I remember there were many eyebrows raised when Sony burst onto the console scene with its original Playstation. The Japanese upstart wanted to muscle its way onto Sega's and Nintendo's patch, but few thought that a company more associated with televisions and music systems would ever have much success. Nevertheless, it soon became apparent that Sony wasn't going to be a pushover!
The appearance of the Playstation (PS1) in 1994 certainly shook up the world of gaming and played no small part in killing off cartridges as the preferred medium. To this day, Sony's little grey box remains my favourite format and has given me more pleasure than any other.

While writing this list I realised just how many PS1 games feature among my all time favourites. Having to whittle them down to just 10 was by no means easy and I feel compelled to give those that missed out an honorable mention...

Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid, Time Crisis, Theme Hospital, Driver, Command & Conquer Red Alert: Retaliation, Parappa the Rapper, Crash Team Racing, ISS Pro Evolution... they all have a place in my heart but couldn't quite make my shortlist...

In fact, my final choices actually gave me a bit of a surprise; driving games feature pretty prominently despite perhaps being my least favourite genre!

(Photo credit: barite)

The original top-down Grand Theft Auto was absolutely inspired and certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons, whipping up a media frenzy. I'd personally never seen anything this controversial before - mowing down a procession of chanting Hare Krishnas was fantastic fun as was jacking cars and randomly assassinating passers-by!

Gorgeous looking mock-3D platformer Pandemonium was a real favorite of mine because if looked so lush and colourful. It grabbed a somewhat tired genre by the scruff of its 2D neck and gave it a long overdue makeover.

I think Tekken 2 was my first experience of a proper 3D fighting game - and I thought it looked absolutely amazing and way ahead of its time on the lowly PS1. Loads of characters, moves, combos, costumes and settings far superseded the original and helped to cement the Tekken series as one of the greatest in gaming history.

Frequent visitors to this blog will know my feelings about Rage Racer, which in my opinion is one of the most entertaining and enjoyable racers ever. It's pure arcade racing; forgiving to novices but deep enough for die-hard driving fans. Granted, it was slightly grey and dreary looking - but who cares when your whizzing about the winding streets at high speed!?

My first foray in to the shock horror genre, Resident Evil scared the living daylights out of me and gave me a taste for zombie slaying. I'll never forget playing this with the lights out and leaping out of my skin when a corpse on the floor grabbed my leg before salivating dogs leapt through the glass windows.

Agree/disagree? Leave a comment about your favourites...

Read part II...