction they deserved (IMO) and are long forgotten by many.

First: Intelligent Qube. I LOVED this game from the second I got to play it on a demo disc. It was fun, interesting, and the puzzles were really cool for me as a kid (well, teenager). I'm insanely excited it's coming to the PS Classic so I can finally relive those memories. Hell, I'd LOVE for this game to get tackled by Enhance Studio and remade similarly to Tetris Effect. Astro Bot has shown me the light that VR and 3rd person can be married together well enough, and IQ would be wonderful in that space...but I digress.

Second: Rogue Trip 2020. Not a lot of people enjoyed this one, I think, but teenage me loved it. It was edgelord to the max, lots of that cringey 90s "attitude", and the soundtrack was phenomenal. I'd take this car combat master piece over Twisted Metal any day of the week. It was just more fun, more interesting, and had the better music (plus the story was absurdly fun).

What games did you love that didn't get the play they deserved? I'm looking for more PS1 games to dig into in anticipation for the PS Classic (as barebones as it may be).

 

[Hayama Akito]

Honestly, and without exaggerating, there are at least 100 games on PS1 that are very obscure and I fucking love. PS1 was THAT good, specially if you are into japanese imports.

 

[RestEerie]

Destrega

The first Dynasty warrior

 

[bakedpony]

Crtical Depth.

Twisted Metal but with submarines. Made by the same dev too. Had some weird mechanics but the game was really engrossing. Great soundtrack too

 

[Kouriozan]

I remember having tons of fun with this

I spent so much hours unlocking everything and playing with friends.

 

[Spades]

I was really hoping this would make its way onto the Classic given that there would be no licensing issues.

 

[mompe]

Silent Bomber.

 

[Danielsan]

Team Buddies
Vigilante 8 / Vigilante 8: Second offense
Heart of Darkness
No One Can stop Mr Domino

 

[steviestar3]

Alundra

 

[inner-G]

Ore no Ryouri
Incredible Crisis
Wu-Tang Shaolin Style

 

[Acquiescence]

This game was eccentric to say the least, but damn did I love it. Maybe the greatest rhythm game of its generation.

 

[stinkyguy666]

I feel like I'm cheating by saying Oddworld Abe's Oddysee because it's popular enough to be on the PS1 classic. It's always been more of a cult classic that never really gets the amount of love that it truly deserves.

Also, this game was dope:

 

[CortexVortex]

Blaze & Blade (still one of my most played coop-games I assume)
Silent Bomber
Deathtrap Dungeon
Tombi 2
Azure Dreams

 

[Aurc]

Not sure if this qualifies or not.

 

[JedWhitaker]

Was Wild 9 popular? Used to love that game. Also, Blasto.

 

[Deleted member 9584]

Legend of Legaia

 

[Deleted member 26768]

by coincidence

 

[stinkyguy666]

Not sure if this qualifies or not.

Click to shrink...

haha I loved that one.

 

[Transistor]

No One Can Stop Mr. Domino is my favorite weird and obscure PS1 game

 

[8byte]

Ore no Ryouri
Incredible Crisis
Wu-Tang Shaolin Style

Click to shrink...

Yes! I'd forgotten about this...man what a gem.

 

[Watevaman]

I don't know if it was big but I loved Tiny Tank. Little tank with attitude.

 

[jackal27]

Long live the king.

Honestly I always thought this game was pretty popular, but I still run into tons of people who love PlayStation RPGs and have never even heard of it.

 

[KaiPow]

Treasures of the Deep
Loaded
That Gunstar Heroes pseudo sequel
Shadow Tower
Eternal Eyes
The Granstream Saga

Lots of solid stuff from Agetec if you can handle a little jank.

I'm trying to recall if Shadow Madness was actually good or not

 

[MrChocolate]

Macross VFX-2
Incredible Crisis
Love&Destroy
Koudelka (I dare you to say it's not obscure)
Grandstream Saga.
Gekido.
Akuji The Heartless.

