The PlayStation Classic has been announced.
Following in the footsteps of Nintendo, which has found unprecedented success with its NES and SNES mini consoles, Sony is stepping up to the table with its own retro hardware offering. The PlayStation Classic will have HDMI output, is powered by USB, and comes with two controllers. It will, however, only feature 20 games, of which five have been announced.
Upon the PlayStation Classic’s release on 3rd December, you’ll be able to play Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash!, R4 Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3 and Wild Arms. All are great games, but what else lies in store for us? There are many classic games in the original PlayStation’s library which makes choosing just another 15 quite difficult, but there are many that instantly spring to mind.
The classic JRPG Suikoden is one such game. It fetches silly money on eBay now for good reason: it’s bloody brilliant. Some will argue that its sequel is better, but the original is the game that should make its way onto the PlayStation Classic. And while we’re on the subject of JRPGs, Final Fantasy Tactics should be on there too. It never got released in Europe, and now it’s time for Sony and Square Enix to right that wrong.
Many will remember the original PlayStation for its myriad of fantastic platform games, so quite a few of them should make the cut. For a start, Crash Bandicoot has just got to be on the PlayStation Classic, because, well… it’s Crash Bandicoot. Spyro the Dragon should also feature, as well as Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. And for good measure, throw in Medievil and Pandemonium! too. We’d love to revisit all of those titles.
Horror games also found their footing on the original PlayStation so it would be great to have a couple of those on the PlayStation Classic. The very first Resident Evil and Silent Hill games should both feature. While Resident Evil has been remastered and re-released plenty of times over the years, it would be a travesty if it didn’t feature on the PlayStation Classic. Silent Hill, on the other hand, may not look too good these days, but it’s still extremely creepy.
In terms of racing games, no celebration of the original PlayStation is complete without Gran Turismo and Wipeout. Both were instrumental to the success of the PlayStation console, and the Gran Turismo series is still going strong today. It would be great to return to their roots and see just how much they’ve changed over the years.
And then then we have some of the greats that don’t fit into any of the genres above. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night should be on the PlayStation Classic, for instance, because it’s simply one of the best games ever made. The original Broken Sword should be on there too for the same reason. And what about Metal Gear Solid? If that isn’t on the PlayStation Classic we’ll eat one.
The final game we think should be on the PlayStation Classic is Theme Hospital. Two Point Hospital may have just been released, sure, but we’d love to revisit the title that had us wanting to be doctors and nurses when we were growing up.
In all honestly, there are so many classics on the PlayStation that we could list them all day. Already, more titles are springing to mind like the excellent PaRappa the Rapper and Vagrant Story. Needless to say, whatever games successfully make their way to the PlayStation Classic, it’ll please some while leaving others disappointed. 20 games just isn’t enough.
