With thousands of games under the PlayStation's belt, it would be impossible to properly pay homage to all the games that deserve it (and conversely, to point out all the games that maybe shouldn't have been games in the first place). Instead, a few editors sound off on games that were particularly memorable to them. Perhaps you remember them, or perhaps you don't, but you should recognize the feeling of nostalgia echoed here.

Vib-Ribbon

By Justin Calvert, Editor, Previews

So, do you remember vib-ribbon? Odds are that unless you live in Europe or used to make a habit of importing quirky games from Japan for your PlayStation, the answer is no. That's because NaNaOn-Sha's rhythm action game, in which you assume the role of a wire-frame rabbit named Vibri, was never released in North America, much to the disappointment of numerous GameSpot editors at the time.

Vib-ribbon's premise, like its charming vector graphics, is extraordinarily simple. You choose a song, the song determines the layout of the obstacles that will hinder your progress along an otherwise straight line, and then--using only four buttons on the controller--you have to negotiate those obstacles. There are four different types of obstacles in vib-ribbon, each assigned to a different button, and when you're playing a more difficult level, you'll often be confronted by hybrid obstacles that can only be traversed by pressing two buttons simultaneously.

The songs included on the vib-ribbon CD were undeniably catchy, but one of the game's best features was that it let you pop in any music CD from your collection to create entirely new levels. If you chose a particularly mellow track, you'd invariably get to play through a relatively easy level, with very few changes of pace and very few hybrid obstacles. Pop in something more upbeat, though, and the levels became extremely challenging, with multiple hybrid obstacles approaching you at different speeds and constantly changing camera angles adding to the confusion.

At the end of each level, you'd be given a score, and, depending on your performance, you'd get to see Vibri do a little happy dance. The numbers weren't terribly important, though, at least not as important as the form in which you finished the level. If you managed to string together a combo of successful obstacles, Vibri would evolve into some kind of rabbit prince with wings, a crown, and new animations. Mess up, though, and Vibri would devolve into a frog and, ultimately, some kind of worm with a square head. At a time when most video games were striving for realism and cutting-edge visuals, vib-ribbon stood out (and still stands out today) as a reminder that neither of those things are really necessary to make a fun game.

Tekken 3

By Avery Score, Assistant Editor, Mobile

In 1998, Tekken 3 represented the absolute pinnacle of three-dimensional fighters. The game furthered the technical precision and grace of its forebears by adding new fighters, new modes, and new full-motion-video cinemas--all the while striking the perfect balance between speed and graphical acclaim.

Tekken 3 arrived late in the PlayStation's development cycle, and many skeptics argued that the home port wouldn't live up to the arcade original. Namco's System 12 board was based on the PS's architecture but featured twice the VRAM, along with dedicated audio RAM. Namco compensated by prerendering the game's backgrounds in two dimensions and by ever-so-slightly reducing the quality of the fighter models. The result was a game that, while not visually arcade-perfect, would remain the de facto graphical standard for console fighters until Namco bested its own efforts with its enhanced Dreamcast port of Soul Calibur.

Its extended move lists and excellent ball mode notwithstanding, Tekken 3 was more of a natural extension of a brilliant fighting system than a revolutionary product. What got Tekken to the party in the first place was its excellent control, which was based around simple and intuitive combinations of directional pad/stick movements in conjunction with one or more of the game's four attack keys. Executing these moves felt natural, and it was therefore possible to perform impressive combos with relative ease. The gameplay's most distinctive feature, however, was just how powerful the attacks really seemed. Despite its cartoonish particle effects, Tekken's techniques looked bone-shatteringly devastating, from Paul's windup haymaker to Nina's pressure-point punishments.

The latest Tekken 5 was successful largely because it eschewed the eight-way running and tag-team nonsense of recent series installments (which will remain in nameless ignominy) and instead hearkened back to the gameplay of Tekken 3, which really got things right. Tekken 3 is unquestionably the best fighter in the PlayStation's star-studded pantheon.

Jarrett and Labonte Stock Car Racing

By Brian Ekberg, Associate Editor, Sports

When you think of racing games on the original PlayStation, the name that most often comes to mind is Gran Turismo...and with good reason. The GT series inarguably did more to put console racing sims on the map than any game or games before it. However, Gran Turismo and its sequel were far from the be-all and end-all of racing games on the original PlayStation. In fact, Sony's original console--from top to bottom--had a very deep racing catalog that featured a number of entries that didn't always make the grade, in addition to a select few that truly rose above the pack. Codemasters' Jarrett and Labonte Stock Car Racing was just one such racing game.

If there ever was a case to be made for not judging a racing game by its name, JLSCR was it. First of all, the Jarrett and Labonte referred to in the title weren't the legendary NASCAR racers Dale Jarrett and Terry or Bobby Labonte. Instead, the title referred to Jason Jarrett and Justin Labonte, the sons of the famous stock car drivers--neither of whom actually appeared in the game itself. Second, this game had practically zero to do with American stock car racing. In effect, JLSCR was the third in Codemasters' European hit racing series, TOCA Touring Car Championship. When it was initially released in Europe, the game was known by a slightly more pronounceable name: TOCA World Touring Car Championship. What began as a likely well-intended decision to change the title to something marginally more familiar to American racing fans ended up being an odd footnote to a game that, in effect, didn't need any help in proving its worth.

