32-bit Wonders: Six Playstation Classics
I was a Nintendo kid.
Before I would have a console to call my own I still found myself clinging to my cousins’ Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64. Even as a 4 year old I saw Nintendo as more “kid-friendly” than anything else. I would play Super Mario All Stars and Donkey Kong Country 2 while the rest of my relatives played Tekken or Resident Evil. Resident Evil 2 especially is where my kid brain burned in the concept of games that weren’t for children. I’ve talked about my times with Resident Evil 2 before, so I’ll spare you the gritty details. One thing I’ve never talked about is how RE2 ruined the Playstation for me as a child.
Growing up in a trailer park that was about as tightly packed as even the most expensive cans of sardines I had plenty of close neighbors. One neighbor in particular had a son about the same age as me. We’ll call him B for Brevity’s sake. B and I grew a leader and lackey type of friendship not long after my family and I moved into the park. I was the lackey. I won’t mince words.
I was a dumb child.
My mother gave me $20 one year for my birthday and my neighbor offered to sell me either his Sega Genesis or his completely useless (but cool looking) toy laptop for exactly $20. He even was willing to throw in a few games- one of which was Mortal Kombat. I was terrified of Mortal Kombat. My parents wouldn’t let me watch gruesome movies at the time because….I was 5.
My first memory that stuck to me was when I was 2 and my mom dragged me out of the living room while they were watching “Pulp Fiction”. It wasn’t gory but a certain scene was about to play and seeing that it was my family’s first time watching they didn’t know what was about to happen to Ving Rhame’s character in the basement of that Pawn Shop. Luckily my mom was fast enough to snatch me out of the room before Bruce Willis opened that door. After that day my mom would make sure all the media I would consume was appropriate. All media except for videogames. She didn’t know that games could be violent. She only knew Pac Man and Mario Bros.
Somehow despite every local news station at the time clutching their pearls at the sight of Mortal Kombat’s gory fatalities my family didn’t know any better. My aunt knew but just didn’t care, so for Christmas in 1995 my cousins received a copy of Mortal Kombat 3 for Sega Genesis. I would watch with my mouth agape as my cousins played against each other. When Sindel screamed at her opponent so loud that the sound waves ripped their skin apart I sat at the front of my cousin’s TV in terror.
Needless to say I bought the stupid laptop. It had flashing lights.
By this time I was already well into my morbid curiosity with Resident Evil 2, but this wasn’t like the shock horror of Mortal Kombat. Resident Evil was a deeper, more visceral experience. I was mostly enamored by the puzzle aspect of the game and the level design. Even now as an adult I get giddy when I walk through an alley because it reminds me of the back of Gunshop Kendo. Even with my less than horrifying experiences with Resident Evil I still couldn’t process that the Playstation had anything other than adult games. I don’t mean adult as in….adult but adult as in games not for kids. So one day at this same neighbor kid’s house he and I crawl into his blanket fort to play some Crash Bandicoot. Crash Bandicoot is a game for children and adults alike. Everyone loves that Bandicoot. He was a little rascal who ate pizza backwards.
However…when my friend booted up his Playstation and I heard the boot music the only thing in my 5 year old brain was “Oh God….after this game boots it’s going to be Resident Evil 2. I just know it. I’m going to see the Explicit Violence and Gore warning and then it’ll be time to play Resident Evil 2. I’m not ready.”
I ran out of that blanket fort so fast.
I ran out of that house. I ran back into mine. I cried for hours. I had been Pavlov’s Dogged into thinking that the Playstation boot music immediately led to Resident Evil.
I wouldn’t own my own PlayStation for 5 more years.
I was 10 years old by now. My parents took me to not a Walmart but the Walmart in Gonzales, Texas. I don’t remember why that one specifically but they bought me a PSone for my Birthday. The PSone is different than a Playstation in the sense that it has a different bios and a smaller frame, aside from that it’s exactly the same. I already had a Gamecube at the time so I knew about memory cards, but my parents didn’t think I would need one so they didn’t purchase one. Most stores stopped selling PS1 games already at this time so my only local place to get games was the rental store in town. I rented Bloody Roar. I popped it in the console and booted the game up. The boot sound was the same. It shook me a bit but I was older now. I looked in awe at the laughably bad opening cutscene and proceeded to beat some people up in this fun little 3D fighting game. I didn’t really need a memory card to enjoy this game because aside from keeping score and unlocked characters I didn’t need to save any data. I had fun with it. I would later purchase Tomb Raider III, Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 at an FYE the next town over. A year would pass and I would receive a PlayStation 2 from my sister. I don’t remember what happened to the PSone. I probably sold it at Gamestop for enough money to buy half a sandwich at Subway.
