Summary
- The PS1 had obscure games like Bomberman Fantasy Race and Hakaiou: King Of Crusher.
- Some strange PS1 titles include Hard Rock Cab and Screaming Mad George's ParanoiaScape.
- Unusual PS1 games like Speed Power Gunbike and Street Fighter: The Movie also exist.
Sony took a gamble with the PS1, but it paid off. Now they are one of the gaming industry's three major console manufacturers alongside Nintendo and Microsoft. It wasn’t always smooth sailing for the PS1, though, as Japan’s operations were unsure if some games would appeal to Western markets, but that was the case for a lot of companies in the 90s.
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Nowadays, most games receive global releases, but back in the PS1 era, the console featured a number of obscure titles that many still don't know about. Think about the weirdest PS1 game and then triple that experience. Some of these games were pretty great too. Let’s dive into the best largely unknown PS1 games and see what lurks beneath that giant gray lid.
8 Bomberman Fantasy Race
Dropping Explosives
Bomberman Fantasy Race
Wacky Animal Racing!
Race atop 10 different animals through 7 unique fantasy courses. Use special techniques, such as the triangle jump, bomb dash, and catapult to get ahead of the competition.
Intense 2 player action!
Compete against your friends in the split screen mode to prove who's #1. Best of all, clean out their piggy bank with the unique wagering system.
Over 15 Crazy Power-Ups!
Wield over 15 wacky weapons, including rocket bombs, power gloves, roller shoes, power bombs, shields, and power suits. Unleash long-range attacks utilizing the unique throw meter.
- Released
- August 6, 1998
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation (Original), PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3
The Bomberman series dates back to 1983 when the first game was released for the MSX computer in Japan. Most games in the series feature players navigating mazes and dropping bombs to defeat enemies or other players in versus modes, and this has sustained Bomberman for decades.
Yet there have been other spinoffs, like Bomberman Fantasy Race, which surprisingly released in North America thanks to Atlus of all publishers. Instead of driving go-karts, players could ride bunny- or dragon-like creatures and drop bombs on unsuspecting rivals. There were also more traditional go-kart Bomberman spinoffs on the PS2, including Bomberman Kart and Bomberman Kart DX.
7 Hakaiou: King Of Crusher
Office Life Is Hard
- Developer: FAB Communication
- Publisher: FAB Communication
- Released: November 12, 1998 (Japan)
- Platform: PS1
Ever get frustrated in the office or at a job in general and don’t know how to control that anger? Well, Hakaiou: King of Crusher is an extreme case of work-related anger, as a typical Japanese salaryman gets infected during the job and, when angry, he starts transforming into different monsters.
Players will evolve throughout the game's levels, going from a beastly man destroying offices to demolishing whole buildings as a giant kaiju. There are plenty of unseen and unknown Kaiju games on the PS1, but this one is worth checking out, and there’s even fan patch for it in English.
6 Hard Rock Cab
A Cabbie At The End Of Times
- Developer: Imagexcel
- Publisher: GameTek
- Released: February 16, 1996 (Japan, PS1 Version)
- Platforms: 3DO, PC, PS1, Sega Saturn
This game has quite a history, as things began in 1994 with the release of Quarantine on MS-DOS-based computers. It eventually received a Sega Saturn port called Death Throttle and then a PS1 version called Hard Rock Cab. Quarantine was released in North America, but the console ports remain trapped in Japan.
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History aside, the game takes place in a post-apocalyptic city, but despite things being chaotic, people still need cabs to get around, and that’s where players come in. They’ll have to drive NPCs to their destinations and rip apart baddies with their heavily armed taxi. The best part about the game is its PS1 cover art, which screams "80s B-movie."
5 Screaming Mad George's ParanoiaScape
What Am I Even Looking At?
Screaming Mad George's ParanoiaScape
- Released
- May 28, 1998
- Developer(s)
- Jorudan
- Publisher(s)
- Mathilda Studios Japan
- Genre(s)
- Pinball
Horror fans of the 80s and 90s may recognize the name "Screaming Mad George," as he was a famous special effects and makeup artist of the era. Even if the name doesn't sound familiar, his filmography might be, as he worked on various A Nightmare on Elm Street movies, Big Trouble in Little China, and one of his strongest offerings, Society. He also helped release a game called Screaming Mad George's ParanoiaScape, or just ParanoiaScape, for the PS1 in Japan.
It's a pinball game that takes place in the underworld and has some shooter mechanics as well, since players aren't stuck in one arcade cabinet and can move around levels with their skeletal paddles. The gameplay mechanics are odd but not as weird as the visuals, which are nightmare-inducing in the best possible way.
4 Speed Power Gunbike
Go Go Biker Rangers
- Developer: Inti Creates
- Publisher: Sony Music Entertainment Japan
- Released: April 23, 1998 (Japan)
- Platform: PS1, PSN (PS3 Era)
Inti Creates is an important developer in gaming history, but it isn't as widely known as developers/publishers like Capcom or Square Enix. Most might know them from their work with the aforementioned Capcom on the Mega Man Zero games, or perhaps their own Mega Man-inspired franchise, Azure Striker Gunvolt. However, Inti Creates' first game was a PS1 exclusive in Japan called Speed Power Gunbike.
It was an action title wherein players could cruise through levels and shoot enemies from their futuristic motorcycle or transform into a mini-mech with a bike of its own. While clunky and not as fluid as some later Transformers games, Speed Power Gunbike is an important title that helped establish Inti Creates, and is still fun to check out today.
3 Street Fighter: The Movie
Why, Just Why?
Street Fighter: The Movie
- Genre(s)
- Fighting
Street Fighter was one of the earliest video game movie adaptations made in the 90s, and while it wasn't great, it’s fondly remembered as a movie that's so bad it’s kind of good. It made sense, then, to adapt Street Fighter 2 into a movie, as it was wildly popular.
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What didn’t make sense was to turn the movie back into a video game called Street Fighter: The Movie, which used digitized sprites Mortal Kombat-style. The game lacked the polish that the series was known for, but it certainly is weird and well worth a look just for a laugh, in the same way that the movies are.
2 Super Adventure Rockman
Mega Man’s Anime Experience
- Developer: Kouyousha
- Publisher: Capcom
- Released: June 25, 1998 (Japan)
- Platforms: PS1, Sega Saturn
When Mega Man fans think about the series, they probably picture Mega Man or some other robotic hero going through levels and shooting other robots. What they probably don’t imagine is S uper Adventure Rockman, which was an adventure game with on-rail segments released for both the PS1 and Sega Saturn in Japan.
Presented in an anime style reminiscent of Mega Man 8, players have to make decisions and occasionally shoot some stuff. Another odd Mega Man spinoff on the PS1 was Rockman: Battle & Chase, which was a racing game, but Super Adventure Rockman is absolutely the stranger of the two.
1 Tales Of Fandom Vol. 1
Not Much Of A Game
- Developer: Namco
- Publisher: Namco
- Released: January 31, 2002 (Japan)
- Platform: PS1
Most Tales of games are action RPGs, and while there have been some odd spinoffs, they mostly stick to action in some form or another. That’s not the case with Tales of Fandom Vol. 1, which was released in different versions not unlike the Pokemon games. It gathered characters from the first three Tales of games, and players could interact with them, much like an adventure game.
There were mini-games as well, and it should come as no surprise that such a text-heavy game was never released outside of Japan. It did get a sequel on the PS2, Tales of Fandom Vol. 2, which also got multiple versions and upgraded the interactivity between characters a bit more.
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