PS1 Games That Pushed The Console To Its Limits

We don’t reckon it’s too controversial to say that there’s plenty of games out there that play things safe. That’s not to say those games aren’t enjoyable in some ways, but history will remember the games and the developers that decided to push their hardware to the limits. This isn’t about whether or not the games have aged well, but whether they broke boundaries and worked consoles as hard as they could go. As you’d expect, there’s plenty of PS1 games that demanded a lot out of the console, but delivered in so many ways.

 

1. Vagrant Story

We’re big fans of Vagrant Story around these parts, so you might be side-eyeing this choice as a bit of personal bias, but Square’s unique take on action RPGs and platforming definitely ranks among the PS1 games that have pushed the PS1’s capabilities almost to their breaking point. Telling the story of a Riskbreaker by the name of Ash, who’s framed for the murder of a prominent Duke while pursuing a mysterious cult leader, you’re forced to explore the catacombs underneath the town of Lea Monde. Unlike other Square games of the time, you’ll explore these dungeons in real time, though when you encounter monsters, the gameplay switches to a pausable real time battle mode similar in concept to Parasite Eve. The fact that Square hasn’t tried to port this bad boy to modern platforms is still completely baffling to us.

While the gameplay might take a bit of getting used to if you prefer regular action RPG combat, the reason why Vagrant Story pushed the PS1 to its limits has to do with the game’s incredible graphics. Vagrant Story was far from Square’s first fully 3D game, but it was one of their first RPGs to feature the same character models across gameplay and cutscenes, so a painstaking level of detail was applied to pretty much every character model in the whole game, even if those characters only appear for just a couple of seconds.

Beyond that, the cutscene direction, lighting and atmosphere were lightyears beyond what anyone else was capable of at the time, which is even more impressive when you consider that Vagrant Story was developed by the Final Fantasy Tactics team, who had previously only worked on 2D pixel art games. The fact they were able to come together and create something this fantastic is nothing short of miracle work.

 

2. Final Fantasy IX

From one Square game that deserves to be ported to more platforms across the world to another game that’s been given plenty of deserved time in the spotlight, Final Fantasy IX is possibly considered by some to be both the best RPG on PS1, and among the best games on the console, period. A lot of the game’s love and positive reception has to do with the choices made regarding the story and world, with Square Enix returning to a more medieval inspired world compared to the techno-magic blends of Final Fantasy VII and VIII. Given that the most recent FF game, Final Fantasy XVI, was also a return to medieval worlds, maybe that’s all the confirmation we need to say that Final Fantasy XVII is going back to weird tech bollocks. There’s a Cultured Vultures exclusive for you all. Report on that one IGN, cowards.

Like Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy IX’s graphical quality made it a true console tester for the PS1, as Square released this game on the very tail end of the PS1’s lifespan. All the work Square had done at that point on FFVII and FFVIII had been used to full effect to create one of the most gorgeous looking RPGs on any console. This isn’t to say that those previous games looked bad of course, with FFVII’s tone and atmosphere in Midgard helping cement its place among the classics of the PS1. It’s just like the way San Andreas felt like such a massive step up from GTA 3 on PS2.

The lush visuals of Final Fantasy IX really tested the full range of the PS1’s abilities, to the point where Square really had to go above and beyond to top it with Final Fantasy X less than one year later. Never ask a woman her age, a man: his salary, and Square what they were feeding their developers in the late 90s and early 2000s.

 

3. Urban Chaos

Some games manage to push the limits of a console while keeping everything in order, running at a stable framerate or allowing the graphics to look incredible. Meanwhile, some games push things a little bit too far, collapsing under the weight of its ambition in the process. Urban Chaos is a prime example of the latter, as although the game was decently well regarded when it was released on the PC, the PS1 version of the game was widely slammed. Functionally, there isn’t much difference between the two versions of the game in terms of content, but the execution on PS1 absolutely left something to be desired.

Despite the lackluster reviews for Urban Chaos, it can’t be denied how much it helped cement the possibility of proper open world 3D action games, paving the way for games like GTA 3 to take the medium further.

Urban Chaos allowed players to explore small urban areas across 24 levels, and while the areas you could travel through were compact, players were given the ability to explore most of the buildings within that area, making this tightly controlled area somewhere dense and filled with things to discover. On top of that, Urban Chaos was pretty innovative for an open world game of the time in that it allow players to approach objectives from multiple angles, or complete side quests and find power-ups in the level before full sending the main quest, instead of just cracking skulls the same way over and over again. As mentioned earlier, it’s not a perfect PC port, with the ambitiousness of Urban Chaos probably more suited to a PS2 release, but that’s the risk you take when you’re trying to test the limits of a console. Sometimes, those limits end up breaking.

