The PlayStation 1 is, and always will be, a champion among home consoles. The machine was in production for 11 years, which is pretty staggering longevity, if you ask me.
Sony stopped making them the same year the PS3 debuted. It was the first home console to sell over 100 million units, and it almost didn’t exist. As many already know, the Sony PlayStation was originally an SNES add-on. To make a long story short, Nintendo pulled the plug in an extremely ruthless way, and it was one of their biggest fumbles of all time.
Can you imagine a world without Final Fantasy VII, Resident Evil, or even Crash Bandicoot? The PlayStation has games that defined generations in an unfathomable way.
The PlayStation had so many iconic games that hundreds of incredible titles went under the mainstream radar. My hope for this list is that it includes a good mix of underappreciated games you might recognize and a few I can convince you to try.
7
Gex – Enter the Gecko
1998 | Crystal Dynamics
Gex the Gecko is a shining relic of the late 90’s—a love letter to Movies and TV in the form of a wisecracking Gecko. Enter the Gecko is an extremely dense and well-designed 3D platformer that wears its Mario 64 inspirations directly on its sleeve.
Gex is a loudmouthed, pop-culture-obsessed hero who is abducted and then recruited by the government to defeat the big bad villain that resides in the “Media Dimension”. Gex is very dated in the most charming way. His quips, commentary, and whole demeanor are perfectly emblematic of what was cool and funny in the 90’s.
The game itself is really well designed, each level is based on a genre of TV or Film and has a few different goals you can complete to progress. If there’s one word I could use to describe Gex, it’s charming.
6
TOMBA!
1997 | Whoopee Camp
TOMBA! is a game that is filled with that distinct Japanese quirkiness. It has non-sensical missions and items, plants shaped like butts that fart when you jump on them, dizzingly saturated colours, and a savage boy with Pink Goku Hair.
You play as the titular Tomba, a feral child who is tasked with defeating 7 Evil Pigs. The game is a 2.5D side-scroller, think Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, where you can traverse two planes to solve puzzles and attack enemies.
The game controls really well, and despite the oftentimes confusing quest requirements, TOMBA! is incredibly satisfying to play. Tomba was followed by a fully 3D sequel just two years later, which was also very well received by audiences and critics but, again, feels underappreciated in today’s climate.
5
Bugs Bunny – Lost in Time
1999 | Behaviour Interactive
Who doesn’t love Bugs Bunny? After taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque, Bugs finds an H.G. Welles-styled Time Machine and ends up lost in time. After meeting with a strange Wizard named Merlin Munroe, he tasks Bugs with spelunking through time to collect alarm clock tokens, which will allow Bugs to get back to the present.
It’s not a particularly deep game, but it has some really fun mechanics, stellar sound design, and appearances from all your favorite Looney Tunes “villains”. There are five different time periods you must explore, and each ends in a boss fight against a character that was chosen to represent that period of time.
It has corny dialogue, faithful characterization, and some good slapstick humor. Despite its middling success, it got an indirect sequel the very next year called Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters, which many also consider a bit of an underappreciated gem. I like Lost in Time a lot more, however.
4
Silent Bomber
1996 | CyberConnect
Explosions and Exposition. Silent Bomber is a criminally underrated top-down action shooter. I say ‘shooter,’ but you don’t get any guns in Silent Bomber. As you may have guessed, the only weapon you have access to… Are bombs.
In Silent Bomber, you take control of an emotionally stunted Jutah, a criminal who is drafted into covert military operations. I’m not sure how covert you could call Jutah’s actions, considering his main form of attack is extremely loud and destructive explosions.
Nevertheless, you’re tasked with running through enemy strongholds, taking out operatives, and destroying targets with your arsenal of explosives. Silent Bomber is quick, bombastic, and really well designed.
It has simple controls, but the game is challenging; you’ll think you’ve played something like it before, and you likely have, but the unique controls and weapon systems force you to play in a different way.
3
Nightmare Creatures
1997 | Kalisto Entertainment
Hey, do you like Bloodborne? Then you’re going to love this. Nightmare Creatures is what I’d call “Proto-Bloodborne”. Set in 19th-century London, you play as Monster Hunters Nadia and Ignatius as they dispatch a plague of grotesque undead monsters and work to halt the plans of a sinister cult called The Brotherhood of Hecate.
The game is a combat-heavy survival horror where you’re given the choice to play as either Nadia, a sword-wielding martial artist, or Ignatius, a staff-fighting warrior priest.
As your chosen character, you must chase down a shadowy figure called Adam Crowley as he runs through London, leaving behind a litany of horrifying creatures for you to fight. The game does have some old-style jank in the form of tank controls and a harsh checkpoint system.
Despite this, Nightmare Creatures is a surprisingly fun action romp with deceptively deep lore, and even had a sequel made 2 years later. There was also an announcement for a film adaptation, which fortunately never went into production… Video game films from the early 2000’s have debatable quality.
2
Ape Escape
1999 | Sony Computer Entertainement Japan
While Ape Escape isn’t exactly the most ‘under the radar’ game of this era. I still find myself placing it on this list purely because of all the vacant looks I get when I bring it up in conversation.
In the game you play as a young man called Spike, who much like Marty McFly, has an unexplained relationship with an older scientist. Naturally, the professor has created helmets that increase the intelligence of monkeys and one monkey is angry about it.
The professor also invented a time machine, so now all the monkies are scattered through time and are causing mischief. As Spike you travel through time and catch all the monkeys using your Time-Net and various other monkey catching gadets the professor sends you.
Of all the games on this list, I believe Ape Escape controls the best. It’s intensely satisfying, it has unique functionality when it comes to the analogue sticks, it looks amazing, and it has a banger soundtrack.
Ape Escape has 3 direct sequels, a handful of spin-offs, and there have been a few references to the series in other games (Like everyone’s favourite party brawler, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale), but things have been quiet for Ape Escape for the past few years. I’m hoping for a PS6 Ape Escape 4.
1
Omega Boost
1999 | Polyphony Digital
There’s only one word to describe Omega Boost: sick. This game is sick. From the opening FMV to the insane gameplay, Omega Boost is fun the whole way through. When you boot up the game, you’re met with a perfectly corny cinematic with real actors in a 90’s 3D rendered environment as various scientists and engineers prepare a mech for space-fairing-time-travelling combat.
That’s right. In Omega Boost, you play as a time-travelling mech that gets shot into space to destroy a Rogue AI before it even exists. The game is a wave-based rail shooter, with 360° combat.
For a rail shooter, you have a lot of freedom; you can choose which direction you want to fly. To avoid oncoming danger, you can also halt your movement entirely. Dodge, weave, boost, rapid fire, or lock on and shoot a barrage of missiles through hordes of enemies as you fly through various environments, from deep space to alien deserts.
The controls are, like most PS1 games, are hard to grasp compared to modern games, but once you get the hang of them, Omega Boost is a radical rail shooter with a killer soundtrack and high octane fun.
I know that there are still many more amazing games that are underappreciated by general audiences, but these 7 are by far my favorites.
