10 PS1 Games That Aged Beautifully Well

Let’s face it: Not everything from the 90s has aged well. That includes video games, and that certainly extends to the iconic PlayStation 1 library, especially thanks to some of the early growing pains with making 3D games. When you pick up that favorite from childhood, there’s no guarantee that it’s going to be just as great as it was the first time around.

But here’s the thing: truly great games never fully lose what made them great. Time may age the graphics and controls to some degree, but if you’re the sort of person who can appreciate a classic in the context of its era, the PS1 is still an awesome place to spend your free time.

Some PS1 games are still worth your time in 2024, and we’re going to highlight some games that we think have aged really well. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but this by no means comprehensive list of 10 games still look and play for us like it’s 1999.

 

10. Metal Gear Solid

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami

While not the first Metal Gear game in the franchise, Metal Gear Solid proved to be one of the most successful releases on the PS1. It drew rave reviews, sold extremely well, and turned the series into a massively popular franchise. How does it hold up after more than a quarter of a century? Better than you might think.

While it’s true that the character models for Metal Gear Solid don’t look particularly amazing in a modern light, it hardly matters. MGS still satisfies as a gameplay experience where it counts, including its potent atmosphere or intrigue and deception in a twisty mission on Shadows Moses carried out by the legendary Solid Snake.

Story and character are other marks Metal Gear Solid hits in spectacular fashion, so the graphics and some super damn cheap and annoying sentries are easy to take as they are.

 

9. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the rarest PS1 games that your money can buy, which is to say quite a bit of money. It’s also one of the wildest and most entertaining PS1 brawlers that Capcom released, and that’s certainly saying something for a developer and publisher that had so, so many good PlayStation 1 games.

Based on a long-running popular manga and anime series, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure doesn’t require you to know any of these characters of stories to enjoy the game itself. The game does offer a wildly entertaining story mode that’s nicely self-contained while following StarDUST Crusaders and there’s 2-player arcade style fighting if you and a friend want to pick one of this game’s outlandish 18 characters and go at it.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has the same visual flourish and unique storyline that made it a breath of fresh air in 1999, and it definitely holds up beautifully today.

 

8. Tekken 3

Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco

Tekken continues to be a popular, successful franchise in the modern era of gaming, but for some people, it’s never been quite as much fun as it was in 1998 with the PlayStation 1 release of Tekken 3.

The arcade version of the game, released a year earlier in ’97, was considered one of the best fighting games of the year. The PlayStation 1 port not only kept everything people loved about this amazing 3D brawler, but also added a variety of secret modes, extra characters, and enough depth to keep you busy for far longer than most fighting games at the time could claim.

And the great thing about Tekken 3 is that it almost completely retains everything about it that made the game such a monumental release for Sony’s console. The fighting is as addictive, complex, and fast-paced as ever. Pick it up today and you will no doubt have to commit to a whole story playthrough with Law.

 

7. Mega Man X4

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

While it’s true that most Mega Man and Mega Man X games are exceptional, enjoyable games in any era, there’s something special in particular about Mega Man X4.

While the character’s run on the PS1 wasn’t perfect, the fourth entry in this spinoff series remains one of the most beautiful 2D platformers ever made. Not to mention one of the most feverishly challenging games in the entire Mega Man canon. Maybe not as soul crushing as the original game, but pretty damn close.

Regardless of whether you play as X or Zero, there’s a grandness to the story, graphics, and music to Mega Man X4 that feels almost cinematic at times, especially with some of those absolutely gorgeous anime cutscenes. This was the biggest Mega Man game to date, and some might argue the best.

Is it your favorite Mega Man?

 

6. Chrono Cross

Developer: Square
Publisher: Square

Chrono Cross is a weird sequel to Chrono Trigger, if you even want to call it a sequel at all.

Taking place in a decidedly different world with very different characters, the game is really more of a sequel to a Chrono Trigger spinoff. Regardless of its connections to one of the best SNES RPGs of all time, Chrono Cross is one of the most singular and ambitious RPGs Square ever developed for the PS1. Given that company’s resume, that’s saying a lot.

Okay, maybe not these days, but you know what we mean.

A massive cast of endearing characters, likable leads, and a quirky sense of humor give Chrono Cross a one-of-a-kind tenacity that’s eminently appealing. The gameplay, environments, and pacing all point to an amazing development team, and the sort of games that Square, or really, well, any huge studio, doesn’t seem to make anymore. It’s a little funny that a game with such a focus on traveling through time would itself be a timeless JRPG classic.

