SONY PLAYSTATION
(September 9, 1995-2006)
Sony knows their stuff
The Sony Playstation has become one of the most popular game systems of all time and it's easy to see why. I loved this little baby over the years and I have really great memories like the first time playing Final Fantasy 7 on the Tobal No. 1 demo disc and giving up a good month for the amazing CastleVania Symphony of the Night! The Playstation was a run a way success that sold over 50 million consoles in it's history but does that mean that I recommend the PSone today?
The Playstation, believe it or not, was suppose to be the 32-bit Super
Nintendo CD add on, then Nintendo didn't want it anymore after the
falling sales of the rival Sega CD and left their partner Sony holding
the bag. Sony just released the Playstation
by themselves in 1994 over in Japan, marketing it as a powerful 3D system.
As the Playstation grew so did the support.
Big companies like Capcom, Konami, and of course Namco were already on board and they only released
their best games like the stunning one on one brawler and Virtua Fighter clone Tekken. Sony released the Playstation here on
September 9, 1995
and with big titles like Mortal Kombat 3, Toshinden, and Ridge Racer the new system was off to a very good start. Sony was fairly strict about it's games
too because they learned from their past mistakes (anybody remember
those crappy games from Sony Image Soft?). Sony would not approve
a game of poor quality or a game that lacked Polygon hardware support
(like most 2D games) so the Playstation wouldn't have the same problems
that the 3DO and Atari Jaguar did (remember Air Cars and Plumbers Don't wear Ties? Of course you don't!). After
Square released the highly anticipated Final Fantasy 7 in September
1997 there was no stopping the Playstation,
not even Nintendo could hold them off. The Playstation was here to stay.You also have the option to buy the more compact Playstation called the PSone. It's much smaller and lighter that the original and you also have the option to buy a mini LST add on screen if you like. It should be noted that the PSone has a fairly large AC adapter so it may not fix in wall outlets as easily as before. So is the PSone really worth getting now especially with the bigger and better Playstation's out there.
If you wanna spend your money on actually
games and not power (like its sequel; the PS2) then the original PSone is still a good investment but I don't know anybody who really wants
that especially since the PS2 can play most PSone titles. There are still some really excellent PSone games still in the discount bins like CastleVania,
Final Fantasy 7 & 9, Tekken 3, The Raiden Project, and tons more though so there is no shortage of amazing titles. Hell, even the original Tomb Raider was a pretty good game before it started to get too commercial. Not only that but there are also some
fairly rare ones to like Dragon Ball Z: Final Bout, Klonoa:
Door to Phantomile, and more that are great
for hardcore game collectors like me. But on the same note beware
of all the questionable games out there too like Cyberia,
Descent, Hexen, Twisted Metal 3, and Final
Fantasy 8 (I'm not a big fan of #8).Bottom-line: The PSone is a great system with a lot of award winning games available but it is pretty much dead now as well. Despite all the great games for this system you're better off going for the newer and more powerful PS2 because that's the complete package (it plays DVD's, CD's, PSone games, and most importantly the all new PS2 games all in one). If you can get it cheap though around 30 bucks then go for it and see why the PSone was one of the greatest game machines of all time.
Sony Playstation overall rating: 82/100 It's still a great system but you can also play the games on the more powerful Playstation consoles now.
Some Common PS games:
Most Sports titles
Ball Blazer
Cyberia
Descent
N20
Toshinden
WWF Warzone
Some Rare PS games:
Bubble Bobble
Collection
Bust A Groove 2
Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix
In Cold Blood
Intelligent Qube
Klonoa: Door to Plantomile
Lightspan games
RC de Go
True Pinball
Tomba
Suikoden II
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Tactic Orge
The Raiden Project
Good
Points:
*Tons
of games in all categories.
*CD'S have way more storage capacity on them than cartrdiges.
*Many famous developers support this system (i.e. Square, Konami, Namco).
*Affordable prices for many games (10-80 bucks, the Lunar remake is 80 btw).
*Not too many TFMV (Totally full motion video) games (i.e.