Those from the top of my head. I don´t think Legend of Legaia is obscure, but it certainly didn´t have a sequel. No, Legaia 2 can suck a rock for all I care.

 

[butman]

Fucking PepsiMan

 

[honest_ry]

Silent Bomber

 

[DGS]

Silent Bomber.

Click to shrink...

Silent Bomber

Click to shrink...

Silent Bomber

Click to shrink...

... my last PSX game. I loved the fast-paced action.

Heart of Darkness - short, but lovely action-adventure with a great art style and kinda "Early Spielberg" vibe.
Apocalypse - imo, way better than the Die Hard Trilogy. I'm still a big Bruce Willis Fan.

 

[L Corleone]

Pandemonium

Gravitation from Net Yaroze demo (best local co-op ever)

 

[Era of not Yakuza]

This game was eccentric to say the least, but damn did I love it. Maybe the greatest rhythm game of its generation.

Click to shrink...

My boy, every now and then I listen to Heat's Theme, 2bad


Chemical Love (Gas O's Theme)

 

[JehutyVer2]

Koudelka
Galerians
Fighting Force

 

[Deleted member 25606]

I don't know how obscure it was but Rollcage should have become more than a one entry thing. I think there was a Kickstarter at one point for a similar playing game but not sure if I am misremembering or what became of it.

 

[AaronMT]

 

[Booki]

Eternal Eyes (SRPG with monster raising elements)


Vanguard Bandits (SRPG filled with medieval Mecha. It also has multiple endings and branching paths)

I doubt Eternal Eyes still holds up, but Vanguard Bandits deserves more recognition.



Both Versions of the main theme are beautiful, but the English version really gets me going.

 

[InaudibleWhisper]

My cousin and I played a huge amount of The Unholy War, some of my favourite multiplayer memories from that generation.

 

[KaCo]

Kind of nice to hear some people mention Fighting Force and Gekido.

Really enjoyed the 3d beat em up on Ps1 because they were both great solo and local co op games.

 

[Barrel Cannon]

Fucking PepsiMan

Click to shrink...

How is this real. I miss the abundance of random stuff that we had on older consoles.

 

[Slappy White]

My friends and I used to get baked and play Circuit Breakers for hours.

 

[Era of not Yakuza]

This beauty

 

[Strafer]

 

[finalhour]

G Darius. Epic beam battles with giant fish. Still love playing it.

 

[doof_warrior]

Ore no Ryouri

Click to shrink...

this 100000000000000000x this

 

[Simba]

koudelka by far

 

[Deleted member 135]

Rugrats Studio Tour and SpongeBob Squarepants SuperSponge.

 

[Devilgunman]

Fucking PepsiMan

Click to shrink...

My man. Pepsi man deserve a comeback.

 

[Notaskwid]

I really love Digimon World 3 in all its flaws.

 

[Deleted member 43872]

Future Cop: LAPD was the last and best of EA's Strike series of top-down vehicle-action games. Just a great fast-paced mech shooter, with co-op through the whole story mode and a cool action-strategy competitive mode that was almost an early MOBA.

 

[Wereroku]

Thousand Arms and Granstream Saga were some great games that aren't talked about a lot.

 

[mute]

Future Cop: LAPD was the last and best of EA's Strike series of top-down vehicle-action games. Just a great fast-paced mech shooter, with co-op through the whole story mode and a cool action-strategy competitive mode that was almost an early MOBA.

Click to shrink...

Why is there a Kampfer there.

Machine Head was a horrible game but I loved it at the time:

 

[theotherMittens]

I don't know, Return Fire? I never had a PS1 so I haven't played that many games for it.

 

[Mugman]

Glad there's already a few posts mentioning No One Can Stop Mr Domino. Definitely in my top 10 favorite games on the system, and Katamari is the only series that has ever captured the same vibe for me