Best PS1 Games Ultimate Top 10 List

If you’re looking for something to play or just want to reminisce about the past, these are the top 10 best games for the PS1. It’s not genre-specific and although my personal taste leans toward RPGs and Strategy games, I think it’s a pretty objective list.

Mega Man Legends

I wrote an article the other day ranking Mega Man X games, and complained about how bad the 3d Mega Man X games were. And one of the reasons why they seemed so bad (I don’t think I mentioned this there, actually), is because Capcom had already made an incredible 3d Mega Man game, so they knew exactly how to do it. Seriously, Mega Man Legends is the series that died too soon. The made a sequel, which was also great, and then they just stopped because they… I don’t know, I guess they hate money and praise. Mega Man is a big name with a big legacy, and tons of different series spinoffs, just like Mario, but as far as I’m concerned there are only 3 that matter: Mega Man, Mega Man X and Mega Man Legends. I could go on and on about what made this game great, but I just want to talk about how you can kick this can into this bakery and the guy yells at you for littering and you slowly become evil. Unforgettable. That aside, this game is a treasure.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2

I don’t care if you’re a skater or not, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 was a hell of a game. The game itself was so goddamn fun it probably would make you want to be a skater even if you had absolutely no interest in it. Additionally, its character customization mechanics and its soundtrack were incredible. Bizarrely, it’s one of the few games where dying pathetically is almost exactly as satisfying succeeding spectacularly. One of the best games on PS1 for sure.

Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil 2 is known for 2 things: having totally wonky, whack controls, and being an amazing fucking game that you could play through like 20 times and still not get bored. In fact, all the PS1 era Resident Evils could probably earn a spot on a list like this, but 2 was the best because you could play as a block of tofu. There was something really special about Resident Evil 2. Its setting, its atmosphere, its characters, the sort of B-Movie zombie horror plot, the way the blocky 3d models pointed at things with their whole arm. It was really something. Easily one of the best games on PS1.

Street Fighter Alpha 3

I have a major dilemma because I like fighting games but I also have no friends, so Street Fighter Alpha 3‘s world tour mode was mindblowing. It took your kind of typical fighting game arcade mode and added all sorts of missions and special scenarios and story elements, as well as a character progression system and skills. I still haven’t encountered a fighting game series that lives up to this in terms of having a single player mode. As far as being a fighting game, it’s not quite Capcom vs. SNK 2, but that wasn’t available on PS1, so Street Fight Alpha 3 gets this spot. I mean, you could unlock Evil Ryu. What more do you want? That was a big deal back in the day.

Mega Man X4 – Best PS1 Games

Mega Man X4 was, for a while, the premiere action platformer. Nothing could come close to it. And Mega Man X4 was the best game in the series. Not only did it feature a ton of replayability and a game perfect for speedrunners, but it also featured a surprisingly engaging story about rogue sentient robots and the future sentient robot society that polices them. The original Mega Man and the subsequent Mega Man Zero games didn’t come close to actually having a plot I would want to watch as a show. Like, dude, Zero turned out to be Wily’s last creation and the carrier of the Sigma virus? Wild.

5. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was so highly regarded that 99% of unoriginal indie kickstarter games copy its “metroidvania format.” Seriously, the other day a YouTube video got recommended to me that was like “The 20 Best Indie Metroidvanias of 2019”. Like, holy shit, that’s too many. Who likes Metroidvanias that much? Anyway, SOTN was spectacular. It combined the gothic aesthetic of the Castlevania series with the exploratory backtracking of Metroid (hence, Metroidvania), and added in several RPG mechanics for good measure — leveling, magic, collecting a variety of items. It had 3 playable characters as well, significantly enhancing its replayability.

4. Final Fantasy 7 – Best PS1 Games

Final Fantasy 7 is simply iconic. I think most people know by now what makes this game great: everything. The story is great, the music is great, the gameplay is great, the graphics were great (for the time). But most of all, what made Final Fantasy 7 so amazing was its story, its cast, its originality, its depth and the emotion that it inspired in players around the world. There are just so many great moments from this game that I’m sure anyone who played it and loved it remembers. Aeris dying, of course. By also the crew gathering on the Highwind and having an inspirational speech. Yuffie stealing your materia. Cid giving up his dream to save Sheila. Following the blood trail in Shinra HQ. Final Fantasy 7 set a bar that not only other video games but all entertainment struggles to live up to. Seriously. The Expanse or FF7? FF7. Cowboy Bebop or FF7? Tougher, but still FF7. Star Wars or FF7? Really tough, but with all they’ve done to Star Wars lately, gotta give it to FF7.

3. Suikoden 2

Suikoden 2 may be obscure, and jRPGs may not have struck a chord with mainstream American audiences, but Suikoden 2 is truly among the best stories ever told in a video game, and it was told using simple 2d sprites. This game is just so jam-packed with emotion, aided significantly by its writing, its music and its fully realized cast of characters. A lot of people will talk about the recruiting of 108 characters, which is certainly a fun feature; but what’s really impressive is the degree to which you’re made to care about each and every one of those characters, as well as the supporting cast. Not to mention the conflict itself. This game is also just the perfect amount of time; if you’ve played it before, you can finish it casually in about 18 hours, which is a solid weekend, or a single day on fast-forward.

2. Metal Gear Solid – Best PS1 Games

Metal Gear Solid was the game that made Hideo Kojima a household name. Tom Clancy wishes he could write military spy fiction as inventive and intriguing as Metal Gear Solid. This game not only has an amazing story, but flawlessly executed cinematic sequences that rival the production quality of most movies, regardless of the dated look of the graphics. This game is as tight as a game can get; not a single moment of this game isn’t perfectly necessary, perfectly placed, and perfectly paced. Metal Gear Solid is a masterclass on how to make an amazing game. Not only is it one of the best PS1 games of all time, but it’s so representative of the PS1 era. Metal Gear Solid and PS1 go hand-in-hand.

1. Xenogears

Even when I’m trying to restrict the amount of jRPGs I put onto a list, Xenogears still comes out on top. The sheer scope of the game, the ambition of it, the originality, and the quality of the story are beyond what any other game — and most works of world-famous literature — has been able to accomplish. It’s not a game for everyone, just like Dostoevsky isn’t for everyone, but I can’t in good conscience deny that it’s the best game on this console, even if it’s not the bestselling or the most popular. Like I said in my jRPG list, not only one of the best PS1 games, but possibly one of the best stories ever told.

That about does it for my top 10 best PS1 games list. It was a struggle, but I made sure it wasn’t all jRPGs. I already made a list for that. I was very tempted to cut a few games to make room for Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, but then the list would’ve been half jRPGs. Be sure to check out the Games Section for more content like this.