20 Underrated PS1 Games You Should Play

If the PlayStation 2 took the ball and ran with it, the original PlayStation can be credited with pretty much creating the ball in the first place. Nearly every subsequent console, regardless of manufacturer, has taken influence from the PS1’s enormous and esteemed legacy, Sony’s masterpiece shaping the gaming landscape as it battled it out against the Nintendo 64 and, to a lesser extent, the SEGA Saturn.

The PS2 may have eclipsed its older brother in terms of sales, but that’s no reason to consider the original Sony console as somehow less deserving of reverence. The PS1 was truly instrumental in catapulting games into the mainstream public arena, helping to take the industry away from the realm of the arcade and firmly into the domestic sphere. Birthed here were some of the most influential, important and beloved brands in gaming, from Tomb Raider to Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil to Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. This was the genesis for so much gaming greatness.

At a time of experimentation and innovation, a few gems have inevitably fallen through the cracks and become lost to time. With this list of the most underrated PS1 games, we hope they can be found and enjoyed once again.

 

1. Psychic Force

Developer: Taito
Publisher: Taito (JP), Acclaim Entertainment (NA, PAL)

Lots of games during the PS1 era had ‘Force’ in the title, but few were as underrated or underappreciated as novel 90s fighting sim Psychic Force. Originally an arcade game, Psychic Force was ported to the PlayStation in 1997, a transfer that did little to diminish the charm of Taito’s ambitious if deeply flawed take on one of the 90s’ most popular genres.

Instead of the standard underground fight clubs and pristine dojos that usually made pleasing backdrops to two burly men kicking one another in the head while shouting incomprehensible catchphrases, Psychic Force’s action is framed by a cube-shaped magical force field. What set the game apart was that fights occurred not only from left to right but also up and down as players floated up, down and across the screen and proceedings tended to look like a brawl had broken out inside an indoor skydiving facility.

It isn’t the perfect game, hampered occasionally by a lack of proper depth and some pretty dreadful dialogue, but what Psychic Force does have is charm and novelty, its fun twist on the format bringing something new to a genre that was in danger of going stale.

 

2. LSD: Dream Emulator

Developer: Asmik Ace Entertainment
Publisher: Asmik Ace Entertainment

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so following that logic, LSD: Dream Emulator is like stitching together War & Peace, Moby Dick, The Iliad and that one overly verbose speech from the old guy in the second Matrix film. It’s a lot to take in visually, is what we’re trying to say. It is supposed to be a dream emulator though, and we’ve all had those dreams where you wake up thinking “what the hell was that?”, so imagine an entire disc of levels like that and you’re about there.

There’s no real goal or objective to complete in LSD: Dream Emulator. You’re literally exploring bite-sized dreams that are about 10 minutes in length, in which you can stumble upon anything from dancing rabbits to a live sumo match. Originally, this bonkers and original title was only available in Japan, but in the past few years, dedicated modders and fans have released an English translated version which is available via emulation.

 

3. Wild 9

Developer: Shiny Entertainment
Publisher: Interplay Productions

Shiny Entertainment may have built a reputation and ultimately a legacy on profound weirdness, MDK and Earthworm Jim in particular highlighting the now-defunct American studio’s capacity for out and out surrealness, but they were never a developer to let quirkiness get in the way of quality.

Designed by David Perry, the same man who worked on the original Earthworm Jim in 1994, Wild 9 was a sort of 2.5D platform adventure that took many of Shiny Entertainment’s offbeat sensibilities and transposed them into an adventure platform that was as boldly individual as it was punishingly difficult.

Following the brilliantly-named Wex Major as he navigates his way through a strange new galaxy making eccentric friends and forming the game’s titular group, Wild 9 was never quite as polished or cohesive as Earthworm Jim or its many sequels, but it’s well worth digging out for anyone who can’t get enough of the sort of quirky humour that made Jim a household name. Cartoonish, fun and with an identity all of its own, Wild 9 is easily one of the most underrated PS1 games ever made.

 

4. Vib-Ribbon

Developer: Nana-OnSha
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

The PS1 was a trailblazer in a lot of ways. Sony’s first stab at the console market, the first PlayStation pioneered discs in a medium still focused on using cartridges, while the DualShock controller has become the blueprint that many console and controller manufacturers have tried to replicate in the years since. One neat feature that’s a bit more obscure is how various games used the CD playing function in-game, with the most famous probably being Monster Rancher. You put in a CD, you’d get a weird monster. What’s not to love?

