Overshadowed by the end of PlayStation game discsSony underlined this by simultaneously announcing the closure of digital storefronts for PS3 and PS Vita. In a year, you won’t be able to make new purchases on either platform, blocking some of Sony’s early digital downloads. This only illustrates how precarious owning games has become. So let’s get to work while we can.
The PlayStation 3 was a transitional console between the great experimental weirdness of their first two generations and the more commercial, remake-friendly era that we’re used to. Once these doors close, some of PlayStation’s remaining idiosyncratic quirks will be sealed away forever. Some gems have fortunately been worn elsewhere, like Sound forms And PixelJunk Eden. Unfortunately, some others, like Noby Noby Boy And Uneasy peacehave already been deregistered. Here is a selection of essential pieces, difficult or even impossible to find elsewhere, vestiges of a disappearing era.
Tales from Space: About a Blob
The first game of Guacamelee From the makers of Drinkbox Studios, this slimy debut is a puzzle platformer about a nasty little space bogeyman. As you navigate the Earth, you will grow in gelatinous size and gain new powers. It’s vibrant, colorful and you can really mess up your surroundings. It’s like a Saturday morning Carrion. This spawned a sequel, Attack of mutant blobswhich has fortunately been released to more systems.
Thexder Neo
A cult PC-Engine game from the 80s, originally localized by Sierra, Square Enix remade the space adventure in 2009. Alternating between a space jet and a giant robot, you navigate through strange and hostile stations and caves. The HD renovation still looks pretty neat, doing justice to the retro classic.
Mermaid: Blood Curse
Any attempt to explain Siren feels like a lecture, but I’ll be brief. silent Hill Creator Keiichirō Toyama created a survival horror exclusive for PlayStation 2, but the irregular, multi-narrative structure caught fans off guard. Years later, Toyama came full circle with Blood Cursestreamlining it with some lessons from what follows. Not a true remake, and perhaps too many concessions to global audiences, many believe. Blood Curse its own thing. A physical version has been released, but the rarity leaves you much better off grabbing it on PSN while you can.
The last guy
Ahh, here we go. Classic PlayStation nonsense. An arcade apocalypse, The last guy sees you rescuing survivors, forming a long line of people on the run. Run, scream through towns, avoid mutated creatures and head to evacuation points. He used the then-impressive new Google Map satellite imagery to transform real cities into monster playgrounds.
Puppeteer
Lost in the shuffle between Tear And Little big planet games, this bombastic and sarcastic platformer became a cult classic in its darkness. Presented as the protagonist of a play, you play as Kutaro, a puppet with a severed head. Using giant scissors the size of a mall opening, you shred other automatons, collect new heads, and use them to modify the performances. As Blood Curseit saw a physical release, but copies are notoriously difficult to find.
Vib-ribbon
Masaya Matsuura’s follow-up PaRappa the rapper is as charming as it is stimulating. Even though the music in the pack is amazing in its own right, Vib-ribbon lets you swap out your own CD collection to turn any track into a rhythm platformer. Originally released on the first PlayStation in Japan, it was freely distributed worldwide on PSN in 2014. I enjoyed it so much that it prompted me to buy a stack of used CDs (the Peter Gabriel CD). SOYMO Solid State SurvivorBoards of Directors of Canada Music is right for children and that of the Prince 1999) just to see what other levels I could bring up. An essential PlayStation game and a permanent homage to the disc player.
Tokyo Jungle
I can’t stress this enough: if there’s only one game you can grab from the PlayStation 3 library, make it this one. Tokyo Jungle is an inventive, unusual and addictive survival RPG set in post-apocalyptic Japan. Tokyo has been overtaken by wild animals. Giraffes. Lions. Velociraptors. As animals, you must hunt, eat, breed, and survive in packs, passing down through your descendants and evolving as you go. You start things off as a family of Pomeranians, and while you’ll unlock much more powerful beasts, don’t underestimate these little furballs’ ability to take down a pack of hyenas.
