What are your Top Five PlayStation games?

So, I've been on an old games kick lately. Started an SNES and Nintendo 64 collection. I'm not trying to collect everything but I want a nice, well manicured, collection that highlights the very best of what each system had to offer, or if I just like the game. So I want to move on to a PS1 collection they're very cheap as far as old consoles go and the games are reasonably plentiful. Give me your 5 best PS1 games. If you can name more than 5 that are must owns, I'd be happy ot hear them. I'm up to play most anything so don;t feel shy to recommend only certain genres. To start off the collection I'd like to get a copy of MGS and FFVII.

Moved to the PlayStation forum - please use the game and platform specific forums instead of lumping everything into General.

Also, this topic has been done before a number of times, but they're all pretty old. Here's one - look through the PlayStation forum for more:

http://www.giantbomb.com/playstation/3045-22/forums/what-were-your-top-10-games-on-the-playstation-1-542510/#41

I mean, I usually kinda avoid strictly going for the classics when building my console collections, I usually go for finding out earlier works by developers I dig or stuff within specific themes or genres I enjoy, so my top list of PS1 games is kinda devoid of the really big classics.

I'd say: Future Cop L.A.P.D., King's Field, G-Police, Colony Wars, Ace Combat 3 and Warhawk in no particular order.

@fisk0: that is a hell of a list duder! G-Police is the foundation of all my Sci-Fi love/dreams since I was a kid. I nearly bought Colony Wars at a used game store and then cowardly walked away :(

5 games for the PS1 is impossible for me. So, here are five I really love and have also played recently:

• Bushido Blade 2
• Codename: Tenka
• Einhander
• Parasite Eve
• Driver

There are so many JRPGs it's just bananas and so many are truly God Tier games of that genre. Grandia, Suikoden, Final Fantasy, Lunar, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Valkyrie Profile, Breath of Fire and on and on and on it goes.

If you want very PlayStation centric games, you should look for the Wipeout series, Crash Bandicoot games, and Gran Turismo.

I could go on but thinking about it is starting to hurt / I want to go to a used games store now.

Most of the classics you can download on PSN. I know that's not the point of a collection, but I'm going to steer clear of the obvious ones and give you games you can only buy physical copies of.

• Silent Bomber
• Einhander
• Board Game: Top Shop
• Devil Dice
• Tecmo's Deception: Invitation to Darkness

Starting a collection of an old machine that was relevant for almost 10 years can be daunting. A proper collection of every noteworthy game would be 100-deep, easy. Collecting is a deep dark hole to fall into...don't get lost.

@geraltitude: Oh, I just bought Codename Tenka a few months ago, but haven't gotten around to trying it yet. Looked like it could get up there on my list if I actually ever played it too.

@fisk0: oh awesome / so random. It's a weird game, that's for sure. Partially it's just a straight shooter with that recognizable Psygnosis PS1-era aesthetic, but the whole "1 Gun You Upgrade Over Time" is, I'm pretty sure, the first time we ever saw something like that in an FPS, and it's a pretty cool feature. I wanted to update our wiki so maybe I'll get around to that soon.. Which in turn reminds me that the Psygnosis page is woefully thin for such a legendary developer.

Really hard to nail down just 5, hell i could quite easily make a ps1 top 20 of just rpgs and it would be tough so to make it easier on myself im going to exclude JRPGs:

Metal gear solid

Misadventures of tron bonne

Symphony of the night

Die Hard Trilogy

ISS Pro evolution

I didn't have a PlayStation, but I had a GameCube, so... Twin Snakes and REmake.

a man of my own heart.

the gameplay isnt the best but its bursting with personality. really suggest getting it on psn. it sucks a physcial version is so expensive.

I mean...I have one...

And here I thought I was the only one that had played that game. Wow, I love that game.

Other recommendations would be:

Final fantasy 9

Suikoden 2

Crash bandicoot 3

Symphony of the night

• Metal Gear Solid
• Future Cop LAPD
• Driver
• Final Fantasy VIII
• Team Buddies

If I was guessing what games I spent the most time playing on PS1...

Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis

Tekken 3

Bishi Bashi Special

ISS Pro Evolution Soccer 2

Gran Turismo 2

Nah, that too hard! Come on that system has 100 great games and more then 15 fan-f'ing-tastic games, so just choosing five will leave great games on the cutting room. But in the spirit of "what if only 5", I'll make a list.

(in no order)

• Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
• Gran Turismo 2
• Resident Evil 2
• Tomb Raider
• Ace Combat 2

That hurt! I left off Metal Gear because I just go a bigger kick out of Tomb Raider, Tenchu and RE2. Medal of Honor I left off because while it was a nice shooter for PSX, those oher five just beat it.

Honorable mentions: Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, Medal of Honor, Final Fantasy Tactics, Soul Blade, Colony Wars, Dino Crisis 1&2, Tekken 3, Resident Evil Directors Cut, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Vandal Hearts, and Vagrant Story.

Yeah, I wish more games did that shoot 'em up-esque upgraded gun thing. The first FPS I remember seeing it in was Gloom for the Amiga, but I can't think of many others that have done that.