However, we’re putting the focus today on Vib-Ribbon, a rhythm-action game that actually allowed players to use their own music via CDs, long before you could just make your own custom chart on Clone Hero. After inserting the game’s disc, you were given the option to enter your own CD, at which point Vib-Ribbon would create rhythm-action levels and obstacles based on the music being played. In a way, it’s one of the first interactive music visualisers, which is pretty cool.

 

5. Fighting Force

Developer: Core Design
Publisher: Eidos Interactive

Late 90’s beat ’em up Fighting Force debuted at an odd time for the genre as a whole. Beat ‘em up games had enjoyed their initial peak in the 80s with franchises such as Streets of Rage and Final Fight cornering this enjoyably hard-edged corner of the market. The genre would see a resurgence thanks to the likes of Viewtiful Joe and God Hand in the 2000s, not to mention the rise of the hack-and-slash genre, but in 1997, things weren’t looking so rosy.

Perhaps that’s why Fighting Force and its maligned sequel ended up falling between the cracks at a time when the industry was enjoying something of a transition. Situated slap-bang in the middle of a wave that was enduring a trough rather than happily enjoying a peaking crest, Fighting Force’s tale of a brave crew of fighters taking down a criminal mastermind by punching everything in sight failed to generate much critical or commercial attention.

That all said, the first Fighting Force game is something of a lost classic, a satisfying brawler that gives you everything you could want from a fighting game released back in the 90s. It was never exactly revolutionary in terms of its characters, plot or setup, but for being one of the first brawlers to really translate the action from 2D to 3D, Fighting Force deserves more attention than it ever actually received.

 

6. Tobal No. 1

Developer: DreamFactory
Publisher: Square, Sony Computer Entertainment

The PS1 boasts probably the best library of fighting games in gaming history, not including current platforms anyway. So many classics have made their home on Sony’s big gray box, including Tekken 3, Marvel Vs Capcom, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and that barely covers all of the absolute bangers you can play. While some of the more underrated games include Battle Arena Toshinden and Ehrgeiz: God Bless The Ring, Tobal No. 1 definitely deserved more attention.

A 3D fighter with characters designed by the late, great Akira Toriyama, Tobal No. 1 allowed for full freedom of movement during a battle, with a wide range of attacks and even a grappling system for fans of suplexing people all over the place. There was even a Quest Mode, which expanded the regular gameplay into a 3D dungeon crawler, with players unlocking new characters by defeating them in this mode. Of course, there was no save file for this mode, so you either got good at the opening fights quickly, or quit altogether.

 

7. Bloody Roar

Developer: Hudson Soft
Publisher: Hudson Soft (JP), SCEA (NA), Virgin Interactive (Europe)

The games market has always been one brimming with competition. The fighting game niche has for a long while been sewn up by a couple of major properties, most of which debuted when you still had to go to an arcade and part with your hard-earned quarters if you wanted a safe place to roundhouse your best mate using a character with the head of a leopard.

Tekken, Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat — these are the names that have become household, around forever and certainly not going anywhere anytime soon. Little wonder, then, that with such heavyweights dominating the arena there wasn’t much room left in the ring for a new contender looking to shake up the established order.

What Bloody Roar did have on its side was the novelty factor, building itself around the concept of having a group of fighters capable of transforming into a variety of animals in combat. Coupled with polished gameplay and enticing design, Bloody Roar managed to just about hold its own, going on to spawn three sequels (including another on PlayStation) up until 2003. Sadly, however, it could never quite muscle in on the big boys’ racket, now only remembered as one of the most underrated PS1 fighting games you’ve likely never played.

 

8. Legend of Legaia

Developer: Prokion, Contrail
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

It must have been ridiculous to have been an RPG development team working on a PS1 release, as it’s a console library that boasts a real murderer’s row of RPG hall of fame picks. Final Fantasy VII, Vagrant Story, Suikoden 2, Wild Arms, Parasite Eve; those games alone are barely scratching the surface of the excellent RPGs on the platform, so it’s no wonder that games like Legend of Legaia manage to fall through the cracks. It’s a shame, as Legaia’s approach to combat makes it one of the most unique games on Sony’s first platform.