Six years later I would find myself working at the local Dairy Queen flipping burgers and hating every second of it. My manager disliked me about as much as I did so after my first three checks I decided that they were also my last. I didn’t make a lot in those three weeks but I did make enough to buy myself a brand new PS3 and a couple games. I wouldn’t have internet in my home until around 4 years later but I had friends with wifi so I would simply take my console to their place to download games with little prepaid cards that I would purchase. I had amassed a moderately large collection of games, and I grew especially close to the Playstation Store’s “Playstation Classics”- digital PS1 games to use with your PS3 or Playstation Portable. This was my fruitful attempt at reclaiming a generation of games that long escaped me. I had purchased a used PSP a few months prior to getting a PS3 but I didn’t buy PS1 classics until I had a PS3. My PSP’s wireless internet was less than stellar at the time so I usually had to download games and transfer them via USB to the little handheld. Over the years my PS1 classic collection grew and grew mostly due to none being any more than maybe $15, meaning that I could buy two or three games with a single card. As of writing I still have access to these games, and I still see myself playing Resident Evil 2 and Metal Gear Solid on my Playstation Vita.
So with over a decade’s worth of games purchased let’s look at a few of my absolute favorites. Some might be more popular than others, but some might be considered “Hidden Gems”. It hurt to just type that.
Without wasting any more precious time let’s begin with…..
FINAL FANTASY VII (1997)
I was well into my love for Japanese Role Playing Games by this time but I had never beaten FFVII, so I’m proud to say that according to my transaction history dating back to over a decade ago Final Fantasy VII was my first PS1 classic that I had purchased.
I got through the first few hours of FFVII back in 2007 but had to give it back to my friend prematurely because my PS2 was having trouble reading blue and black discs. That weekend was nothing short of magical however. Two years later I would finally have my own copy of the game to play, and between story beats on my PS3 and grinding on my PSP I had this game finished over my summer break in 2010.
If by some chance you don’t know Final Fantasy VII let me give you the short story. You play as Cloud Strife, an ex soldier turned merc who’s been paid to blow up an energy reactor that is literally sucking the life out of the planet. You alongside your rag-tag group of eco-terrorists manage to blow said reactor up, but with that you set off a chain of events that inevitably lead to
the deaths of about 1/8th of a city’s population
the murder of a fascist CEO
the meeting of a big snake
the meeting a magical man with a big sword and even bigger mommy issues
the witnessing of just how deep a big sword can pierce through a torso
an identity crisis
and in typical JRPG fashion the killing of a God with the help of other Gods.
Final Fantasy VII is a story about life, death, taking care of the planet, and being true to yourself. It’s got one of best battle systems in the series thanks to the materia system, and it’s easily one of if not the best JRPG on PS1.
….and then a little over half a decade later in the straight to DVD sequel they made one of the characters an oil tycoon? What’s up with that….
RESIDENT EVIL (1996)
(The version available to purchase on PSN is “Resident Evil : Director’s Cut (Dual Shock Version)” so I’m contractually obligated to talk about the mansion’s basement music)
Before the masterpiece that is Resident Evil 2 there was well…Resident Evil. I didn’t even know about the first game until RE2 was a thing and that’s probably because while there were plenty of commercials for it’s sequels RE1 didn’t have as robust of an advertising campaign in the west. Maybe Capcom didn’t want to risk a big marketing budget because they thought the game wasn’t going to sell well overseas? Literally the only American advertisement that I could find for RE1 was when it was being advertised alongside RE2. By then this version would be known as the Director’s Cut, which really meant that it had a few new camera angles, new costumes, and a demo for RE2. the Dual Shock version a few months later would also include vibration support for Sony’s new controller and a new soundtrack.
Let’s get down to it! The soundtrack sucks!
Here’s the breakdown. The music in the Dual Shock version of RE1 is just…..so bad. You ask yourself
“Who would do this”
You find out that the game’s new composer is Mamoru Samuragochi, a deaf musician most famous for his work on the Japanese film “Remembering the Cosmos Flower” and literally nothing else prior to his “work” on Resident Evil. He would later do the “music” for Capcom’s 2001 Samurai Epic “Onimusha” and then his magnum opus would be his various apology letters for not actually being deaf and having a ghostwriter do all his work. The real composer for Resident Evil Director’s Cut and Onimusha was none other than Takashi Niigaki. Takashi Niigaki if you’re reading this and I know you are I want to say that i’m glad you’re finally getting the recognition that you deserve.
