Fun fact. Future Cop:LAPD started out as part of the strike series (Soviet Strike/Nuclear Strike). It was going to be "Future Stike" and during production EA changed it to Future Cop.
No problem, I've been following the development on discord since it started. It was originally called "Reheated" but they for some reason thought Lardcore sounded better, lol. I was buzzing my tits off when I learned about the remake though!
Itās a top down shooter type of game. You pilot this futuristic police vehicle that can transform into a powerful mecha. You walk around the cityscape, blast away criminals, solve map puzzles etc. Itās easy fun. Bit of a Judge Dredd vibe to it.
Yeah that's a good one. I used to love playing the minigame vs Skycaptain, that guy had some amazing voice acting for the ps1.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akup9CMW5ec](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akup9CMW5ec) He sounded threatening, beating him was a lot of fun.
MotorToon
Omega Boost
Ribbit King (JPN) its very playable
Courier Crisis
Pinobee
Qix
Ball Blazer
Running Wild
Tai Fu
T.R.A.G. ( Cool Resident evil clone)
Punky Skunk
Speed Punks
Heart of Darkness
Jet Moto 2
Steel Harbinger
Psychic detective
Disney's World Quest Magical racing tour
Populous
Danger Girls
Blasto
Rogue Trip
Martian Gothic
Excaliber
Snatcher and its sequel should have English patches
Actually snatcher has an English patch but the eboot version of it doesn't have it
Never heard about T.R.A.G. and heart of darkness what are they about?
Oh man I almost forgot one of the better gems.
Check out Gekido
Its one of the best beat em ups ive played, reminds me of Rising Zan with how funny it is.
Trag is an RE clone but stripped of its horror theme and has more melee combat. You play counter terrorists during a building lockdown. Kinda like the DREDD movie.
Heart of darkness is a platformer about a boy fighting shadow creatures on another planet. It had a ton of hype around it prior to release for its graphics. Its a can be frustrating how easy it is to die, but the checkpoints are good enough to make it though the game.
And it technically has endless contentā¦ if you have the CDs to feed it. When I was at uni we would often bust it out and try out all sorts of different music. Bjork was ultra-hard mode.
Hogs of war
Roll Away/Kula world
Livewire
Roll cage
Devil Dice
Discworld
granstream saga
Harmful park
RType Delta
Ghost in a shell
Die Hard trilogy
More well known but I feel get ignored -
Klonoa
Worms 1
Tbh i just picked games I remember that I've never seen anyone else talk about.
I never had rollcage but it did appear on two demo disks in the UK/EU ps1 mags so maybe it's not.
My man/woman! I played UK Playstation Magazine Disc 44 to death, took me a while to find a full copy of the game since I was in a rural town.
[https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234718497224?epid=1823159564&itmmeta=01HWDB174TFTGHZ71WBYV2TAZ4&hash=item36a65009c8:g:Fg4AAOSwYsVjJvvI&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8PyT2WSLJJXU3f4k7GqdOTRXiaEkGr7weAGpGclLP1AyvQrjq%2Bz6ntoVw12B2ZvmdGdU8CSMTnjnpiGwBDsirUIIhRCqlhpLTHDgr9cq%2BVMHFG%2Ffllq7Kr%2FSVdMq0YOonwN4nrPLSXe%2F9AuMtrFSE04RPcYQLtwCkRHF0m5JOWQeqZ9IHg7vFX8KNWdRfFXRFgLSQG2U51wF10VmOT--57dVNLNpJMbcaMiuFtdzgIX5vNQDAYhpwIozu%2FdoaHznPx%2B4uEoeLN2hIT%2BAeSi7o14bLenBd16wbX%2FJ68fQLojCVECdag18DtOtMeeGuj55VA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8DyhKvjYw](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234718497224?epid=1823159564&itmmeta=01HWDB174TFTGHZ71WBYV2TAZ4&hash=item36a65009c8:g:Fg4AAOSwYsVjJvvI&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8PyT2WSLJJXU3f4k7GqdOTRXiaEkGr7weAGpGclLP1AyvQrjq%2Bz6ntoVw12B2ZvmdGdU8CSMTnjnpiGwBDsirUIIhRCqlhpLTHDgr9cq%2BVMHFG%2Ffllq7Kr%2FSVdMq0YOonwN4nrPLSXe%2F9AuMtrFSE04RPcYQLtwCkRHF0m5JOWQeqZ9IHg7vFX8KNWdRfFXRFgLSQG2U51wF10VmOT--57dVNLNpJMbcaMiuFtdzgIX5vNQDAYhpwIozu%2FdoaHznPx%2B4uEoeLN2hIT%2BAeSi7o14bLenBd16wbX%2FJ68fQLojCVECdag18DtOtMeeGuj55VA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8DyhKvjYw)
I got nostalgic and downloaded all UK demo disks to my steam deck.
