Finally all the fun of PSone can be brought into your living room, at moderate expense, to sit alongside its almost-brother the SNES Classic Mini and taunt it remorselessly. After all, the Sony PlayStation (or, if you were a Nintendo/Sega-owning schoolchild in the ’90s, the Phoney GreyStation) stole Final Fantasy away from its home turf with the epoch-defining, demographic-straddling Final Fantasy VII.
That game, of course, is to be included on the just-announced PlayStation Classic, along with 19 other games, when it arrives in December. The mini-console will also include two wired controllers and your standard HDMI input. I'd expect nothing less.
Much of the consoles no-doubt-iconic library is yet to be revealed, but so far we've also seen altitude-based bunny bollocks Jumping Flash!, eclectically-rostered one-on-one fighter Tekken 3, Sergio Leone's favourite JRPG Wild Arms and finally (so far) the fourth Ridge Racer game, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4.
Naturally, speculation is rampant as to the other fifteen included titles. The inclusion of R4 over the original is a pleasant surprise, prioritising quality over nostalgia to some degree. Despite this, I wouldn't be shocked to see the original Crash Bandicoot make an appearance—it wouldn't be PS1 without the old boy. Ditto Tomb Raider, which is absolutely essential if they want to recapture the PlayStation zeitgeist. Metal Gear Solid, Tomba! and Wipeout also seem like shoe-ins to me. Basically, I'd wager that if it hasn't been available on the PSN store in the past, it's probably not on the Playstation Classic.
Sadly, it's unlikely I'm going to get my desired Frogger/Skullmonkeys/Croc/Alfred Chicken mini-console anytime soon. Guess I'll have to continue with the daily letters!