How Many Classic PS1 Games Do You Remember?

GamesRadar

Let's wind back the years to look back on some of the best PS1 games from Sony's ground-breaking games console, the original PlayStation.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:12 Ready to go back to the 90s and yes, we mean even more than the current trend for bucket hats and crop tops.

00:19 It's time to turn back the clock and travel back to the birth of PlayStation with Sony's original little grey box.

00:25 How many of these classic PS1 games do you actually remember?

00:29 And hey, remember how cool it was that the discs were black?

00:32 [Music]

00:36 Let's kick things off with a nostalgic heavy hitter.

00:39 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 was a formative PS1 game.

00:42 If you didn't have the muscle memory to get all of the goals in hangar in under two minutes,

00:46 were you even alive in the year 2000?

00:49 Not only had we never seen anything like these levels,

00:51 but the incredible mixtape of a soundtrack is what cemented Tony Hawk's 2 as a stone-cold classic

00:57 that no remake can truly recapture the magic of.

01:00 Admittedly though, the new one does come pretty close.

01:03 [Music]

01:09 Yes, our next game is a rabbit bouncing along a string in a minimalist black and white world,

01:14 and hopefully you remember it.

01:16 Incredibly, Vib Ribbon actually started life as part of a tie-in promotion for a Mercedes car.

01:21 The promotion was dropped, but Papa the Rapper lead, Messiah Matsuura,

01:25 took over and the Rhythm Platformer was born regardless.

01:28 Vib Ribbon epitomises the weird joy of the sudden potential of the PS1,

01:33 and even better, you could play your own music CDs.

01:37 The game was so small it loaded onto the PS1's RAM, so you could swap out the game's disc

01:42 for your own albums and platform across your favourite tracks.

01:45 [Music]

01:54 Say it with me now, Cool Boarders!

01:57 It didn't quite do for snowboarding what Tony Hawk's 2 did for the wheeled variety,

02:01 but Cool Boarders was a chilly solid addition to many a demo disc back in 1996.

02:07 Even if you never played the full game with its various tracks,

02:09 chances are that you got a chance to hurtle down a polygonal slope

02:13 and choose between a selection of colourful boards.

02:16 It's probably, er, borderline unplayable now, but games like Cool Boarders and its sequels

02:20 paved the way for many solid winter sports games we love today.

02:24 [Music]

02:28 Let's face it, whenever anyone talks about their first classic Silent Hill experience,

02:32 it tends to be James' misty trip in Silent Hill 2.

02:35 Some of us though found our nightmares much earlier playing as Harry Mason

02:39 when we headed to the infamous town in search of his daughter Cheryl.

02:42 It's in much more pixelated form, but everything terrifying about the series

02:46 was born here in the first game.

02:48 Deformed creatures stumbling in the darkness, twisted screaming fire babies

02:52 chasing you through dim basements, and a complete inability to run for any length of time.

02:56 Survival horror in 1999 was truly scary, and that definitely isn't just because we're about 10.

03:02 "Don't move!"

03:04 "Is this the first time you've ever pointed a gun at a person?"

03:11 "Your hands are shaking."

03:14 It is official, it's against the laws of the internet to make a list of

03:17 best PS1 games and not mention Metal Gear Solid.

03:21 It might sound like the start of it, but MGS was actually Hideo Kojima's

03:25 third addition to the Metal Gear series, but was specifically designed to make the most of

03:29 the fresh 3D tech inside of the PS1, hence the "solid" part of the title after two previous 2D games.

03:36 Among many other gifts, it gave Kojima the ability to smash down the fourth wall with

03:40 Psycho Mantis reading your memory card and forcing you to change controller ports to

03:44 keep your mind free of invaders.

03:46 Such was the impact Snake's stealth adventures on PlayStation are considered

03:50 a historic achievement that changed the way the world perceived video games.

03:54 "Welcome to the fruit store."

04:13 If Kick, Punch, It's All in the Mind has instantly appeared from nowhere in your brain,

04:16 then you definitely remember Parappa the Rapper.

04:19 This surprisingly tricky rhythm game, one of the earliest of the genre,

04:21 follows young Parappa as he trains in the art of rhyme with none other than Chop Chop Master Onion.

04:27 The game spawned a spin-off with Um Jammer Lammy and a sequel was released for PS2 in 2001,

04:32 but we'll always remember the true frustration of thinking we were hitting the beat,

04:36 and well, just not, as Parappa would say, "We've just gotta believe."

04:40 [PARAPPA]

04:46 Another PS1 game, more revolutionary game design, and another astonishing soundtrack.

04:51 No wonder we all have such good music taste.

04:53 Wipeout 2097 was the second in the now legendary series,

04:56 and didn't just feel like the future because of the 21st century title.

05:00 Whether you were Flying Vector, Venom, Rapier, or Phantom,

05:03 the speed of these futuristic craft felt genuinely game-changing.

05:06 Soaring through the air, risking boost zones, and carefully handling turns with air brakes

05:11 meant Wipeout was a whole new level of racing games.

05:14 And now we're off to listen to Firestarter.

05:16 Truthfully, the PS1 was a golden era of brilliantly colourful platformers.

05:28 And move over Rayman, Spyro, and Crash, because we want to talk about Toy Story 2,

05:33 Buzz Lightyear to the rescue.

05:34 Here was Traveller's Tales already showing off the skills that would become

05:38 the lifeblood of the LEGO adaptations, but in 1999 it meant taking on the role of everyone's

05:43 favourite Space Ranger and diving through the technicolour world of Pixar to save the rest of

05:47 Andy's toys. The result is a dizzying platformer that you can still play on the PlayStation

05:55 Classic Store if you want to go and play it now. Well, actually, maybe wait until this video's over.

06:05 Okay, this next game has a slightly different title depending on where you are in the world,

06:10 but regardless of whether you know it as Twisted Metal 2 or Twisted Metal World Tour,

06:14 we're sure you're in agreement that this demolition derby was absolutely the best in the series.

06:18 Twisted Metal 2 was many people's first introduction to the terrifying Needles

06:22 Cane, driver of an ultra deadly ice cream truck known as Sweet Tooth. Don't worry if you still

06:26 get panicked when you hear one in real life, Single Player was brilliant carnage, but the

06:30 local split screen offering meant things could get truly personal. Sorry not sorry.

06:35 Let's end on a fiery curveball with Rosco McQueen Firefighter Extreme. If you're wondering why

06:44 you're so at home playing Powerwash Simulator, it might be because in 1997 you were handling

06:48 high pressure water and putting out fires in various towering infernos. The intrepid Rosco

06:53 didn't review particularly well at the time, okay, badly actually, he reviewed very badly,

06:58 but we have fond memories of battling robots with our fire axe and collecting water bottles

07:02 to keep our house topped up. Hindsight is a dangerous thing, hey?

07:05 So hopefully we've stirred up some PS1 nostalgia to send you into the cupboard looking for your

07:12 original PlayStation, and wires that definitely don't have connection to modern TVs. Good luck

07:16 with that.

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