PS1 REVIEWS: The List

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 It came, it saw, and it sure as hell bloody conquered. With its entry into the console race, the electronic giant, Sony, was a pro athlete competing against high school kids. Not only did Sony convincingly "win" the 5th generation console wars, it forever changed the gaming landscape. At least, it started the change finalized with Sega's exit with the Dreamcast.

Simply put, Sony managed to grab all the momentum of the SNES and run with it, expanding gaming into a worldwide phenomenon. Selling better than the N64 in both North America and Japan, but also selling over 10M units in the rest of the world.

Sony did this by having the largest quantity of quality games, with most of the star publishers on the SNES migrating to the PS1. It had an early start to the N64 and managed to get exclusivity deals with major publishers. Also, the 5th generation is where 3D gaming exploded, and Sony's console was better at it than the Sega Saturn which was released at the same time.

Unlike the Saturn, I actually owned a PS1 growing up and played many games on it. Therefore, I won't review many games that I normally review because I already played them before. Yet, because of the extensive size of the PS1 library, there are many good games that I never played.

As such, a top 100 list for the system is not sufficient for the system. Still, I struggled to find a top 200 list. As such, I looked at the top 100 lists from Retro Sanctuary and supplemented them with other sources, bringing the list up to 200 games.

The priority for the listing goes to Retro Sanctuary since I used their lists in my other review blogs.


As always, I am going to review games that interest me from that list from the top. Like with my other review list, I am not going to review:

  1. Games I already played.

  2. Sports and Racing games; are genres that have only gotten better with time.

  3. Multiplayer-focused games, so that takes party and fighting games off the mix.

  4. Genres and games that don't interest me at all, I am simply terrible at shmups.

Legend:

  • Games in bold are games I am going to review.

  • Games in bold italics are ones that I would ordinarily review but have already played before.

  • Games in regular text are ones that I will not review. The reason I a not reviewing the game is in between the brackets.

  • Games with S before them are supplements from the same series. I will play these games, but I will only review them to completion if I enjoy the game. In case the supplementary game is better than the one included in the list, I will make it a priority to review it.

  • Games with A before them are based on other than the Retro Sanctuary list.

The Retro Sanctuary List with Supplements:

Additional Games Compiled from Other Lists with Supplements:

