They say that nostalgia is at its strongest when the era to be nostalgic about occurred twenty years prior. For instance, people of the 1970s were way into the 1950s by way of things like Grease and Happy Days. And the 1990s saw Dazed and Confused and That 70s Show. So following alo✨ng that logic, the 2010s should be hearkening back to the 1990s—and that certainly seems to be the case, especially with a focus on 1990s video game nostalgia in recent years.
If you need proof that people are hungry to relive the 1990s gaming scene, look no further than not only the constant clamoring for a Nintendo 64 Classic but the upcoming release of the PlayStation Classic. With pre-orders sold out within days of its announcement, the PlayStation Classic is going to be one of the hottest items this holiday season, with million of gamers partying like its 1998—well, at least the way gamers partied in 1998, huddled around Sony's little grey machine playing Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, and Tekken 3.
But the less-discussed side of nostalgia is how it play𒉰s tricks on us, and makes us forget the bad times associated with a given era. For all the great memories the PS1 gave us, it also frequently broke our hearts and betrayed our trust, sometimes in ways that are still with us to this day. Even with th☂e PlayStation 5 looming on the horizon, many of the the wounds opened by the PS1 still sting, 20+ years on.
25 ♉ That's Why They Call It Window Pain
Gamers of a certain age have special memories of being absolutely spooked by the original Resident Evil. Our kids are going to make fun of us about it the way we mocked our parents fo⭕r being so spooked by cheesy horror movies from the 1960s.
RE is also home to one of gaming history's most iconic jump scares: a zombie dog crashing through a window shortly after the player passes it.
To this day, we tense up a bit♓ any time there is an unassuming pane of glass i𒈔n any game with even the slightest horror bent.
24 He's Th🌳e Mascot We Des𒐪erved
For much of the PS1's lifespan, the character Crash Bandicoot w🅘as front and center in most marketing campaigns for the system. One of the most famous PS1 ads saw a man dressed in a Crash outfit with a megaphone heckling Nintendo of America's headquarters. It seemed pretty obvious Crash was the PS1's official mascot.
Except he wasn't, as we later found out. He was always just another third-party character and went multiplatform the first chance he got, and hasn't even showed up in celebrations of PlayStation history like PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale or the PlayStation Classic.
23 Tag Out
It was the biggest crossover event in video games up to that point—Street Fighter characters going head-to-head against X-Me🌟n characters, two of the biggest properties in 90s pop culture coming together.
In addition to the all-star roster, the biggest innovation introduced in X-Men Vs Street Fighter was the tag mode that let you switch characters mid-match.
It was kind of the game's "thing." So when it was ported to PS1 and completely lacked that entire feature, many fans felt burneওd—and the fact that it was a shoddy port even apart from that didn't help matters much.
22 Shaken And Stirreꦏ💙d
Up through the mid-1990s, there wasn't reason to expect all that much from a video game based on the James Bond movies. But that all changed with the release of Goldeneye 007 for tꦇhe N64, one of the most popular game🧸s of the era and beloved to this day.
Hype for the video game based on the next Bond movie was incredibly high, and what we got was...Tomorrow Never Dies, a bland, unpolished, and generally forgettable third-person action game. Hardly the game for PS1 owners to♏ rub back in the faces of their smug N64-having friends.
21 ꦓ Sweet Tooth(ache) 👍
One of the franchises that was synonymous with not only the PS1 itself but the entire "PlayStation brand" for its first few years of life was Twisted Metal. After two ﷺstellar installments🐈, anticipation for part three was at a fever pitch.
But what many didn't know at the time is that the original developers weren't involved in Twisted Metal III, and it was instead farmed out to now-defunct 989 Studios who just didn't have the chops for it. It's fitting that you spent half your TMIII playtime in an overturned🅺 car, since𝓀 that perfectly summed up how disappointing this game was.
20 ✃ Black Ring Oꦺf Death
From the Xbox 360's inf𒅌amous Red Ring of Death to the PS2's dreaded "disc read error" issue, almost every console of the last two decades has been plagued with ﷽a defect of some kind.
Those with long memories will also recall that even the PS1 had its fair share of problems. Anyone who had an early system remembers having to eventually turn it upside-down to prevent overheating. And many of us know the horror of removing a disc only to have the PS1's faulty spindle pop right off 𝓰with it. We would never tru🍃st console hardware again...and rightfully so.
19 Chrono Triggered 🌃
In the early days of video game collecting, one of the holy grails was Chrono Trigger. The original 🎶SNES cart would regularly fetch $100+ on eBay and the like, and in an era when emulation ℱwas still touch-and-go, it was the only way to reliably play the game.
When a port of Chrono Trigger💙 was announced for PS1, everyone was understandably excited. Finally getting a more affordable version of the game—and with new animated sequences to boot—what was there to worry about? Apparently, plenty, from graphical glitches to long load times. A lazy port that preyed on nostalgia.
18 🌠 Puppet Master
There are many moments in Metal Gear Solid that made us unsure of whom or what to trust, but we decꦯided to go w💫ith the switcheroo that the game spent almost its entire playtime building up to.
It feels like half of our allies in MGS double-crossed us by the end, but one in particular was definitely the most sinister.
At least Naomi had what she felt was a valid reason to turn on us. Liquid spending the entire Shadow Moses mission pretending to be Snake's old friend Master Miller was trus🎀t destruction on a whole other level.
17 ﷽ All F𝓡ogged Up
Some of the most iconic things in gaming history ♓were born out of technological limitations. For instance, Mario was given a hat, mustache, and overalls to make it easier to give him human features. Years later, the "foไg" that many early 3D games used to mask pop-up was used in a similar—and spooky—manner.
The worst thing we thought was lurking behind video game fog was a building that the game hadn't drawn in yet. But that all changed after the first time a twitching demon emerged from just beyond our field of vision in Silent Hill.
16 𓆉 ൩ Grab Some Tissues
The PS1 was one of the first consoles to amass a sizable librar꧋y of so-called "hidden gems," great 🌼games that get lost in the shuffle of bigger releases and don't get the attention or sales they deserve.
One of the great PS1 hidden gems is definitely Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, easily one of the best platformers on the system.
And while Klonoa largely felt like a bright, cheery experience, those who finished it were blindsided by an unexpectedly sad ending that definitely led to more than a few gamers having "somethi🔯ng in their eye" by the end of it.