After all, JLSCR is one of the unsung heroes of the original PlayStation's lineup--an overlooked gem that featured the biggest lineup of cars this side of Gran Turismo 2 and a feel for the road unbeaten by any game of its generation. Typical of the TOCA series, cars were destructible in JLSCR (a feature the Gran Turismo series didn't boast back then and still doesn't...three iterations later). That, coupled with the game's outstanding artificial-intelligence-controlled opponents, meant that if you lost a bumper in a race, it was usually your fault. With spot-on re-creations of famous tracks, like Bathurst, Laguna Seca, Hockenheim, and the modern-day configuration of the Nürburgring, 42 drivable cars (from manufacturers like Ford, BMW, and Lexus), and a challenging opponent AI that was more sophisticated in 2000 than anything found in this year's Gran Turismo 4, JLSCR was a high-water mark on the original PlayStation, and it was a game that paved the way for Codemasters' high-speed successes on the PS2 and Xbox today.

Xenogears

By Bethany Massimilla, Community Manager

In a crowded PlayStation role-playing-game lineup, Xenogears was cut from a different cloth. Instead of a bright fantasy setting, swords, and lighthearted child heroes, the world of Xenogears brought science-fiction sensibilities, giant robots, and highfalutin narrative. You still ended up saving the world, but only after the characters battled through a mire of matters philosophical, psychological, political, and spiritual. Even after cross-checking the bewildering amount of religious references and brushing up on your Jung, Xenogears always had a new wrinkle to throw your way in its ambitious and lengthy storyline. Just about every character you encountered had a secret past that would slowly unravel in front of your eyes, with many revelations that were truly surprising. So many of the major players in the game were at the same time both heroes and victims, pawns of not just the events of their time but of their own fates. Watching events unfold was like completing a blank jigsaw puzzle and flipping it over when finished to find a whole, intricately designed picture on the other side.

The complex narrative had the benefit of being accompanied by Yasunori Mitsuda's wonderful music, a soundtrack that was often lyrical, haunting, and uplifting. The many themes he composed for the game were emotional and stirring, providing a perfect backdrop for all the turmoil (both internal and external) the characters experienced. It was a game with a serious and sometimes truly pretentious delivery, and it wove a complicated web of events and relationships all the way to the very end. Whether you liked it or loathed it, you'd be hard-pressed to find another PlayStation RPG quite like it.

Raiden Project

By Greg Kasavin, Site Director

While the PlayStation was busy wowing the masses with its fancy-pants texture-mapped polygonal graphics, some dedicated video game players took the system as a sign of the apocalypse...the 2D gaming apocalypse, to be precise. The new 3D era of gaming presented a huge threat to all the traditional hand-drawn 2D games out there, the likes of which were still quite popular in the mid-'90s when the PlayStation first rolled out. In light of that, it's difficult to decide whether Raiden Project----one of the earliest PlayStation games to combine two vertical-scrolling space shoot-'em-ups into a single package--was like chicken soup for the fan of 2D gaming or a sinister plot to lull such fans into thinking more, similar games would follow suit.

One thing's for sure: It was awesome. To the untrained eye, Raiden Project was just your typical arcade game, with a name that would soon pave the way for a sneaky sissy and a gibberish-spouting thunder god. But to the aficionado, Raiden Project was one of the first pixel-perfect arcade-to-home translations of any game on yonder side of the NeoGeo. Lavish attention to detail could be found, and some extreme options were available, letting you go so far as to tilt your monitor or television on its side to preserve the original arcade-style vertically oriented aspect ratio.

Oh, and the games themselves were great. Intense shoot-'em-up action like this hasn't been accomplished any better very often, and the option for two-player simultaneous gameplay made Raiden Project a perfect choice for PlayStation early adopters who cut their teeth at the arcades. The PlayStation had some other memorable shoot-'em-ups after this one, including Philosoma and Einhander (the only shoot-'em-up to date from the maker of Final Fantasy), but Raiden Project got it right straight out of the gate. Ironically, all those 3D PlayStation games that looked so amazing for their time now look ugly and generally much worse than Raiden Project, with its clean lines and timeless design.

Legacy of Kain

By Dave Toister, Data Producer

The original Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was a good example of how the PlayStation was taking games to the next level, both in technical prowess and in targeted age range. Kain was one of the first violent, adult-rated role-playing games on home consoles that featured a mature storyline and excellent voice work.

Kain was an action RPG at heart that used the standard isometric camera angle made famous by games like the original Zelda, Secret of Mana, Soul Blazer, and others of that ilk. But the one thing that really set Kain ahead of the pack was its use of voice. It was one of the first games (and still one of the very few to date) to tell the entire story via voice-overs, with no text dialogue at all. Every important scene was rendered in beautiful computer-generated graphic video clips, some of the best of its generation. Minor story progressions, upgrades, and more were told in voice as the game played on, without interrupting the action any more than the scene required. The totally immersive voice work provided a new level of gaming, thus making the play-through feel almost like an epic movie story unfolding.

Very few games have come close to the quality of voice acting that Kain provided, especially given the fantasy content it revolved around--Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time comes to mind, but that game was not released until nearly a decade later...deep into the next generation of consoles--and it is questionable if any game has yet surpassed the voice work in the original Kain.

The mature level of Kain was another factor that really made it stand out. While games such as Mortal Kombat had paved the way for mainstream mature themes in subsequent games, few had done so without being gimmicky. Kain, however, managed to combine a bloody graphical representation with a fitting storyline and atmosphere without simply exploiting gore for being gore. For a medieval/vampire-themed game, the level of blood and guts was quite fitting.

Unfortunately, the sequels to Kain did not follow the style of the original, as they dipped more into the realm of the 3D, box-pushing action platformer genre. As such, the original Kain holds its place in history as one of the most unique action RPGs on the PlayStation, or any other system for that matter.