The most important time in a console’s life is its launch. This is when a new piece of hardware needs to prove that it is worth investing in, which always comes down to games. Launch titles are rarely the best games on the system, although some of Nintendo’s launch games buck that trend, but at least need to show off what the system can do. PlayStation always had a secondary selling point with its consoles, such as doubling as a CD player or DVD player, so it is interesting to speculate how successful those early consoles would’ve been judged solely on their games. We now have launch titles from the PS1 all the way up to the PS5 (and soon to be PS6) to look back on with fresh eyes to see just how good those first games were.
Air Combat – PlayStation 1
As PlayStation’s first home console, it needed to come out strong. Your memory might tell you that games like Crash Bandicoot or Spyro were there to help kick things off, but that’s not the case at all. The only mascot in the launch lineup was Ubisoft’s Rayman, and while that was a great 2D platformer, it didn’t help the PS1 stand out. This was the dawn of the 3D era, so games that pushed those limits were what people wanted. There were a few options at launch, including Jumping Flash!, Ridge Racer, and Wipeout, but Air Combat felt like the biggest technical leap. This was originally an arcade game and featured fast and tense air battles. There were tons of planes to unlock, varied missions, and an awesome 2-player mode to engage in dogfights with friends.
SSX – PlayStation 2
Unlike the PS1, the PS2 had a huge launch lineup of games. Even if you ignore all the annual sports games, there are a ton of great games that make picking a winner very tough. We’re talking about Dynasty Warriors 2, Armored Core 2, FantaVision, and Tekken Tag Tournament, just to name a few. However, after I reviewed that entire list again, there was only one game I felt an intense urge to play again, and that’s SSX. Extreme sports games had taken off on the PS1 after the first Tony Hawk game, and developers were racing to find another sport that could fit the mold. I wouldn’t have guessed snowboarding would have been the one to do it best, but here we are. Shredding down the slopes, nailing tricks, and rocking out to the soundtrack is just as fun today as it was all those years ago.
Resistance: Fall of Man – PlayStation 3
It wasn’t until I looked back at it that I realized just how many racing games the PS3 launched with. There was Need For Speed Carbon, Ridge Racer 7, and MotorStorm to satisfy any specific racing tastes. Besides those, the usual suspects of sports games, and Call of Duty 3, I struggled to remember any of the games on offer. Who remembers Genji: Days of the Blade or Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom? No, there was only one game that could win here, and that was the first Resistance title. This was the most heavily pushed game ahead of the PS3 launch and featured a great twist on the typical WW2 FPS genre by adding in aliens. The sequels were far better, but the original was an impressive and fun shooter to kick the generation off with.
Resogun – PlayStation 4
The PS4 generation is where launch titles get a little muddled. The list is inflated by a ton of cross-gen games that also appeared on PS3, which I won’t be counting for this list (sorry, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag). That leaves us with a scant few true PS4 launch games. Knack is the meme answer, and Killzone: Shadowfall is the one most people remember. The latter is very impressive on a technical level to show the PS4’s power, but not that fun. The game I spent way too much time playing after getting my PS4 was Resogun. It might look simple, but seeing this game in action, with the hundreds of voxels and effects going off, is a visual treat. The arcade-inspired gameplay is ruthlessly addicting and timeless.
Demon’s Souls – PlayStation 5
Again, I’ve got to cut out all those pesky cross-gen games from the list when talking about the PS5 launch. That drops the number from 17 down to basically three games, and one almost doesn’t even qualify. Still, I’m tempted to give this pick to Astro’s Playroom despite being such a short experience. It is the one game I feel that everyone who grabs a PS5 must play, but it is now overshadowed by the fully fleshed-out Astro Bot. There’s no way I’m giving the spot to Godfall, which leaves me with Demon’s Souls. I admit the difficulty can be off-putting, and it might feel lazy saying a remake is the best launch game, but hear me out. To this day, this game has some of the best graphics on PS5, full stop. And I won’t say it isn’t tough and a bit obtuse at times, but it isn’t a cruel game. If you are willing to meet it on its own terms and learn its language, I think it has a wider appeal than it gets credit for.