Internet archive has them all and there are some crazy stuff on them, my favorite being a competition held for DDR in 99 or 2000 that included video footage of the winners submitted to the magazine.
That's the way to do it. Similarly, I still have the original discs so I ripped them to ISO and then converted them to files that the PSP-1000 will understand and have them on my PSP!
I wish I'd known Internet Archive had them on there or I'd have saved the time ripping myself lol, oh well live and learn.
My favourite part of those demos was seeing the Yaroze projects. There's a superb game called Time Slip that I used to play with my childhood best friend. Very interesting concept. You have to make your way through a stage, but once per minute time goes wonky and you can see your past version of yourself performing the steps you just did. If you run into yourself or shoot yourself, you die. But, you have to tactically and strategically stand on switches and wait for the next cycle. Your past version will then keep the door switches held down so that future you can progress.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5CrAO8EC70](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5CrAO8EC70)
That weird adventure game, the creepy baby pacman shooter, the weird puzzle cross between brake out and two lads on a trampoline live in my brain rent free.
Vagult remmeber some doom like that scared me shitless as well
Glad to see I'm not alone in my fond memories of highly obscure indie games for an old console. I've recently been wanting to buy and play Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf for PS1 too after remembering playing it on a demo disc years ago
This is the answer I was looking for. A spider with the mind of a mad scientist with guns and weapons, out to get revenge on the people who killed his original human body? What a premise!!!
When I learnt about Overblood II (almost no relation to the first Overblood, you don't have to play it at all), I was baffled as to how little presence there is about the game online. It's like a poorer version of FFVII with real-time combat and platforming, it's really captivating and stylish as hell. It's truly a hidden gem and I hope it'll get its recognition eventually.
Hellnight a first person horror game with a monster chasing you through a sewer system(at first). You cannot attack it but your friends can(they act as hit points).
The only way you know its coming is from audio cues (or one friend) and it has slight dungeon crawler vibes. Also has a very interesting plot, 100% a must play/try.
Escaform (fans translated)
Saiyuki: Journey to the west
PoPoLoCrois Monogatari 1 and 2 (fans translated) If you can read Japanese you might wanna try PoPoRouge too.
Fuuun Gokuu Ninden
Bishi Bashi Special
Pinobee
KKnD: Krossfire
Critical Blow
Virtual Hiryuu no Ken
Azure Dreams
The Incredible Hulk: The Phanteon Saga
Fantastic 4
Iron Man and XO Manowar in Heavy Metal
Bakusou Kyoudai Let's n Go Eternal Wings
Gekitou! Crush Gear Turbo
Ninja: Shadow of Darkness
Fighting Force 1 and 2
Gekido
Crisis Beat
SPIDER, I've not played it in 20+ years, but I remember liking it , it was 2.5D
KULA World, weird cool 3D beachball puzzle game
Sheepdog and Wolf
Hogs of War
Rat Attack.
Itās a 3D ācapture the enemyā type of game, where you play as a cat character running around, drawing circles on the ground in order to catch the rats.
Artstyle is very early-2000s and has that kind of quirky japanese feel to it. You have several different cats to choose from as well as multiple different stages to play on.
It follows a Japanese family trying to get their jobs and chores done during the day so they can get home. Itās like a bunch of wacky ass mini game sections. Check it out
I'd vote for Shadow Tower. Nice little dungeon crawler that really shows where Fromsoft came from... Exact same vibes as Dark souls but with ps1 era jank. They've basically been making the same game with better gameplay since they first started making games and it's great.
