These ground-breaking games might pre-date PlayStation, but they're all playable on PS4 & PS5. Take a step back in time to discover classic titles that helped shape the games you love today.
Shooters to thrill
From deep-space dog fights, to overground skirmishes, fighting fire with fire never goes out of style.
Like its predecessor Galaxian, Galaga is a ‘fixed shooter’ that owes a huge debt to Space Invaders, while also improving on it in every way. Galaga is notable for the Dual Fighter power-up mode that doubles your firepower. This simple idea, of being able to upgrade your weapon to even the odds, remains an integral element of the genre.
Konami forever transformed the genre with side-scrolling space shooter Gradius, which gave players control over which power-ups to deploy and when. Do you use up your power orb to speed up your craft, or save them up to upgrade to a laser? It’s a brilliant layer of strategy that can still be felt by anyone who’s agonised over spending points on a skill tree.
From the arcades of yesteryear to the cutting-edge console hits of today, the roots of today's top shooters go back decades.
Shooter
Housemarque's time-looping sci-fi shooter combines classic bullet hell design with modern third-person action.
Shooter
Studio MDHR combines the rubberhose animation stylings of the 1930s with side-scrolling shooter action of the 1980s.
Shooter
A modern evolution of classic arcade shooters, R-Type Final 2 is the traditional space-shooter format powered by modern tech.
It's generally agreed that Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushell's 'Computer Space' constituted the world's first commercial video game - and fitted inside its own coin-operated, fibre glass cabinet, the first ever arcade machine too. The pair would go on to found Atari the following year - the rest, as they say, is history.
Action innovators
There’s never a dull moment with this lot.
The spiritual successor to Technōs Japan’s Renegade shares a lot of its characteristics, not to mention its animations. Double Dragon innovates in a number of areas, from its scrolling, multi-level stages, to its collectible weapons and co-op gameplay (which memorably transforms into competitive for its finale). It’s an irresistible formula that continues to be polished, not changed, 35 years later.
Unusual in that it’s a port of a console game, Vs. Castlevania kickstarted the vampire-hunting series that would ultimately lead to the wildly influential Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. While it lacks that game’s non-linear exploration, it can still lay claim to introducing the notion of a sub-weapon. Simon Belmont walked so gaming’s modern action heroes could run (despite carrying loads of heavy gadgets).
While the scale, complexity and visual fidelity of the action genre has made vast leaps, the core principle of exploration, discovery and combat are as satisfying as ever.
Action
From Software's open-world medieval fantasy adventure is a grand evolution of its Dark Souls formula, itself a modern 3D progression of classics like Castlevania.
Action
Labyrinthine dungeons, dark medieval sorcery and armies of ghouls channel classic arcade action adventures.
Action
A modern evolution of classic arcade shooters, R-Type Final 2 is the traditional space-shooter format powered by modern tech.
There's no getting around it: classic arcade games are not for the faint of heart. Most were designed to keep the player coming back - tough challenges that would be satisfying, but would keep you feeding coins into the cabinet. Not to worry, on PlayStation, many of these games have save states, so you don't have to start over when you fail and starting over won't cost you a thing.
Bold colours and stylised characters made the best use of limited arcade hardware, but modern games still channel similar aesthetics.
Adventure
A continuation of the legendary '90s platform series, the latest Crash Bandicoot adventure charts a path from early arcades, through early consoles to modern gaming.
Adventure
With its keen focus on two-player co-operative play, It Takes Two is channelling an almost universal focus of the classic arcade experience: the '2UP'.
Adventure
A spiritual successor to the classic arcade series 'Wonder Boy', Monster Boy makes no secret of its classic gaming roots.
It really depends on who you ask, but many consider the late '70s (following the launch of the hugely influential Space Invaders) through the mid-'80s to be most significant period for arcade gaming. It was a time of huge commercial expansion, innovation and recognition in the mainstream as a vibrant, emerging culture.
Some of today's most popular games are recreations of the world's most popular sports.
Sport
Dating back to the early '90s Electonic Arts' goliath football franchise is not only one of gaming's most successful, but one of its most long-running.
Fighting
Street Fighter exploded onto arcades in the late '80s and 35 years later is still an industry mainstay, featuring some the same characters that launched the franchise.
Sport
With a history dating all the way back to the early '80s, EA's Madden NFL franchise fills the role of both modern gaming monolith and iconic arcade classic.
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