Sony Playstation celebrated its 20^th anniversary recently, being released to the world in late 1995, almost a year after the Playstation launched in Japan. This wait was a good thing, as it allowed Sony to build up a proper portfolio of games to demonstrate what they would refer in their marketing as “the power of Playstation”. The Playstation had a lot of great games in its launch period, and many of these games would go on to spawn successful sequels which would define the Playstation’s catalog of games.

In this article, I’ll be taking a retrospective look at some first wave games released for the Playstation during 1995. At a time of change, these were the new flowers which took root and blossomed into the series and genres of the future, many of which are still active today. These are the originals that set the standard, before the second wave of even more impressive sequels and blockbuster super games came along. These titles showed what Playstation, and what games in general, could accomplish.

IN THE TIME BEFORE PLAYSTATION

To understand the great leap that was made at the time, it’s important to go back to 1995 and understand what the era was like. The Super Nintendo and Sega Megadrive/Genesis ruled the videogame landscape, which was rendered in 16-Bits along an expansive 2D plane in up to 256 simultaneous colours. Top selling games at the time were mainly platform games with anthropomorphised characters, such as Sonic 3 on Sega Megadrive, and Donkey Kong Country on SNES.

2D fighting games were also popular, with Mortal Kombat II and Killer Instinct still riding the wave Street Fighter II had created almost 5 years previous. SNES RPGs such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III (VI) from Square were highly regarded, although neither game saw a release outside of Japan and the US. At the time, I had a Megadrive with Mortal Kombat II, Revenge Of Shinobi, and Super Street Fighter II, and a SNES with Super Mario All Stars, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, and Super Castlevania (Super was the buzzword back then).

But the consoles were around 5 years old at this point, and with the latest 3D arcade games far exceeding what the SNES and Megadrive were capable of, the systems were starting to show their age. New consoles were looming on the horizon, with Sega about to release the Saturn, and Sony, the new contender in the ring, about to release the Playstation. Nintendo were operating on their own timetable, and would not release their follow up the Nintendo 64 until over a year after the competition, which meant that Sega and Sony had time to duke it out among themselves for a dominant foothold in the new generation of consoles.

With both systems set to release in September 1995, Sega seemed worried. Word had it that they heard the specs of the Playstation and were concerned their system, which was originally designed more for 2D processing, would have difficulty competing. Their solution was to double up on processors, effectively giving the Saturn two CPUs which developers had to utilized in tandem, along with another video processor to try to sweeten the deal. Furthermore, Sega decided to make a surprise launch four months earlier than previously announced to give the Saturn a head start over the Playstation. The Saturn was released with ports of their arcade hits Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA, the latter of which was generally considered to be a poor port.

Sony, on the other hand, had struck a deal with Namco, which was generally considered to be a direct competitor of Sega in the arcade world. Namco ported Ridge Racer and Tekken to the Playstation as launch games, both of which were considered great ports, no doubt helped by the fact that the Namco System 11 board the arcade version of Tekken ran on was itself based upon the Playstation hardware. Each of these games established franchises which would become mainstays of the Playstation lineup and among Namco’s top earners. 

Ridge Racer and Tekken were among my favourite arcade games at the time, and when I first saw Ridge Racer running on Playstation, I was blown away. This was a radical step up from the previous consoles. At a time when it cost $2 a pop at my local arcade, the prospect of owning these games was very exciting. I remember thinking that with all the money I was saving not having to play in the arcades, these games were really paying for themselves.

THE LAUNCH LINEUP

On November 15^th 1995, the Playstation hardware was launched in Australia. Although this came 2 months after the US and Europe, and almost a full year after Japan, this bit of space ensured Playstation had a great software lineup. Ridge Racer, Tekken, Cybersled, Air Combat, Warhawk, Wipeout, Destruction Derby, Battle Arena Toshinden, and Jumping Flash! were among the games available at launch. This has got to be one of the best lineups for a system launch I have ever seen, and is quite a difference from most console launches in generations since which have typically offer little reason to upgrade. Here’s a look at some of the memorable games from this era.