Dragon's Liar).
*Has an MPEG2 board built in to play back awesome video.
Bad Points:
*Loading times can be long in some games especially compared to Dreamcast
and N64 games.
*Some weak 2D features because of limited Ram.
*Lots of sequels that do the same ol' thing (I.E.
Tomb Raider III and Twisted Medal III)
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1 |
FINAL
FANTASY VII In the game you play the role of Cloud Strife former Soldier for the Shin-ra corporation that has a terrible past that soon comes back to haunt him. Cloud and his friends try to stop a fiendish plot by Cloud's former mentor, Sephiroth. Final Fantasy 7 is the king of the RPG's, it's truly unforgettable! Great story, great music, great graphics! A very long quest that should take a large amount of time to complete. |
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2 |
CASTLEVANIA:
Symphony Of The Night Here's a awesome horror hack n slash about Dracula's own son. This amazing game not only includes the classic Castlevania game play we all know and love but it also has advanced new RPG elements too that really draws you into the adventure. Another great classic on the PS one. |
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3 |
SOUL BLADE This game plays almost just as good as its sequel Soul Calibur on Dreamcast I believe. Each warrior can earn 10 different weapons each in the cool story Master Edge mode. Based on the not too successful arcade game Soul Edge, but it's even better than that average game. |
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4 |
NECTARIS
Military Madness Finally! Another Military Madness game. One of my all time favourites games on the old TurboGrafx-16! If you lose this war then the earth will be destroyed by the Xenon moon army. Nectaris is very addictive! |
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5 |
ATARI ANNVERSERY EDITION REDUX Atari may have seen better days but with this awesome collection you to see why they use to be the best in the business. These 12 games not only include the original 6 Atari games from Midway's Greatest Hits Volume 1 (Asteroids, Battlezone, Centipede, Missile Command, Super Break Out, Tempest) but you also get the legendary Pong and a few other oddball titles like Warlords, Black Widow, Gravitar, Asteroids Deluxe, and Space Duel. This version is superior to the Dreamcast edition because you can save your high scores to the memory card. |
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6 |
FINAL FANTASY IX It's nice to see the Final Fantasy series return to its roots............ at least in looks anyways. This game still plays alot like Final Fantasy 7 on PlayStation but at least now you can have four of your characters on screen at once and it's not anything like the awful Final Fantasy 8. Nothing too different when compared to past the Final Fantasies but still buy it for the story alone. |
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7 |
TEKKEN 3 Although Tekken 3 includes a stupid new Tekken Force mode (a very limited version of a Final Fight type of game) and a unusual Beach Volleyball mode (hit one another with a beach ball), but it's still a cool 2 player game as always and now there are more fighting styles than ever. Eddy Gordo rocks! |
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8 |
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3 The best Street fighter game ever with loads of added stuff and over 30 characters to choose from including new comers like Cody from Final Fight (who has seen better days), Miya the bouncey female wrestler and Kirna a rich girl who also happens to be a Kung Fu expert. |
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9 |
PARAPPA THE RAPPER The very original and funny rapping game with a challenging 6 levels of wacky characters and addictive game play with some catchy music. Play it for something different! |
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10 |
R TYPES R Types is a great set of games for any R type fan out there, whether or not they thought it was too hard or they just played the games to death. R Types will not only save your high scores but you also learn some of the R Type history and enemies as well. "If you love classic shoot em ups then you don't want to miss R Types!" |
Most Disappointing:
WCW THUNDER
TWISTED MEDAL III
Worst:
There are well over 800 games for the hit Sony game machine but they can't all be winners you know. I'm sure there are even worse games than my Top Five here but I have yet to play them. "If you know any others that belong here then please warn me!"
StarSoldier's top five worse Playstation Games:
5. TOMB RAIDER III: The adventures of Lara Croft
4. LOADED
3. RISE 2
2. WCW THUNDER
1. PSYCHIC DETECTIVE
Most Underrated:
NECTARIS
SUPER PUZZLE FIGHTER II TURBO