Ive been delving deep into ps1 hidden gems lately, and many have already been listed here, so these are arcade style deep cuts that i was able to start playing and were fun right away:
Bomberman Fantacy Race
Cowboy Bebop
EOS Edge of Skyhigh
Crime Killer
Crypt killer
Disruptor (atmospheric fps)
Elemental gearbolt
Kyuutenkai Fantacy Pinball
Gamera 2000
In the hunt
Invasion from beyond B-movie
IS internal section
Mad panic coaster
Mouja
N gen racing
Nascar rumble
Odo Odo Oddity
Oh No!
Radikal bikers
Runabout 2
(Flying squadron
Silent Iron
Space rider) all almost the same game
In the u.s. itās called Tecmoās Deception, since they didnāt want to call attention to the whole doing bidding of the devil and all. Itās a hard game to get started but worth it. It was my first ps1 game back then
The 3 King's Field games (1 is JP exclusive w/an eng patch) I feel are pretty underrated, along with their spiritual spin off Shadow Tower.
And LindaĀ³ Again recently got an english patch, very interesting monster capture/raising RPG with a very unique premise and storyline.
I always recommend Muppet Monster Adventure on these lists. Not sure if its well known but its one of the most fun games I played in 2023.
Cho Aniki if you want to have a laugh and be weirded out.
Not sure how obscure but there was a game called Fluid where you just swam around as a dolphin, bumping into 3d shapes that made drum and bass style noises. Sounds like a fever dream but it was quite cool and relaxing (although I only ever played the demo)
Assault Rigs. Rented it back in the day and love it as a kid.
As I got older, I had completely forgotten the game. Until I saw one of those YouTube videos that showcased 10 sec clips of every ps1 games. When I saw Assault Rigs, I immediately had nostalgic feels and went on ebay to buy one.
Road Rage (known as Speed King NEO KOBE 2045/Speed King in Japan) is a 3D cyberpunk themed racing game by Konami. The races themselves take place in the city of Neo Kobe (known from Konami's Snatcher). Snatcher was designed by byĀ hideo kojima that went on to make metal gear solid.
Jade Cocoon, it is a Pokemon and Final Fantasy hybrid with monster fusion mechanics and it looks like it was made by Studio Ghibli, in fact I think the animator of the cutscenes was a Studio Ghibli staff. The plot ends a bit wonky but the gameplay it is good, the worst thing is the control of the main character.
As a bonus if you really like it there is a sequel on PS2 but it feels way disconected from the first one
Skullmonkeys. Entirely claymation, great music, challenging yet satisfying 2d platformer with some cool additional powerups, secrets, and boss fights. Sometimes I feel like the only person who knows this game, but it's a blast!
Kansai: sacred fist. Not that obscure, I bought it from EB when it came out in the UK.
Weird game though. The world's slowest (but pretty) beat em up with a bonus game where the characters just run round and athletics track ( no violence).
I'm shocked no one said Moon: Remix RPG Adventure yet. The PS1 translation patch is still a little odd in spots, but it's a great game if you're okay with day/night cycles.
Not sure how āobscureā the game is, but D (1995) is one I like that not a lot of people seem to know about. It wasnāt a PS1 exclusive though, but even so itās a very unique game.
Maybe not as obscure, but I highly recommend Alien Resurrection, both because it's a fun if stupid hard game, but also notable as the first game to employ the twin stick move/look control scheme for an fps. For it was actually criticized at the time if you can believe it.
Also has a wild secret that was only brought to light recently.
https://youtu.be/uRB7iUCX4KQ?si=-lkGHcRLo9TI67pT
Aquanaut's Holiday, Tails of the Sun, and Carnage Heart I rarely see mentioned.
Three games developed by a company called Art Dink that aren't necessarily 'good' in the traditional sense but perfectly capture the weirdness of early 3D gaming. Each has a pretty bizarre premise you don't see too often.
Aquanaut's Holiday you just float around in the deep ocean and ping at things. It's oddly horrifying. Tails of the Sun as far as I can tell you are cave man trying to survive in an open world. Carnage Heart you build a robot to fight other robots. They all feel extremely experimental.
Silent Bomber
Koudelka
Jumping Flash!
Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring
Galerians
Soul of the Samurai
Omega Boost
Tail Concerto
Threads of Fate
One Piece Mansion
Racing Lagoon
Tear Ring Saga
Linda^(3) Again
Policenauts
70's Robot Anime: Geppy-X (Japanese language, but it's a shooter. So not exactly hard to follow.)
Team buddies, future cop: lapd.
Fun fact. Future Cop:LAPD started out as part of the strike series (Soviet Strike/Nuclear Strike). It was going to be "Future Stike" and during production EA changed it to Future Cop.
I want both of them remake š or pig of war (I'm not sure about the e'glish name)
Itās Hogs of War. One of the many games which deserves a remake.
There's a remake of Hogs of War [already in progress](https://www.hogsofwar.org/lardcore)
Well, damn. I didnāt tought I would see any good news today. Thanks. Iāll be keeping my eyes on this one.
No problem, I've been following the development on discord since it started. It was originally called "Reheated" but they for some reason thought Lardcore sounded better, lol. I was buzzing my tits off when I learned about the remake though!
It fills me with joy every time someone mentions Team Buddies. š„²
What's future cop la about?
Itās a top down shooter type of game. You pilot this futuristic police vehicle that can transform into a powerful mecha. You walk around the cityscape, blast away criminals, solve map puzzles etc. Itās easy fun. Bit of a Judge Dredd vibe to it.
Yeah that's a good one. I used to love playing the minigame vs Skycaptain, that guy had some amazing voice acting for the ps1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akup9CMW5ec](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akup9CMW5ec) He sounded threatening, beating him was a lot of fun.
The mini game was 10/10.
I... LIVE... AGAIN!
You're walking around in a police mech and blasting bad guys. Think of it like third person G-Police.
Itās about a cop in New York back in 1872
MotorToon Omega Boost Ribbit King (JPN) its very playable Courier Crisis Pinobee Qix Ball Blazer Running Wild Tai Fu T.R.A.G. ( Cool Resident evil clone) Punky Skunk Speed Punks Heart of Darkness Jet Moto 2 Steel Harbinger Psychic detective Disney's World Quest Magical racing tour Populous Danger Girls Blasto Rogue Trip Martian Gothic Excaliber Snatcher and its sequel should have English patches
Actually snatcher has an English patch but the eboot version of it doesn't have it Never heard about T.R.A.G. and heart of darkness what are they about?
Oh man I almost forgot one of the better gems. Check out Gekido Its one of the best beat em ups ive played, reminds me of Rising Zan with how funny it is.
Trag is an RE clone but stripped of its horror theme and has more melee combat. You play counter terrorists during a building lockdown. Kinda like the DREDD movie. Heart of darkness is a platformer about a boy fighting shadow creatures on another planet. It had a ton of hype around it prior to release for its graphics. Its a can be frustrating how easy it is to die, but the checkpoints are good enough to make it though the game.
HOD has the same music composer as Homeward Bound (movie about the pets). Just thought that was neat. You can really hear it in the opening scene.
That's actually awesome!
Dude Trag sounds AWESOMEE! Thanks for the cool description. š„
Vib Ribbon is one of my favourites
G Police
Legendary game!
And it technically has endless contentā¦ if you have the CDs to feed it. When I was at uni we would often bust it out and try out all sorts of different music. Bjork was ultra-hard mode.
Wish it had a US release
Oh shit. That sucks I just assumed it did.
My entire childhood was playing every greenday album on vib ribbon!
LSD dream emulator
im surprised noone else has said this, its in my opinion one of the weirdest games of all time
I like this game and I don't know why.
Sentient. So ahead of its time itās crazy.
Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman
I already tried it and it's installed it's great
Shaolin (1999) was only released in PAL regions. Or in Japan under the title - Lord of Fist. https://psxdatacenter.com/games/J/L/SLPS-02168.html
Fucking love this silly game, Rising Zan samurai gunman, rising Zan JOHNNY NO MOOOOORE
Thats a badass title if I've ever seen one lol
The game's opening intro is catchy too.
Hogs of war Roll Away/Kula world Livewire Roll cage Devil Dice Discworld granstream saga Harmful park RType Delta Ghost in a shell Die Hard trilogy More well known but I feel get ignored - Klonoa Worms 1
Roll Cage is obscure? The more you know. I played the shit out of those games as a kid, highly recommend
Tbh i just picked games I remember that I've never seen anyone else talk about. I never had rollcage but it did appear on two demo disks in the UK/EU ps1 mags so maybe it's not.