Now explain this:
Here’s the general theory among fans:
Samuragochi-san knew that this song sounded like clowns engaging in a fight to the death. He couldn’t tell the rest of the sound team that it was horrible because it would out him as not actually being deaf. He was the “Digital Age Beethoven” after all. So he had to let the programmers just…put this garbage in the game. Apparently if you just switch the instruments around on the keyboard he used for the rest of the soundtrack this theme doesn’t sound half bad. It’s supposed to be ominous, not flatulent.
Soundtrack aside Resident Evil was already campy as all get out but that doesn’t stop most fans from having a good time. Is it as good as Resident Evil 2? No. Is it an important piece of Playstation history? Absolutely.
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA (1995)
Released in Japan as “Street Fighter Zero”, Street Fighter Alpha is a prequel set a few years before the events of the first game. Gameplay-wise it’s more of the same but with a slew of new characters and features. The PS1 version also has a new soundtrack separate from the arcade version that thankfully sounds good. Capcom so far in this list has had a bad rep with music. SFA breaks the mold of traditional Street Fighter games at the time with the addition of a more anime-inspired art style. It suits the series perfectly and I hope we see a new game in the series with a similar aesthetic.
When I bought Street Fighter Alpha it was just a few days before my senior class trip. Every year the seniors would take a couple fancy charter buses to Austin to visit the capitol but for some reason we didn’t get to go. We instead went to….a buffet.
Before the buffet however we did get to go to the Bullock Texas State History Museum so I can’t say it was all bad. Out of the two buses the one I was riding on had no working AC, and while my flip phone buzzed with pictures of my friends nuzzled up in blankets I got to sit in a sweltering leather death trap while the rich kids sitting behind me snorted cocaine off their new smartphones. I had Street Fighter Alpha to keep me occupied though. Street Fighter and the challenge of using the bus bathroom without splashing fluids on my jeans.
Once we got to the buffet my PSP’s battery was already depleted so I stuffed my face and enjoyed the company of my close senior friends- all two of them. It’s not that I didn’t have friends in highschool, it’s just that most were older or younger. When it had occurred to us that it wasn’t actually a buffet at all one of my friends got reasonably angry and proceeded to freak out. He wasn’t the most hinged person I knew, but he was cool. He calmed down, we left, and I proceeded to try again at not getting blue toilet water on my clothes.
I failed.
GAIA SEED: PROJECT SEED TRAP (1996)
I bought this on a whim. I had no real idea what this game was. All I knew is that it was a shooter and I liked shooters. I played Ikaruga, Darius, Radiant Silvergun, Gradius, Raiden, etc. I was bad at them sure but they were fun to play. They were an excellent way of killing time. I can’t see myself writing at length about Gaia Seed because I don’t know this game like I know all the others. I bought it a little after my graduation. I spent a good amount of that summer at a friend’s place. We’d grill burgers, order pizza, pool together our money for weed and beer, play Street Fighter III Third Strike and watch anime and Tokusatu shows. I’d have the worst trip of my life in that house. I had the best trip of my life in that house too. Not from drugs or anything but the thought of having somewhere to go that wasn’t work or home or the store.
The last couple years of highschool I was becoming a bit of a shut in. I had grown a fear of not only people but….dogs. I watched my own dog get mauled while we went for a walk around the neighborhood. After that I would never leave the house unless I was in a vehicle. I couldn’t walk my dog in fear of him being attacked again. It was a bad time. Months would pass and I would finally drum up the courage to walk to a friend’s place about half a mile away. It was a safe space both literally and figuratively. Like most things though this house didn’t stay the same for long. My two friends would eventually move out and I would be left with little else to do outside of work and home. I finally accepted that I was going to be alone for a while. Me and my games. Me and….GaiaSeed.
I played a bit each day until I could eventually finish the game in one credit. It took me several months to manage this feat. I couldn’t do it now but I could ten years ago. It’s not a long game by any stretch but it’s something special.
XENOGEARS (1998)
Tetsuya Takahashi made a bit of a name for himself for writing and directing Xenosaga and Xenoblade but before Namco and Nintendo he worked for Squaresoft on Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. He and his wife Kaori Tanaka would then write and pitch Final Fantasy VII but the story would be scrapped for being to dark and complicated. Soon after however their story rose from the ashes and became it’s own Intellectual Property. It became…
Xenogears.
