Most Underrated PS1 Games

Various games end up regarded as classics, or at least as pretty fun titles, even though they were originally lambasted by critics and players alike. A game’s image in the eye of the public changes through time, especially when talking about games that are nearly 30 years old now. The original PlayStation had so many titles that it’s hard to re-evaluate many of them.

Some of these games even end up sadly forgotten, so perhaps it’s time to look at the most overlooked games in the history of the console. The ranking starts off with games with excellent gameplay that people didn’t quite get, and culminates with a game that became a joke at release for what would turn out to be the invention of modern console FPS controls.

Wild 9

A Fantastic 2.5D sidescroller

Wild 9 is a game by Shiny, a sadly defunct company that’s known for some of the most peculiarly groundbreaking games of all time. Though the company ended its days doing the less-than-stellar Enter The Matrix and The Matrix: Path Of Neo, this was the company that also brought players MDK, Messiah, and Sacrifice.

Between its greatest and weakest outings, however, Shiny also made Wild 9, a fantastic 2.5D sidescroller where the main character could make use of his sci-fi arm that allowed him to control matter and thus get his enemies obliterated in increasingly gruesome and more fun ways.

Tomb Raider Chronicles

Still Deserving Of Some Love

While it’s true that this is the weakest entry in the original run of Tomb Raider games in the original PlayStation, it’s still a damn fun game. Chronicles’ biggest problem, and the likely reason behind its relatively low scores, is the lack of innovation, but the levels in it actually contain quite a few interesting additions.

The other problem was that it didn’t really offer a satisfying conclusion to a plot thread started in the previous game, but let’s be honest, the plots in these games have only recently become one of the reasons people buy them. Maybe Chronicles shouldn’t have been sold at full price, but the good news is players can now experience it for a much fairer price.

Omega Boost

Some Of The Most Fun Mech Action On The PS1

In Omega Boost, Polyphony Digital, the people behind the Gran Turismo series, offered a mech-based title very different from FromSoftware’s Armored Core series. This time, instead of free roaming, players were limited to a more on-rails type of gameplay, albeit one that allowed for incredible set pieces that really showed what the PS1 was capable of doing.

Sadly, Omega Boost was a very difficult game, and one with a very strange campaign progression system that didn’t allow players to save. In Omega Boost, players only get one chance to save the future, or it’s game over. It was a bold approach that didn’t ultimately result in astounding sales, but Omega Boost remains a great graphical and gameplay showcase for Sony’s oldest console.

Evil Zone

A Wildly Original Fighter

Evil Zone

Released

January 14, 1999

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There’s a reason why Evil Zone didn’t fare as well as Tekken 3. It’s a very unique fighter doing things straight out of anime, such as having a super sentai-like character who summons laser beams out of the sky to obliterate their opponents.

The controls are also a bit clunky when compared to its rivals, but Evil Zone’s mix between close combat and projectile battles in a 3D battle arena makes it a very interesting look into the many directions fighting games could’ve gone. Evil Zone is different from every other fighting game in existence, and not in a bad way.

007: Tomorrow Never Dies

It’s Not Goldeneye, But

Let’s address the elephant in the room immediately: yes, Tomorrow Never Dies isn’t as good as Goldeneye 007, whether it’s the video game or movie version. Still, Tomorrow Never Dies deserves love, too.

It’s a game made by a completely different company that had no idea GoldenEye would become such a massive hit. Instead of the extremely addictive FPS action, however, Tomorrow Never Dies features a lot of different gameplay sections that make use of various different and cool mechanics that make this a very different but still very worthwhile addition to the 007 series of games.

T’ai Fu: Wrath Of The Tiger

A Great Brawler

Out of all the games on this list, T’ai Fu is arguably the one whose obscurity baffles the most. It’s an incredibly fun sidescroller, one which allows players to chain a bunch of very fun combos to defeat their enemies, long before Sifu was a thing.

Think Kung Fu Panda, but with a way more serious tone – that makes it much cooler. Anyone who really enjoyed Sifu and would like to see how that game would’ve played a few decades later should totally give T’ai Fu: Wrath Of The Tiger a shot.

Akuji The Heartless

Great For Fans Of Soul Reaver

Akuji: The Heartless is a 3D action-adventure title that slipped under the cracks for many. Based on a fictionalized version of Haitian myth, Akujii is as rich in interesting lore as it is in brutal combat and in brutal difficulty.

Akuji was made by Crystal Dynamics right before the company did Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. It’s notably not as good as the company’s follow-up, but Akuji The Heartless actually deserved much more praise and attention than it ever ended up getting. This one is perfect for anyone looking for a PS1 game as challenging as Dark Souls.

Alien Resurrection

Still One Of The Best Alien Games

Alien Resurrection

Systems

Released

October 10, 2000

ESRB

M // Animated Blood and Gore, Animated Violence

Publisher(s)

Fox Interactive

Upon release, Alien Resurrection – both the movie and the game – got lambasted by critics and fans of the series. The game, however, would end up opening the eyes of players to what first-person shooters on consoles should play like.

This was the first game to use a console’s analog sticks the way all games do nowadays, and it’s also a very solid and scary entry in the Alien game franchise. While most people have never even played the two, Alien Resurrection, at the time of its release, was as good as Alien: Isolation is nowadays.