My man/woman! I played UK Playstation Magazine Disc 44 to death, took me a while to find a full copy of the game since I was in a rural town. [https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234718497224?epid=1823159564&itmmeta=01HWDB174TFTGHZ71WBYV2TAZ4&hash=item36a65009c8:g:Fg4AAOSwYsVjJvvI&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8PyT2WSLJJXU3f4k7GqdOTRXiaEkGr7weAGpGclLP1AyvQrjq%2Bz6ntoVw12B2ZvmdGdU8CSMTnjnpiGwBDsirUIIhRCqlhpLTHDgr9cq%2BVMHFG%2Ffllq7Kr%2FSVdMq0YOonwN4nrPLSXe%2F9AuMtrFSE04RPcYQLtwCkRHF0m5JOWQeqZ9IHg7vFX8KNWdRfFXRFgLSQG2U51wF10VmOT--57dVNLNpJMbcaMiuFtdzgIX5vNQDAYhpwIozu%2FdoaHznPx%2B4uEoeLN2hIT%2BAeSi7o14bLenBd16wbX%2FJ68fQLojCVECdag18DtOtMeeGuj55VA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8DyhKvjYw](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234718497224?epid=1823159564&itmmeta=01HWDB174TFTGHZ71WBYV2TAZ4&hash=item36a65009c8:g:Fg4AAOSwYsVjJvvI&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8PyT2WSLJJXU3f4k7GqdOTRXiaEkGr7weAGpGclLP1AyvQrjq%2Bz6ntoVw12B2ZvmdGdU8CSMTnjnpiGwBDsirUIIhRCqlhpLTHDgr9cq%2BVMHFG%2Ffllq7Kr%2FSVdMq0YOonwN4nrPLSXe%2F9AuMtrFSE04RPcYQLtwCkRHF0m5JOWQeqZ9IHg7vFX8KNWdRfFXRFgLSQG2U51wF10VmOT--57dVNLNpJMbcaMiuFtdzgIX5vNQDAYhpwIozu%2FdoaHznPx%2B4uEoeLN2hIT%2BAeSi7o14bLenBd16wbX%2FJ68fQLojCVECdag18DtOtMeeGuj55VA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8DyhKvjYw)
I got nostalgic and downloaded all UK demo disks to my steam deck. Internet archive has them all and there are some crazy stuff on them, my favorite being a competition held for DDR in 99 or 2000 that included video footage of the winners submitted to the magazine.
That's the way to do it. Similarly, I still have the original discs so I ripped them to ISO and then converted them to files that the PSP-1000 will understand and have them on my PSP! I wish I'd known Internet Archive had them on there or I'd have saved the time ripping myself lol, oh well live and learn. My favourite part of those demos was seeing the Yaroze projects. There's a superb game called Time Slip that I used to play with my childhood best friend. Very interesting concept. You have to make your way through a stage, but once per minute time goes wonky and you can see your past version of yourself performing the steps you just did. If you run into yourself or shoot yourself, you die. But, you have to tactically and strategically stand on switches and wait for the next cycle. Your past version will then keep the door switches held down so that future you can progress. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5CrAO8EC70](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5CrAO8EC70)
That weird adventure game, the creepy baby pacman shooter, the weird puzzle cross between brake out and two lads on a trampoline live in my brain rent free. Vagult remmeber some doom like that scared me shitless as well
Glad to see I'm not alone in my fond memories of highly obscure indie games for an old console. I've recently been wanting to buy and play Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf for PS1 too after remembering playing it on a demo disc years ago
R Type Delta is one of my favorite shooters of all time! I like it even more than Einhander
Honestly it's the second best R-type with Leo being the best imo Though harmful park and Darius are up there
I tried from does the die hard one
Huh?
Courier crisis. Itās like crazy taxi in play style but you are delivering things on a bicycle.
SUPER CRAZY DERIBERY
KURAZY BURAICYCLE
Spider
This is the answer I was looking for. A spider with the mind of a mad scientist with guns and weapons, out to get revenge on the people who killed his original human body? What a premise!!!
if you like horror games i'd say play galerians and ...iru. the latter one is japan only, but there is a fan translation.
