Yesterday Sony announced the imminent release of their newest throwback project, the PlayStation Classic. They described the hardware, showed off pictures, and teased us with a look at five of the twenty built-in titles we can expect to see come December. The $99 price point is going to make or break this thing though. Being more expensive and packing fewer titles than both of Nintendo’s rival releases, the NES Classic and Super Nintendo Classic, Sony has a lot of work ahead of them to convince gamers they need to pony up the cash. With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few games Sony could pick for the final fifteen that would help consumers open their wallets.

We already know a quarter of Sony’s lineup for the US version of the PlayStation Classic. Tekken 3, Jumping Flash, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, Wild Arms, and Final Fantasy VII. That leaves fifteen slots to play with, and a lot of questions about what should (and maybe what shouldn’t) take up that valuable space. This is just me spit-balling ideas here, I don’t actually have a direct line to Sony or anything. They’re my opinions and suggestions, that’s all. That said, if Sony wants to sell the ever-loving hell out of this thing, they should consider…

Tomb Raider II

With Square/Enix already on board, hashing out the rights to use one of the five Tomb Raider titles which released on the original PlayStation hardware should be a piece of cake. There’s little denying Core Design’s adoption of the PS1 as Lara’s platform of choice gave Sony a tremendous leg up on the competition. There are good reasons to pick any of Lara’s outings, but with Tomb Raider II considered by many fans to be the best of the original series, leaving it off the PlayStation Classic would be leaving money on the table. With better graphics, larger levels, more weapons, new enemies, tons of puzzles, and an abandonment of the “save crystal” system used in the first game, Tomb Raider II is everything the first game did and then some. Considering all of Lara’s adventures are already available for download on the PSN, negotiating the option to include one or two of them on the Classic should be a piece of cake.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2

Much like Tomb Raider, the Tony Hawk franchise saw multiple incarnations and sequels on the original PlayStation hardware. While the original Tony Hawk Pro Skater turned us all into digital ‘board freaks, THPS2 is what gave the series the wings it’s using to keep flapping around today. With tight controls, a huge roster of skating talent, enormous levels, and a killer soundtrack to go along with all those memories you have of staying up way too late in the dorm playing it in lieu of doing homework, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 is a bonafide killer app. Failure to see at least one of these games in the Classic’s lineup is the very definition of a missed opportunity.

Twisted Metal 2

Just as Tomb Raider defined 3D platforming in the 32-bit era and Tony Hawk brought skating into the mainstream, the Twisted Metal franchise made dreams of vehicular manslaughter a reality for millions of eager gamers of the mid-90’s. Developed originally by Dave Jaffe and his band of lunatics at SingleTrac, then a Sony internal development house, Sony contracted out the third and fourth games to 989 Studios. 989’s handling of the franchise tarnished its reputation until Jaffe and crew got their hands back on the property for the PS2’s Twisted Metal Black. Given the Classic ships with two controllers, and Twisted Metal is coded for split-screen multi-player play, everything a gamer needs to enjoy a rousing bout of car carnage is right there in the box. Twisted Metal would be fine, but Twisted Metal 2, with its expanded roster of racers and enormous, multi-level stages, would be much better.

Gran Turismo 2

Sensing a bit of a pattern here? Yeah, me too. I figured I’d front-load all the sequel choices to get them out of the way. While R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 already provides the system with a comprehensive driving experience, the Ridge Racer series has always been more about arcade-style racing. Simulation-style fans who are obsessed with min-maxing their cars’ stats, swapping brake systems and drivetrain systems like Pokemon cards, need their fix too. When it comes to the PS1, no other title delivers the goods like 1999’s Gran Turismo 2. With no DualShock requirement, split-screen head-to-head competition, and a massive roster of five hundred different makes and models at your beck and call, leaving Gran Turismo 2 on the sidelines is basically black-flagging consumers on the final lap.

