So I'm looking for some good ps1 games to play on my vita and wanted to get some GB peoples opinions on what to get.

Only three important things :

1. not an RPG
2. The game still holds up today
3. lastly no multiplayer reliant games (eg fighting games)

No RPG's because I'm not really looking for 60 hour game that has to be played for three or four hours at time between save points. I would prefer if the game still holds up, cuz I'm not looking for a nostalgic game so much as just a good game, and lastly they must be single player games as I'm going to be playing them on my vita.

any suggestions would be awesome thanks!

The Crash Bandicoot games.

@Guided_By_Tigers: funny thing, the crash games don't work on the vita, even with the work around loading them as apps.

Jumping Flash

Metal Gear Solid. Just played through it and it still freaking rocks.

The Spyro games.

I second Metal Gear Solid, still holds up great.

Metal Gear Solid, the Crash Bandicoot games, or the Spyro games.

Pretty funny that one has to buy a $250 piece of hardware to play PS1 games.

Parasite Eve still holds up really well. I know you said no rpg's but this one is only about 20 hours or so. I convinced a friend to play it a few weeks ago and he really enjoyed it. So at least I can say nostalgia isn't clouding my judgement when I say that Parasite Eve was, and still is a great game.

The first rayman game is pretty dope.

Definitely MGS; the now mind-blowing weirdness of the camera fades after an hour or so, so don't let that get to you. Best game on that platform IMO.

Soul Reaver is long but still super, super impressive (especially the writing/acting) and has fun environmental puzzles.

Symphony of the Night is awesome if you are into Castlevania at all and the music is famously incredible.

First Syphon Filter has a classic soundtrack and I'd describe it as a light action romp. Crunchy.

I guess Parasite Eve is an RPG? It's an action RPG I guess. Hard to not recommend this game though. It has such a fresh combat style.

Resident Evil 3 and Dino Crisis tend to hold up better than their brothers and sisters, as far as those games go.

That's off the top of my head. While thinking about your question I stumbled on this list, which may or may not be useful to you: List of PS1 Games Compatible on PS Vita @ TrendyGamers.com

I think the Armored Core games still hold up, if you can manage to get used to kind of early baddish 3D controls that lots of PS1 games had.

Also recommending Parasite Eve 1 even though you said no RPGs cause it isn't just JRPG stand there and hit each other, a lot more actiony. I also really like Parasite Eve 2, but that's kinda reliant on them taking a step backwards for the series I thought in going to tank style controls that make maneuvering in combat a lot more awkward, and you being okay with tank controls.

Also I'm unreccomending Metal Gear Solid. The series got so much better with time that it's hard to go back to the original without nostalgia being a huge factor I think.

Tombi! A great little adventure/platformer and to this day there's nothing quite like it out there. Except Tombi 2 of course.

Fear Effect 1 and 2! Rough gameplay, but the story is totally worth it

Tomba! and Klonoa: Door to Phantomile are both charming and inventive 2.5D platformers. Symphony of the Night is awesome, Spyro Year of the Dragon is the best 3D platformer from that whole generation, and Soul Reaver is great too.

Alundra fo' sho'. It's an overhead zelda clone, but you can get different weapon types and actually jump!

Metal Gear Solid, if you can import them and read japanese Kojima's Policenauts and Snatchers.

I think the Resident Evil games hold up. The voice acting in RE1 is abysmal but the game itself is still great. RE2 is the best in the series and RE3 is great. But other than those:

Dino Crisis

Parasite Eve

Metal Gear Solid

Symphony of the Night

I am fourthing Symphony of the Night, I bought and played that game to 200% again even when I had more current games that I should have been playing.

And I'd do it again, too.

Time Crisis yo.

Crash Team Racing, easily.

Anything that's 2D still holds up really well; Klonoa, Rayman, Tomba, Symphony of the Night, Alundra.

Parappa The Rapper

Vib Ribbon

and Vagrant Story (but that is almost a RPG).

Like others have mentioned, MGS1 is still a good one.

Twisted Metal 2 is still fun to play but that game is technically aged horribly.

There are also games, while tech-wise aged poorly, no game since has done anything like that like Sentient, Fluid and Rollcage: stage 2.

Carnage Heart had some nice ideas but I believe there are newer versions available.

I'd say Metal Gear Solid, played though it again recently and it was still amazing.

