Five underrated PSX Games

The Sony Playstation was a highly successful gaming system. It brought Sony into the console wars September 9th 1995. It had many great games such as; Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX, Metal Gear Solid, MegaMan: Legends, Resident Evil I, II, Nemesis, Xenogears, Grand Turismo, Battle Arena Toshinden, Tekken, Chrono Cross, To name a few.

I am not here to talk about any of these games. I have selected five original Playstation games that I think are worthy of mentioning, some of you may have played, and some you may have not. They were never very common or popular as far as I know.





Tobal No. 1 came out on September 30th 1996. It was one of the first games I ever played on the PSX and it was awesome. It was a fighting game but you adventured through levels in 3d, when you encountered an enemy it would initiate a battle which would be carried out it classic fighting game fashion. The game was a Squaresoft project so that alone is enough to tell you how amazing it is. It is kind of hard to describe so all I can say is, go out and play it!





Bushido Blade came out on September 30th 1997, it was a fighting game per say, but it was not your average style of fighter. It was based back in feudal Japan around the time of Samurai combat. You could chose one of six characters and along with that you got to choose your weapon as well. From a Rapier to a Sledgehammer, all the weapons had different downfalls and benefits. The Katana was of moderate length and speed. The Sledgehammer was a huge two handed weapon and was very powerful, but it attacked very slow. My personal favourite was the Nodachi. It was similar to the Katana except much longer, and it just seemed to be the most efficient. I never confirmed this fact but I think each character was suited for a certain weapon and using the right weapon with the right character made you an effective killing machine. One thing that really stands out in my mind about this game is a level in which you fight in a bamboo forest. As you slash with your sword bamboo trees tumble all around you. In 1997 that was quite impressive. Another thing I really liked about this game is once you take a good strike, you die. No lifebars what so ever. If one of your limbs was struck it was rendered useless, and if you were struck in the head or chest, you were killed instantly. I always loved this fighting mechanic because well, If you got sliced in the chest by a sword you were damn sure going to die from it. It really made you feel like you were playing as a Samurai. Not to mention without serious skill in this game most fights lasted about 10 to 20 seconds. Which makes sense considering. There was a sequel to this game with more weapons and characters but I found it to be less entertaining. At one point in the sequel you face a guy who has a machine gun, which is a little unfair considering you are armed with a sword. My friends and I had many many Bushido Blade tourney's we all got very good at the game and it always ended in arguments. Oh, did I mention it is also a Squaresoft game?










Release Date: July 25th 1996
My little brother introduced me to the wonders of this game. You were an undead soul, your life was given back to you by the devil in exchange for being the keeper of one of his castles. People would venture into the castle; adventurers, people looking for shelter, bandits, and you would set up various different kinds of traps in order to dispatch them. Anything from gigantic Rolling rocks, spikes from the roof, cages, to pits that open up when the intruders step on them. It was an interesting premise for a game and it even spawned a sequel entitled Kagero's Deception, which was also a good game. There were two more enstallments of this game, Deception III on the PSX and Trapt on PS2 neither of which I have played so I can't offer much input on them.













This game was released on July 29th 1999, it revolved around a boy who was trying to save his village. It is an RPG game with I hate to say this, "Pokemonish" Elements. Thats right, you captured monsters and they fought for you, the system was pretty deep, you could capture tones of different monsters and even combine monsters to make your own to fight for you. The graphics in this game were really nice and it had a great story. It is a very underrated RPG and I would suggest for anybody who has not played it to give it a try.















Released, May 22nd 2001. At this point you must be thinking, Worlds Scariest Police chases, Dub Yew Tee Eff? It is an absolutely great game, I am not even kidding. Foreshadowing for the Grand Theft auto series almost.
You play as a cop in either a squad car or a number of other vehicles of your choice. You can do missions which consist of drivers training, target shooting, tight whips around corners and all the other good stuff you saw on the Fox Network. Me and my friends always liked to drink a couple of beverages and play Free Chase mode, one person drives the car, the other person shoots and you see how many criminals you can catch. The chases are very intense, simply put this game is HARD. Thats right, If I can recall everytime you catch a criminal, which is done by shooting them or ramming them until their cars "life bar" drains enough for you to pull them over, the next criminal becomes even harder to catch. I think the farthest we ever got was about 5 criminals. Anyway, take my word on it that it's a fun game. Give it a try, if you can find a copy.
















Just narrowly escaping my list,


Awesome! That should be all I have to say, and it is all I am going to say. This game has to be experienced to be understood. For the record, I don't drink Pepsi.




Thanks for taking the time to read my article, I felt that these games needed recognition. I understand some of you, maybe even most, have played the games. They are just a selected few that I determined were not quite as mainstream as the more popular titles.