Set in a world where magical beasts called Sera have been corrupted by a mysterious mist, Legend of Legaia thrusts you into the shoes of Vahn, a hero who’s able to summon a special kind of Seru and cleanse the mist. What makes Legend of Legaia so interesting is its approach to turn-based combat, as instead of picking an action from a menu, you input a series of attack commands to create special sequences called Arts. Players can chain these commands together to devastate opponents, creating an experience that;s still incredibly unique.

 

9. Galerians

Developer: Polygon Magic
Publisher: ASCII Entertainment (JP), Crave Entertainment (WW)

Galerians isn’t perhaps the most enticing, intriguing or enigmatic title for a game, but you can’t help but feel it might have sounded better in its original Japanese. Polygon Magic’s survival horror tells the story of Rico, a boy with psychic powers who awakens to discover that he’s the only one capable of halting the advance of the game’s eponymous genetically advanced humanoids.

Thanks to its clear creative debt to the Resident Evil games, Galerians does end up suffering from many of the same issues that threatened to undermine the excellence of Capcom’s iconic franchise, namely some rather wonky cutscenes, cliched storytelling, and visual and sound design that could never quite match the tone the game was trying to set.

Still, for a game that came out in 1999, Galerians doesn’t do a bad job of telling its oddball story, doing enough to earn solid reviews and even spawn a sequel in the shape of Galerians: Ash for the PS2. For fans of the horror genre looking back into the past, however, you can’t help that Galerians will continue to be overlooked thanks to the overwhelming nature of Resident Evil’s colossal shadow.

 

10. Tail Concerto

Developer: CyberConnect
Publisher: Bandai, ALTUS USA

A dark horse contender for the PS1 game most eligible for a remake or remaster, Tail Concerto was CyberConnect2’s first attempt at marrying cute animals with mechs in a series referred to as Little Tail Bronx. While it’s an idea that the Japanese devs would revisit over the years, it would take their fourth entry, Fuga: Melodies of Steel, for the LTB series to really gain more mainstream attention. Now that Fuga is barrelling towards a third game in that sub-series, maybe now is the time for Tail Concerto to have another go.

Years and years before Paw Patrol, Tail Concerto lets you play as a canine cop with the remarkably adorable name of Waffle Ryebread, who comes into conflict with a group of sky pirates known as the Black Cats Gang. Unlike the RPGs in the Little Tail Bronx series, Tail Concerto is more of a platformer, with players traveling through levels trying to rescue kittens and trying to stop the Black Cats Gang from stealing ancient crystals. Low sales in Japan might have stopped Tail Concerto from gaining more notoriety, but it’s never too late for a second chance.

 

11. G-Darius

Developer: Taito
Publisher: Taito

The classic side scroller has been one of the many casualties of the relentless march of technological advancement, with G-Darius serving as a great reminder that progress isn’t without its downsides.

Originally a shoot’em up arcade game and the fourth instalment in a long line of Taito’s long-running Darius entries, G-Darius was ported to the PlayStation in 1998, eventually finding its way to other platforms such as the PC, the PS2 and, sometime later, the PS4. In a similar vein to the games that preceded it, G-Darius is a classic side-scrolling shoot’em up in which players control the Silver Hawk spaceship and must avoid obstacles and enemies as they process through various zones.

Sadly, the Darius franchise never quite became a household name in the West. G-Darius was missed by many as a string of other titles crowded the market and jostled for attention, but as far as side scrollers go, Taito’s excellent, fast-paced adventure is a prime exponent of just how fun this venerable old genre used to be.

 

12. The Misadventures Of Tron Bonne

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom, Eidos Interactive

Over the past few years, Capcom have made a pretty penny releasing collections of old Mega Man games, including the mainline Mega Man Legacy Collection, the Mega Man X Legacy Collection, Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection and (pause for breath), Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection. There’s still more Mega Man to compile though, with Mega Man Legends a prime candidate for a re-release. Hopefully though, that collection will also include The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, a prequel to the entire series.

Following the antihero of the Legends series, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne sees the titular mech pilot and her army of loyal Servbots trying to lie, cheat and steal in order to raise enough funds and rescue her family from crippling debt. With three different kinds of levels available, ranging from puzzles, adventure stages and action stages similar to the rest of the Legends series, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne deserves to be remembered alongside the best of the Mega Man series.