RIDGE RACER – Namco

Racing games never really got a rise out of me before. 2D graphics did not do good job of emulating a viewpoint from behind the car. It was only when the first 3D racing games entered the arcades in the form of Atari’s Hard Drivin’ (1988), Namco’s Winning Run (1988) and Sega’s Virtua Racing (1992), that racing games became exciting to me, as they portrayed a realistic sense of space, perspective, and sensation of speed. In this sense, racing games were the perfect example to illustrate the usefulness of 3D graphics. The arcade releases of Namco’s Ridge Racer (1993) and Sega’s Daytona USA (1994) represented the second wave of 3D racing games, where surfaces were fleshed out with texture mapping as opposed to the flat colours of previous games. Whereas the Saturn launch game Daytona USA (1995) was regarded as a poor port of the arcade version, the Playstation port of Ridge Racer was praised as accurately emulating the arcade version.

Ridge Racer was the launch game in all regions, the flagship title to show what the system was capable of, giving you the arcade experience in your living room. Never mind that it only had one track in two configurations (Daytona USA had 3 tracks), Ridge Racer had simple but addictively fast gameplay, and a driving early 90’s techno soundtrack as well (still one of my all time favourites). The final challenge in the game involved a race against the black Devil car number 13. On the first lap it would zoom past you, at which point is was impossible to catch up, but you would find him waiting for you at the side of the track as you start your second lap. At this point, you would have to stay ahead by steering into his path and blocking his car to prevent him from passing you for the final two laps. It’s a tense few minutes, especially with no rear view mirror, but makes you feel like a total master when you beat him, which grants you the use of his killer car.

Ridge Racer transitioned out of the arcades and became one of the major racing series on Playstation, with three more games being released in the next few years. The series has continued on in various forms over the years on a number of different consoles, with the last few games being more like a “best of” featuring tracks, cars, and songs from previous games. The last game released was Ridge Racer Unbounded on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2012, a spin off which has more in common with the Burnout series.

TEKKEN – Namco

I loved Tekken in the arcades, and the Playstation version was even better, containing bonus unlockable fighters (one for every character), a remixed soundtrack, and impressive looking ending cinematics. Like Virtua Fighter, it was more realistic than other fighting games as there were no projectile fireball moves, and the strikes and throws had a lot of impact. I always felt like the original Tekken didn’t get the critical recognition it deserved at the time, something which was reserved for Tekken 2 upon its release a year later. Despite this, Tekken was very successful, being the first Playstation game to sell 1 million copies. I played this again recently and I was still able to pull off King’s 10 hit combo.

Tekken was followed by several successful sequels, and became one of the premiere fighting games in the new breed of 3D fighters. The last major title in the series was Tekken 6, which came out on PS3 and XBox 360 in 2009, with Tekken Tag Tournament 2 being released on PS3, XBox 360 and Wii U in 2012. Tekken 7 has been out in Japanese arcades since 2015, and is due for a PS4 release at some point in the future.

AIR COMBAT – Namco

Namco were pumping out the arcade conversions in these days. Like racing games, flight sims also benefited greatly from 3D graphics, creating a necessary perspective of space and speed. Any self respecting player would head straight to the options and change the controls to “expert” to allow you to roll your plane and do loops. The series would be renamed Ace Combat with the second game released in 1997, which was the one I really got into. Ace Combat still continues today with regular releases, with the most recent game Ace Combat Infinity being released in 2014 for PS3. Ace Combat 7 has been announced for a release on PS4 with VR support.

WIPEOUT – Psygnosis (SCE Studio Liverpool)

Wipeout was a great hovercraft racing game with combat against other racers. It was fast, required quick reflexes, and had an amazing techno soundtrack to back up the sleek future design. In an era when many developers were struggling with new technology, Wipeout was well executed in both style and substance. The original spawned a series of great games that continued until the PS3 era. The last title released was Wipeout 2048 on Playstation Vita in 2012, just before Sony shut down SCE Studio Liverpool which made the titles. The future of the series is uncertain.

