PS1: Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour
-great racing game, which was later re-made into higher resolution for the dreamcast
-it plays like Mario Kart, and the levels are awesome
-you can play it with your small kids without traumatizing them
If you are going to play Dark Cloud 2, just skip Dark Cloud 1.
Huge fan of both but then you need to add Gitaroo Man to that list. :)
IIRC, Parappa and Umjammer Lammy are really hard to find. Gitaroo Man was as well, but they did a re-release at some point in the PS2 life cycle, and so it came down to a reasonable price (ditto for Rez, which has since gotten HD re-releases).
Already owning them helps to find them. Sad to hear that these awesome games aren’t more prevalent.
Gladius
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Dark Cloud 2
Gladius was so freakin’ good.
How many of these are available for download on PSN? Just wondering what their catalog offering looks like.
I might be in the minority here, but I really liked the first Kingdom Hearts.
I am ashamed that I forgot to list Gitaroo Man!
Going back to Playstation 1 I would recommend:
Valkyrie Profile - Just an amazing JRPG. For a PS1 game the graphics still hold up nicely. Absolutely loved the soundtrack and setting.
Rival Schools - I’m typically not a big fan of fighting games, but aside from the Tekken games, I had a blast with Rival Schools. Probably helped a bit that I was in high school at the time.
Vigilante 8 - Sorry Twisted Metal, Vigilante 8 was better. I remember you could do custom soundtracks too by swapping out the game for a music cd.
Bust A Groove - After Parappa the Rapper I was craving more rhythm based games and this one satisfied my need. Haven’t played this one in years so I have no idea how it’s held up, but I did hit up ebay thinking about getting a cheap copy, but it’s pretty pricey online.
Yes! A thousand times yes!
This game answered the question of why giant robots were always laying waste to huge parts of Tokyo while ostensibly protecting it from giant space monsters. The robots were controlled by teenagers!
Fantastic game.
Mind, from Bandersnatch’s suggestion, that Valkyrie Profile goes for a pretty hefty price for such an old game, probably due to how very good it is.
PS2:
Gradius V
Katamari Damacy
Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne
Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter
Shadow of the Colossus
Ico
Okami is pretty cool, but bring a pillow
God Hand
Valkyrie Profile 2, but skip the cutscenes if you value your mental health
There are a bunch of multiplatform gems like:
Burnout series
Viewtiful Joe
Resident Evil 4
Stay away from:
Silent Hill 2. People are going to tell you this is great. These people are insane. It’s complete shit - not scary, dreadful gameplay and wildly inconsistent graphics.
Final Fantasy X. Absolutely awful in just about every respect.
The Kingdom Hearts games are real bad.
Metal Gear is real bad.
PS1:
Silent Hill
Gradius Gaiden (Japan only)
Yoyo’s Puzzle Park
Castlevania Symphony of the Night
I’ll try to think of more.
Although it seems pointless to play it now, I think GTA3 was an awesome experience when I first played it. Just being able to jump in a car and drive around like a maniac was so much fun.
Ah yes, the hidden gem that is GTA3. Man, they don’t make games like that anymore.
He also said ‘very best’. Which didn’t stop people listing some utter drek, but still: learn to read.
Lets see…
PS1 Games(that I think haven’t been mentioned):
Incredible Crisis
Parasite Eve 2
Dino Crisis
Wipeout XL
Megaman Legends 1 and 2
Fear Effect 1 and 2
Syphon Filter 1 and 2
My wife loved Baby Universe(Japan only.)
PS2:
SSX Tricky was the absolute best of the series.
Project Eden was a flawed game that I loved
Okage: The Shadow King
Onimusha
Tony Hawk…3 I think that was the one
Metal Gear Solid 3
Devil May Cry
Soul Reaver 2
Twisted Metal Black
…and I’m sure I’m forgetting some. I keep having to stop myself from listing n64 games as well. :)
Playstation 1: Legend of Mana. I know people say the Secret was better (SNES), but I never played it. Legend holds up to this day, though, and it’s available on the PS3 store.
PS2- the already mentioned Robot Alchemic Drive (RAD). Game is frikken awesome.
For my money Silent Hill 3 is every bit as great as SH2 or the Fatal Frame series when it comes to horror games.
On a very different note, I want to give props to Way Of The Samurai 1 & 2. They’re ARPGs that are more Soul Calibur than Diablo due to a pretty good timing-based combat system. And unlike most ARPGs, each playthrough is brief. But that’s because the games are designed around the hope that you’ll replay them time and time again. And it’s not just the loot grind - there are many different branches in the story that also encourage this.
Not that the stories are very good, but they certainly top what was done in the likes of Diablo 3 or Torchlight.
They do feel a bit shallow in some ways. The randomly generated missions (which contribute to a sort of warring-factions mechanic) seem pretty cool until you realize that there’s really only five or six types of mission that a certain faction will ever give you, leading to a lot of repetition. If you remember the guild quests in Daggerfall - yeah, it’s a lot like that. And the gameworlds are really small, so if you’re more of the “let me explore a huge world” kind of RPG player then there isn’t much for you here.
Still, I consider WotS one of the best flawed-but-classic series out there.
Suikoden 1&2 on PS1 and Suikoden 3 on PS2
Final Fantasy Tactics on PS1