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PlayStation’s 25th Anniversary: Five best PS1 games of all-time

By Justin O'Riley

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 20: Attendees walk by the Sony PlayStation booth at the 2019 GDC Game Developers Conference on March 20, 2019 in San Francisco, California. The GDC runs through March 22. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 20: Attendees walk by the Sony PlayStation booth at the 2019 GDC Game Developers Conference on March 20, 2019 in San Francisco, California. The GDC runs through March 22. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) /
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 20: Attendees walk by the Sony PlayStation booth at the 2019 GDC Game Developers Conference on March 20, 2019 in San Francisco, California. The GDC runs through March 22. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 20: Attendees walk by the Sony PlayStation booth at the 2019 GDC Game Developers Conference on March 20, 2019 in San Francisco, California. The GDC runs through March 22. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) /

Twenty-five years for the Sony PlayStation! Celebrate the PlayStation’s 25th Anniversary by checking out the top five PS1 games of all time!

On December 3rd, 1994, the original PlayStation launched in Japan (its North American launch date was September 9th, 1995). It went on to sell about 120 million consoles, making it one of the best-selling video game systems ever made. To celebrate PlayStation’s 25th Anniversary, we take a look at the top five all-time PS1 games.

Sony’s PlayStation originally began life back in 1986 as a joint venture between Sony and Nintendo. Sony engineer Ken Kutaragi (known as the “father” of the PlayStation) developed a new sound processor for the Super Nintendo (SNES), the upcoming 16-bit successor to the NES.

The project’s success led to a new deal in which Sony would develop both a CD-ROM add-on for the SNES as well as a “hybrid” SNES/CD-ROM console named the “Nintendo PlayStation” (the SNES classic Secret of Mana was originally conceived as a launch game for it). However, Nintendo soon terminated the project due to Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi’s concerns that the deal gave Sony too much creative control.

Sony then decided that the first PlayStation (PS1, or PS One) would be developed as an in-house console, with the internal architecture designed especially for 3D polygon graphics. The PlayStation era began with its initial release in Japan on December 3rd, 1997.

Sony manufactured the console despite its newcomer status into the video game market. At the time, Sony had very limited experience developing video game software. The PlayStation needed a strong software library to compete with Nintendo and Sega.

The company relied on several major third-party game creators to develop titles for the new console. Due to its strong third-party support, the PS One amassed a library full of incredible games, with over one hundred different titles selling at least a million copies each.

It’s been twenty-five years since the PS1 revolutionized the gaming industry. The “DualShock” gamepad, with its dual-analog sticks and vibration feedback, became an industry standard for most console controllers.

Sony even released the “PlayStation Classic” back in 2018, which was a plug-and-play PS1 that came preloaded with twenty PS1 games (three of which are on this list). With a large catalog full of worthy contenders, here are the top five PS1 games of all time, in no particular order.

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