Early reviews suggest the PlayStation Classic falls short in its effort to cash in on nostalgia

Source: Sony

This year's holiday season has been dominated by Sony. With Venom and Into the Spider-verse making (and soon to be making) a splash in theaters and the PlayStation 4 bundle being the best holiday deal, Sony is ending the year atop the world. Not one to simply play it safe, Sony is also trying to own the retro route this year with the new PlayStation Classic, and early word suggests that the PlayStation Classic is a mixed bag.

Since the announcement of the NES Classic by Nintendo a few years ago, video game manufacturers have been clamoring to cash in on the money nostalgia can bring. Nintendo doubled-down with the SNES Classic, Sega threw every title they had on mobile devices, and Microsoft launched some throwbacks on the Xbox for a cool $10. In hopes of getting in on the action, Sony announced the PlayStation Classic in the spirit of the Nintendo retro consoles.

Like the NES and SNES Classic, the PlayStation Classic is a mirror image of the original console if it had been featured on the movie Downsizing. The box is roughly 45% the size of the original and exponentially lighter according to Sony with a standard size controller that throws it back to pre-joystick days. As with other retro consoles, there is no external media as the games are built-in to the internal memory; the memory card slots are purely aesthetic as is the appearance of a disc door that does not open. On the top of the box is the original set of buttons except this time, the open button does nothing while the reset button is now the game menu button.

The game selection is fairly decent for a classic PlayStation. The full list can be found here, but it does include some fan-favorites including Twisted Metal, Odd World, and Final Fantasy VII. Unlike the NES and SNES, which featured the flat worlds of Mario, the original PlayStation existed at the beginning of the 3D gaming world so these games harken back to a day of three dimensional experimentation. Unfortunately, some PlayStation classics such as Spyro, Tomb Raider, and Crash Bandicoot did not make the cut, and as with the NES and SNES, the game selection is not expandable (unless it is hacked/modded).

Early reviews on the system are mixed to say the least. While nostalgia is able to be sustained for a period, there is only so much it can do. Unlike the NES and SNES, the PlayStation started the 3D boom so it can't fully bring us back to the arcade days. Instead, it gets stuck in the realm between a fun throwback and a heavily outdated current system. This could be the main driver behind Microsoft's resistance to releasing an Xbox Classic. The game-play can be fun and interesting long enough for you to relive a brief period of childhood, but ultimately, that feeling wears off and the unpolished experience that was this period in gaming starts to become clear.

Just another sign that Sony put little effort in to the PlayStation Classic

The PlayStation Classic will find a small niche with adults that just miss the old school Rayman days, and the advancements over the NES/SNES (longer controller cord and 3D gaming) may make the time spent with it last longer. However, when the nostalgia wears off, and you are stuck holding a corded controller (that doesn't even have a main menu button) playing a $99.99 system that is missing your favorite older games, you will realize that this was neither a good effort by Sony nor a good investment by you.