Let's wind back the years to look back on some of the best PS1 games from Sony's ground-breaking games console, the original PlayStation.
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00:00 [Music]
00:12 Ready to go back to the 90s and yes, we mean even more than the current trend for bucket hats and crop tops.
00:19 It's time to turn back the clock and travel back to the birth of PlayStation with Sony's original little grey box.
00:25 How many of these classic PS1 games do you actually remember?
00:29 And hey, remember how cool it was that the discs were black?
00:32 [Music]
00:36 Let's kick things off with a nostalgic heavy hitter.
00:39 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 was a formative PS1 game.
00:42 If you didn't have the muscle memory to get all of the goals in hangar in under two minutes,
00:46 were you even alive in the year 2000?
00:49 Not only had we never seen anything like these levels,
00:51 but the incredible mixtape of a soundtrack is what cemented Tony Hawk's 2 as a stone-cold classic
00:57 that no remake can truly recapture the magic of.
01:00 Admittedly though, the new one does come pretty close.
01:03 [Music]
01:09 Yes, our next game is a rabbit bouncing along a string in a minimalist black and white world,
01:14 and hopefully you remember it.
01:16 Incredibly, Vib Ribbon actually started life as part of a tie-in promotion for a Mercedes car.
01:21 The promotion was dropped, but Papa the Rapper lead, Messiah Matsuura,
01:25 took over and the Rhythm Platformer was born regardless.
01:28 Vib Ribbon epitomises the weird joy of the sudden potential of the PS1,
01:33 and even better, you could play your own music CDs.
01:37 The game was so small it loaded onto the PS1's RAM, so you could swap out the game's disc
01:42 for your own albums and platform across your favourite tracks.
01:45 [Music]
01:54 Say it with me now, Cool Boarders!
01:57 It didn't quite do for snowboarding what Tony Hawk's 2 did for the wheeled variety,
02:01 but Cool Boarders was a chilly solid addition to many a demo disc back in 1996.
02:07 Even if you never played the full game with its various tracks,
02:09 chances are that you got a chance to hurtle down a polygonal slope
02:13 and choose between a selection of colourful boards.
02:16 It's probably, er, borderline unplayable now, but games like Cool Boarders and its sequels
02:20 paved the way for many solid winter sports games we love today.
02:24 [Music]
02:28 Let's face it, whenever anyone talks about their first classic Silent Hill experience,
02:32 it tends to be James' misty trip in Silent Hill 2.
02:35 Some of us though found our nightmares much earlier playing as Harry Mason
02:39 when we headed to the infamous town in search of his daughter Cheryl.
02:42 It's in much more pixelated form, but everything terrifying about the series
02:46 was born here in the first game.
02:48 Deformed creatures stumbling in the darkness, twisted screaming fire babies
02:52 chasing you through dim basements, and a complete inability to run for any length of time.
02:56 Survival horror in 1999 was truly scary, and that definitely isn't just because we're about 10.
03:02 "Don't move!"
03:04 "Is this the first time you've ever pointed a gun at a person?"
03:11 "Your hands are shaking."
03:14 It is official, it's against the laws of the internet to make a list of
03:17 best PS1 games and not mention Metal Gear Solid.
03:21 It might sound like the start of it, but MGS was actually Hideo Kojima's
03:25 third addition to the Metal Gear series, but was specifically designed to make the most of
03:29 the fresh 3D tech inside of the PS1, hence the "solid" part of the title after two previous 2D games.
03:36 Among many other gifts, it gave Kojima the ability to smash down the fourth wall with
03:40 Psycho Mantis reading your memory card and forcing you to change controller ports to
03:44 keep your mind free of invaders.
03:46 Such was the impact Snake's stealth adventures on PlayStation are considered
03:50 a historic achievement that changed the way the world perceived video games.
03:54 "Welcome to the fruit store."
04:13 If Kick, Punch, It's All in the Mind has instantly appeared from nowhere in your brain,
04:16 then you definitely remember Parappa the Rapper.
04:19 This surprisingly tricky rhythm game, one of the earliest of the genre,
04:21 follows young Parappa as he trains in the art of rhyme with none other than Chop Chop Master Onion.
04:27 The game spawned a spin-off with Um Jammer Lammy and a sequel was released for PS2 in 2001,
04:32 but we'll always remember the true frustration of thinking we were hitting the beat,
04:36 and well, just not, as Parappa would say, "We've just gotta believe."
04:40 [PARAPPA]
04:46 Another PS1 game, more revolutionary game design, and another astonishing soundtrack.
04:51 No wonder we all have such good music taste.
04:53 Wipeout 2097 was the second in the now legendary series,
04:56 and didn't just feel like the future because of the 21st century title.
05:00 Whether you were Flying Vector, Venom, Rapier, or Phantom,
05:03 the speed of these futuristic craft felt genuinely game-changing.
05:06 Soaring through the air, risking boost zones, and carefully handling turns with air brakes
05:11 meant Wipeout was a whole new level of racing games.
05:14 And now we're off to listen to Firestarter.
05:16 Truthfully, the PS1 was a golden era of brilliantly colourful platformers.
05:28 And move over Rayman, Spyro, and Crash, because we want to talk about Toy Story 2,
05:33 Buzz Lightyear to the rescue.
05:34 Here was Traveller's Tales already showing off the skills that would become
05:38 the lifeblood of the LEGO adaptations, but in 1999 it meant taking on the role of everyone's
05:43 favourite Space Ranger and diving through the technicolour world of Pixar to save the rest of
05:47 Andy's toys. The result is a dizzying platformer that you can still play on the PlayStation
05:55 Classic Store if you want to go and play it now. Well, actually, maybe wait until this video's over.
06:05 Okay, this next game has a slightly different title depending on where you are in the world,
06:10 but regardless of whether you know it as Twisted Metal 2 or Twisted Metal World Tour,
06:14 we're sure you're in agreement that this demolition derby was absolutely the best in the series.
06:18 Twisted Metal 2 was many people's first introduction to the terrifying Needles
06:22 Cane, driver of an ultra deadly ice cream truck known as Sweet Tooth. Don't worry if you still
06:26 get panicked when you hear one in real life, Single Player was brilliant carnage, but the
06:30 local split screen offering meant things could get truly personal. Sorry not sorry.
06:35 Let's end on a fiery curveball with Rosco McQueen Firefighter Extreme. If you're wondering why
06:44 you're so at home playing Powerwash Simulator, it might be because in 1997 you were handling
06:48 high pressure water and putting out fires in various towering infernos. The intrepid Rosco
06:53 didn't review particularly well at the time, okay, badly actually, he reviewed very badly,
06:58 but we have fond memories of battling robots with our fire axe and collecting water bottles
07:02 to keep our house topped up. Hindsight is a dangerous thing, hey?
07:05 So hopefully we've stirred up some PS1 nostalgia to send you into the cupboard looking for your
07:12 original PlayStation, and wires that definitely don't have connection to modern TVs. Good luck
07:16 with that.