20 PlayStation Classics?
Following the earlier announcement of five of the games that will be preloaded on the PlayStation Classic, which is scheduled to release on December 3, Sony finally got around to confirming the other 15 games yesterday. Here is the complete list:
Battle Arena Toshinden
Cool Boarders 2
Destruction Derby
Final Fantasy VII
Grand Theft Auto
Intelligent Qube
Jumping Flash
Metal Gear Solid
Mr Driller
Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
Rayman
Resident Evil Director’s Cut
Revelations: Persona
Ridge Racer Type 4
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Syphon Filter
Tekken 3
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six
Twisted Metal
Wild Arms
There are some great and surprising choices here, but overall I think this list is disappointing. I am relieved that the horribly dated PaRappa the Rapper did not make the cut, but Battle Arena Toshinden, really? A 3D fighter that was inferior to the first Tekken appearing here alongside the sublime Tekken 3; what a waste of a spot! Other games I am unlikely to even boot up include Intelligent Qube, Jumping Flash, Rayman, and Twisted Metal.
It is not all doom and gloom though; I was pleasantly surprised to see Grand Theft Auto and Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee on the list and will likely put a good number of hours into both. I was such a big fan of the 2D top-down GTA games back in the day that it took a trip to Scotland and a meeting with GTA III producer Leslie Benzies to convince me that the move to 3D was not going to be disastrous for the series. To this day, the hours that I subsequently spent playing GTA III and GTA Vice City are among my fondest gaming memories.
Abe’s Oddysee is also a game that evokes a lot of good memories for me; not only did I produce a complete screen-by-screen guide on how to complete it back in the day, but I later had an opportunity to visit the Oddworld Inhabitats studio in California. I think Lorne Lanning, Sherry McKenna, and the team were working on Munch’s Oddysee for the Xbox 360 by then. I remember being thrilled that they were familiar with the guide I had written, impressed that they provided fresh fruit and vitamins for all of their staff, and humbled that later that year they surprised me with a Christmas hamper. Good people.
Anyhow, to get back on topic, I think there are just enough games coming with the PlayStation Classic to make me feel good about my preorder. Like a lot of other folks though I suspect, I am mostly excited about the possibility of the PlayStation Classic getting hacked so that I can install other games (read: Front Mission 3 and Suikoden) on it.
