25 Years of PSone - Flashback Special!

I am back with another videogame anniversary special this week. In last week’s flashback on the Saturn & Virtual Boy I ran down all the other platforms that had milestone anniversaries this year. Of course I realized I neglected one days after posting it, and realized last month marked the 15th anniversary of the PSP in North America. I was originally going to combine my PSP memories with the PSone as we approach its 25th North American anniversary, but as you will soon see, I have quite a lot to say about the PSone, so it looks like the PSP will be touched on in the near future. With that said, hopefully I can grant you a brief reprieve from the real world times we are in if you indulge me while I reflect back on Sony’s unforgettable console debut in the gaming world.

I will start off with the PSone, which was originally abbreviated to the 1990s stateside gaming press as the PSX. When the PS2 hit in 2000, Sony retroactively changed the PSX branding into the PSone with the requisite late-gen slim design having that official branding. The PSX was later a whole separate PS2 variant only available in Japan, so the PSone labeling helped clear up any potential confusion with the Japanese PSX. As I mentioned in my flashback last week, I was initially not on board with the dawn of 32-bit systems after the initial polygonal games like Star Fox and Virtua Racing appeared ugly to my then 11 year-old eyes, and after trying the Saturn and PSone at retail kiosks shortly after their launches, I was bamboozled at the concept of ‘loading’ and being forced to wait for gameplay after not experiencing that on nearly all 8 and 16-bit games. The only bright spot I can recall in the first couple years of the PSone was having fun at my cousin’s blasting each other to bits in the excellent combat driving game, Twisted Metal.

For the first few years of the PSone’s lifecycle in America, I easily dismissed it and stuck with my NES, SNES and GameBoy in those early years of the PSone because that was all my family had back then and they understandably did not want to cough up a few hundred more dollars to upgrade to a whole other platform. For the Christmas of 1997, after enough pleading with them to upgrade to a new gaming system I made my case for the N64 and was delighted to see it awaiting under the Christmas tree. That was due to my gaming preferences at the time and it being a four player powerhouse that worked ideally with my family and friends and also due to not getting my first job late in that console cycle it lead to me siding with it as my preferred console that generation. I do not regret it, but I did not miss out entirely on the PSone during this era as I had a couple friends around this time that got PSones instead and I wound up playing a fair amount of Sony’s first console hanging out at my other friend’s households.


The early NFL GameDay and Madden titles were the first big PSone games I played regularly against a friend. This video does a nice quick job explaining how the two were fierce competitors in early years of the PSone.
In 1998 my friend Rich upgraded to a PSone and the bulk of my PSone playing the next two to three years wound up being at his place. We played a ton of 16-bit Madden in the years preceding, so naturally the first PSone game that was our go to was Madden NFL ‘97. It only looked like a slightly touched up version of the 16-bit games and still stuck with marginally bigger and detailed sprites (or incredibly weak looking polygonal footballers, it is hard to tell when looking at videos) when compare to the 16-bit Madden titles. I recall us then switching the football games up with Sony’s NFL game, NFL GameDay ‘98 for a little bit of variety, and being impressed with its superior polygonal graphics. That all changed a few months later when Rich got the then-brand new Madden NFL ‘99 that holiday season. That was a landmark game for the series, and it righteously blew us away when EA Sports delivered a brand new polygonal graphics engine to compete with GameDay, and its graphics and gameplay blew GameDay away. Madden NFL ‘99 also debuted the multi-season Franchise mode that is a staple in single player Madden features today, and was revolutionary back then. Rich and I played Madden NFL ‘99 regularly and it was our new favorite pigskin game that gen.

