Hidden Gems of the PlayStation 1 Era
29 articlesA curated reading list of overlooked and underrated PlayStation 1 games that deserve a second look.
A 1997 side-scrolling shooter that lets you play as Major Kusanagi, blending stealth, action, and cyberpunk atmosphere.
A prequel to Mega Man Legends where you play as air pirate Tron Bonne, commanding robots and pulling heists.
A tactical RPG for PlayStation that reimagines the Chinese novel Journey to the West with strategic battles and historical flair.
A colorful action-adventure platformer where a wild boy battles evil pigs in a vibrant 2D world.
Explore the ocean floor for treasure while dodging sharks and pirates in this 1997 action-adventure game.
A turn-based tactical RPG from Konami where every battle leaves a literal trail of blood — and the story grows darker than its colorful sprites suggest.
A PlayStation role-playing game where battles are fought by stringing together directional attacks like a fighting game.
A 1998 PlayStation adventure about searching for a missing classmate in a small, snow-covered American town.
A 1998 PlayStation role-playing game that mixed dungeon-crawling with dating-sim romance, letting you forge stronger weapons by winning hearts.
A boy with no memory wakes up with psychic powers and discovers he may be the only thing standing between humanity and a race of genetically enhanced killers.
Before Dark Souls, FromSoftware made a slow, first-person ghost story about a man named Richard Osmond and the spirits he meets.
A 1996 platformer that turned one of gaming's most disposable creatures into an armored knight on a quest to free his brainwashed friends.
A first-person shooter from the early PlayStation era that mixed psychic powers with gunplay, now largely lost to history.
A PlayStation fighting game where battles unfold in 3D arenas, and it came with a demo of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
A gothic horror role-playing game set in a Welsh monastery, blending turn-based grid combat with survival-horror atmosphere on the original PlayStation.
Before the Souls games, FromSoftware built a slow, lonely first-person dungeon crawl that asked players to get lost on purpose.
A 1998 PlayStation role-playing game where a young cocoon keeper captures monsters, merges them together, and uncovers a forest's secrets.
A 1999 PlayStation action game where you don't shoot enemies — you plant bombs on them and detonate them in a chain.
A 1999 kart racer where you start as the slowest car on the track and unlock your way up through a grid of oddball vehicles.
A 1995 PlayStation tactics game where you program mechs to fight autonomously—a unique blend of coding and strategy.
A 1998 PlayStation puzzle game where you roll dice to match numbers, blending strategy with spatial thinking.
A 1998 mecha combat game where you pilot a walking tank against crime in a cyberpunk LA.
Climb a monster-filled tower in this unique 1997 PlayStation RPG that blends dungeon crawling with town-building and monster raising.
A 1995 SNES RPG where you leap through eras to stop a catastrophe—still magical today.
A 1990 point-and-click adventure where a wannabe pirate outwits ghosts, pirates, and puzzles with wit and charm.
A 1993 FPS that put players in a space marine's boots, fighting demons with 2.5D graphics and fast-paced action.
A 1998 FPS where you fight a corrupt mega-corp in a cyberpunk city.
Bethesda's 1995 FPS brings the Terminator universe to MS-DOS with groundbreaking 3D action.
A 1999 Windows RPG with 43 missions and 16-player multiplayer, blending strategy and magic.
Ask the Author (0)
Ask a question
Be the first to ask a question!