With the recent addition of import games to the PlayStation Network, PS3 (and by extension PSP) owners have even more classic games to look forward to. There are a lot of original PlayStation games out there that just never made is stateside, despite being awesome. However, the promise of this new service throws into light one major problem with Sony’s PlayStation Classics: there are a ton of games missing from PSN’s library. Many of which were released in the US on a disk years ago, and many still that have already been released on either the Japanese PSN, the European PSN or both.

With this grave injustice in mind, we present CFD!’s 10 PlayStation Classics Criminally Absent From PSN. Bear in mind, this is not a “Top Ten” list, as these games aren’t being ranked in any way. The numbers are there simply to aid in reading the list and for letting you know when you get to the end. So for the love of Notch, don’t complain about a game being listed at number four or some other such nonsense, m’kay?

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-1- Colony Wars (series)

Colony Wars was a big deal when it debuted back in 1997. There were plenty of space shooters around at the time, but very few if any of them managed to capture the same sense of scale. When you hopped into the pilot seat of your ship for the first time and began dog-fighting in the middle of a massive space battle… “epic” is probably the best word to use here. You and your squad would hunt down or avoid the enemy fighters while dodging between massive battleships. Lasers and missiles flew every which way. It all gave you a real sense of being a part of a very large confrontation. You were fighting for something that was bigger than you and your puny ship. You were fighting a war.

-2- Mortal Kombat Trilogy

Let’s face facts, a lot of people love Mortal Kombat. And there are very few (if any) fans of the series that wouldn’t say Mortal Kombat Trilogy was the best of the bunch. It had a huge roster, containing virtually every single character in the series at that point. It had more arenas, including plenty of classics as well as some new ones. It had an insane number of fatalities. It had more of everything, while sticking to the core mechanics that made the series as popular as it is. Forget Armageddon (although the character creator was pretty cool), Mortal Kombat Trilogy had it all. And then some.

-3- X-Com: UFO Defense

Let’s face facts here: X-Com: UFO Defense is one of the best and most beloved games ever. You could spend hours stacked on top of hours with hours crammed between them to prevent chafing and still only scrape the surface of what this game had to offer. There were recruits to toughen up, technology to research and sell, aliens both alive and dead to study and so on. Each and every part of the game’s mechanics worked beautifully, from the planning and build stages in your bases to the turn-based squad outings. Much like anything made by Sid Meier (who has nothing to do with X-Com), you could play the campaign over and over again until civilization crumbles and electricity ceases to power our crude instruments. And it would be different each and every time.

(Note: I’m personally quite proud of my game in which I’ve gotten as far as upgrading my squad to Flying Armor and no one, and I mean no one, has died yet. God I feel awesome.)

-4- Front Mission 3

Come on now, Sony… Front Mission 3 is unarguably the best game in the series, offers a bloody ton of hours worth of gameplay, scratches that mech itch, and it’s already available on the Japanese PSN! What the hell?

Anyway, the newest game in the series (that’s likely to piss a lot of folks off), Front Mission: Evolved, has just released. Now would be the perfect time to release it. The PSP (let’s face it, that’s what most people get the Classics for) is the perfect platform for turn-based strategy games, as is evidenced by the plethora of quality titles in the genre you can play on the damn thing already. So why in the hell hasn’t this happened yet? I demand justice!

-5- Mega Man Legends (series)

Sure it was a little rough around the edges, but Mega Man Legends still managed to garner a pretty respectable following. As the Blue Bomber’s first foray into 3D, it was a very good effort. The vaguely Metroidvania-style exploration and equipment acquisition, along with the dungeon-crawling (robot dungeon crawling) weren’t just a first for the little blue guy, they were actually pretty fun. But even more than Mega Man Legends, it would be great to see The Misadventures of Tron Bonne up there. What made Tron’s game so interesting (and much more sought after), is the mash-up of genres. There were puzzle levels, action levels and so on. Plenty to keep enthusiasts busy. And the Servbots. We can’t forget about the upgradable and customizable Servbots.

-6- Vandal Hearts

Any strategy fan who owned a PlayStation should know about this one. You and your band of mercenaries, ex-soldiers and various other fighters you just happened to recruit along the way are the only ones who can put a stop to the evil regime, yadda yadda yadda. Like most turn-based strategy RPGs, Vandal Hearts wasn’t exactly ground breaking with its story. But that’s not why people remember it. People remember the colorful visuals. They remember the various classes you could (permanently) upgrade each unit to. But most of all, they remember the blood fountains.