Rich and I would play a lot of other competitive multiplayer games over the next couple of years. I have good memories of us renting games on a weekend night and tearing each other up in games like Knockout Kings 2000 and NHL Rock the Rink. After I got my first job the next year I would occasionally purchase a PSone game I wanted to try to bring over to play. The N64 AKI wrestling games we played to death, and I wanted to try out what the PSone grapplers brought to the table. I recall us detesting the unplayable trash that was WCW Nitro (minus its laugh-riot of character select screen taunts), but having a pretty fun time with the deep roster and gameplay options available in the first WWF Smackdown game. I remember getting really into ECW after discovering their first wave of DVDs in 2000, and eagerly picked up ECW Anarchy Rulz. Looking back, that aging game engine from Acclaim was barely playable, but we managed to have a blast with the absurd gameplay modes available at the time like barbwire and brimstone deathmatches. After hearing how the gaming press was giving it game of the year-caliber buzz, I took a chance and picked up Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 on PSone after I could not track down the harder-to-find Dreamcast version, and it worked out for the better because that game became an institution with Rich and I as we played countless bouts of Trick Attack and HORSE against each other. I could not hold a candle most times against Rich, but could care less since the gameplay was that lethal combo of accessible and fun, and that THPS2 had one of the all-time best licensed soundtracks, with a few selections like “Bring the Noise,” “Blood Brothers” and “Guerilla Radio” that remain in my running playlists today.

I know, I know, you probably do not want to read entirely about sports and wrestling games, but for most of the 90s that made up a majority of what I consumed, but rest assured I am now moving on to some of the acclaimed single player titles the PSone is renowned for. My friend and podcast co-host Chris is a big fan of RPGs and I would chill at his place and enjoy watching him play through the story of Final Fantasy VII, Star Ocean, Grandia and Final Fantasy Tactics. Chris tried to help me wrap my head around them and guided me through first couple hours into FFVII and Tactics, but I did not have the attention span for those steep learning curves of their complex battle systems, especially Tactics. I recall watching my brother get wrapped up in FFVII and Legend of Dragoon and will never forget his anger at repeatedly failing against Seipheroth in the final FFVII boss battle, but will equally never forget his glee at finally conquering him. I finally made an honest effort at putting time into a new FFVII playthrough a couple years ago on my Vita, and I managed to make it out of Midgar which I considered a huge accomplishment. I only made it a little ways past that however and never got past that tall creature in a marsh I later found out was one of those battles you were not supposed to win. Speaking of FFVII, I played the demo recently for the newly released FFVII Remake and it looks dazzling and it sounds like that first installment of the Remake is getting high marks all around, which is great to hear for one of the most identifiable and best-selling games on the PSone.


I re-uploaded this podcast from my archives where we breakdown nearly all RPGs on the PSone. Brought on a lot of RPG-vets for this episode which yielded one of my favorite episodes in our near-200 episode run!
I remember hearing the legendary FFVII vs. FFVIII fan debates over the years. For the first couple of years after its release, Final Fantasy VIII was almost universally panned by gaming mags and the newly emerging online gaming media at the time before it slowly built up a vocal contingent of defenders similar to how Luigi’s Mansion got its fanbase once the ‘it is not Super Mario’ hubbub at the GCN launch gradually died down. I remember when my brother finished FFVII and with his birthday approaching understandably wanting to play the next one right away and him pleading with my mom for FFVIII for his birthday. This was a year or two after it was already out and I remember warning my brother it was not received that well, and he blew off my warnings and persisted with his birthday wishes for it. He eventually procured Squall’s journey for his birthday, and I will never forget it asking him several days later for his first update on it and him furiously responding, ‘That game sucks, I already traded it in to Gamestop!’

To put a bow on RPGs on the PSone, I would like to nudge you towards another podcast I recently uploaded from my archives in time for this flashback where we did a multi-part history of RPGs special, with the PSone getting its own episode since it had so many highly-rated RPGs. As you have read by now, I am no expert at this genre, but Chris and a few other friends I brought on are and it lead to a thorough discussion breaking down nearly every major and minor RPG on the system! It was a fun roundtable I will never forget with the first half dedicated to passionately dissecting all the Final Fantasy titles on the system to the back half making sure nearly all other PSone RPGs get their due. I have embedded it in this article for your convenience, or you can click or press here to queue it up for later.

