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Playstation Classic is Sony’s attempt to get into the retro mini console after Nintendo released the NES Classic and the SNES Classic, but for all the reasons given below, it hasn’t been a success.
Retailing for £89.99 initially, the price was $100 in the US, which crashed down to $80, and then $75 all before Christmas… but not in the UK. However, now we’re on Boxing Day and did you pay the full £89.99 for this? If so, you won’t be pleased to learn that now, it’s almost 50% off as it’s a penny under £50!
Yes, a mere £49.99 will bag you one of these. That might pique your curiosity.
Previously on DVDfever:
December 4th:
Playstation Classic – Just how did Sony really fuck this up?
Playstation Classic is out now, and while we’ve not been able to obtain one for review, we can see we’re not missing out – the games line-up ranges from good to bad, 9 out of 20 of the NTSC 60Hz American games are running at PAL 50Hz speed, and there’s no power supply. And Dreamcastguy‘s console FRIED within 2 hours!! Er… what?
Yes, like a lot of devices these days, they don’t come with an external power source – just a micro USB port with a cable, so you need to provide that power source yourself, whether connected up to a PC or a device like an Anker power brick, as I recently used for the MyArcade machines.
It sounds simple, providing you have the right power source – and it’s wrong for companies to assume everyone does, otherwise they end up in the same position on Christmas Day morning as they would’ve done previously when they didn’t have any spare batteries.
However, as Dreamcastguy has discovered, there’s no sort of regulator inside the console, so if you’re just a bit out with your voltages then, like him, your console will be FRIED and you’re unlikely to get your money back.
Even if yours survives, is it worth playing? Also check out RGT 85‘s assertion that it is “absolute trash” and the Digital Foundry video below for a full in-depth look at the games. It’s a long piece, and if you want to bypass the intro/summary and get to the real meat of the games, skip to around 8 minutes in.
Check out both their videos below:
November 15th:
Playstation Classic – Metal Jesus Rocks cancels his pre-order
Playstation Classc is coming to the UK on December 3rd, and retails for £89.99 in the UK, and $99.99 in the US, but one major Youtuber is not impressed…
Metal Jesus Rocks has 600,000 subscribers on Youtube and has cancelled his pre-order because he doesn’t like the games line-up, nor how it performs for those who have had a hands-on play with it.
Check out the video below to see which games, in his opinion, should’ve been included. Like myself, he definitely champions the omission of Wipeout as being a major issue.
Check out the video below:
Previously on DVDfever:
October 29th:
Playstation Classic is coming out just in time for Christmas, and the full list of 20 games has been released:
- Grand Theft Auto
Final Fantasy VII
Tekken 3
Metal Gear Solid
Ridge Racer Type 4
Twisted Metal
Battle Arena Toshinden
Cool Boarders 2
Destruction Derby
Intelligent Qube
Jumping Flash!
Mr Driller
Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey
Rayman
Resident Evil Director’s Cut
Revelations: Persona
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Syphon Filter
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six
Wild Arms
I loved the original Grand Theft Auto and Destruction Derby, and many have great feelings of nostalgia for Final Fantasy VII, while there are some awesome great classics from back in the day such as Tekken 3 and Metal Gear Solid, but…
There’s no Crash Bandicoot, Tomb Raider, Spyro the Dragon, Gran Turismo 2, or… especially, Wipeout – a game which was ground-breaking back on its original release.
Playstation Classic is released on December 3rd for £89.99.
September 19th:
Playstation Classic sees Sony getting into the retro craze as 20 games from the PS1, or PSone, or PS One, or PSX… as we used to call it back in the day, see the light of day once again.
Naturally, the mini console – at 45% of the original size – resembles the original 1995 unit, with the ‘open’ button allowing you to change from one game to another, while ‘reset’ pauses the game, but how to add extra ones? You can’t – officially – it seems. Someone’s bound to find a way round that, though.
So what are the games? Good question, since only five have been announced, although they are good ones: Ridge Racer Type 4, Jumping Flash, Tekken 3, Wild Arms and the favourite for a lot of people – Final Fantasy VII. Hence, while Square Enix fanny around in their “Will they, won’t they?” phase over a FF7 remake, you’ll be able to easily play the original in the meantime.
2 USB controllers are included, but… there’s no analogue sticks – they’re just replicas from the original model, so expect the very early games with this system, from around the first couple of years.
Also on the downside, there’s no power adaptor included. You have to get it going via USB. I know this was the same with The C64 Mini, and it seems to be the way things are going, but if you want to power it a different way, you’ll have to buy an adaptor yourself, presuming it supports one.
Connection to a TV will be by the expected HDMI output and that supports up to 720p, which is fine as PSX games were only 480p originally, and that mode is also supported for the purists.
Presumably the PS2 Classic will follow in December 2019, and it’ll still be ahead of the Atari VCS which is expected to delay so long it’ll have a timely release in the year 2600!
Playstation Classic will retail on December 3rd for £89.99 which is more than Nintendo’s NES Mini and SNES Mini consoles, which retailed for around £80, but are sure to sell out if, like Nintendo, they allow demand to out-strip supply.
In the US, it’s $99.99, which converts to £75.95, so we should be getting the cost down a lot more than £90, unless someone at Sony is wearing their Brexit ‘panic pants’!
Or you could argue that the US price will have Sales tax added, and at most that is 10%, so that would take the price up to £80-84. So, overall, I’d still suggest £79.99 as a competitive price point.
Check out the trailer below:
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.