I think the biggest downer after SNES Classic is there’s nothing really exciting that’s “valuable” on disc these days outside of maybe Persona. With SNES Classic, you have to pay a mint for some of those if you want the original carts, and you also get Star Fox 2 which was never released. Someone on RGB noted a translated Tobal 2 would’ve been an awesome thing to include and I agree.
The lack of Gran Turismo, Wipeout, Warhawk and something more from Square-Enix like Vagrant Story is disappointing. Overall, it’s just not that great a lineup IMO. Rainbow Six is a super weird thing to include but I bet UbiSoft was begging them to be on there which is why we get that and Rayman.
Battle Arena Toshinden is pretty crap looking back now, especially next to Tekken 3. That will not age well with most people.
I grew with the esteemed posters above on the odd omissions. Things like SotN, Crash, Tomb Raider, and even Spyro are the type of premium listings that are needed. Sure FF VII is a cultural touchstone, but it’s weird. Especially since Capcom has participated in the Nintendo offerings. Symphony should have been a given.
I’m giving SotN the same “pass” as Crash and Spyro - Requiem was just released on PS4 so it (unfortunately) makes sense to not throw it in. Even for that, it sounds like Konami is so disinterested in video games these days that Sony basically had to handle the whole project themselves (including funding).
I tried to make a better list without completely changing the included games and genre mix and came up with this:
In all seriousness, a big part of the problem is that the most “iconic” PSX games are either caught in licensing hell (the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games are great examples here) or are currently owned by companies who have absolutely zero interest in rereleasing their back catalogue on these devices (along with what’s already been said about Konami, you can thank Activision for the lack of Crash and Spyro games, and I feel like this would be true even if they didn’t have HD remasters to sell instead). A lot of Sony’s first-party output just doesn’t look exciting compared to the stuff these devices could never have, which is one of the biggest reasons why the NES Classic and SNES Classic worked so much better.
I’m just having some fun at your expense. It’s been a running joke for the last 25 years!
Symphony just came out on PS4 last Friday. That’s why it’s not in this package. Konami is very interested in doing the minimal amount of effort to sell their back catalog to unsuspecting retro engaged casual gamers. The Netflix Castlevania series has rekindled interest tenfold and I’m sure they have no idea what to do with it and don’t really care either.
We had this discussion in the retro thread recently. A lot of the people that made the iconic classics either aren’t with those companies anymore, have moved onto new things because they’re tired of their past or the new people just don’t give a rat’s ass about the company history. They want to make their own.
That’s why Nintendo has been about the only one to truly capitalize on their incredible past (and even on the past of a lot of these other companies!) because there are so many people there that built it, lived it, and still love it. They’re the exception to the rule that gaming has to plow forward headfirst into new things with no regard for the past.
It’s like someone said on RGB, the US lineup looks like the people who put it together really don’t know or don’t care about the actual history of the PSX.
Oh definitely. I figured since it was a dream list I could go for something that’s completely unrealistic! Expect me to be similarly annoyed when Goldeneye doesn’t land on the N64 Classic.
It also helps that Nintendo has been extremely protective of their IP, whereas you can probably cobble together your own (better) PS Classic with a PS TV and PSOne Classic sales on PSN for half the price.
Konami has been extremely protective too, though. Capcom as well. They’re not farming this stuff out willy nilly to anyone to use. They just don’t know how to monetize it outside of letting it get emulated/ported in dribs and drabs to different places.
Capcom has been better at least… Mega Man 11 was a step in the right direction. Street Fighter has maintained a strong historically focused design with characters from their past. Adding G. Oriber is nuts!
For the most part though companies, especially Konami, have no idea what to do with that stuff. Sony can just be added to the list.
But yeah, licensing is probably a huge problem. Even Gran Turismo is probably foiled by it because of the car companies and contracts with them. That’s dumb and it sucks.
That is going to be a major foil, the PS era and forward you start to see real licensed music make major headway’s, not just the few isolated spots from before. I mean we see now games being updated to remove music, think GTA 4, and that’s a game still being played by many and made by a company with all the money needed to keep it if wanted. No messy licensing he’ll for the game itself either, they own it outright.
Not surprising at all given Squenix’s approach to its IP. Frankly the list is a lot better (or at least has a lot more impressive/appropriate third party IP) than I was expecting. Probably not enough to tempt me to buy it, but that’s not because it doesn’t include GT or Wipeout - is there any reason other than sheer nostalgia to play the PS1 versions rather than more recent versions?
You could say that about a lot of the games on the list - the first Persona is pretty bad, the first Metal Gear Solid holds up a bit better but is still largely a clunky mess compared to the later games, the first Grand Theft Auto might be fun for a few minutes but doesn’t hold up for long, no one wants to play a PSX Tom Clancy’s game, the first Resident Evil has an HD remake that’s available on current platforms, Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends are far more compelling than the original, and so on. Ridge Racer Type 4 is one of the few titles on there with modern sequels that still holds up particularly well, but only in terms of gameplay - the graphics are what you’d expect from PSX 3D.
See, I’d disagree with most of those, at least technically. The big problem with the PS1 from a Classic perspective is that 1st gen 3d games really do not hold up graphically. I don’t know what Splinter Cell is doing on there, but most of the others you mention (and most of the ones on the list are either 2D (eg GTA, Rayman) or fixed perspective (eg MGS, RE), which to a certain extent ameliorates the problems with 3D. For Ridge Racer, I’d be cynical and say that the newer versions didn’t actually change anything except graphics, unlike GT and Wipeout.
That’s pretty cynical since the newer versions have the turbo boosting mechanics based on power sliding that definitely added a big new wrinkle to the game along with online play. Type 4 is definitely one of the best in the series, though.
I just think that outside of the novelty of the system design itself, if you own a PS3, you can go pick up that entire list of games for less than the price of a Classic on their original discs and play them there save Persona.
They left Parasite Eve in Japan only?
No Final Fantasy Tactics? No Vagrant Story?
RE 2 would probably have been better than the first, considering the remake, or y’know why not both!
This is the first of the mini-systems that has not piqued my interest. Some good games, no doubt (playing Wild Arms currently on the Vita which I never finished - still have my PSone copy), but nothing I don’t already have on PSP or Vita or want.
Brave Fencer Musashi, Colony Wars, Tenchu, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Einhander, Vandal Hearts would have sold me.