007 tomorrow never dies

What a great system the Playstation was.

legacy-of-kain-soul-reaver - Darksiders before Darksiders and IMO has a much better story, characters and style.

So it seems like MGS, and Symphony of the Night are well loved. Also Alundra and Soul Reaver sound interesting.

Cool Boarders, duh. The only reason ever to own a PS1

I played Resident Evil 1 for the first time earlier this year and I think it held up really well. I only got about 1/4 through RE2 before I got bored of it though. It felt like I was playing the exact same game but with less exploration and discovery with more of the clunky combat.

Is there anything that was done on PS1 that wasn't done better on PS2? Road Rash maybe?

The birth of the third dimension wasn't pretty. There's Super NES, and then PS2, and there isn't a lot of stuff between that appeals to me...but that's just me. I'm sure all this stuff would be great to play if I could stand to play it.

I just played Metal Gear Solid for the first time off of PSN and it held up just fine. The camera is obviously pretty bad but just make good use of the radar and the game isn't hard to play at all. I'll also second the original Rayman and Castlevania Symphony of the Night. I didn't like Spyro when I tried playing it again on PSN a couple years ago. It's okay but 3D platformers just get a lot better than Spyro. I think all of the rest of the PS1 games I have on PSN are RPG's. If you want something super hard and offbeat the Oddworld games are fun. But they are just ridiculously hard.

MGS and Spyro, I could still play through those even those the number of times I've beaten them is double digits.

Metal Gear Solid and Symphony of the Night are both great, and I would also recommend the first Silent Hill.

SoTN has save points spaced really well for 30 minute play sessions.

Alundra holds up, but I don't remember it being friendly for short bursts.

MGS is save anywhere. So that would work, but it might be more nostalgia goggles than still being really good. If you are going into it fresh the camera would probably seem rough.

metal gear solid for sure. also, not a classic, but check out silent bomber. incredible game that no one played.

@mwng said:

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is on the psn store right?

Yup! as is it's superior sequel Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, a similar but improved game with more tricks up its sleeve including the much appreciated ability to quicksave. It's a puzzle platformer in the vein of Flashback or Prince of Persia only tighter and more puzzly than those games. Artstyle and mechanics hold up really well, only issue is if you're into its gameplay or not.

Soul Reaver is pretty cool and is probably among the best 3d metroidvania style games that have been made conceptually to this day, which is sadly less attributed to it being well designed and holding up and more just a factor of there not having been a lot of better designed 3d metroidvania style games since. It's got a whole lot of potential but is rough, tedious combat and bad platforming are its biggest failings, good atmosphere and unique style its biggest strengths.

I remember really liking and playing the Tomba demo a lot back in the day, but I haven't picked up the PSN version yet since I've heard that it sufferes from the same "running at 50hertz on 60hertz TV's and thus running at a reduced speed" problems that Alundra had and still has as far as I know. I'm not sure if either of them work on the Vita yet either.

@mwng said:

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is on the psn store right?

Yup! as is it's superior sequel Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, a similar but improved game with more tricks up its sleeve including the much appreciated ability to quicksave. It's a puzzle platformer in the vein of Flashback or Prince of Persia only tighter and more puzzly than those games. Artstyle and mechanics hold up really well, only issue is if you're into its gameplay or not.

Soul Reaver is pretty cool and is probably among the best 3d metroidvania style games that have been made conceptually to this day, which is sadly less attributed to it being well designed and holding up and more just a factor of there not having been a lot of better designed 3d metroidvania style games since. It's got a whole lot of potential but is rough, tedious combat and bad platforming are its biggest failings, good atmosphere and unique style its biggest strengths.

I remember really liking and playing the Tomba demo a lot back in the day, but I haven't picked up the PSN version yet since I've heard that it sufferes from the same "running at 50hertz on 60hertz TV's and thus running at a reduced speed" problems that Alundra had and still has as far as I know. I'm not sure if either of them work on the Vita yet either.

I think I'm going to go with metal gear, but it's good to see that if I wanted to pick up more there is alot of quality psx games.

Final Fantasy

Resident Evil

Metal Gear Solid

Dino Crisis

Silent Hill

@TechHits: Castlevania Symphony of the Night. It's a straight up action platformer that looks great, has a fantastic soundtrack, and will last you between 7-10 hours depending on if you want to find every little secret or not.