🔷 The 12 best PS1 games

This is our pick of the PlayStation essentials: the games that have aged best and are worth coming back to the console for. For each one we explain what makes it special, with a couple of tips, and every one of them plays right now in your browser — no downloads, with keyboard, gamepad or touch controls.

#1Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
1997 · Adventure · RPG
Alucard, Dracula's son, wakes to explore a vast castle that has risen once again, and Symphony of the Night turns that journey into open exploration full of locked doors, shortcuts and hidden rooms. You fight hundreds of creatures, level up, equip swords, shields and armor, and gain powers like turning into a bat or mist that open areas you couldn't reach before. The map fills in bit by bit, and there is always one more corner worth checking. With its wide-ranging soundtrack, detailed sprites and a second half that holds a real surprise, it shaped much of what people now call the metroidvania.
Tip: If a path seems impossible, come back later: nearly every obstacle yields to an ability you'll find somewhere else in the castle.
▶ Play Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
#2Final Fantasy VII
1997 · RPG
Cloud Strife, a former SOLDIER turned mercenary, joins the rebel group AVALANCHE to sabotage the Shinra corporation's reactors in Midgar, and the job grows into a long pursuit of Sephiroth across the whole planet. Battles use the Active Time Battle system, but the heart of Final Fantasy VII is Materia: orbs slotted into weapons and armor that grant spells and abilities, level up as they earn AP and can be paired for combos. Between fights there are towns to explore, chocobo races and plenty of minigames. It is remembered for its cast, Nobuo Uematsu's score and a story that still lands.
Tip: Spend money on gear with linked slots so you can pair Materia, such as All with Cure to heal the whole party at once.
▶ Play Final Fantasy VII
#3Metal Gear Solid
1998 · Action · Stealth
Metal Gear Solid sends Solid Snake alone into a nuclear weapons facility on an Alaskan island, where a rogue special forces unit has seized a walking tank called Metal Gear REX. Most of the time you creep between guards, watching their sight lines on the radar, hiding under trucks or inside a cardboard box, and slipping past rather than fighting. When things go wrong, alarms bring reinforcements and you have to break line of sight until they give up the search. Hideo Kojima's game is remembered for its long radio conversations, cinematic storytelling and boss fights that play tricks on the player, including one opponent who seems to read your mind.
Tip: Watch the radar: it shows which way guards are facing. Move when their backs are turned and avoid running near them.
▶ Play Metal Gear Solid
#4Crash Bandicoot
1996 · Platformer · 3D
Naughty Dog's first outing for Crash sends the bandicoot across a chain of tropical islands to stop Dr. Neo Cortex and rescue his girlfriend Tawna. Most stages run away from the camera through jungles, ruins and factories, so judging depth is the real skill: you spin into crates, bounce on enemies, gather Wumpa fruit, outrun a rolling boulder and ride a runaway hog. It is precise and often unforgiving, with limited chances to save and some brutal late levels, but its bright cartoon look and tight jumping made it one of the defining platformers of the early PlayStation years.
Tip: Each Aku Aku mask absorbs one hit; collect three and Crash becomes briefly invincible.
▶ Play Crash Bandicoot
#5Tekken 3
1998 · Fighting
Tekken 3 is a 3D fighting game from Namco where each of four buttons controls one limb, so punches and kicks link into strings that feel physical and easy to read. Set years after the previous tournament, it brings in a new generation of fighters such as Jin Kazama, Ling Xiaoyu and Hwoarang, alongside returning faces like Paul and Nina. Sidestepping lets you slip around attacks, making movement as important as offense. Beyond arcade and versus, there is Tekken Force, a beat-'em-up mode, and the odd Tekken Ball. Clearing arcade mode gradually unlocks hidden characters, which kept many players coming back.
Tip: Pick one character and learn three or four reliable combos before chasing flashier moves.
▶ Play Tekken 3
#6Final Fantasy VIII
1999 · RPG
Final Fantasy VIII follows Squall, a withdrawn student at a military academy that trains SeeD mercenaries, as a routine mission pulls him and his classmates into a war with a sorceress at its center. Battles use active-time turns, but the heart of the game is the Junction system: you draw spells from enemies, stockpile them and attach them to your stats, while summoned Guardian Forces unlock new abilities. Enemies level up alongside your party, so smart setups pay off more than grinding. Between story beats there is Triple Triad, a card game many players end up chasing around the world. It is remembered for its romance, its music and its unusually tinkerable systems.
