Underrated PS1 games

[I can't imagine]

Silhouette Mirage was an oddball budget title from Treasure put out by Working Designs in the later days of the PSX. It uses a similar color changing mechanic to Ikaruga, where damage to enemies and yourself depend on your character's color. The game had some changes made to it for the U.S. release deliberately designed to make it more difficult so that you couldn't beat it in a single rental, and overall they make the game worse than the JP version. Still, the game is quite nice to look at, the music is solid, and the controls are good. It's just really hard in a "seriously unbalanced" kinda way. It's also, while not the most expensive game out there, not super cheap (around $70-ish dollars open in box).

Realistically, if anyone here is going to try it out, they'll probably emulate, so I'd say to play the Japanese version instead, but it was still a memorable oddity that I wanted to mention.

 

[Naamaleipuri]

Yeah, everyone and their uncle has played Metal Gear Solid. But how many played MGS: Special Missions?
So many challenges to overcome and some of them involve ghosts, giants and photography.
Pure gameplay fun.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

tarzan. i used too play it all the time.

 

[Haramburger]

A strange demo I played that ended up being pretty hard to find:

Sort of a puzzle game with action/racing elements

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Kula World, starts as an easyish platformer, ends as a nerve wracking fight against the time limit as you try to solve the current level puzzle.

One of the developer came in one day and talked about a really weird dream he had, it was a frantic fever dream where he was a ball rolling on a small path in the sky - and that's where the game came from. Apparently the final product is very close to what he dreamed that night.

 

[Bender]

Kurushi / I.Q.: Intelligent Qube, I never see people talk about it and I think it deserves more recognition.

 

[Beelzebub's Gate]

Vib-Ribbon was a PS1 rhythm game ahead of it's time. I recall you could import your own music and make a level out of it! Very cute and unique style, definitely one of my favorites.

 

[AnaV]

is LSD Dream Emulator underrated? Also +1 on the Vib Ribbon love.

 

[Just_a_Bored_Guy]

Did you know Lupin the Third had a PS1 rhythm game? Well, now you do.

is LSD Dream Emulator underrated? Also +1 on the Vib Ribbon love.

Not as much as other Osamu Sato games

 

[Hummingbird]

Does Monster Rancher count?

 

[Massively Strong Greed]

I’ve never actually owned any PlayStation prior to the PS4 but I’ve always wanted to try the games I missed. More to the point, I’ve heard good things about the Tomba! series and Devil Dice. You should also play Klonoa: Door to Phantomile.

 

[Just_a_Bored_Guy]

I’ve never actually owned any PlayStation prior to the PS4 but I’ve always wanted to try the games I missed. More to the point, I’ve heard good things about the Tomba! series and Devil Dice. You should also play Klonoa: Door to Phantomile.

Those are all great choices.

 

[Tom Nook's Gloryhole]

This motherfucker is THE definitive underrated PS1 game.

A pirate themed adventure game where you control your boat to attack other boats and pass through obsticles.

 

[Billy Beer]

Does Syndicate wars count? Because Syndicate wars.

 

[Internet Explorer]

Vib-Ribbon was a PS1 rhythm game ahead of it's time. I recall you could import your own music and make a level out of it! Very cute and unique style, definitely one of my favorites.

I fucking loved Vib-Ribbon, though back then, I mostly had a pile of normie house music that accompanied it.

Now I'm wondering what it would generate for some experimental breakcore shit, like Igorrr for example.

 

[Friendly Primarina]

Destruction Derby Raw was really impressive technically, but the scoring is absolute horseshit. Still fun, though.

Klonoa has already been mentioned. +1

N-Gen Racing is basically F-Zero in jets:

Thrasher: Skate and Destroy is Tony Hawk but (very) marginally more realistic

 

[Pissmaster]

Vib-Ribbon was a PS1 rhythm game ahead of it's time. I recall you could import your own music and make a level out of it! Very cute and unique style, definitely one of my favorites.

Never came out in America, and considering its rhythm game nature, you can't play the PAL version on an NTSC screen at all due to the 50/60hz difference throwing everything off. You could play the Japanese version, but then it's not English when there's an English version available. So that's annoying.

I guess I could rig it up in an emulator now, but the gimmick was that you could use your own music CDs with it, so it's something I'd rather play on a real PS1, but I don't think PS1 modchips are so easy to come by anymore.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Thrasher: Skate and Destroy is Tony Hawk but (very) marginally more realistic

I heard that Thrasher was a spite-project to counter the fantastic Tony Hawk Pro Skater game. Don't know if that's true.

 

[Just_a_Bored_Guy]

The You Don't Know Jack series had two releases on Playstation.
The first was heavily modeled after Volume 3, while the second mainly leaned on The Ride and Louder, Faster, Funnier.

 

[Pissmaster]

The You Don't Know Jack series had two releases on Playstation.
The first was heavily modeled after Volume 3, while the second mainly leaned on The Ride and Louder, Faster, Funnier.

Yeah, the You Don't Know Jack series is by far the best trivia video game series out there. The 2011 and 2015 ones were good, too, but YDKJ Full Stream on Party Pack 5 is just... I dunno, toothless? It really shows they had to tiptoe around Current Year sensibilities.