This game almost never saw an english release for having too many overtly religious themes. Games with religious imagery would either be changed overseas or simply not come to the US. I’m not sure if it’s because of some kind of law but more than likely they never came out simply because they didn’t want to risk a hate mob from the church. Games like these also never got a lot of marketing push so magazines and word of mouth were the major players in RPGs that weren’t Final Fantasy. At the time of release though we were in what I like to call the post-FFVII era. Final Fantasy was always popular among RPG enthusiasts but Final Fantasy VII made the franchise what it is today. Love it or hate it but if it wasn’t for FFVII Square likely wouldn’t have taken a chance to localize Xenogears.
In 1998 alone Richard Honeywood would work on 4 seperate games for Square. He translated Xenogears, Einhander, and SaGa Frontier alongside special credits for Parasite Eve. With those games and dozens more over the years and under his belt he still says that Xenogears was his most difficult project. This might be because half of Xenogears remained virtually unfinished. Disc 2 of the game essentially force feeds you story while the game itself takes a backseat. Xenogears is a classic case of budget and time constraints leading to missed potential. To me Xenogears will never be about the game, but about what could of been- and if we’re being honest here I hate how I see this game. Most people see through the cracks and find a perfectly good story. I’m just not one of those people. I’ve always favored gameplay over anything else, and with that being said Xenogears just doesn’t do it for me.
This was one of the last games I purchased for my PS3. According to my purchase history I bought this and Chrono Cross on the same day. I still have yet to play Chrono Cross. It’s been several years since I last played Xenogears so I owe the people behind the game a second chance. Out of my favorite PS1 games there has to be a least favorite and this is it. I’m sorry Takahashi-san.
RESIDENT EVIL 2 (1998)
I’ve already talked at great length about how RE2 (known in Japan as “Biohazard 2”) was crucial in my early years of game appreciation but I didn’t actually finish the game until I was well into highschool. This is going to almost be cheating but the version I played the most wasn’t even the PlayStation release but the Gamecube version. Oh well, it’s my list and I’ll talk about Resident Evil 2 if I want to. If I ever make a list of important Nintendo 64 or Dreamcast games I’ll probably talk about RE2 then as well.
Resident Evil 2 is PlayStation.
Nearly every friend I had growing up had RE2 if they had a PlayStation. My cousins played it, my sister played it, and when I was finally over my fear I played it. When it comes to the Playstation version specifically I can think back as late as 2019 just a few weeks before Resident Evil 2’s remake would come out. I took it upon myself to go through the original game in anticipation for the remake, and spent a weekend trekking through the city streets, the police station, the sewers, and the laboratory with Leon and Claire. I didn’t see it as a send off before the remake but as a quick visit to an old friend before setting out to a new place.
The original Resident Evil 2 will always have a place in my heart and soul. Every time I go back to that game I trade a part of my current self for a part I left behind the last time I played. Resident Evil 2 is a locker where I store my favorite memory. The memories I have with my sister. She and I are currently playing through the remake but I keep going back to all those years ago where she would play the game for me while I watched. Now the controller is in my hands this time, and we’re screaming together at zombies and the mutated horrors that dwell in the underground. Playing Resident Evil 2’s remake is like playing the original, and playing the original RE2 is like playing every PlayStation game at once. It is the quintessential PS1 game, and nothing is going to take that from me. Its’ memories stain the curvature of my brain like the most colorful of dyes.
EPILOGUE (2021)
It’s been over ten years since I purchased Final Fantasy VII on PlayStation Network, and it’s been almost 30 years since the PlayStation came out in Japan. It’s worth noting that there were no games in this list that came out in 1994 or 1995. Here’s my yearly bad opinion emergency alert:
Aside from a few games like Ridge Racer and Jumping Flash there really weren’t a lot good games before 1996. I’m sure there’s an obscure Japanese game from 1995 that never made it west but in my (wrong) opinion Resident Evil in 1996 was the catalyst for good PS1 games, and that’s doubly weird when you think about just how bad RE1 is…
I’m kidding. Resident Evil 1 is good. Battle Arena Toshinden in 1995 was good too.
Battle Arena Toshinden was like Tekken for kids who bought bootleg VHS tapes of Dragon Ball where every other subtitle had swear words despite none of the characters swearing in Japanese. I couldn’t talk about Toshinden today because well….I never bought it on PS3. I think I own a physical copy now though. I have to look in one of three boxes. The other two boxes both have angry, hungry snakes so i’m not going to risk it.
