10 Best PS1 Games Nobody Remembers

The original PlayStation is home to plenty of iconic games, breaking Sony into a Nintendo-dominated market with unstoppable momentum. From the medium-pushing creativity of Metal Gear Solid to the sheer fun of Crash Bandicoot, the console made an incredibly strong case for what the new era of 3D gaming could offer.

Along with all of these classics remembered today, the PS1 featured plenty of great experiences that haven't been as thoroughly enshrined in the annals of history. If you're looking to dig a little deeper into its extensive library of hits, these are some games that you can't go without.

Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX

Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX is a clear response to the popularity of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, coming from the same studio, Activision. Attempting a similar formula with a BMX pro (and the same game engine) seems like a clear recipe for success, and the game earned a PlayStation 2 sequel after releasing to strong reviews.

Unfortunately, Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX was beaten to the punch by Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX, a title from Acclaim Entertainment that honed in on the same audience. As such, it never achieved a level of fame comparable to the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, but it's still a great PS1 game for fans of BMX or Pro Skater.

Tobal No. 1

The transition to 3D was an awkward era for some fighting games, but it also opened the door for some truly innovative titles, and the PlayStation helped fantastic arcade games like Tekken 3 enter the home. Not every great fighter on the system was part of an iconic series, however, and the best example might be Tobal No. 1.

With mechanics designed by Virtua Fighter and Tekken's Seiichi Ishii, characters designed by Dragon Ball's Akira Toriyama, and a score composed by a slew of legends, Tobal No. 1 is an obvious showcase of talent. It was an immediate hit in Japan and scored a sequel there, but in the West, it's much more of a cult classic.

102 Dalmatians: Puppies To The Rescue

Spyro the Dragon, Crash Bandicoot, and Rayman dominate most conversations about PlayStation 1 platformers, but the system had its fair share of fun titles in the genre. From Wild 9 to Pandemonium!, Sony actually managed to give Nintendo a run for its money, even without the obvious trump card of Super Mario 64 on its side.

Call it childhood bias (because it is), but my favorite underappreciated option is 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue, a game that packs a surprising amount of Spyro's strengths into a Disney tie-in package. The game's tour of London delivers plenty of creative levels, from landmarks like Regent's Park and Big Ben to the type of toy store that kids dream of. If it whets your appetite for more tie-in platformers, Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time and Muppet Monster Adventure are other standouts.

Future Cop: LAPD

Long before Dead Space and a re-brand under the name Visceral Games, the EA sub-studio EA Redwood Shores cut its teeth on Future Cop: LAPD. With this third-person shooter, the team proved its talent right out of the gate, delivering a fantastically fun experience piloting a transforming mech.

Perhaps most notably, Future Cop: LAPD's Precinct Assault Mode laid out the template that the MOBA genre would later follow, highlighting just how innovative the game was. With fun options in both single-player and multiplayer, this one is an undeniable sleeper hit.

Einhander

Developer Square practically dominated the PlayStation 1 era, mostly with its slate of iconic RPGs that included Final Fantasy 7, Xenogears, and Chrono Cross. Some of its contributions to other genres were just as good, however, and one fantastic example is Einhander.

As a scrolling shoot 'em up, Einhander stepped into a classically popular market that was largely untapped on the PS1. While it could have easily felt like an outdated prospect on the system, Einhander did its best to move the genre forward, seamlessly incorporating 3D elements and presenting players with intelligent enemy challenges. While Einhander doesn't always come up in conversations about Square's PS1 output, it absolutely should.

Colony Wars

Browse through a list of the PS1 games with the highest review scores, and you'll see a long line of familiar faces, ranging from Gran Turismo to Tomb Raider. One less famous inclusion, however, is Colony Wars. This space shooter made a huge splash with critics, but fell off the radar of the general gaming sphere over the years.

Colony Wars is less mind-blowing today than it was at the time of release, but it's still easy to be impressed by everything it achieved on original PlayStation hardware. Impressive graphics, intelligent controls, a branching mission system, and its general sense of scale set a new standard for the genre, spawning the sequels Colony Wars: Vengeance and Colony Wars: Red Sun. It might not have the personality or enduring popularity of Star Fox, but if more people played Colony Wars today, it could very well end up with a similar clamor for new entries.

Threads Of Fate

Along with all the turn-based JRPGs on the PlayStation 1, Japanese studios also pushed out a few great action RPGs. While none achieved the fame that, say, the Final Fantasy series did, titles like Alundra still made a reasonable mark. Threads of Fate, on the other hand, has mostly been relegated to discussions about underrated JRPGs from dedicated fans of the genre.

This RPG blends plenty of platforming into the mix, making for a unique experience that predates later Japanese action RPG forays like Kingdom Hearts. It isn't an absolute must-play, but it's still a shame that Threads of Fate isn't more popular as a whole. With fun gameplay, cute designs, and memorably entertaining characters, this is an undeniably charming adventure.

Incredible Crisis

The PlayStation 1 was a golden era for Japanese games that refused to stick to the mold, and few examples are more creative than Incredible Crisis. This eclectic collection of minigames is strung together in vague narrative fashion, telling the story of family undergoing all manner of mayhem in the course of a not-so-average day.

While Incredible Crisis does crop up in conversations about interesting PS1 titles, it certainly doesn't get played as often as other off-beat hits like PaRappa the Rapper. If you're looking for a fun way to kill an afternoon, Incredible Crisis is short, varied, and bursting with the kind of imagination that will make it stick in your memory for years to come.

Discworld Noir

One of the most interesting subsets of PlayStation 1 games is the sphere of adventure titles released for the system. While the classic point-and-click adventure format was always more popular on PC, the PS1's disc-based approach made them more accessible on console than ever, and Discworld Noir is one of the coolest games to take advantage of the possibility.

This one should have an obvious appeal to fans of Discworld's comical fantasy universe, but true to its name, it also mixes in a memorably hard-boiled flair. Over the years, it's slipped through the cracks compared to adventure titans like Monkey Island and Grim Fandango, but Discworld Noir remains a great creative outing.

Silent Bomber

The shoot 'em up genre has encompassed an incredibly wide variety of games over the years, as long as they follow the basic rule of featuring shooting. Silent Bomber broke that concept, shaking up the top-down shoot 'em up format by tasking players with blowing them up instead.

This unusual mix makes for an action game like nothing else, answering the question of what a high-octane Bomberman with more complex action would look like. It's always been well-received, but after 26 years passing without any proper follow-up, the unique PlayStation experience feels more special than ever.