Five PlayStation classics from the '90s worth revisiting

It's a scenario familiar to anyone lucky enough to have owned a PlayStation in their youth: it's the first day of summer, and you're living the dream. School's out, and you have an entire two months before going back to a life of worrying about homework, exams, or that terror of a teacher who somehow reminds you of a mountain lion, except even less friendly. You're sitting comfortably on a pillow—with a tall glass of juice and a bag of chips beside you, of course—as you struggle to stay alive long enough to reach the next save point, oblivious to your mother's pleas to "turn that thing off and get some sun".

 

This seems to be exactly the kind of experience that Sony wants to retrieve from our internal Memory Cards, if this neat little video is any indication. Inspired by the #PlayStationMemories trend on Twitter earlier this year, the three-minute short showcases not just the evolution of the PlayStation, but also the gamers who spent countless hours blowing up robots and gaining experience points on its various incarnations. 

 

While nostalgia is undoubtedly a powerful sentiment, it's not exactly the most honest storyteller. Try wearing elephant pants or downloading a song on dial-up, for example, and you'll realize that those rose-colored glasses of yours might require extensive cleaning. Thankfully, some PlayStation games from the console's early days seem to have aged quite well, proving that the PlayStation has something else in common with wine other than "it renders you too smashed to do anything else properly".

 

Pack your bags and don't forget your controllers, kids, because we're going on a feels trip.
 

 

Final Fantasy VII

Out of all the entries on this list, Final Fantasy VII is probably the last game you could call "eye candy". Considering that this game has two of the most charming heroines in the franchise, that's something even Alanis Morisette wouldn't rank below "rain on a wedding day" on the irony scale.

Fortunately, the quality of its graphics isn't the main reason why this multi-awarded 1997 masterpiece became the best-selling game in the franchise. FFVII has everything you could ever want in an RPG and more. An innovative battle system, a rich story set against a post-industrial landscape, powerful items and spells, and characters with depth all come together to create an immersive gaming experience that pretty much set the bar for the genre.

Not bad for a game with a protagonist who was forced to wear drag... and ended up looking prettier than any of the girls in his city:
 

 

 

 

Metal Gear Solid

Solid Snake, the stealthy protagonist of Metal Gear Solid, taught many young gamers in 1998 the importance of patience, infiltration, strategy, and staying the hell away from people who can shoot you dead.

The combination of unique gameplay, suspense-filled sequences, intelligent enemy AI, and a compelling plot helped this game become a smash hit among gamers and critics alike. For once, we got to play a tough guy who didn't run all gung-ho into battle, shooting first and asking questions never (because "later" wouldn't exactly make sense when everyone's a bloody smear on the ground).

There's just something inherently cool about picking off heavily-armed guards single-handedly without making the slightest noise. Snake is the pixel-rendered paragon of "silent but deadly", and fifteen years later, he still hasn't lost his edge. Besides, he's the only person who can make "hiding under a box" seem like a brilliant espionage tactic:
 

 

 

 

 

Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter

Even if you didn't grow up owning a PlayStation, there's a good chance that you're familiar with this game. Hint: it's usually one of the machines people flock to at the local arcade.

Providing a satisfying response to the question of whether you can put two distinct universes together and still end up with an awesome game (answer: "Suuuure-YOU-can!"), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter pits the greatest champions of the Marvel universe and the Street Fighter franchise against the ruthless Apocalypse and a cybernetically-enhanced Akuma.

More than a decade later, this game still packs a one-two punch of high-octane action and excitement that only tag teams like Spider-Man and Ryu or Hulk and Zangief can deliver. It may not be as flashy as the PS3's Marvel vs. Capcom 3—but hey, does that game have a funny little guy who can slap you around with a banana peel? 

 

 

Resident Evil 2 

Long before sunflowers and watermelons decided to take a stand against brain-eating zombies, newbie cop Leon Kennedy and college student/I'm-related-to-that-dude-from-the-first-game Claire Redfield were already killing the heck out of the can't-be-any-deader.

With an arsenal of interesting weapons, clever dialogue and story, terrifying sounds and locations, impressive graphics for its time, and tremendous replay value, Resident Evil 2 is a horror masterpiece that has sent many gamers hiding under their bed sheets.

And yes, this game is still playable, even in 2013. 
 

 

 

Crash Team Racing 

It's hard to find a game that strikes as perfect a balance of competitive racing, mustache-twirling deviousness, and buffoonish absurdity as Crash Team Racing does. Starring Sony's attempt at creating a company icon to rival Nintendo's Mario and Sega's Sonic, CTR isn't so much a racing game as it is a venue for unrestrained cartoon brutality.

Not even winning first place can trump the sheer joy of leaving a giant box of explosives for your opponent to carelessly drive into. Seriously, you haven't lived life to the fullest until you've seen a pygmy circling a bandicoot in a racecar while voodoo-dance-punching the hell out of a muscle-bound crocodile. 

 

 

These are just five of the many PS classics that still hold up after all these years. Some honorable mentions are Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Chrono Trigger, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. So plug in your PlayStation and relive your fondest gaming memories – you can worry about getting to work on time after you reach that next save point. — TJD, GMA News