Summary
The PS1 became a huge success for Sony, which was a gamble. They got a lot of franchises that were once Nintendo exclusives, likeFinal Fantasyfrom Squaresoft andBreath of Firefrom Capcom. Their partnerships are what made the PS1 successful, but while exclusives are nice, it’s also great to live in a modern era where PS1 games can now be enjoyed on other consoles like the Nintendo Switch.
Some PS1 games have received minimal ports, remasters, and even remakes to enjoy on the Nintendo Switch. From RPGs to platformers, let’s go through the best available options and rank their overall quality. To keep things interesting, these PS1 games were not available on Nintendo hardware until the Switch.
SaGa Frontier 2 Remasteredis a recent port to the Switch and other consoles, as it was shadow-dropped during a 2025 Nintendo Direct.TheSaGaseriesis often underrated by Square Enix fans as it lives in the shadow of bothDragon QuestandFinal Fantasy.
The gameplay of this game and others can be hard to comprehend as characters level up, stats, and learn skills through repetition.SaGa Frontier 2has a learning curve, but the watercolor visuals are so striking that Switch fans will want this in their collection.
Mega Man X Legacy Collectioncontains the first fourMega Man Xgames, the first three of which were SNES exclusives. The best game of the PS1 generation is stillMega Man X4, which has a split campaign between Mega Man and Zero with anime cutscenes that have aged poorly but are still funny.
Mega Man fans may also want to check outMega Man Legacy Collection 2to playMega Man 8for some good platforming and some equally hilarious anime cutscenes, butMega Man X4is still the better option.
Spyro Reignited Trilogycontains three exclusive PS1 platformers that helped make Insomniac a household name.Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage!,andSpyro: Year of the Dragonwere all fully remastered in HD.
The gameplay was not altered, so they’re not technically remakes even though the quality of the graphics says otherwise. The first game is still the best, but all three games offer some of the dragon-based platforming of all time and deserve to be played.
TheSpyrogames are great, but platformer fans of the PS1 generation were into theCrash Bandicootseriesmore. LikeSpyro Reignited Trilogy,Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogyremasters three games in one collection, includingCrash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back,andCrash Bandicoot: Warped.
The first game is the weakest of the bunch as it doesn’t have that humor that the others had, but overall, these games are chock-full of interesting levels, from shooting down blimps with a bi-plane to riding a polar bear.
Star Ocean: The Second Story Ris an HD-2D remake ofStar Ocean: The Second Story, which was a PS1 exclusive. It did get a PSP-enhanced port at one point, but this version took things to a higher level, completely redoing the art style.
Like theSaGagames, theStar Oceanseriescan often be overlooked, but if players had to start with one game, this would be it. The action-based combat was innovative at the time, and it’s still fun now.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade ClassicscontainsX-Men: Children of the Atom, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter,andMarvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes. There are other games too, but those are the PS1 games. Despite various ports to consoles for each game, not one of them hit a Nintendo console.
These are allsolid fighting games, some of the best to ever do it, butMarvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroesis truly where Capcom figured out how to combine their franchises with classic Marvel characters. Watching Mega Man blast Spider-Man is still funny.
Metal Gear Solid: Master CollectioncontainsMetal Gear Solid,Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, andMetal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eaterin the package.Metal Gear Solidis the PS1 Classic, which technically could be said to have come to a Nintendo console.
It was remade for the GameCube calledMetal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, which redid the graphics and gameplay perspectives, added new cinematic cutscenes, and even had multiplayer. The original polygonal version never came to a Nintendo console, which some still believe is the superiorSolid Snake experience.
Sony certainly made Nintendo fans angry when SquareSoft decided to make the next threeFinal Fantasyentries exclusive to the PS1instead of the N64. After decades of waiting, Nintendo fans finally got to playFinal Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 8,andFinal Fantasy 9on the Switch, all of which were remastered graphically with new gameplay mechanics too.
Players could speed up time or become invincible, for example. The console-definingFinal Fantasy 7is THE game to play on Switch, which has a good combat system, a story full of twists and turns, memorable characters, and so on.