@fisk0: ah that's an interesting note - the Amiga is unfortunately just a black hole for me outside what I've absorbed from GB. I didn't connect the dots on the shoot 'em-up lineage of that mechanic, but that's 100% on the money I think. Just booted it up now and noticed a) Dolby surround sound, b) widescreen option c) surprising how good this looks to me. Not bad for 97! As an aside, I hope the copy you bought comes with a manual, because it is an amazing example of 90s marketing.

Mega Man X4 would be my #1 and RayStorm probably somewhere in my top 5.

I actually have a list of all PS1 games I played and gave 4-stars to only those two games. http://backloggery.com/games.php?user=rockshard&console=PS It used to be more but recently I decided to scale back on how many games I give 4-stars to. Of course I do think PS1 has other good games: Ridge Racer series (except Type 4 because it sucks), Wipeout 3 (and maybe XL), Jet Moto 1/2, Twisted Metal 2, Jumping Flash 1/2 (I thought 2 was better as a kid, but now I think 1 is better), and two games I never beat but I liked at the time: Azure Dreams and Destruction Derby 2 (just 2, the first one sucks) and Micro Machines V3 which is a really good multiplayer game esp if you have a multi tap. RayStorm btw is also a great 2 player game.

A good PS1 collection definitely should have X4 in it.

I'm tempted to point out the famousness of some PS1 games/franchises like Twisted Metal, Wipeout, Ridge Racer, Jet Moto, etc. but that's so overdone. I only care if a game is good.

I'd say (and roughly in this order) Final Fantasy VII and IX, Suikoden 2, Wild Arms 2, and Final Fantasy Tactics. Also rans were Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo 2, Tomba, Xenogears, Legend of Dragoon, Legend of Legaia, Wild Arms, Suikoden, Twisted Metal 2, and Tekken 2.

Vagrant Story (also the best game ever made), Front Mission 3, Final Fantasy Tactics, Chrono Cross (best soundtrack ever), Warhammer: Dark Omen

My favourites are:

• Metal Gear Solid
• Crash Bandicoot 2
• Tony Hawk's Skateboarding
• Driver
• Gex 3D: Enter The Gecko

• Xenogears
• Street Fighter Alpha 3
• Tony Hawk 2
• Final Fantasy IX
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

At least off the top of my head. I could probably add more JRPGs to the list. This was probably the last great era of the JRPG.

Unfortunately, PS1 games do not hold up well. Early polygonal games are horribly ugly, and the PS1 in particular wasn't very good at rendering them. I'd rather play a good NES game.

Yeaaa PS1 was one hell of a system. Doubt there's anyway to just list 5 games. You could probably have a top 50 where all the games are of the same caliber.

Monster Rancher. I don't think I've been as blown away by a gaming related gimmick as I was with "there are monsters INSIDE the CDs!". Skylanders got nothing on Monster Rancher.

Oh...also Metal Gear Solid, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and Legends of the Dragoon.....but mostly Monster Rancher.

Rival Schools: United by Fate

Silent Hill

Vagrant Story

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete

Final Fantasy IX

There are hundreds of great games on the PS1 so to narrow it down a bit have I only picked great racing games with a 2 in its name.

• Gran Turismo 2
• Colin McRae Rally 2.0
• Driver 2
• TOCA 2
• Destruction Derby 2

Tomb Raider (even though it's aged even worse than most PS1 games)

FFVIII

Metal Gear Solid

Ridge Racer Type 4

Tekken 2

I could name another 30 without pausing for breath. Even with emulation (and PSN downloads) I still own 3 PS1s and hook one of them up fairly regularly.

1. Final Fantasy Tactics
2. Suikoden 2
3. Suikoden
4. Castlevania: SOTN
5. Metal Gear Solid

Damn that's lots of Konami on that list. Fancy that! All Japanese games too. Gaming sure has changed a lot in a relatively short period of time.

@laxbro19: Boy that's a tall order. The Playstation 1 had one of the deepest catalogs of any console ever.

Quick question- Do you want things that probably hold up well now? Or things that were amazing in their day? See cuz that n64/PS1/Saturn/3D0/Jaguar 5th generation probably has aged the worst out of generations save the really really archaic stuff (like the Atari 2600 or Colecovision or something). A lot of the stuff that was mindblowing in context, could seem like garbage today.

• MGS
• FF Tactics
• Crash Bandicoot 2
• Crash Bandicoot 3
• Castlevania SOTN

Chrono Cross

Silent Hill

Rage Racer

LSD: The Dream Emulator

Symphony of the Night

Metal Gear Solid

Final Fantasy Tactics

Final Fantasy VII

Crash Bandicoot 2

Tony Hawk 2

It was a great system. Lots of good games but that's my 5. Here are some other games I like and recommend that may not be on many top 5 lists but are worth checking out: Jackie Chan Stuntmaster, Wipeout, Fighting Force, Brave Fencer Musashi, Grandia, Bushido Blade, Vagrant Story, Future Cop LAPD.

FF9

FF Tactics

Parasite Eve

Bushido Blade 2

Soul Blade

Be wary about collecting 64 games. I bought the system with that intention and maybe got like....5 games. There's a lot of garbage on that system