DESTRUCTION DERBY – Reflections

Although not nearly as good as the sequel would be, Destruction Derby was a fun game with great physics and an advanced damage modelling system. Panels would crumple and deform, and after a nasty T-boning you could find your car bent slightly to one side, causing you to turn in that direction. Destruction Derby had a really fun sequel, after which the franchise was placed under Studio 33 and run into the ground with two poorly received games. Reflections Interactive took their car expertise and went on to make Driver in 1999 which became a popular series. Destruction Derby is one game that needs to be resurrected.

BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN – Tamsoft

This pioneering weapons based fighter was probably the first fighting game that allowed players to dodge into the foreground and background whenever they wanted too. I really feel as though this game never got the acknowledgment it deserved for its advancement of the genre, praises which were instead given to Soul Blade/Edge upon its release a year later. The series continued with mixed reviews, with the fourth and final game in 1997 not even being released in the US.

WARHAWK – Singletrac

In Warhawk, you battled enemies while piloting a futuristic jet/hovercraft which allowed you to fly like a plane but also maneuver like a helicopter. It felt cool flying around and taking cover behind structures, and got intense when you were being relentlessly hammered by missiles. This was another game that really benefited from 3D graphics, with the cockpit view being particularly immersive. Despite the potential of the game, Singletrac shifted their focus to Twisted Metal and other vehicular combat games. Warhawk was forgotten until 2007 when a new game was released as a PS3 launch title, but it was a multiplayer only title.

TWISTED METAL – Singletrac

Twisted Metal was a car combat game which had great split screen multiplayer  Some battles could last ages, with participants engaging in cat and mouse style battles over large open levels. I remember thinking the graphics looked so real at the time, despite the strange handling of the cars themselves. The sequel was where they perfected it all, and was one of my most played games on the Playstation, although it was Singletrac’s last Twisted Metal title, with 989 Studios releasing two poorly received games in the late 90’s which were not even released in Australia. Incognito Entertainment, composed of former Singletrac employees, resurrected the series with Twisted Metal Black for the Playstation 2 in 2001 (I liked it, but was annoyed with all the cinematics being removed due to 9/11). The last game was quite good and was released on PS3 in 2012.

DEMO DISCS – Free Samples!!!

I still have every demo I got from the PS1 era, and many of them allow you to play an entire level unrestricted. One of the first things I did when I bought a Playstation was stick the Demo 1 disc in and watched this tech demonstration. I love the music.

LEGACY OF THIS ERA

Load times were a new thing for a console, and are something we still deal with today. I had grown used to them on the Commodore 64, but on a console it felt weird after the instantaneous nature of cartridge formats in the previous generation. When N64 was released in 1996, it kept the cartridge format, so load times weren’t an issue, but over time space limitations and expense of the format were, with many developers flocking to PS1 and its spacious CDs which were cheaper to manufacture.

Although some early games still incorporated a password system for progression, many games now required a memory card to save. They were $40 Australian for a whopping 1MB, which gave you 15 blocks of save space. Some games took 1 block, while others took much more, such as A-Train which required a full 15 blocks to save. Although we have inbuilt drives in our consoles now, storage space is still a major concern these days with the growing size of game installs for current games.

The games that broke during this first wave demonstrated what the console was capable of, and the path in which it would follow for the next few years. We saw the release of several defining games that would go on to spawn successful sequels, comprising the well known franchises which would become the backbone of the console’s lifespan. Some of these franchises remain active with new sequels currently in development, a testament to the strength of these titles. Furthermore, many of these first wave Playstation games still hold up really well today, particularly Ridge Racer, Tekken, and Wipeout, so hunt them down if you can.

Good things always come back around, and I find there tends to be a 20 year cycle with certain trends. The kids of 20 years ago grew into the adults of today, and as both buyers and consumers, they have a soft spot for the things they enjoyed in their formative years. We’ve just gotten over a resurgence of 80’s nostalgia in films and videogames, and many recently released independent games have leant heavily on early 90’s influences with 16-Bit style graphics and gameplay. Could we see a resurrection of some of classics from this era? The remakes of Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil 2 which float somewhere in the future suggest this could be the case.