3 Greatest PS1 Games Turning 30 This Year

3 Greatest PlayStation 1 Games Turning 30 This Year Published Aug 21, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT Austin King is the Senior Editor of Gaming at ScreenRant and has been with the site since 2020 with a focus on RPGs and tabletop games. He previously managed content for Geek to Geek Media, and has served as a writer for sites like Nintendad, Geek Fitness, and more. In addition to his work at ScreenRant, he also hosts the Dragon Quest FM podcast and is the author of several books, including co-writing Nimbus (a #1 bestseller in 2013). His latest is the nonfiction The Dragon Quest Book, available now. He's written about pop culture, video games, and genre studies over the course of his career. You can find him on BlueSky, X, and at Dragonquestaustin.com Sony's PlayStation changed gaming forever, using CD-ROMs instead of cartridges and showing off flashy 3D graphics (for the time period, at least). It also introduced the world to a number of iconic series, like Tomb Raider and Resident Evil. It may be hard to believe but there are a number of PS1 games turning 30 this year. That's right. A lot of classic PS1 games were released in 1996, meaning they hit the big 3-0 mark in 2026. Admittedly, some of these games made only a blip on the radar, but quite a few helped fuel and maintain the PlayStation's legacy. And many of those debut series are still going strong all these decades later. Here are the greatest PS1 games turning 30 in 2026. 3 Crash Bandicoot Crash Bandicoot, the would-be mascot for PlayStation, first landed as the titular character in 1996's Crash Bandicoot. Not quite Sonic, but decidedly different from Mario, Crash was slapped all over PS1 ads in the '90s. On the PS1 alone, we got a number of sequels, before Naughty Dog seemingly lost interest and made games like Jak and Daxter, Uncharted, and The Last of Us instead. Regardless, the '90s was Crash Bandicoot's heyday, and it all started here. Remember running toward the screen from a giant boulder? How about hopping on a hog and racing through the jungle? Odds are, if you played a Crash game back then, you can still remember the sound the Aku Aku tiki guys make. I think that sound-bite may be etched into my brain forever. The first entry may not be the best Crash Bandicoot game around, but it kicked off a series that's still immensely adored today. 2 Tomb Raider Tomb Raider may have technically launched on the SEGA Saturn first thanks to Europe, but it's mostly remembered as a classic PS1 game. It introduced the world to Lara Croft, a protagonist a whole generation of gamers was enamored with in the '90s. 30 years later, the franchise is alive and well, with a couple of new Tomb Raider games on the way and a TV show in the works from Amazon. A female Indiana Jones and James Bond tied into one, Lara Croft has been a mainstay in gaming for decades now. Countless Tomb Raider games over the years, plus movies starring Angelina Jolie in the 2000s, all helped cement this series in popular culture. Who else can remember getting lost underground their first time playing? Or seeing a T-Rex suddenly show up? The first Tomb Raider is memorable for a lot of reasons, and its one of the greatest games to release in 1996. 1 Resident Evil Capcom's Resident Evil released in 1996 on the PS1 and quickly became the PlayStation's highest-selling game at the time. It remains one of the most influential and popular games ever, and it spawned a successful gaming franchise that just recently released Resident Evil 9 in February of this year. Resident Evil has spanned TV shows, anime, and a whole lot of movies, including a new one from Zach Cregger later in 2026. Albert Wesker, Raccoon City, and Umbrella Corporation all practically feel like household names now, and they all started with this first entry in 1996. This first one may not hold up as well as the best Resident Evil games, but it's still a must-play for fans of the series (or horror fans in general). 30 years down the line, Resident Evil remains one of the greatest PlayStation games to ever release. Brand Sony Original Release Date September 9, 1995 Original MSRP (USD) $299.99 HDR Support No Weight 3.2lb (1.5kg)