 

13. No One Can Stop Mr. Domino!

Developer: Artdink
Publisher: Artdink (JP), JVC Music Europe (EU), Acclaim Entertainment (NA)

Is there a title that better typifies the phrase “underrated PS1 games” like ‘No One Can Stop Mr. Domino!’? Produced by the little-known Japanese studio Artdink, Mr. Domino charges players with placing down rows of dominoes along a variety of game stages in such a way that enough can then be toppled effectively and the stage can be completed. Dominoes doesn’t get tougher than this.

This is the thing about the fifth generation of consoles: they were still sufficiently primitive that there was still a necessity for innovation in order to justify the existence of the medium as a whole. While most contemporary AAA studios have the budgets and tech to capture the same warzones, post-apocalyptic wastelands and endless tracts of open-world loveliness, studios had to be far smarter, and indeed stranger, when constructing their odd little worlds.

Japanese games in particular evidence this commitment to the surreal and the unconventional, and nowhere is it more apparent than NOCSMD, a beautifully arranged, very quirky piece of design that takes a simple concept and makes it soar. Getting your dominoes in place is a challenging feat in its own regard, but NOCSMD is made brilliant by virtue of its irrepressible charm. If you like games like the gorgeous Katamari franchise, you’ll like love its domino-obsessed cousin.

When and where else could you enjoy puzzle games built around anthropomorphic dominoes in the mainline market? Keep your God of War: Ragnarök. Give me No One Can Stop Mr. Domino.

 

14. Einhander

Developer: Square
Publisher: Square, Sony Computer Entertainment

Remember a simpler time in gaming when you could just load up an arcade shooter and have a blast, before throwing your controller halfway across the room because the game is coded to eat your continues like you’re in Hungry Hungry Hippos. The PS1’s “Shmup” library is vast, and while franchises like R-Type, Gradius, Raiden and others have been given another chance to shine on additional platforms, games like Einhander have been mostly forgotten. A shame really, because Einhander is quite the whipper.

A sci-fi take on a Greek mythological story of Selene and Endymion, which is a great premise already, Einhander sees the Moon colony of Selene at war with the Earth colony of Sodom. As a pilot of the Einhander, this game actually gives a good lore explanation as to why you’re a lone ship facing off against an entire armada, as you’re on kamikaze missions designed to do as much damage as possible before being blown into a pile of space dust. It’s just nice to know I was expected to die when I inevitably do, you know?

 

15. Rapid Reload

Developer: Media Vision
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

The world is a poorer place thanks to the untimely decline of the run and gun shooter. Ok, Studio MDHR did their best to bring the format back to the mainstream with their punishingly difficult animated adventure Cuphead, but for the most part you have to look back in time for the golden age of the medium.

Developed by Media Vision and published by none other than Sony Computer Entertainment, Rapid Reload is a relentlessly enjoyable runner gunner that gives players a choice of protagonists before letting them loose to cause carnage and destruction across the game’s six vibrant levels.

There is a plot about two treasure hunters out to retrieve a legendary gemstone amidst all of the shooting, but quite frankly it would make no difference whether you were out to save a princess, topple an authoritarian government or collect brightly coloured turnips. Rapid Reload is far more about the experience of its face-paced action and breakneck gameplay than it is about telling a cohesive story. For a great exponent of what runner gunners were all about when done well, Rapid Reload looks and sounds as good as it plays.

 

16. Gundam: Battle Assault 2

Developer: Natsume
Publisher: Bandai, D3 Publisher

When you really look at it, Gundam: Battle Assault 2 had no other choice than to be underrated and overlooked. The first game, which was released on PS1 in 1998 before being ported to the West after the turn of the millenium, didn’t review the best, so naturally that would affect the sales of any sequel. What didn’t help matters for Gundam: Battle Assault 2 is the fact that it launched exclusively on the PS1 at the tailend of 2002, when the console’s successor, the PS2, was already heading towards its third year on shop shelves. Talk about being stuck in the past.

What makes this so tragic is the fact that Gundam: Battle Assault 2 is considered to be a massive improvement over the original game, with tighter controls, more characters, better individual story modes for each of the characters and an improved visual presentation. While it might not stand among the classics of the fighting game genre, Gundam: Battle Assault 2 is still a great fighting game and an idea that perhaps should be revisited in the future. More 2D mech fighting games, please.

