The original PlayStation is celebrating it's 30th anniversary and we cannot believe the little grey box that could is so old already!
Starting life as a CD add-on for Nintendo's SNES, Sony embarked on a risky endeavor that ultimately led to it becoming a market leader in the home console arena. From pioneering franchises like Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, and more, the PlayStation kickstarted the 3D era for consoles properly, and we have never looked back.
The PlayStation even revitalised older pixel-based series like Final Fantasy and Metal Gear, bringing them crashing into the new polygonal digital realm on shiny compact discs. It was an industry-defining console that challenged the big companies at the time and essentially ushered in a new era for gaming, one in which half-assed attempts at trying to compete in the hardware market would be severely punished (hello, SEGA) and the console wars would evolve into a Sony vs Nintendo affair, with a little bit of Microsoft sprinkled throughout, especially during the mid-2000s.
Yes, the PlayStation is and was an unstoppable force, and to celebrate its 30th birthday, the team here at Gfinity has taken a look back at its favorite PlayStation titles.
Chris Davison
One of my earliest PS1 memories is playing Tomorrow Never Dies, which is fitting since it was released the year I was born (sorry if that makes you feel old). I grew up as a huge James Bond fan, and this particular entry was one of my favorites. Stepping into Pierce Brosnan's shoes to play 007 in a video game was magical as a kid. Firing my way through the snowy military outpost with an AK, skiing down mountains, and launching rockets from Q's iconic BMW were unforgettable.
The sights and sounds of the gameplay made it truly feel like I was in the movie. As for my favorite game, I’ll have to pick a series over a single title: Army Men. If I remember correctly, I played most of the PS1 games, but Lock 'N' Load was the one I spent the most time with. The Boot Camp intro was very fun for what it was, gunfights were both addictive and satisfying as bits of plastic flew off enemies, and the sound of bullets whizzing past my character intensified every mission. As a 1999 baby, memories of the PlayStation 1 days are vivid, but these games will always hold a special place in my heart. This is where my gaming journey started, after all.
Kris Alfonte
I got my OG PlayStation 1 back in late 1996; it was my grandmother’s last gift to me before she passed away 2 years later. The next day, after opening the box and testing out the demo disc included, I decided to go to our local video store and look for any intriguing games. I spotted Ranma ½ Battle Renaissance. I had no idea what kind of game it was back then; I just instantly bought it since I was a huge fan of the anime.
It was a terrible fighting game, but the graphics blew my socks off! Then months passed, and I needed an actual game that I would truly enjoy. Then I saw Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain! It had beautiful gothic box art, and back then, I was obsessed with vampires. It has become my favorite PS1 game since then. Blood, vampires, Shakespearean dialogues with an AAAA storyline, and simple but snappy gameplay made it my top-tier game back then. It defined my teen years, and up to this day, I still play it whenever I can! So, let me say it one more time… VAE VICTIS!
Ashlee Manalang
By the time I finally touched a PS1, it was already long gone from store shelves. My dad managed to find a second-hand one on OLX, and the very first disc that spun inside it was Resident Evil 2. That single disc introduced me to a genre that would change my life forever, and honestly, it’s still the one I measure everything else against. That’s also the very moment Leon Kennedy became one of my first loves—top 99, at least. The A/B scenarios, the branching storylines, the eerie RPD lobby music—I could go on forever.
In fact, I can still hear the RPD lobby theme as I write this, which pretty much says everything about the effect it had on me. It had this way of making every playthrough feel fresh. It’s also fair to say that it was ahead of its time. My best memories come from those nights (and mornings) when I’d play until I literally fell asleep with the console still running. My parents would wake up to the groans of zombies echoing through the house and get spooked themselves. That happened almost daily. I’d wake up with the controller in hand and do it all over again. The remake was great, but it couldn’t outdo the original. The kid in me crowned it the best. The adult in me never took that crown away.
Nico Parungo
The first game I ever wanted on my PlayStation was Space Jam. No, I’m not joking. Growing up, I was a huge Looney Tunes guy, so it was my personality for a good bit. Bugs Bunny was cool, so seeing him play basketball with Michael Jordan was even cooler to me as a youth.
My cousin then showed me Space Jam on her PS1, and my first thought was “I must have one.” Space Jam was fun for its time. Harmless basketball gameplay with some fun mini-games. My favorite PS1 game has to be Activision’s Spider-Man. This solid action-adventure had everything I wanted as a young Marvel fan: cool unlockable costumes, all of Spidey’s coolest villains, and a sick voice for Venom.
Andrés Aquino
You might think I owned a PS1 if you ask for my favorite games of all time, but truth be told, I never did, and yet its influence still hit me. I was still very young when the PS1 zeitgeist was happening, and was mostly a Nintendo kid during my formative years, until the Xbox came along, that is.
I simply couldn’t escape the Final Fantasy discourse. I grew up loving JRPGs, but what Nintendo and Microsoft had to offer just didn’t satisfy me enough: I loved Tales of Symphonia or Paper Mario on GameCube, and Xbox had, well, basically nothing. I wanted to try the latest Final Fantasy games in the series, but asking my parents, who had already made an effort to get me two consoles, felt selfish. Lucky for me, a friend lent me a PS1 that was just collecting dust with a sizable library, among them the original Resident Evil (which I loathed as someone whose first experience was the GameCube remaster) and, of course, the crown jewel: Final Fantasy 7. It completely changed my view on games, being the first time I was exposed to a not-so-pretty-looking RPG and still falling in love with its story, characters, and music.
For me, the PlayStation will always have a fond place in my gaming memories. Upgrading my SEGA to a PlayStation with Tekken 2 and Actua Soccer is something I will remember forever. I had tried to play one on holiday at the kids club and after 2 minutes of Destruction Derby I was hooked, there was just no way I could go back to the old 2D games (that feeling would change as I grew up), 3D was the future and the future was now!
There are too many classics to pick from, but around 1998, there was a Christmas when two of my school friends and I acquired the three most hyped games of the time and swapped them back and forth with each other for months. Final Fantasy VII, Abe's Odyssey, and Time Crisis (with the G-Con 45). I was the one who got Time Crisis and still hold it in high regard as one of my all-time favorite games. Sure, Final Fantasy VII was epic, and Abe with his farts was funny for young me, but bringing the arcade properly into my home with Time Crisis felt to me like what the first person playing Space Invaders at home generations before me must have felt—pure bliss.
And there we have it. Our very own collection of PlayStation memories. I know there are many, many missing from our picks, so please let us know your favorite PS1 games on our socials.
Happy birthday PlayStation, thanks for the memories and here's to many more!