Board 8 > What four games are on the PS1 Mount Rushmore?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Crash Bandicoot
Final Fantasy 7
Metal Gear Solid
Tony Hawks Pro Skater

I never owned a PS1, so I'm just going out on a limb here with what I think it's Rushmore would look like

Metal Gear Solid
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Tomb Raider
Final Fantasy VII

FF7
RE1
MGS

Those are easy picks. The fourth is the tough one. So I'm gonna take a personal pick here.

Final Fantasy Tactics

Final Fantasy VII
Resident Evil
Metal Gear Solid
Gran Turismo sure why not I guess

No left field personal picks today, tho whomever else voted for Majora's Mask yesterday is a real G
...

HaRRicH posted...

Final Fantasy 7
Metal Gear Solid
Resident Evil 2
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Shout-outs to the demo-discs.

Remove: RE2
Add: RE1

This Tony Hawk-talk inspired me for another nomination.

Nominate: sports games.

yeah, SoTN is definitely a favorites pick more so than anything else. love it but no place here.

Final Fantasy VII
Metal Gear Solid
Tomb Raider
Resident Evil

boring first two.
Tomb Raider was huge at the time and PS1 was the main place it sold. big enough for it to have a movie 5 years after release with Angelina Jolie in her prime. only argument against it is that PC existed as a reasonable 2nd pick.
Resident Evil kinda dwarfs all the other options at this time. RE also has the same movie situation, only 6 years later. that by itself proves that RE4 wasn't the needle mover since the game came out 3 years later. but for the game itself, its importance early on was proving CDs as a medium and 3D graphics, both of which made the N64 and Saturn look inferior consoles at the start of that war. like Crash is a mascot but wasn't as big a deal as those two series with any game, Gran Turismo honestly should've won PS2 but not here, where we have a lot of new games and genres existing and it just... kinda gets lost in the shuffle.

weirdly boring options.

Crash Bandicoot had some great commercials, while we're continuing the discussion of video game commercials

https://youtu.be/mTi5EaocGaY?si=Z6vYNqY1vaxYSUj9

Also reminder to myself not to forget the original Ratchet & Clank commercials

And for the sandwiches day on the schedule, I think there should be a hot sandwich and cold sandwich Rushmore

Those are both loaded enough categories to warrant their own days

Heck, you might even be able to do a breakfast sandwich Rushmore, although that one's not as robust as the other two

LightningStrikes posted...

Okay Gran Turismo 3 narrowly missed the PS2 Mount Rushmore, but Gran Turismo 1 should be an absolute lock for this one. It began Sonys most successful first party franchise, it revolutionised racing games, snd it was the highest selling game on the system. It should definitely be on here.

Honestly, you're probably right, but we at B8 just don't care about racing games.

FF7
MGS
Castlevania: SotN
Gran Turismo

This is a really tough one. RE 1 or 2, GT2, Tomb Raider, Crash 1 or 2, one of the Tekkens, Spyro, THPS 1 or 2...

KamikazePotato posted...

Honestly, you're probably right, but we at B8 just don't care about racing games.

Excuse you we just had a racing game make the N64 Rushmore

Youre not wrong but Gran Turismo 3 was one vote away and a racing game just made a Rushmore!

Im not saying care about racing games (I am actually not into sim racers at all) Im saying care about THIS racing game because it was a huge deal.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
Crash Team Racing
Final Fantasy VIII
Spyro: Year of the Dragon

i mean a lot of games were big deals at the time, including games that just made genres. GT1 has the ability to say it refined the racing genre from what was there but has the issue of racing games already existing on the console (e.g., Ridge Racer) and arcades not being completely and utterly dead, though the PS1 was definitely a huge part of it and GT1 can say it was partially responsible for that. it's a case of we would've definitely gotten to this point sooner than later as things were progressing in this path. that's in opposition to new 3D platformers, new 3D adventure games, and survival horror to name a few. none of which had really existed previously in console form (PC did have all this but PC was a more complicated and expensive mess).

KamikazePotato posted...

Honestly, you're probably right, but we at B8 just don't care about racing games.