 

17. Akuji the Heartless

Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Publisher: Eidos Interactive

File Akuji the Heartless firmly under the heading ‘games that would never, ever get made today’. And not without reason.

Without being reductive about a time of great innovation and insight, the PS1 era was a quite strange period for games, exemplified by the utterly bizarre and mostly forgotten tale told by 1998’s macabre fantasy title Akuji the Heartless. In fact, Akuji the Heartless wasn’t so much slightly off the wall as it was strikingly weird and at times absurdly dark.

Crystal Dynamics’ late 90s action-adventure odyssey focused on the titular Akuji, a voodoo priest whose heart is quite literally torn out on the day of his wedding and who must now wander the Underworld searching for a way back home.

Weird or not, what the game did have going for it, however, was pedigree. Published by Eidos Interactive, the same lot who put their name to most of the best Thief games and developed by Crystal Dynamics, the guys who birthed the excellent Gex the Gecko franchise, Akuji the Heartless was undeniably well made, even if its controversial setup and relentlessly dark tone proved off-putting for some.

Bizarre, unsettling but undeniably well put together, Akuji the Heartless is an underrated PS1 game that definitely ain’t for kids.

 

18. Silent Bomber

Developer: CyberConnect
Publisher: Bandai, Virgin Interactive

Top-down shoot ‘em ups were all the rage back during the PS1 generation of consoles, and even before then. The formula couldn’t be similar, as you often entered a room, laid waste to hundreds of goons with some kind of superior weapon, then moved on to the next room. It’s a genre that kept gaming alive for a good while there, and while Silent Bomber can count itself among those kinds of games, it’s actually quite a bit different from others. You’re still cleaning out rooms of enemies, but instead of using guns, you’re lobbing bombs like some unhinged Bomberman. You know, without those pesky walls or blocks obstructing your explosions.

As former war criminal Jutah, you’ve been drafted to infiltrate and destroy a space cruiser referred to as the Dante, and you’ll achieve this by chucking bombs all over the place until the credits roll. What makes Silent Bomber so much fun is the fact that players can chain bombs together, and even acquire upgrades and power-ups that change the properties of his bombs entirely, adding a bit of depth to what could have merely been a brainless series of explosions.

 

19. MDK

Developer: Shiny Entertainment
Publisher: Playmates Interactive (NA), Shiny Entertainment (EU)

Has there ever been a stranger game than MDK? Perhaps the wilfully bizarre LSD: Dream Emulator or the infamous adventures of Pepsiman take the cake, but MDK has to be up there in terms of the bizarre stakes. Describing MDK doesn’t really do justice to the experience of actually playing it.

Players take on the role of the delightfully-named Kurt Hectic, a leather-clad man of action and part-time janitor who looks like a leather enthusiast roleplaying as the xenomorph from the Alien movies. Tasked with repelling an alien invasion, Kurt must destroy the large ‘minecrawlers’ that have come to strip Earth of its natural resources, a plot that makes as little sense as the game’s deranged visuals would indicate.

Not that MDK spends much of its time anywhere even closely resembling Earth. Shiny Entertainment’s relentlessly bizarre FPS uses a migraine-inducing colour palette of blacks and oranges, giving the game its unique flavour but just occasionally threatening to induce the mother of all migraines.

Strange or not, MDK is still held in esteem today as one of the most influential shooters of the 90s, its rave reviews at the time testifying to how bold and innovative Shiny Entertainment’s underrated oddity actually was. Thanks to its relentless pace and glorious mission design, MDK was way ahead of its time.

 

20. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom, Virgin Interactive

If ever there was an anime or manga property that was a prime candidate for a fighting game, it’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and there was arguably no better team to create a JoJo fighter than Capcom in the mid to late 90s. The folks over there were absolutely cooking with games like Darkstalkers and the various versions of Street Fighter that were available, so developing a fighting game where the characters and moves have already been designed must have felt like a bit of a gimmie for the team.

Featuring a roster of 22 characters, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure for the PS1 was based on the third story arc of the manga, Stardust Crusaders, which sees Jotaro Kujo and his grandad, Joseph Joestar, teaming up to take down a recently revived Dio. While JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure was also released on Dreamcast, the PS1 port is considered the superior version, as it includes an exclusive story mode with additional battles and mini-games. The JoJo series might be locked in the anime arena brawler vortex now, but it’d be lovely to see this game ported to modern platforms once again.

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