Playstation One - Nostalgia Bomb

I'm assuming you're reading this on some form of modern technology that probably wasn't around when the mighty Playstation One was released. I used to spent a lot of time on the PS1 as a youngling, not quite as much as the PS2 but still enough to have probably impacted my mental development in some way...

Here's my top three, not necessarily 'best', but more 'most nostalgic' games I used to devote hours to.

Crash Bandicoot 

Everyone knows this guy. Crash is possibly one of the most iconic Playstation game characters ever, he's a likable, human sized, partially literate Bandicoot. Which if you look to your right, you'll see a great little real life photo of.

Crash is a failed science experiment that escaped from the evil Dr Cortex, and you spent most of the time trying to defeat him.
The game itself is a simple platformer, set in the fictitious Wumpa Islands, and man, I loved it so much. At the time, the gameplay was insanely addictive, and just plain simple really. Re-live your childhood by watching this sad man complete the whole game, with every special gem in just under two hours, or watch about two minutes, because ain't nobody got time for that.

Driver 2 

Fuck me I honestly forgot how terrible the graphics are in this one until just now, look at this pixelated mess of a game. But I tell you it was ridiculous amounts of fun in its day, and at the time those graphics were pretty cutting edge.

Driver 2 is very clearly the sequel to Driver. If you didn't figure that out I don't know how you're using modern technology at this moment, but anyway this one is a gem. I played the original Driver game randomly after playing this one, but I didn't care much for chronological story-lines back in these times.

Before Grand Theft Auto was a full 3D clusterfuck of an amazing game, Driver 1 & 2 started the whole free-roam sandbox game popularity for me personally. More so in D2 because you can actually get out of your vehicle, in order to get into another vehicle. Which sounds so simple but it was such insanity way back in 2004 or whenever it was I playing this. 

It starts off in Chicago, then moves to Havana, then Las Vegas and finally Rio. ALL THESE CITIES IN ONE GAME IT WAS SO GROUNDBREAKING! But you mostly have to complete vehicle based missions, e.g steal a car, smash up a car, delivering car bombs, follow cars... Yeah so it's called Driver for a reason. 

Witness some classic gameplay and feast your eyes upon the glory that is Driver 2. I enjoyed this so much mainly because you can drift like an absolute boss, it's a fully explore-able open world, and the missions vary just enough that they aren't too repetitive, well especially if you're 8 odd years old and are playing it. Which is another reason I liked this game, it was made for 'grown ups' and I thought I was so savage by completing it all on my own. See, my parents let me play this 'violent' game as a youngster because they knew I wasn't an easily impressionable little fucktard that will try and steal a car after playing it. And they also thought it was just a harmless car game that featured the occasional swear-word. LITTLE DID THEY KNOW I was smashing through police roadblocks, telling fools to 'move out the fuckin' way' and sometimes killing  people in this virtual world. But I think I turned out fine...

Tekken 2

If you've never played  any Tekken game before I genuinely feel for you. I even used to play against my Dad on this one, and all he would do is press all the buttons as fast as he could, somehow always managing to beat me. He didn't even know which button was 'punch'...

I believe Tekken 7 is out soon for Playstation 4 and Xbox One. There's been a whole 5 games released since I used to play this, damn.

It's a simple (recurring theme with these PS1 games) side on beat em' up. Literally one vs one fight until a player is knocked out. It's amazing. 

The game is based around The King of The Iron Fist tournament, and you choose a character to take through the multiple stages of increasing difficulty. At the end you fight a boss, who is a motherfucking Devil, literally a huge purple Devil that shoots lasers from his forehead I shit you not. 

My favourite character was Yoshimitsu, check him in action here, and also this time to your left. I still don't quite understand what the hell he is. But I was 8 or so and I thought he was a goddamn Alien with a glowing green sword, of course he was my favourite. The internet says he's a 'mechanized human'. Apparently half of him is made of metal; I NEVER knew that, probably because the graphics were so bad. 

Really there's not a lot of detail to explain in Tekken. There is a storyline involving the tournament itself, and how some characters are corrupting it or something pretty cliche along those lines. 

I enjoyed Tekken mainly because once you complete the game with one character, their weird alter-ego/variation character becomes unlocked, and they have all kinds of different moves and look completely different. This simple incentive was enough to keep me hooked for hours on end, trying to every single hidden player. It was like getting my next heroin fix, I HAD to unlock Kunimitsu (female version of Yoshimitsu funnily enough)

I hope I triggered some good memories for some of you, and if I didn't I'm surprised you're still reading at this point. Bottom line - The PS1 days were glorious.