It is lonely being on the island of racing-is-my-favorite-VG-genre

Well Gran Turismo is part of why arcades are dead! Plus every game nominated has precursors be it Sweet Home, or 005 or Dragon Quest. Also Ridge Racer and those arcade racers arent sims, which Gran Turismo is.

I know C:SotN seems like a favorites-pick (which is partially true in my vote), but for what it's worth: it was a critical darling in video game magazines at the time in a way I don't think many of the other non-FF7/MGS/RE options being mentioned were (Tekken 3 was an exception to be fair and maybe Gran Turismo), it redefined what was already one of gaming's biggest series at that time and did so without taking the 3D turn in an era where people were afraid we were losing 2D games, it has its own notable spoiler, and it's now responsible for half the name of a popular genre. Also, as a personal opinion, while I first played it a decade late on Xbox 360 it was immediately excellent then...whereas I did not feel that way about any Crash, Spyro, or Tomb Raider game even at the time of their releases. They get mascot-credit -- which is worthy of noting here! -- but while they were good for marketing the PS1 none of them were as decisively THE PlayStation mascot as Mario or Sonic were for their systems, so I give them less credit on that point. Cloud and Solid Snake were arguably the face of that system too, and that's because Lara/Crash/Spyro didn't fill the gap a good game mascot needed to do then: have an *excellent* game.

Bias is here, but so is its clear impact. C:SotN is worthy of the conversation and vote. Maybe TR/Crash/Spyro deserve credit for being the games I played during that era, but C:SotN was received very well then too and was so good a decade later on a different system that I won't hold it against the game here.

Final Fantasy 7
Metal Gear Solid
Resident Evil
Tomb Raider

It devastates me to not have Symphony of the Night, Crash, Tekken 3 or Gran Turismo in there but I think this is it. Every single one of these games makes me go 'without them, their genre as we know it doesn't even exist'. You can say that for SotN too specifically, but Tomb Raider has a lot of factors in its corner that tiebreak in its favor. It got the psx rolling, it advanced the conversation on women in gaming as protagonists, and it just sold way more. Too many intangibles to take other games.

FFDragon posted...

Resident Evil
Silent Hill
Final Fantasy VIII
Parasite Eve

This top 4 is unfathomably based though and if I wasn't trying to be super objective I would take cues from it btw. Good picks.

Final Fantasy 7
Metal Gear Solid
Resident Evil
Gran Turismo

The counter to Tomb Raider is that it was multiplatform and actually narrowly launched on Saturn first. I dont think it is as associated with Playstation as the others.

it's the Saturn.
the hardest part about a mount rushmore of the saturn is getting 4 games.

Final Fantasy 7
Metal Gear Solid
Resident Evil
Tekken 3

I've never been able to find what magazine it was, but I swear I remember one having some ULTIMATE GAMER TEST or something like that, with 100 true gamer tasks. The only one I recall is beating Tekken 3's arcade mode with every character. Not just "all true gamers have played Tekken 3", but the game is so completely foundational to gaming that everyone (in the distant past of whenever this crap was published) has obviously finished it with every single character.

...I've wanted to find that magazine to see what the other 99 tests were, but I have no clue what the magazine was. I do recall a follow-up issue had someone write in a suggestion for a 101st point for anyone who went back to complete any of the magazine's challenges, which was approved. This does not help in any way.

-

...Okay, I'm not voting Tekken 3 just because of a bad magazine article, but I never have an excuse to post that.

Talking about magazines and Tekken 3, it was a big deal when EGM gave Tekken 3 a 10/10.

Wanglicious posted...

it's the Saturn.
the hardest part about a mount rushmore of the saturn is getting 4 games.

I'm adding a nom for Saturn games

I think we should let the 5 people who owned one have a say in coming up with a Rushmore.

FF7
MGS1
Tomb Raider
Gran Turismo

I consider Tomb Raider a near-lock tbh. Despite sales, GT is the one I'd lose there but I get the argument for having it over RE/RE2 (which was my first thought)

Wanglicious posted...

it's the Saturn.
the hardest part about a mount rushmore of the saturn is getting 4 games.

come on, there's Panzer Dragoon Saga, Nights.... another Panzer Dragoon game........ and the last Saturn Panzer Dragoon game?