 

4. Gran Turismo

Is it cheating to include a simulation racing game in a list of titles that pushed a console to its limits? We’re going to say no, because Gran Turismo set new standards for an entire genre when it launched on PS1 in 1997. Considering the game  was in development for about five years, you’d expect that the game would make full use of the PS1, but according to the game’s director Kazunori Yamauchi when promoting the sequel, the original Gran Turismo game used an estimated 75% of the console’s performance. Even with that 25% left over though, Polys Entertainment, who would later be known as Polyphony Digital, created a racing game with better graphics, physics and presentation than some ever thought the PS1 was capable of. Or, that we’d ever see in gaming. You really would not believe the graphical leap if you were not there.

While the original Gran Turismo didn’t include any real-life tracks like other games in the series would go on to do, it did feature well over 100 licensed vehicles, each pretty accurately recreated using the PS1’s hardware. As far as realistic depictions go, Gran Turismo’s recreations of classic automobiles were unmatched at the time. You could make the case that Gran Turismo 2 pushed the limits even further, offering much more in terms of cars, tracks and modes, but the two years of development between GT1 and GT2 showed in a number of unfortunate bugs and glitches.

Meanwhile, GT1 is the highest selling game on the entire PS1, along with being one of the most well reviewed games for the console. You can’t really compete with a legacy like that.

 

5. Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver

Kainiacs rejoice, as we’ve finally been blessed with the announcement of Soul Reaver and its sequel getting the remaster treatment. Took ‘em long enough.

While Soul Reaver 2 was a brilliant action platformer in its own right on PS2 and PC, there’s nothing really compared to that iconic PS1 release of the original game. While the Legacy of Kain series had been around already since 1996’s Blood Omen: Legacy Of Kain, Soul Reaver was a beautiful refresh and relaunch for the series, while still retaining plot and references for those who fell in love with Blood Omen.

As the second step in this absolutely bonkers time-traveling cosmic horror goth opera, Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver’s gameplay and world design are what really tested how versatile the PS1 was going to be.

Ditching previous leading lad Kain for newcomer Raziel, Soul Reaver sees the titular Kain killing Raziel. Hell of an opener, honestly. The Elder God swiftly revives Raziel to become a Soul Reaver to exact revenge on Kain, setting into motion this time, space and dimension hopping adventure.

As a Soul Reaver, Raziel has the ability to swap between the material and spectral planes of existence, which allows him to solve platforming puzzles and reach new areas. Having two fully explorable 3D worlds that players could switch between almost instantly (getting from the spectral back to the material world was a bit trickier) was considered to be a groundbreaking achievement at the time, and even now, games that attempt a gimmick similar to this just don’t have the same impact Soul Reaver did.

 

6. Wipeout 3

We love mentioning Wipeout, because it allows us to do two very specific things. One: we get to talk about Psygnosis, or Sony Studio Liverpool as they would come to be, a UK-based developer who were taken way too soon. Big love to them. As for two: we get to sneak in an F-Zero reference as the two games are kinda similar.

At one point during the PS1’s lifespan, you’d think that Wipeout would have been one of the linchpins for Sony heading into the new millennium. Hindsight has made that statement unintentionally hilarious, as aside from a decent HD collection of the first three games on PS4, the Wipeout series is basically dead. You know, until someone at Sony can turn Wipeout into a third-person, narrative focused action adventure game anyway. Then you’re sorted. Even if Wipeout has disappeared though, there’s no denying how much Psygnosis pushed the boat out with Wipeout 3, eking every little bit of horsepower out of the PS1 as they could.

Like other games we’ve mentioned on this list, the reason why Wipeout 3 is a boundary pusher is because the development team had that experience on the console already, but Wipeout 3’s achievements are nothing to sneeze at. Whether by the grace of God or just some good old fashioned elbow grease, the team at Psygnosis were able to boost the resolution of the game, outputting at 512×256, making for one of the rare examples of a widescreen PS1 game, while also rewriting the console’s renderer entirely in order to eliminate some of those pesky clipping and seaming issues that other games were riddled with. The fact that two square splitscreens of Wipeout 3 were outputting the same resolution as the original Wipeout proves that Wipeout 3 was a true statement piece for the PS1 heading into its final year.

 

7. Driver 2

Look, we’re not exactly treading new ground when we say that without Driver, GTA 3 and beyond probably wouldn’t exist in the form it did. The Driver games, particularly that first game, proved that it was possible to get behind the wheel and explore a bustling cityscape, cursed tutorial car park notwithstanding. That’s our one mention, we’ll shut up now. Critical reception to Driver 1 was overwhelmingly positive, so naturally expectations were high for the upcoming sequel, but for some reason, critics weren’t as hot on Driver 2. Perhaps that’s to do with the game’s admittedly slow framerate, or the mountain of glitches because the game was rushed out the door, something that would bite Driver 3 in the ass a few years later.

Remember kids: don’t rush video game development. Or buy reviews.