If you’re a big Chrono Trigger fan and just keep putting off this game, there’s no time like the present.

 

5. Tomba!

Developer: Whoopee Camp
Publisher: Sony

Some considered the visually sumptuous Tomba! to be a little too old-fashioned when it hit the PS1 on December 25th, 1997. Those people are of course ridiculous, as was the notion that side-scrolling 2D gaming needed to die so that the new era of 3D games could live.

They wanted us to sacrifice this so that things like Bubsy 3D could exist. Dwell on that for a bit.

Headed by former Capcom employees, Tomba! was a Metroidvania-style game that was clearly a labor of love. Tomba! Deserved its flowers in 1997, well over a year past the release of 3D heavyweights like Super Mario 64, but unfortunately didn’t do great on the sales side of things. Despite good reviews, the game seemingly didn’t appeal to most players in the late 90s.

There was enough success for a sequel, but this game about a feral child named Tomba going up against a society of anthropomorphic pigs to get his grandfather’s bracelet back ultimately bankrupted developer Whoopee Camp.

 

4. Crash Bandicoot 1-3

Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: Sony

Between 1996 and 1998, Naughty Dog gave us one of the greatest video game trilogies of the era. While Crash may not have bested Mario as his early commercials aspired to do,  he did help to establish the PlayStation’s identity in a very distinct, entertaining, and slightly more edgy way.

The guy is wearing jorts.

As playable now as they were decades ago, we’re cheating a little bit to include all three games in what eventually became known as the N. Sane Trilogy because they ultimately make up a single playing experience.

Each game in this series of challenging, multifaceted platformers is a striking improvement over the previous effort, particularly in the leap between the 1st and second games. They still look and sound excellent. When you play them all at once, the result is something quite special. You can see why these games still have the same punch and charm they did in the 90s.

And hey, while we’re here, chuck in Crash Team Racing, too. Why not.

 

3. Suikoden II

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami

Long regarded as one of the greatest PS1 JRPGs of all time, Suikoden II is a sterling example of how the best PS1 RPGs don’t feel like they’ve aged much, if at all. Suikoden II may not have quite as much visual power as a Final Fantasy, but that was a minor complaint in 1998 and it hardly holds water in the present. Suikoden II hits you where it counts, namely story, characters, and how extraordinarily easy it is to get lost in those things.

Suikoden II has a massive cast of recruitable characters, well over 100, and a sense of grandeur and scope that comes through brilliantly in how its epic tale unfolds. The game utilizing three different modes of combat was a cool novelty in 1998, and it’s one of the many reasons why you’re not going to get bored with Suikoden II any time soon.

Just maybe look at other ways of playing it unless you’re bored of having money, though, as copies of the games sell for like $250 fairly regularly.

 

2. Silent Hill

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami

Given Konami’s stunning range of quality games on the PS1 in the 90s, it’s easy to see why some mourn the current state of the publisher, with Konami now seen by many as a company that seems deeply incapable or even disinterested in doing anything notable with many of their iconic properties. That’s a shame, but at least we have fantastic classics like the 1999 survival horror phenomenon Silent Hill to remind us of just how good we had it sometimes in the heyday of the PlayStation 1.

Silent Hill was initially compared to Resident Evil, but quickly established itself as something altogether very different. You generally don’t get to blast your way out of danger in this small town hellscape, which begins with you simply searching for your daughter in an extremely creepy, unknown place. You have to think. You have to move. You have to pick up the radio from the diner or have a very, very bad time.

Silent Hill is still a masterwork in survival horror, even if some of its absolute roughest edges could sharpen Pyramid Head’s comically sized sword knife these days. Here’s hoping Konami’s plans to bring Silent Hill back from the dead don’t end in tears.

 

1. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami

See what we mean about Konami in their better days? The company was on a remarkable winning streak in the late 90s, with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night standing as their finest and most enduring achievement. Games like this are why people got so mad at them basically sending their IP down the pachinko mines for the last decade.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was regarded almost immediately by those who played it as one of the most creative and absorbing experiences you could have on the PlayStation. It’s a game steeped in atmosphere that brought serious RPG elements to its fast-paced, difficult sense of action. You have to survive a plethora of horrors just to get to Dracula himself, collecting along the way the weapons and magic you’ll need to be triumphant.

But finishing the game doesn’t even mean you’ve actually finished the game. The way Symphony of the Night can surprise you over and over again is why it’s unsurpassed for some as not only the best Castlevania game ever, but quite possibly the best PS1 game ever, as well. And even in 2024, it’s a symphony we’re just going to keep listening to over and over again.

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