To this day, I’m not entirely sure why it was decided to have every defeated unit spray a fountain of blood as though it were A Nightmare on Elm Street (you know the scene I’m talking about). Even so, this disproportionate, but still highly satisfying, feedback was an instant hit.

-7- Vagrant Story

One of Vagrant Story‘s biggest selling points when it was first released was its visuals. It was arguably the best looking 3D console game on the market. But beneath that technically impressive exterior beat the heart of one massive, complicated, and damn tough tactical dungeon crawler. It featured a vast array of equipment, rooms that forced you to solve a puzzle or two before continuing, the ability to climb (!) and a small army of enemy soldiers and monsters to vanquish. Or get eaten by depending on your gear, combat strategies and level.

Vagrant Story was certainly one of the original PlayStation’s elite, and the fact that it’s still not available from PSN is questionable to say the least. What makes it all even more tragic is the fact that it’s available on the European PSN store already, and has been for some time. Think about that for a second: this great game that still holds up today, one that a lot of people would gladly pay for if it were available, is available, in English no less, but not to North American PS3/PSP owners. What. The. Fuck?

-8- Bust A Groove

Bust A Groove most certainly wasn’t the first music-based video game, and it definitely wasn’t the last, but it is one of the best.

It’s hard to pin down exactly what makes it so special, but that’s because there are just so many exceptional elements to it. On the one hand, you have the cleverly implemented two-player face-off style of gameplay, forcing players to juggle their point-gathering dance steps with attack and defense abilities. On the other hand, there’s the tiered hierarchy of your character’s dance moves, requiring some split-second decisions between the riskier “big point” moves or the less flashy but easier to pull off ones. On yet another hand you have a very diverse and… eccentric cast of characters to choose from, each using a unique dance style and accompanied by their own individual stages. And on still one more hand there’s the undeniably catchy and unforgettable soundtrack. I still have it on my iTunes playlist, actually.

All together this makes for one crazy Hindu god (because of all the hands, durr) of a game. And one that should most certainly be made available for PlayStation 3 and (more importantly) PSP owners.

-9- Discworld

It may not have been insanely popular during the PlayStation’s heyday, but Discworld was still one hell of a point-and-click adventure. Set in Terry Prachett’s irreverent and fantastic world, the game followed the exploits of Rincewind (often referred to as Breakwind by his superiors) the lovable, bungling failure of a wizard who fans of the series will instantly recognize from the first two novels. And he’s voiced by Eric Idle (a.k.a Sir Robin from Monty Python and the Holy Grail for those of you who suck… I mean aren’t familiar with Monty Python. And suck).

The puzzles can be a tad obscure and the animations are a little twitchy, but the story, characters and humor are all perfect. Even the visuals, which admittedly appear outdated by today’s HD standards, remain detailed and colorful. Also, using the magic trunk as Rincewind’s mobile inventory was a genius move by the developers.

It might be a little bit of a stretch to hope that we’ll see Discworld on PSN, but seeing as puzzle-oriented adventure games have had a notable resurgence (Sam & Max Save the World, Tales of Monkey Island, etc…) there’s no time like the present to resurrect one of the PlayStation’s greatest (and almost only) point-and-click adventures.

-10- Xenogears

Come on. It’s Xenogears. Enough said.

Squaresoft’s (they weren’t Square Enix yet) epic and unorthodox tale of retribution, revenge, giant robots, lost technologies and severe personality disorders remains to this day as one of the industry’s shining examples of what a role-playing game can be. It spanned multiple disks, featured a large and varied cast of characters (most of whom were insanely badass) and would take most people months to finish, even with extended play sessions.

It was also one of the first JRPGs to feature a combat system that was legitimately interesting. Stringing together light, medium and strong attacks to create crazy combos and discover hidden special moves was second only to saving up your action points over the course of a couple rounds to unleash holy hell on your opponents. Of course, when inside the titular Gears the system changed a bit, forcing you to watch your fuel/energy gauge closely but also allowing you to blast the crap out of enemies (both large and small) with massive energy beams, missiles and the like.

We need this game on PSN. Come on, Square Enix. Be a buddy.