Even still, Driver 2’s graphics are pretty decent, and the gameplay follows the same patterns as the original game with you solving most of your problems behind the wheel. However, Driver 2 added the ability to step outside your vehicle for some on-foot exploration. There were no action sections on foot, so open world gaming fans would only have to wait a year to see Driver 2 blown out of the water entirely, but again, the struggling framerate almost proves how Driver 2 was pushing the console to near its limit. If nothing else, the game’s FMVs were pushing the limits of CD storage, as due to the sheer amount of cutscenes, Driver 2’s story had to be spread across two discs. FACT: only good games get two discs…I didn’t stutter, unlike Otacon when he sees a woman with a face.

 

8. Metal Gear Solid

Arguably Kojima’s magnum opus, or at least the game that allowed gaming’s biggest chad who’s made mostly of old DVDs to become a household name the world over, Metal Gear Solid was a huge swing for both Kojima and Konami, one that arguably wouldn’t get made today.

Pitching a 3D stealth adventure game as a sequel to a niche series of 2D games mostly kept to Japanese hardware was probably pushing the limits of Konami’s faith in Kojima before Norman Reedus’ face forever broke that faith, but it would prove to be the right move when MGS became an overnight sensation for the PS1. The console was also being stretched to its breaking points by Metal Gear Solid as well. Those snow effects came with sacrifice, after all.

While the graphics and performance of Metal Gear Solid rank among some of the best of the entire generation, Kojima decided to get fancy with it by flexing the capabilities of the PS1 console and its various features through the Psycho Mantis fight. Having some gas mask wearing clown roasting you for the various games you’ve played depending on what was saved on your memory card, along with the fact that you need to switch the controller port to gain a proper advantage over him, rank among some of the best gaming moments of all time. Pushing the limits of a console doesn’t always require the shiniest graphics or the most amount of frames per second, as Kojima’s boundless creativity showed. The fact that MGS also happens to be a technical masterpiece as well is just the icing on the cake.

 

9. Spyro The Dragon

The PS1 was a breeding ground for some of the best platformers ever made, including Crash Bandicoot, Croc and Bubsy 3D our beloved, though one that managed to become a huge success and spawn plenty of sequels and love was Spyro The Dragon.

Developed by a pre-Spider-Man, pre-Ratchet & Clank and pre-Fuse Insomniac (shout out to the two Fuse lovers still out there), Spyro The Dragon delivered a different kind of 3D platformer to those that were available at the time. Levels were a lot more open for exploration, and packed with minigames and interactables, while Spyro’s abilities themselves offered another take on gathering the gubbins and getting to the goal. Using fire breath instead of stomping on an enemy’s head is pretty radical thinking as far as platformers are concerned.

What really impressed everyone was how the levels were rendered. Typically, PS1 games would try to mitigate the console’s inability to render long distances by sticking large fog walls everywhere, but Spyro The Dragon sought an alternative solution. Insomniac used a 3D panoramic engine developed in-house by Alex Hastings that essentially allowed the game to display objects in varying levels of detail depending on how far away they were from the player. Essentially, the engine generated two versions of the level, with distant objects drawn with a textureless render to circumvent the PS1’s limited RAM capabilities.

It sounds like such a simple solution now, but back then it was a completely unexplored area in gaming, and it allowed Spyro to capture the imagination of its players.

 

10. Tekken 3

A release that nearly wasn’t, Tekken 3 has been lauded among the greatest fighting games ever made, which is no small feat either. A lot of fighting games are certified bangers, and when it comes to 3D games, Tekken is the undisputed King (of Iron Fist). Or Tiger King.

While Tekken 1 and 2 were ported relatively easily to the PS1, Tekken 3’s arcade release was developed on the Namco System 12 hardware, an upgraded version of the Namco System 11 32-bit arcade board that Tekken 1 and 2 were developed on. NS12 offered much more in the way of processing power, which allowed Tekken 3 to have the best graphics and framerate of the series up until that point, but the technological leaps in the arcade scene made porting the game to PS1 a bit more difficult. Reportedly, even Namco reps stated to EGM that they didn’t think it was possible to port Tekken 3 to the PS1, but they managed it.

In order to make the Tekken 3 PS1 port work, certain concessions needed to be made to ensure the game still ran at a solid framerate, with the backgrounds remade into 2D panoramic images, the polygon count for each of the characters was reduced slightly, and the PS1 version ran at a slightly lower resolution than the original arcade release. Aside from that though, Tekken 3 was an almost arcade perfect port, containing all the content from the arcade release along with some new modes and a couple of hidden characters.

Before Tekken 3, most arcade games lost a lot in translation when they made the move over to consoles, but Tekken 3 opened the door in some ways. Namco’s efforts were rewarded, of course, as Tekken 3 would go on to sell over 8 million copies worldwide.

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