Sonic R, baby

The Saturn got technically superior Street Fighter ports too, I remember

there was also guardian heroes and burning ranger!
games by Treasure and Sonic Team of which maybe the former has some people remember it. the latter is obscure as it gets, i only know it because i've got my friend's broken saturn still to this day and that was one of the games he owned. Sonic 3D Blast exists there too, even if it's the black sheep, as an arguable "best soundtrack in Sonic series."

but yeah, unfortunately the Saturn's existence is so minimal that a release there doesn't mean much, if anything. hell, SoTN on the Saturn technically is the version with more content considering it had Maria mode but i don't remember if that came out in the US. and eventually the PSP included it anyway so it can remain forgotten.

oh yeah Burning Ranger. that's not that obscure

FF7
MGS
Resident Evil
Crashbandicoot

Wanglicious posted...

Saturn technically is the version with more content considering it had Maria mode but i don't remember if that came out in the US. and eventually the PSP included it anyway so it can remain forgotten.

Saturn Maria & PSP Maria are different characters. PSP Maria's gameplay is more closely inspired by her Rondo of Blood appearance (including changing the collectable sub-weapons into the Holy Beasts and summoning birds for her normal attack); Saturn Maria kicks enemies & has the standard sub-weapons, but can cast spells for the Holy Beasts.

Wanglicious posted...

it's the Saturn.
the hardest part about a mount rushmore of the saturn is getting 4 games.

Lunar, Sakura Wars, Tomb Raider, and, uhh...a sonic game??? Yeah this is a toughie

Fluttershy_Pony posted...

Saturn Maria & PSP Maria are different characters. PSP Maria's gameplay is more closely inspired by her Rondo of Blood appearance (including changing the collectable sub-weapons into the Holy Beasts and summoning birds for her normal attack); Saturn Maria kicks enemies & has the standard sub-weapons, but can cast spells for the Holy Beasts.

oh. well damn, learned something new.

Mega Man X4

Digimon World 2003
Legend of Legaia
Mega Man X4

Saturn had plenty of great games to work with:

NiGHTS
Burning Rangers
Panzer Dragoon Zwei
Sonic R

Honorable mentions to Panzer Dragoon Saga, Dragon Force, X-Men VS Street Fighter (RAM cartridge allowed the game to run better than the arcade version, compared to the abysmal PSX version that didn't have even have a regular tag mode), Shining Force III, Guardian Heroes, and Fighters Megamix. Enemy Zero is also... unique enough to be of interest, though likely a bad fit for this series.

Resident Evil
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Final Fantasy VII
Parasite Eve

Drop Resident Evil.
Add Gran Turismo 1.

Sorry for the double switch!

Parasite Eve
Kaze no Notam

FF7
Mega Man Legends
Mega Man Legends 2
The Misadventures of Tron Bonne

FFVII
Metal Gear Solid
Power Shovel
Resident Evil

Is Symphony of the Night the PS1 game that best stands the test of time?

Final Fantasy VII
Metal Gear Solid
Gran Turismo
Crash Bandicoot

The lack of respect for Gran Turismo surprises me, it was absolutely massive and unprecedented and a huge step in carving out this niche for car/racing people to get into games when they otherwise wouldn't be interested. It invented the sim racing genre. Fourth slot was really hard to pick, but I feel like people overlook how influential mascot platformers were early in the PS1's lifespan. Crash, Spyro, and Croc combined for so many millions of sales, they were really core to the console's identity for people who weren't RPG nerds. It's tough omitting RE and TR and MGS is probably the least solid pick here, but it's so big it's hard to justify pulling it.

Gex

We're saving Gex for the 3DO Rushmore.

Nominate: 3DO games

still angry at the 3DO for somehow getting Super Street Fighter II Turbo exclusivity

Final Fantasy VII
Metal Gear Solid
Crash Bandicoot
Symphony of the Night

Final Fantasy VII
Metal Gear Solid
Resident Evil
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

SotN is more here for its lasting legacy than its popularity at the time, and also because I like it

I get why people are putting SotN up there, as a game it's incredibly solid and has an important place in the development of a genre, but I also think people are forgetting just how poorly it did at the time and glossing over some of the negative coverage it got for being a 2D PSX game. It stands tall in its field but really doesn't have much relevance to the console to me.