Another multi-episode special of On Tap saw us focusing on the history of comic book games. I brought on longtime friend and comic book expert Matt for the perfect co-host for this series. He took his research for this line of episodes remarkably seriously and tracked down and bought any comic book games he was missing for each system to fill in any gaps and by the time we wrapped up our comic book games history series he purchased nearly every comic book licensed game there was. When it came time to cover PSone and Saturn comic book games we spent a weekend trying out many of these games Matt tracked down online. With the exception of the excellent Marvel-licensed fighting games by Capcom and a handful of other titles, a vast majority of the rest were a dumpster fire of barely playable platformers. I vividly recall Fantastic Four, The Crow: City of Angels, Blade and Hellboy: Asylum Seeker standing out as the cream of the crap. We suffered through a lot of dreck that weekend, but it was worth and it culminated in an episode where a lot of ragging was done on some atrocious games. I do not have that episode re-uploaded from the archives as of this writing, but I plan to eventually and will embed it here soon so you can experience our pain!UPDATE 6-23-2020 - I finally uploaded the podcast covering PSone comic book games to my YouTube channel; it is embedded at the bottom of this special, or you can click or press here to check it out!

The primary reason I never got a PSone during its lifecycle was because when I landed my first job in 1999 and finally had disposable income, it was either announced or much-rumored by that point that the highly anticipated PS2 would have backwards compatibility with the PSone library so I held off on getting the system. I would however purchase a handful of PSone games in the year leading up to the PS2 launch knowing that they would work on the PS2. I loved SNES Street Racer, so PSone Street Racer was one of my first PSone games, and it had a nice bump up in visuals and somehow pulled off split screen multiplayer for up to eight players! The 3DO version of Road Rash got a nice performance boost on the PSone, but like the 3DO version also does not have support for its killer licensed soundtrack during gameplay. Sadly the PSone’s exclusive follow up, Road Rash: Jailbreak failed to deliver, and the beloved franchise has rarely been seen from since. Street Fighter Collection: Volume 2 was how I first experienced the turbo speed and hyper combos of Super Street Fighter II: Turbo that I fondly remember doing regular match-ups against my classmate Josh!

The wrestling nut in me experimented with a couple other exclusive wrestling games on the system. Power Move Pro Wrestling was a decent early polygonal wrestling game, which I could have seen being addicted to if I played it when it originally released in 1996. WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game and WWF In Your House were mildly entertaining Mortal Kombat-esque takes on wrestling games, but needless to say I stuck with the N64 for my main wrestling games fix during this era. I loved both Destruction Derby titles on PSone back during this time, but I revisited them briefly in prep for this flashback and am sad to report they have not aged the best and I forgot how loose they controlled and how some inadvertent spinouts could lead to a quick demise. Another oddball title was the Kurt Warner backed Arena Football Unleashed. It is Midway taking the Blitz engine and giving it an Arena-rules makeover, but with more vicious hits and tackles that the NFL would not endorse in their games.

I want to make sure to get a couple other quick props to a few other assorted PSone memories. Loaded was a fun overhead two player action title to mindlessly blast away in coop. I was impressed with Blizzard’s port of Diablo and how well it surprisingly handled the co-op action with not too many performance hiccups. Another PC hit series my brother and I dug, Delta Force did not make as smooth of a transition to PSone with Delta Force: Urban Warfare being a bit of a choppy mess. The hit multiplayer series Worms I first discovered on PSone with Chris introducing me to the series with Worms 2 and I instantly became a fan of its fantastical weaponry like Banana Bombs and exploding sheep. One of the scant few times I got my mom to play games with me was knocking out several rounds of Jeopardy 2nd Edition where it was then impressive to hear every question…errr answer audibly read by studio host Johnny Gilbert. On one of the annual 24-hour Extra Life charity drives I participated in, a friend brought over one of the strangest PSone titles ever in Incredible Crisis, to begin to describe its zaniness would be impossible, so I will point you towards this video instead.

The aforementioned Capcom Marvel fighting games you cannot go wrong with, but a decent alternative was the pair of X-Men: Mutant Academy fighting games from Activision.I remember they had Professor X as a hidden character and going to town dishing out damage with his array of wheelchair attacks! I never got into the hardcore sim Gran Turismo titles, but it was another title that I would be fine watching Chris show off its then best-in-show graphics and presentation of realistic cars and driving physics. Finally, the Tekken 2 and Tekken 3 were in regular rotation at friends. Like Virtua Fighter 2 on Saturn they proved that polygonal fighters were here to stay, and I remember being stunned how good Tekken 3 looked when next to its arcade counterpart and how Namco squeezed everything they could out of the PSone with that title.


