The 10 games Sony needs to include on the mini PlayStation Classic

With the announcement of the PlayStation Classic, Sony is following Nintendo by releasing a diminutive console packed full of nostalgia. There’ll be 20 games on the device in total, all played with an authentic replica of the console’s original controller which, lest we forget, was released without the dual analogue sticks that have graced every mainstream controller since.

But rather than announce all the games at once, Sony has teased us with a small handful of them. Whether this is because it still needs to get the relevant parties to sign on the dotted line, or that it’s simply holding them back for marketing reasons, there’s been a lot of speculation in The Verge’s office about which games might end up joining Final Fantasy VII, Tekken 3, Ridge Racer Type 4, Wild Arms, and... uh... Jumping Flash?

Read on for our staff’s personal picks of what they’d like to see:

IQ: Intelligent Qube

IQ: Intelligent Qube was a puzzle game that could feel like survivor horror. The premise was simple: you had to clear away cubes by marking a spot in the level, and waiting for the cubes to roll over it. But IQ wasn’t abstract like most puzzles; you actually controlled a tiny character, and had to avoid being crushed by the rolling blocks. As the difficulty ramped up, this turned IQ into an intense survival experience, as you had to play both smart and fast to stay alive. It was also a game that showed how 3D graphics could elevate a seemingly simple concept into something much more immersive. — Andrew Webster

Vib-Ribbon

This is easily my favorite rhythm game ever made. Minimalist, stylish, and completely addictive. You play Vibri, a stick-figure rabbit who has to navigate a two-dimensional track filled with obstacles to climb up, flip over, or tip-toe through in time with the music by hitting the right combo of buttons. The stand-out feature for the PS1 was that you could load the game into the console’s RAM then put your own CD in and the game would generate new levels based on your music. Imagine this, but with Spotify integration. A perfect party game, and one that a lot of people didn’t get the chance to play.  — James Vincent

Metal Gear Solid

Yes, the series may have technically started with Metal Gear on the MSX2, but for many it was this PS1 title that solidified the features that would come to define Solid Snake’s adventures. The cutscenes may have been basic, blocky, and oh so lengthy, but MGS completely changed how we think about stories in games, and its stealth gameplay hasn’t aged nearly as badly as many other titles from the era. — Jon Porter

Final Fantasy VIII

Square Enix’s iconic love story has had a rough time of late. Other Final Fantasy games have seen multiple re-releases across a range of devices, most recently with the likes of FFVII and X being announced for both the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. But the eighth installment was conspicuously absent. Final Fantasy VIII has always been a somewhat divisive game; it made major structural shifts to the Final Fantasy formula and had an uneven narrative based around a teen love story. But it’s all the more memorable for its quirks which, even to this day, stand out as distinct in the long-running series. It’s weird, but it certainly shouldn’t be forgotten. Squall and Rinoa deserve better than that. — Andrew Webster

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Alongside Metroid, Castlevania has come to define the Metroidvania genre, which is based around a single location that slowly opens up as you unlock a steady trickle of new powers and abilities. And while the series existed long before its PlayStation debut, Symphony of the Night is the game that introduced this open-ended structure that is now synonymous with the franchise. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was an almost anachronistic 2D side-scroller made in an age when 3D was taking over, but this gives it a timeless quality that makes it feel as current today as ever — and that’s before you reach the mid-game twist that’s almost worth the price of admission alone. — Jon Porter

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2

We can argue for days about whether the Pro Skater series achieved perfection with its second or third entry (after all, it was this third game that introduced the ‘revert’ which allowed you to tie together pretty much all your tricks into a level-long combo), but Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 was undoubtedly the best entry to grace the PS1. It’s a game that everyone should play, if only to remind them of what this series was before increasingly elaborate storylines and open worlds started to get tacked on to this timeless arcade classic. — Jon Porter

Spyro the Dragon

Spyro the Dragon is one of my most beloved character action-adventure games. As one of my first fully 3D games, I was overjoyed with dashing through the terrain, or flying above it. The music is infectious, and it has a lot of the classic Insomniac charm and polish that were later expanded on in the beloved Ratchet & Clank series. — Cameron Faulkner

Gran Turismo 2

Ridge Racer Type 4 was the PS1’s best racing game (and don’t let anyone tell you different), but Gran Turismo 2 was its lovably nerdy cousin. While Ridge Racer made fun of you when you were anything less than 90 percent sideways for an entire race, GT2 encouraged you to take the life of an international racing champion a lot more slowly. Why jump into the fastest car you can afford when you could spend hours getting your driving license instead? Why indeed, Gran Turismo. Why indeed. — Jon Porter

Um Jammer Lammy

PaRappa gets all of the love, but it’s Um Jammer Lammy that deserves a spot in the PlayStation Classic’s library. The story might have been pretty bogus, but its bizarre cast of characters, fun songs, and interesting multiplayer mode that allowed for a duet of guitar work — even allowing PaRappa to join up once you beat the game — made it a memorable game that I’d be happy to jump back into. — Cameron Faulkner

Chrono Cross

Billed as an ostensible sequel to beloved classic role-playing game Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross ended up becoming so much more for the lucky PS1-era RPG fan who encountered it at any point in the last 20 years. It put you in the role of Serge, a teenager who’s thrust into an alternate dimension in which he died as a child. From there, you have to unravel your fate, recruit dozens of playable party members, and move between two worlds. The plot was largely unintelligible for young fans like myself (I would later pore over the wiki for answers), but it had a great combat system, tons of colorful characters, and one of the best RPG soundtracks ever made. — Nick Statt