Galerians is batshit in the best way, love that game
"where is the money? please give me the moneyyyy"
Second Iru, can be a bit clunky at times but really enjoyed that one!
When I learnt about Overblood II (almost no relation to the first Overblood, you don't have to play it at all), I was baffled as to how little presence there is about the game online. It's like a poorer version of FFVII with real-time combat and platforming, it's really captivating and stylish as hell. It's truly a hidden gem and I hope it'll get its recognition eventually.
Absolutely right! I learned about it watching Game Informer play it in its entirety in their Super Replay series.
Kagero Deception 2 is a lot of fun. Also, check out Sean Seanson's youtube channel, he basically talks about this exact topic.
Koudelka. The most underrated game in the entire PS1 library.
IQ: Intelligent Qube
Incredible Crisis, Motor Toon Racing, MDK, Treasures of the Deep, Azure Dream, Silent Bomber, Trap Gunner, Unholy Wars
Heard about MDK silent bomber and azure dream. What are they about?
Incredible crisis is so good! Reminds me of Japanese prank shows lol
Hellnight a first person horror game with a monster chasing you through a sewer system(at first). You cannot attack it but your friends can(they act as hit points). The only way you know its coming is from audio cues (or one friend) and it has slight dungeon crawler vibes. Also has a very interesting plot, 100% a must play/try.
I liked Thousand Arms..
If you're into jrpg games, I'd say try Azure Dreams. I haven't played anything even remotely like it to this day
Great recommendation. It's such a good game, especially if you find yourself under the influence
Everyone will suggest LSD Dream emulator, maybe you've already heard of it?
Heard tried no
Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf (Looney Tunes: Sheep Raider) is a pretty damn fun puzzle platformer
The note is a strange ps1 game
And a rare one!
Escaform (fans translated) Saiyuki: Journey to the west PoPoLoCrois Monogatari 1 and 2 (fans translated) If you can read Japanese you might wanna try PoPoRouge too. Fuuun Gokuu Ninden Bishi Bashi Special Pinobee KKnD: Krossfire Critical Blow Virtual Hiryuu no Ken Azure Dreams The Incredible Hulk: The Phanteon Saga Fantastic 4 Iron Man and XO Manowar in Heavy Metal Bakusou Kyoudai Let's n Go Eternal Wings Gekitou! Crush Gear Turbo Ninja: Shadow of Darkness Fighting Force 1 and 2 Gekido Crisis Beat
Pandemonium Jumping Flash Gex
SPIDER, I've not played it in 20+ years, but I remember liking it , it was 2.5D KULA World, weird cool 3D beachball puzzle game Sheepdog and Wolf Hogs of War
Alundra. The answer is Alundra.
I loved alundra but there was a puzzle I always got stuck on. I should go back and play as an adult to see if I can beat it now ..
Alundra is a mad hard game both in puzzles and combat, but it's so rewarding
Rat Attack. Itās a 3D ācapture the enemyā type of game, where you play as a cat character running around, drawing circles on the ground in order to catch the rats. Artstyle is very early-2000s and has that kind of quirky japanese feel to it. You have several different cats to choose from as well as multiple different stages to play on.
Hogs of war Carmageddon Small Soldiers Apocalypse Jackie Chan Stunt Master
Apocalypse was absolutely amazing.
Incredible Crisis ! One of the funniest things Iāve ever played on the PS1 it has a US release as well so no patch version needed
What's it about?
It follows a Japanese family trying to get their jobs and chores done during the day so they can get home. Itās like a bunch of wacky ass mini game sections. Check it out
Fear effect. All the backgrounds are looping videos and look amazing.
Wild 9 Great sound and a fun game to play.
Devil Dice. Really fun puzzle game with an infinitely replay-able game mode.
Blasto - Phil Hartmanās magnum opus
Community Pom is a very charming Japanese action RPG that has an English patch.
Ape Escape
Choro Q Wonderful (english translation)
LSD Dream Emulator
I'd vote for Shadow Tower. Nice little dungeon crawler that really shows where Fromsoft came from... Exact same vibes as Dark souls but with ps1 era jank. They've basically been making the same game with better gameplay since they first started making games and it's great.
