The Best PS1 Games of All Time, Ranked
Everyone who owned a PlayStation has a list like this in their head. This one is mine, and I will defend it in the comments.
Ranking the best PS1 games is genuinely hard. The console had one of the strongest libraries in gaming history, and half the fun is arguing about the order. So here it is, from great to greatest.
10. Tekken 3
The best fighting game on the console, and it was not close. Tekken 3 was the game you put on when mates came round, because anyone could pick it up and mash their way to a win, but there was real depth underneath for anyone who stuck with it. The roster was superb, the animation was miles ahead of anything else at the time, and the unlockables kept you coming back. Tekken Force mode, Tekken Ball, hidden characters. This was back when fighting games gave you everything on the disc, and it felt endless.
9. Resident Evil 2
The Raccoon City police station is still one of the best settings in horror gaming. Resident Evil 2 took everything the original did and sharpened it: better pacing, better puzzles, and two full campaigns that intertwined in ways that felt genuinely clever in 1998. Playing as Leon and then replaying as Claire to see the other side of the story was a revelation. And those door opening animations, hiding loading screens so well that we convinced ourselves they were scary on purpose. The remake is brilliant, but the original still has an atmosphere all of its own.
8. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
The peak of the original trilogy. Warped took the tight platforming of the first two games and threw in jet skis, biplanes, motorbikes and a baby T. rex, and somehow none of it felt like filler. Naughty Dog were showing off by this point, and they had earned it. The time trial relics gave every level a second life, turning a game you could finish in a weekend into one you played for months. If you only ever replay one Crash game, this is the one.
7. Apocalypse
A proper deep cut, this one. Apocalypse starred Bruce Willis, back when putting an actual Hollywood star in your game was headline news. It was a fast, loud, twin-stick style shooter before that was even a common genre, with Willis quipping away as you blasted through the end of the world. Neversoft built it, and the engine and tech from Apocalypse went on to power a certain skateboarding game that appears later in this list. Underrated then, mostly forgotten now, and well worth revisiting.
6. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2
The soundtrack alone earns its place. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 is one of those rare sequels that improved on the original in every single way: the manual changed combos forever, the level design was iconic, and the two minute run structure made “one more go” physically impossible to resist. School II, Venice Beach, the Hangar. You can probably still name every gap. It is regularly ranked among the best reviewed games ever made, and it deserves it.
5. Crash Bandicoot
The original marsupial masterpiece. Crash Bandicoot was Sony’s answer to Mario and Sonic, and while the sequels refined the formula, the first game had a raw difficulty that made every completed level feel earned. Those bridge levels still haunt people to this day. It was also a technical showpiece, squeezing visuals out of the PS1 that nobody thought possible in 1996, and it gave PlayStation the mascot it desperately needed. Uncompromising, occasionally infuriating, and absolutely essential.
4. Small Soldiers
A movie tie-in that had no right to be this much fun. Small Soldiers put you in the boots of Archer, leading the Gorgonites against Chip Hazard and the Commando Elite across sprawling third-person battlefields. The single player was solid, but the split screen multiplayer was where it really shone, turning living rooms into war zones long after the film left cinemas. Movie tie-ins were usually rushed rubbish in the 90s, which makes this one all the more special. A genuine hidden gem that deserves far more love than it gets.
3. Spyro the Dragon
Insomniac made a platformer that felt huge without ever feeling empty. Gliding off a cliff for the first time in Spyro the Dragon was pure magic in 1998, and the game’s draw distance tricks meant those big open skies actually worked on PS1 hardware. The worlds were colourful without being childish, the movement felt brilliant, and collecting every last gem was satisfying rather than a chore. A gentler game than most on this list, and all the better for it.
2. Tomb Raider
The original 1996 Tomb Raider was a landmark. Lara Croft became one of the most recognisable characters in gaming almost overnight, but the game underneath the icon was the real achievement: vast, lonely tombs, puzzles that respected your intelligence, and an atmosphere of genuine isolation that no game since has quite matched. No hand holding, no waypoints, just you, a pair of pistols and the silence of Peru. The T. rex reveal in the Lost Valley remains one of gaming’s great heart-stopping moments.
1. Tomb Raider II
Lara at her absolute best. Tomb Raider II took everything the original did and made it bigger and more confident: Venice, the opera house, the rusting hulk of the Maria Doria, and that tiger waiting for you on the Great Wall. Core Design added vehicles, flares, and the shotgun-first approach to problem solving, but kept the exploration and the sense of danger that made the first game special. The mansion assault course, the training level you played for hours anyway. For me, this is the PlayStation, and nothing else comes close.
Honourable mentions
Metal Gear Solid, Crash Team Racing, Silent Hill, Gran Turismo, and Driver all deserve a shout. The PS1 library runs deep, and we will be covering plenty of these in their own guides soon.
Disagree with the order? Good. That is what the comments are for.