Five PSOne games worth investing in for PS Vita owners

It's hard to decide where to start with such a huge array of PSOne titles to choose from, so we've gone ahead and chosen five games that are worth a look.

If you’re the owner of a PS Vita, then yesterday’s system update has added some pretty cool new functions. More importantly though, thanks to the update you can now buy and download PSOne classics straight from PSN to play on the go.

There are more than a hundred games to choose from right now, and more will be made available in the coming weeks. Obviously, it’s hard to decide where to start with such a massive list, so we’ve gone ahead and chosen five games that you might have overlooked amongst the big hits and legends available to you:

Fear Effect

A sort of cel-shaded third person cyber punk adventure, Fear Effect owes as much to the Resident Evil series as it does to the likes of Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed. Featuring a no-nonsense femme fatale mercenary as one of its leads, the game is an action packed romp through a futuristic China, which takes a surprisingly supernatural turn towards the end. Featuring an intriguing heart-rate system for monitoring health, this is another PSOne game that was well ahead of its time.

Final Fantasy IX

Often overlooked in favour of its more illustrious forebears, Final Fantasy IX doesn’t have the cult following of VII, or the angsty emotions of VIII, but in a way it’s the last of the truly great, traditional entries into the series. With a cuter aesthetic, and a more focused story, Final Fantasy IX is full of brilliant characters, incredible set pieces, and some of the best RPG action that ever graced the PSOne. A tale of romance and friendship set against the backdrop of a civil war, it’s a far less cynical game than its predecessors, and it’s more enjoyable for it. Everyone’s played Final Fantasy VII, it’s time that its younger brother got some love as well.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

A now legendary action-adventure game that casts you as a soul sucking ex-vampire, out to murder the protagonist of the first Legacy of Kain game and return balance to the decaying world of Nosgoth. Raziel, the star of the show, is a brilliant piece of character design, his gaping maw of a mouth hidden by a ragged cowl. The game is all about swapping between dimensions and solving puzzles, with the odd bit of hefty hack-and-slash combat thrown in for good measure. This is a classic of the early 3D era, and a glum antidote to the saccharine sweetness of most of the platformers around at the time.

G-Police

Developed by Pysgnosis, who went on to become the now sadly defunct Sony Liverpool, G-Police is a Blade Runner inspired shooter that sees you trying to take control of the street of a futuristic megalopolis from your space-age helicopter. There’s plenty of shooting, and a plot about evil corporations that wouldn’t look too out of place in a William Gibson novel. Full of action and cyberpunk violence, G-Police is an oft neglected classic of the era that deserves to be recognised for the achievement it was.

Guilty Gear

Arc System Works brutally fast brawler still has a cult following today, which should tell you just how good it is. The team who went on to create the eye meltingly good BlazBlue series cut their teeth on this hyper kinetic one on one brawler, which made the Street Fighter games look like they were stuck in treacle. With a focus on intricate combo chains and carefully timed juggle moves, Guilty Gear still stands up as one of the finest 2D fighters ever made.