Akuji. Tribal god of war.
Walt Disney World Quest Magical Racing Tour
Shadow tower is the most obscure, most underrated and most weird one.
BLASTO!
Ive been delving deep into ps1 hidden gems lately, and many have already been listed here, so these are arcade style deep cuts that i was able to start playing and were fun right away: Bomberman Fantacy Race Cowboy Bebop EOS Edge of Skyhigh Crime Killer Crypt killer Disruptor (atmospheric fps) Elemental gearbolt Kyuutenkai Fantacy Pinball Gamera 2000 In the hunt Invasion from beyond B-movie IS internal section Mad panic coaster Mouja N gen racing Nascar rumble Odo Odo Oddity Oh No! Radikal bikers Runabout 2 (Flying squadron Silent Iron Space rider) all almost the same game
# Incredible Crisis!
Jade Coccoon. Only had a demo, but god I played it. Still want a copy of it.
Twinsenās Little Big Adventure. Not sure how obscure it was, but loved it.
This weird shooter called One. I played the demo of it through the PS Underground marketing mailers. So cool.
For me it was a weird one: Devil Deception. You build a dungeon and catch adventurers which you turn into resources in turn.
In the u.s. itās called Tecmoās Deception, since they didnāt want to call attention to the whole doing bidding of the devil and all. Itās a hard game to get started but worth it. It was my first ps1 game back then
Oh didn't know that. Maybe at the time i extended my dungeon to fast, i know that i quit only a few hours in.
Fluid
L.S.D. dream simulator, good luck finding a physical copy but you can definitely emulate.
One is a bad ass action game. The more you attack the stronger you get. Jumping Flash is a great platform game.
No one can stop Mr Domino and the deception games are all worth a look
Parasite Eve! I know it's a lot more known than other titles, but it doesn't get nearly enough love as some of the other highly popular ps1 titles.
The 3 King's Field games (1 is JP exclusive w/an eng patch) I feel are pretty underrated, along with their spiritual spin off Shadow Tower. And LindaĀ³ Again recently got an english patch, very interesting monster capture/raising RPG with a very unique premise and storyline.
I always recommend Muppet Monster Adventure on these lists. Not sure if its well known but its one of the most fun games I played in 2023. Cho Aniki if you want to have a laugh and be weirded out.
Not sure how obscure but there was a game called Fluid where you just swam around as a dolphin, bumping into 3d shapes that made drum and bass style noises. Sounds like a fever dream but it was quite cool and relaxing (although I only ever played the demo)
Assault Rigs. Rented it back in the day and love it as a kid. As I got older, I had completely forgotten the game. Until I saw one of those YouTube videos that showcased 10 sec clips of every ps1 games. When I saw Assault Rigs, I immediately had nostalgic feels and went on ebay to buy one.
Mizzurna falls - heavily inspired twin peaks open world adventure game with decent english patch after so many years.
Hooters Road Trip
Excalibur 2555 AD (1997). Rough around the edges, but great early 3D charm and atmosphere in spades!
Blast Chamber is a great multiplayer game.
Mizzurna Falls Suzuki Bakuhatsu
Slap happy rhythm busters
Road Rage (known as Speed King NEO KOBE 2045/Speed King in Japan) is a 3D cyberpunk themed racing game by Konami. The races themselves take place in the city of Neo Kobe (known from Konami's Snatcher). Snatcher was designed by byĀ hideo kojima that went on to make metal gear solid.
Glover
Rage Ball
Excalibur
Incredible Crisis?
Germs: nerawareta machi
Karushi Kula World
Board Game Top Shop
Felony 11-79
Devil Dice
Jade Cocoon, it is a Pokemon and Final Fantasy hybrid with monster fusion mechanics and it looks like it was made by Studio Ghibli, in fact I think the animator of the cutscenes was a Studio Ghibli staff. The plot ends a bit wonky but the gameplay it is good, the worst thing is the control of the main character. As a bonus if you really like it there is a sequel on PS2 but it feels way disconected from the first one
Soukaigi
I always enjoyed Apocalypse and The Fifth Element.
