PlayStation Classic is a faithful reproduction of the experience of playing original PlayStation games in the mid-1990s. The experience is technically accurate, but the PS Classic doesn’t feel like it was created by a company with a true and abiding passion for the games of this era, or even with the good sense to fake one.
PlayStation Classic is a faithful reproduction of the experience of playing original PlayStation games in the mid-1990s. In that respect, it succeeds. What it lacks is passion.
With Nintendo roundly rejecting the idea of a Nintendo 64 Classic in the foreseeable future, PlayStation Classic has the low-polygon nostalgia market, to whatever extent it exists, all sewn up for itself. A tiny version of Sony’s world-changing first gaming console, the Classic is a throwback to the era of 32 bits, CD-ROMs, and full motion video. To be released December 3, it costs $100 and includes 20 games, which are a mix of true time-tested classics and, well, more questionable entries.
Much like Nintendo’s classic consoles, the hardware is a tiny perfect replica of the original box, the controller a full-size recreation of the precise feel of the original. Hook it up, start up a game of Final Fantasy VII and you’re back in 1997 again. The emulation looks and sounds good, the two included controllers feel just right. (They’re based on the original, pre-analog stick versions.)
The experience is technically accurate, but PlayStation Classic doesn’t feel like it was created by a company with a true and abiding passion for the games of this era, or even with the good sense to fake one. The interface is utilitarian and drab instead of fun and stylish. The feature set is bare-bones, even though a few extra options and features would have added so much to the experience. And the game selection, while studded with gems here and there, is far from a solid overview of the best content on the platform.
My nostalgia for the PlayStation 1 is a different sort than what I feel for the NES and SNES. Those two systems were gifts from my parents when I was 7 and 11 years old, respectively. They are largely tied up in childhood memories. But I bought the PlayStation when I was 17, with money from my first job. When I look at the PlayStation I see early adulthood, that first taste of what it was like to splash out cash for new technology.
Final Fantasy VII.
And that was the market that Sony pursued with PlayStation—the older teens, the college kids. The games had more violence, more sex, more drugs, more curse words. It was more common for the hot new game to get a “Teen” rating, or even “Mature.” PlayStation Classic leans in to this, its game library filled with adult-oriented games and a big M rating on the box. The ESRB description of the device reads like a glowing review in a 1995 issue of Die Hard Game Fan magazine: A few games depict impalements as well as decapitation/dismemberment, resulting in large blood stains on the ground and underneath bodies. The compilation also includes some sexual material: dialogue that states, “Bubby’s got a sticky love nest…” and “My brother knows I’m b*nging his wife…”; demons with phallic-shaped heads and/or vulva-shaped torsos.