  • A80- Theme Hospital.
  • A79- LEGO Racers.
  • A78- 40 Winks.
  • A77- Chicken Run.
  • A76- Bomberman Wars.
  • A75- Tail Concerto.
  • A74- Battle Hunter. (Multiplayer-focused)
  • A73- Eternal Eyes.
  • A72- Monkey Hero.
  • A71- Blaster Master: Blasting Again.
  • A70- Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare.
  • A69- Dragon Valor.
  • A68- Carnage Heart. (Too complicated)
  • A67- Glover. (N64 version is better)
  • A66- Croc: Legend of Gobbos.
  • A65- Vanguard Bandits.
  • A64- Thousand Arms.
  • A63- Clock Tower.
  • A62- Saiyuki: Journey West.
  • A61- SaGa Frontier.
  • S-      SaGa Frontier 2.
  • A60- Legend of Mana.
  • A59- Kartia: The Word of Fate.
  • A58- Guardian's Crusade.
  • A57- Chocobo's Dungeon 2.
  • A56- Incredible Crisis.
  • A55- Brigandine.
  • A54- King's Field III. (Just Bad)
  • S- King's Field II. (Just Bad)
  • A53- Mega Man Legends 2.
  • S- Mega Man Legends.
  • A52- The Misadventures of Tron Bonne.
  • A51- Monster Rancher. (Boring)
  • S- Monster Rancher 2. (Also Boring)
  • A50- Discworld II: Mortality Bytes!
  • S- Discworld.
  • A49- Discworld Noir.
  • A48- Harvest Moon.
  • A47- Skullmonkeys.
  • A46- Nectaris: Military Madness (Strategy)
  • A45- MediEvil II.
  • S- MediEvil. (Remade for Current-Gen Consoles)
  • A44- Pac-Man World.
  • A43- Shadow Madness.
  • A42- Bust A Groove.
  • A41- Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror.
  • A40- Tales of Destiny II.
  • S- Tales of Destiny.
  • A39- Kagero: Deception II. (Multiplayer Focused)
  • A38- Dragon Warrior VII. (Remade for the 3DS)
  • A37- Brave Fencer Musashi.
  • A36- In the Hunt. (Shmup)
  • A35- Zanac X Zanac. (Shmup)
  • A34- One.
  • A33- Rampage World Tour.
  • A32- (C-12) Final Resistance.
  • A31- LSD Dream Emulator. (Could not find)
  • A30- In Cold Blood.
  • A29- Crusader: No Remorse. (The PC version is better)
  • A28- Rapid Reload. (Could not find)
  • A27- Fighting Force. (Beat-em-Up)
  • A26- Metal Slug X.
  • A25- Arc the Lad Collection.
  • A24- Jade Cocoon.
  • A23- Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain.
  • A22- Wild Arms.
  • S- Wild Arms 2.
  • A21- Galerians.
  • A20- Tempest X 3. (Puzzler)
  • A19- Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete.
  • S- Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete.
  • A18- Strider 2.
  • A17- Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. (Remastered for the PSP)
  • A16- Vandal Hearts.
  • S- Vandal Hearts 2.
  • A15- Ehrgeiz. (Fighting)
  • A14- Heart of Darkness.
  • A13- The Legend of Dragoon.
  • A12- Twisted Metal 2.
  • S- Twisted Metal.
  • A11- Jumping Flash.
  • A10- Bust-A-Move 4. (Puzzler)
  • A9- Legend of Legaia.
  • A8- G-Police.
  • A7- Bishi Bashi Special (Minigame collection)
  • A6- Ghost in the Shell.
  • A5- Bushido Blade. (Fighting)
  • A4- Die Hard Trilogy.
  • A3- Policenauts.
  • A2- Vib Ribbon. (Rhythm)
  • A1- Parasite Eve II.
  • S- Parasite Eve.

Requested Reviews:

  • R1- Granstream Saga.

Notice how many games can be put in a top PS1 games list, and I still see room for more games I played and enjoyed but don't see here. Considering the massive number of games I am planning to review, I am going to set a rule for myself.

If I am not enjoying a game within 5 hours of playing it, then I am going to write a quick-fire negative review with a score below 5. If I start disliking my time with a game after 10 hours, then I am going to write a more detailed quick-fire review, with a score of 5 or 6.

The compilation reports are going to be based on the Retro Sanctuary list only, but I may consider reporting on the other games as well. Note that I disagree about the placement of games on the Retro Sanctuary list, and I think there are notable omissions as well. Games like Lunar I&II Complete, Wild Arms 2, Arc the Lad Collection, Tales of Destiny II, Twisted Metal, and Harvest Moon deserve a spot on that list.


Outside of List Reviews:

This list is only based on the Retro Sanctuary list as well as other lists and supplementary games considering the breadth of each franchise. As such, this extensive list of over 200 games might be missing some lesser-known games. As always, I welcome any suggestion of games I should be playing, whether they are on the list or outside of it.

Please note if any of the games above that I am thinking of playing are worth it in any way. Games in bold I will review unless someone gives me a compelling reason not to.

A Note on the History of this Blog:

This PS1 REVIEWS project started in the now-defunct community blogs of Destructoid and was nearly 70% complete at the time the community section was dissolved in that site. This explains why there are links to the latest reviews but not the earlier ones. I will slowly repost all of the past PS1 REVIEWS blogs to Cohost and link them to this blog. As such, this will remain a work in progress and will be updated to include both old and new blogs as I post them.

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