Alundra

While Final Fantasy VII is great for old-school RPG nuts, the closest the PlayStation ever came to its own Zelda killer was this Working-Designs-localized adventure. Unlike many of the other games on this list which are still relatively inexpensive to pick-up on the secondhand market, Alundra will take a significant chunk out of your budget. This is a shame, because it’s one of the best action/adventure hybrids of the 32-bit era. Don’t be deceived by its reliance on sprites over polygons. Alundra‘s story of a young protagonist who has to enter the dreams of various villagers to exorcise their lethal nightmares offers dozens of hours of play, including a number of puzzles that will have you bashing your head against a FAQ in your effort to defeat the forces of evil. The most obvious downside to this one: Working Designs no longer exists, which could make licensing this disc for the Classic a problem. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Intelligent Qube

Puzzle-obsessed gamers need their fix, and one of the most fiendish (and fiendishly expensive) 3D puzzlers out there is this Sony-published masterpiece. While it’s dropped in price a little over the last decade, it’s still hovering in the $40-50 range making it a tough sell for any but the hardcore collector. If Tetris gave you visions of falling shapes when you closed your eyes, Intelligent Qube will plague you with nightmare of rolling, spinning, fully 3D polygonal blocks. Like most puzzle games it starts off easy but quickly ratchets into head-twisting difficulty faster than you might expect. Throwing this one on the Classic would provide a great alternative to shelling out all those clams on eBay for the real thing, and greatly increase the system’s value for consumers: a win-win situation anyone could agree on.

Einhander

Much like Final Fantasy VII, if Square/Enix is already fully on board with the PlayStation Classic, that leaves a mammoth library of both traditional and obscure software for Sony to pull from. One thing we haven’t seen represented on the PS Classic is the scrolling shoot ’em up genre. While something from the R-Type or Gradius franchises is more likely, if they wanted to cultivate some massive goodwill among their retro-playing customer base, including Einhander would be a great way to start. Hideously expensive on the second-hand market (seriously, try and find a copy for less than $75 these days), Einhander should have most reasonable gamers asking if the game contained on the little black disc is worth it. The truth is, Square absolutely nailed this 3D blasting extravaganza and it’s continued to fly under the radar even today. If you’ve already got Final Fantasy, there’s no reason not to generate an absurd amount of goodwill by including this SHMUP masterpiece.

Resident Evil: Director’s Cut

I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, it’s clear Resident Evil 2 is the better game in virtually every way. That said, there’s a reason all the best survival horror memes come from the original Resident Evil. Nobody says you were almost a Claire sandwich, after all. The first game, however, is self-contained on a single CD which would allow Sony to save internal storage space. It was also made for the standard digital controllers, before analog support, which is a good thing since there’s no announcement for DualShock plug-ins at this time. If they wanted to be extra cool, they could restore the original opening FMV with the extra gore which has been a Japanese or PC exclusive for twenty years.

Fighting Force

I’ve always held a place in my heart for this ‘almost-a-Streets-of-Rage‘ title from Core Design. While there are better brawlers available on the system, Fighting Force fits the mold of ‘classic’ better than the likes of, say, Gekido or Ninja. With its two-player simultaneous play, multitude of stages, four different fighters, and completely insane premise, it would almost be criminal to leave it off the Classic. Are there better games that could take its place? Absolutely. But none of them are Fighting Force, and if you can’t force yourself to have fun with this for a few hours, you don’t deserve to to call yourself a gamer. The same cannot be said of its sequel though, which was so terrible it killed the franchise. Fighting Force, yes. Fighting Force 2, hell no. Hell no.

Bushido Blade

Square’s getting an awful lot of love on this list, but that’s for a good reason: they made so many kick-ass titles for Sony’s little gray box that it’s practically unfair. Fighting game fans may push for something like Marvel vs. Capcom or an entry in the Darkstalkers or Street Fighter series, but Bushido Blade is both more enjoyable and more accessible than those other franchises. This is one of the few cases where the sequel wasn’t better despite offering more characters and weapons–there’s something innately magical about Bushido Blade‘s balance and gorgeous, wide stages that vanished with the sequel. Plus the two-player versus play kept butts on sofa cushions for hours back in the day. That’s got to be worth something, doesn’t it?

Those are ten of my choices to fill in the fifteen slots left in Sony’s PlayStation Classic console. What would you like to see? What does your list look like? If you could design your ‘dream collection’, what would be on it? Let us know in the comments below, and check back regularly for more coverage of PS1 classics and plenty of other systems here on Retro Gaming Magazine!

Michael Crisman

In 1979, Michael Crisman was mauled by a radioactive Gorgar pinball machine. After the wounds healed, doctors discovered his DNA had been re-coded. No longer fully human, Michael requires regular infusions of video games in order to continue living among you. If you see him, he can see you. Make no sudden moves, but instead bribe him with old issues of computer and video game magazines or a mint-in-box copy of Dragon Warrior IV.


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