It was a different time for WWF games in the early years of the PSone as this video elucidates how a Mortal Kombat take on a wrestling game came to be.
PSone and PS2 owners were spoiled with a constant supply of demo discs courtesy of OPM and Playstation Underground. I remember Chris keeping up with the demos and him constantly popping in the latest one whenever I swung over. The Playstation Underground discs especially stood out since they were essentially a virtual magazine, complete with mini-documentaries and interview features, cheat codes and content unlocked save files. I have been able to experience these again with Giant Bomb doing an exquisite job regularly reliving this era with their ‘Demo Derby’ video series I give a high recommendation for everyone to check out. I also remember the final years of PSone’s lifecycle that introduced the concept of the $10 budget game that saw dozens of low-budget games release brand new for at that price point. A lot of these were utter trash like All-Star Slammin’ D-Ball where I discovered it is possible to screw up a dodge ball game, but there was an occasional gem sprinkled in there, and it was part of the fun chancing one when randomly perusing the racks at Best Buy on a routine payday visit back then.

My last dive into PSone gaming was downloading the various PSone classics released digitally on PS3. According to good ‘ol reliable Wikipedia, there were 265 PSone Classics released for PS3 download in North America. I downloaded around 30 of them. Most of them were $6 each, with a few multi-disc games going for $10 I think, but they frequently went on sale for half off and it was a great way to track down games I always wanted for a bargain, and having most of them being cross-compatible on the Vita was a handy bonus too! I booted up a few of them prepping up for this, and a big standout for me were the five volumes of the NAMCO Museum catching my eye with their impressive explore-able museum filled with all types of fan service that made me get a lot more than I expected when revisiting arcade classics like Galaga and Pole Position. One day I will make time for the other downloaded PSone Classics in my PS3 library I have long neglected and heard nothing but great things about like both Mega Man Legends titles and the pair of Suikoden games.

Speaking of PSone Classics, that brings me to Sony’s entry into the console-mini market a couple years ago with its critical and commercial flop, the PSone Classic. I love my NES, SNES and Genesis mini consoles, but I avoided Sony’s version with its surprise amount of issues that are far too numerous to breakdown here. From what I understand, a lot of it can be resolved by modding the system, but ultimately I prefer having my PS3 be my own personal PSone Classic. My PS3-slim model still plays all my PSone discs, and combine that with my own curated PSone Classics I have downloaded on it and I see no need to upgrade to the PSone Classic and its Dual Shock-less controller.

I will wind down here by stating how I went until three or four years ago unexpectedly stumbling into procuring a physical PSone. I was helping a longtime co-worker move an old couch, and afterword we were having a quick breakfast when she suddenly had a lightbulb-turned-on look dawn on her and she exclaimed, ‘hey, you like games, right?’ I responded that I do, and she went on to say how her son left a couple boxes of games in her closet and insisted I take them for helping her out. I felt it was a bit much for moving a couch, but she persisted and double checked with her son after a quick text. Upon opening up the couple of shoeboxes when I got home I discovered it wound up being the PSone-slim, with two controllers and about 20 games mostly of the Crash Bandicoot and alternative sports variety which was fine by me!

The PSone/Saturn/N64 generation I remember being a crazy ‘fanboy war’ era. Aside from the standard lunchroom verbal jabs that were exchanged, that generation in the mid-to-late 90s was when the Internet, online forums, boards and messenger programs became ubiquitous and only fueled the fire. As stated above, I remember sticking by the N64 during this time, but over the years as you have just read, I came around on the PSone over the years. I may have touched on an unorthodox lineup of games compared to what people that were playing the PSone during its active retail timespan, but I do not regret any of the PSone ‘classics’ I experienced one bit. Please check back here later this year for more Sony platform flashback specials on the PSP and PS2, and if you want more retro gaming flashbacks then please take a look underneath here for a list of my previous flashbacks!


Here is the podcast I did covering all of the comic book games released on the PSone, along with other systems from that era like the Saturn and N64.
My Other Gaming Flashbacks

Dreamcast 20th Anniversary
GameBoy 30th Anniversary
Genesis 30th Anniversary
Saturn and Virtual Boy 25th Anniversaries
TurboGrafX-16 30th Anniversary and 32-X 25th Anniversary