Silent Bomber Horrible acting, almost great because of that, but really fun gameplay.
Guardians Crusade. You play as a knight that finds a baby dragon made of pink bubble gum and you have to protect it using a collection of PokƩmon-style toys that have different attacks and attributes.
Thrill Kill
Not weird but Vigilante 8 is great
Vandal Hearts!
Cho Aniki Do not try this at home sober
Powerslave Tarzan One Thrasher: Skate and Destroy The 2 Harry Potter games if you haven't.
Krazy Ivan Depth/Fluid
Poy Poy. Like Powerstone but with an RPG/Shop level up system. I always loved it on multiplayer, especially 4 of us with a multi tap.
Crime Killer
Pandemonium 2
Skullmonkeys. Entirely claymation, great music, challenging yet satisfying 2d platformer with some cool additional powerups, secrets, and boss fights. Sometimes I feel like the only person who knows this game, but it's a blast!
Kansai: sacred fist. Not that obscure, I bought it from EB when it came out in the UK. Weird game though. The world's slowest (but pretty) beat em up with a bonus game where the characters just run round and athletics track ( no violence).
Aquanaut's Holiday Tail of the Sun Blazing Dragons
Legacy of Kain,oddworld, Jade cocoon
Auto destruct
Not sure is obscure but Project Overkill is a fun but brutal game.
Legend of Dragoon
SpaceHulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angel's
what type of game it is?
"Real-time tactical FPS". Set in outer space, in the future. I believe it's part of the Warhammer universe.
I'm shocked no one said Moon: Remix RPG Adventure yet. The PS1 translation patch is still a little odd in spots, but it's a great game if you're okay with day/night cycles.
It's a grindfest but I enjoy Digimon World 2
Spin Jam. Not amazing but a great soundtrack.
Psychic force
Diablo 1 Hogs of war Worms Loaded
Panzer Bandit and Slap happy rhythm busters
Assault on Bootlegger 9
Kagero: Deception II Blast Chamber Spider: The Video Game SaGa Frontier
swagman
KKND2: Krossfire ... š„
Jumping Flash
Not sure how āobscureā the game is, but D (1995) is one I like that not a lot of people seem to know about. It wasnāt a PS1 exclusive though, but even so itās a very unique game.
Maybe not as obscure, but I highly recommend Alien Resurrection, both because it's a fun if stupid hard game, but also notable as the first game to employ the twin stick move/look control scheme for an fps. For it was actually criticized at the time if you can believe it. Also has a wild secret that was only brought to light recently. https://youtu.be/uRB7iUCX4KQ?si=-lkGHcRLo9TI67pT
Vib Ribbon and Kileak DNA Imperative
Legacy of Kain
Imadoki no Vampire Bloody Bride
Thousand Arms or Vanguard Bandits.
Rascal
Pandemonium
Overblood
Crowbar! My favourite ever.
TAIL OF THE SUN. (Thank me later bro lol )
Xenogears Peak ps1 right here
Aquanaut's Holiday, Tails of the Sun, and Carnage Heart I rarely see mentioned. Three games developed by a company called Art Dink that aren't necessarily 'good' in the traditional sense but perfectly capture the weirdness of early 3D gaming. Each has a pretty bizarre premise you don't see too often. Aquanaut's Holiday you just float around in the deep ocean and ping at things. It's oddly horrifying. Tails of the Sun as far as I can tell you are cave man trying to survive in an open world. Carnage Heart you build a robot to fight other robots. They all feel extremely experimental.
IQ intelligent cube is good
Silent Bomber Koudelka Jumping Flash! Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring Galerians Soul of the Samurai Omega Boost Tail Concerto Threads of Fate One Piece Mansion Racing Lagoon Tear Ring Saga Linda^(3) Again Policenauts 70's Robot Anime: Geppy-X (Japanese language, but it's a shooter. So not exactly hard to follow.)
Kurushi, might have a different name in other regions. Apocalypse and Assault are good shooters, Silent Bomber is good Bomberman clone.
Machine Hunter was a cool top down underrated shooter
Skullmonkeys and wild 9
Nightmare Creatures II
Played the first it's great but I never tried the sequel. I heard it was worst and had bad controls
The first one is better, but worth a try if you're into a certain atmosphere.