Tip: Skip heavy grinding: enemies scale with your level. Strengthening your junctions and stats matters much more than raw experience.
▶ Play Final Fantasy VIII
#7Gran Turismo
1997 · Racing
Gran Turismo, made by Polyphony Digital, rewards patience and precision more than a heavy right foot. In the main mode you start with little money and a modest car, often a used one, and must pass license tests before you can enter tougher championships. Every win earns credits to spend on parts, suspension tuning or a better car, so progress shows up lap by lap. The cars are real models, and each one brakes and turns in its own way. It is remembered for treating driving with near-simulator seriousness while staying approachable, and for how satisfying it is to slowly build up a garage.
Tip: Earn your licenses early: the tests teach braking and cornering lines, and they unlock the races that pay better.
▶ Play Gran Turismo
#8Resident Evil
1996 · Adventure · Horror
Capcom's 1996 survival horror sends the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team into a mansion in the woods outside Raccoon City after a search mission goes badly wrong. As Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, you explore the house room by room under fixed camera angles, solving puzzles, hunting for keys and weighing whether a zombie is worth the bullets. Ammunition is scarce, inventory space is tight and saving costs an ink ribbon at a typewriter, so every trip down a corridor carries some risk. The stiff controls and famously awkward voice acting are part of its charm, and the first zombie turning its head toward the camera still lands.
Tip: Jill carries more items and has a lockpick, making her the gentler choice for a first playthrough.
▶ Play Resident Evil
#9Spyro the Dragon
1998 · Platformer · 3D
Made by Insomniac Games, this 3D platformer casts you as a small purple dragon whose homeland has been raided by Gnasty Gnorc, who turned the other dragons into crystal statues. You roam open, colorful worlds freeing dragons, chasing down thieves carrying stolen eggs and gathering gems tucked into every corner. You have two attacks, a horn charge and a burst of flame, and each enemy calls for one or the other. Gliding across gaps to distant ledges is half the fun. Spyro is remembered for its easygoing pace, its Stewart Copeland soundtrack and the satisfaction of fully clearing each level.
Tip: Enemies in metal armor shrug off flame, so charge them. Big enemies usually resist charging, so burn them instead.
▶ Play Spyro the Dragon
#10Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
1999 · Sports · Action
Neversoft turned skateboarding into short, compulsive runs. Each level, from a warehouse and a school to a shopping mall and the streets of San Francisco, gives you two minutes to chase goals: beat score targets, collect the S-K-A-T-E letters, find the secret tape and complete stage-specific challenges. Linking grinds into airs, spinning and landing clean fills the special meter, which unlocks the flashiest tricks. With no manuals or reverts yet, everything comes down to reading each ramp and rail. It is remembered for its pace, its punk soundtrack and how easily one more run turns into an evening.
Tip: Spend your first runs on each level just exploring; knowing where the ramps, rails and secret tape are makes every goal easier later.
▶ Play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
#11Chrono Cross
2000 · RPG
Chrono Cross is Square's RPG set in the same universe as Chrono Trigger. You play Serge, a teenager from the El Nido archipelago who nearly drowns and wakes in a parallel world where he died years ago. The journey is about slipping between the two realities, seeing how places and people differ, and recruiting from a huge cast of companions. Enemies are visible on the map, and battles run on stamina: you chain weak, medium and strong hits to charge Elements, colored spells that also shift the battlefield's balance. It is remembered for its sprawling, ambitious story and Yasunori Mitsuda's soundtrack.
Tip: Open each turn with weak attacks: they land more often, raise the accuracy of later hits, and build the levels needed to cast Elements.
▶ Play Chrono Cross
#12Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
1997 · Platformer
Naughty Dog's second Crash Bandicoot adventure sends the orange marsupial back into short, carefully built stages that run into the screen, broken up by side-scrolling stretches, chases and rides on a polar bear cub or a jet board. Doctor Neo Cortex, now suspiciously friendly, asks Crash to gather crystals from levels reached through warp rooms. Each stage hides crates to smash and gems for finishing it, often behind secret routes. New moves like the slide, belly flop and crawl make it smoother than the first game, and its fair checkpoints are a big reason many fans call it the best of the original trilogy.
Tip: Slide and then jump right away for a longer, higher leap that reaches distant platforms and hidden crates.
▶ Play Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back