The 25 Most Gorgeous 2D Playstation (PS1) Games

⚠️ All gameplay recording, game curation and opinions included in each video, as well as design or editing is completely done by me

In the early 90's, 32-bit consoles, such as the Playstation or the Sega Saturn, marked the entry of 3D environments in home video games. It seems that videogame developers forgot about pixel art to focus on polygonal proposals, with vast virtual worlds, and exploring new genres impossible in a 2D representation. Most of the PSX games adopted a more novel 3D look, but it is also true that there is a select group of video games that stayed on the more traditional path.

In this video we explore the catalog of the PS1 to discover the most colorful 2D games and how pixel art also took advantage of the increased capabilities of the 32 bit

In this video you will find:

• A didactic justification that the Playstation 1 was a system very capable of displaying beautiful 2D graphics
• A description of the PSX hardware so that the viewer understands how these video games are possible to display
• Information related to each game such as release date, developer company, game genre and system it was released on.
• Official game box arts with a 3D presentation.
• Educative and/or critical comments on the importance of the video game and why you should play it

Intro and Outro Music

00:00 Intro
00:16 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
00:40 Rayman
01:04 The Adventure of Little Ralph
01:28 In The Hunt
01:53 Skullmonkeys
02:17 Legend Of Mana
02:41 Gundam: Battle Assault
03:05 Gradius Gaiden
03:30 Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
03:54 Alundra
04:18 The Adventures of Lomax
04:42 Gex
05:07 DoDonPachi
05:30 Rapid Reload (Gunners Heaven)
05:55 Heart of Darkness
06:19 Strider 2
06:44 Tenchi wo Kurau II
07:08 Silhouette Mirage
07:32 Valkyrie Profile
07:56 Strikers 1945
08:21 Disney's Hercules Action Game
08:45 Panzer Bandit
09:09 Street Fighter Alpha 3
09:33 Harmful Park
09:57 Mega Man 8
10:22 Outro

Bits & Beats creates videos about the history of video games. In this channel you'll find comparisons, retrospectives, technical analysis, but, mostly, game curations with the idea of having an important task of preserving video games, and make them relevant to society at large.

Curation isn't just about digging up neat games, but it's also about preservation, interpretation, and using one's knowledge to make it relevant to people. With my videos I want older gamers to look back and remember the influence of video games on their lives, and new gamers to understand the larger context of the series they're playing for the first time today.

I put significant time and creative effort into each one of my videos, including research, digging into archives, playing video games and recording hours of footage, selecting specific clips, writing reviews for each title, and making a very careful video editing in the way to transmit both educational and entertaining values to my audience. Every video takes a lot of hours to produce, because I strive to give my audience a consistent, high-quality content.

Fidelity and preservation of the video games is essential in Bits & Beats, so the recordings are made with the highest bitrate quality. It is done this way to preserve original game look and sound through modern footage, with no superfluous additions. I recommend you watch the video at 4K and 60 frames per second to get the best possible viewing experience.

I hope you enjoy my videos and find them useful!

#BITSANDBEATS #playstation #2dgames

[eddymadison]

This type of 2D graphics need to make a comeback, 2D indie games go for the 8 - 16bits so why not 32bit

[romanista]

I like these kind of videos. People playing and appreciating old classics.

[ViniViVinsi]

This is the most amazing 2d psx game list i've ever seen, thanks for the vid.

[HoaBangLen]

Como vc fez pra esses jogos ficarem tão lindos assim? Nem parece jogos do ps1

[azispratama]

Thanks a lot just got bored with fighting force

[renslo]

Had a feeling Alpha 3 would be in, that game looks amazing, Capcom need to do a 2D street fighter again.

[JD-mzrl]

Literally puts X on the thumbnail, and literally did not include a mega man X game in the video :/

[morganmcgill]

Rayman is so damn clean it looks like a cartoon.

[lunagunplax]

Symphony of the Night and Megaman X always be my best favorite PS1 2D Games

[anpancake]

Any Metal Slug game is top of the line pixel art, like pixel art doesn't get any better than what a Metal Slug game can give you.

Edit: I didn't know they had Strider for the PS1! Thank you for bring this to attention

[FartherCaspian]

So glad you included Oddworld, the games have such a creepy atmosphere and it looks beautiful at the same time. Never seen a game like it since.

[bombergirlvera]

I really adore the Legend of Mana artstyle, but Valkyrie Profile is so stunning to me it really blew everything else out of the water. Not a lot of 2D games can compare even now.

[ChrisEbz]

Dang, Hercules actually looks fantastic! The multiple layers, nicely textured pixel art in the background, smooth animation. Never played it lol!

[danielricardo]

When it comes to art direction, design, vision and consistency, very very few games touch Symphony of The Night.
It aged as fine as Dracula's wine.

[ThatOldSchoolMagic]

Two games I would like to add to the list are Guilty Gear and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
Most of the time PS1 Fighting games tend to not have as much animation as their arcade counterparts but these two show that it’s possible to get something to look very nice on the ps1 with some technical Wizardry.

[rockmanzeromodernday]

I know I have been gushing over how awesome The Adventures of Lomax that much, but, it's so beautiful!

[tomgibson]

Amazing list, x4 would be another mega man entry that i think did a wonderful job with the 2d graphics(also seeing love for 8 always makes me happy considering how underrated megaman 8 is)

[Whyteeford]

The PS1 was the first great 3D system, but the 3D was pretty damn bad lol. But for 2D, this system was absolutely gorgeous! And it had the support of every developer not named Nintendo or Saga

[dyscotopia]

These are beautiful games, but it's interesting how many only kept to one layer of parallax, and I didn't notice any of the strictly 2d ones doing any of the trippy scan line based effects you'd find on the most impressive Genesis titles.
If I recall tho, Sony was not particularly interested in encouraging developers to make 2d games, so that might be why we saw less trickery and experimentation in the backgrounds.

[riversart]

I had an N64 first as a kid and although I absolutely loved it I remember being jealous of how sharp the 2D graphics on Playstation looked in comparison. Eventually I got one with Gex and Resident Evil as my first two games and needless to say I was not disappointed.