5 Great reasons to dig out the PS1 again!
Seán O’Rourke
Everybody remembers the PS1, right? If you don’t, you wasted your childhood, and missed out on some classic games. Here are 5 of the best (in no particular order!)
1. Metal Gear Solid
Every gamer has played Metal Gear Solid. I don’t even think I need to talk about this game. One of the best of all time. Introduced a generation of gamers to stealth games. Graphics were great 9for the time) and the storyline was just superb. No other game could put you on edge as easily. All it took was for that alert sound when you were spotted to sound, and boom! Edge of the seat. Oh, and the cut-scenes weren’t over half an hour long, which gives it an advantage over some of its sequels…
2. Tomba
Now this game choice is gonna raise some eyebrows. Tomba? What the fuck? Well, the truth is, this game acquired cult status as a demo on a demo disc that came out with the PS1. The playable demo was quite long for a demo, and could be played for a few hours onto the story. Whether this was a mistake or not, we’ll never know. But anyway, yeah, Tomba… You play as a pink-haired, green-shorts wearing pig wrestler with a habit of swallowing random objects who is trying to find his grandmothers bracelet that was stolen by some evil pigs. On your journeys you meet a village of people who were turned to mice, look for missing dwarves, and eat some magic mushrooms. (No, not the kind you think!) Might sound like a daft premise, but I think it’s a very under-rated game.
3. Crash Team Racing
Everybody knows Crash Bandicoot, the fun-loving marsupial who always winds up in danger. But do you all know of his Mario-Kart-esque racing game? Well, the first one anyway? (There was a sequel to this on the PS2, as far as I know!) Despite it being a rip off of Mario Kart for N64, this game is still great fun. Go-karts with highly-explosive weapons. Sure what could go wrong like! Eight different characters from the series all brought in, with four different go-kart types. (I always picked the polar bear, he was just too fucking cute!) Playing on some of the craziest, wackiest tracks ever conceived, you did battle with your competitors to beat them to the finish line. The main story mode of the game consisted of you racing to win trophies, then beating bosses, until you got to race the most badass racer in the galaxy, the aptly-named Nitrous Oxide. But this game was worth the purchase for the multiplayer aspect alone!
4. Gran Turismo
This game defined the “racing-sim” genre of games. It was the first of its kind, and the first of one of the best selling series for the playstation. It was a great idea, taking real cars, upgrading them, and racing them. But what came as a shock to most people was that you actually had to go and get a driving license before you could race! It was highly addictive, and pretty good fun when you could shoe off your cars and race with your friends. I’ll never forget the Mitsubishi GTO Twin-Turbo, a great car. Tune it right and you could get over 900BHP out of it! Sadly, this car never made it to the sequel…
5. Final Fantasy 8
Now, I often get a lot of abuse over this, but I honestly think that Final Fantasy 8 is a lot better than Final Fantasy 7. Why? I could be here all day… I just got far more engaged with the story. You start the game as Squall, graduating from a mercenary school. He and his “team” from their first mission end up embroiled in a crazy mixed up mess of deceit, lies, and trickery, until they end up travelling through time and space to try and save the world from the most evil sorceress who ever lived, and the most evil sorceress who ever will live, who just so happen to fuse together. I know, it sounds really weird. Trust me though, it’s worth it. Good luck tracking down a copy though!
All opinions in this article are my own, if anyone disagrees, please feel free to comment!
Find Seán at @seanaorourke