Hot on the heels of its PS5 Pro announcement, Sony has once again upped the pre-holiday ante with the reveal of the PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collectionon sale November 21. But for some of us, the idea of improved ray tracing and increased performance isn’t the most exciting proposition.
Readers of a certain era get misty-eyed when they think of their old PS1—possibly the first console to consciously look beyond the children’s market and fully embrace adult gamers—not to mention the roster of classic titles and a club culture-influenced advertising campaign that propelled it to sales of 100 million units during its run. life.
Now Sony has revived its ’90s groove to celebrate three decades since the console that changed everything: think gray. Lots and lots of grey. Forks very good!
gray scale
The resulting makeover has injected some premillennial charm into perhaps Sony’s least-loved design in recent years. Yes, this writer is biased, but one look at the PS1-compatible Slim and Pro models on their cool, calm slate, without the stickiness that only comes with too much shiny black plastic, and you can’t help but feel this. it’s the color scheme Sony should have chosen in the first place.
Are both models still giants? Oh yes. But their cool, wiry coats are a balm to the eyes, and might they even look less “slippery” in their drab appearance? Clearly proud of their work, Sony has even deigned to include a matching vertical stand (normally only available separately) so it can be appreciated in monolith style (although purists like me will opt for the flat one, of course).
And yet, this is not the console’s greatest design triumph. That’s reserved for something much more humble: a special edition charging cable for the controller. DualSense and DualSense Edge have joined the pre-2000 party emulating the colors of the original SCPH-1010but in a glorious display of skeuomorphism, one end of the USB-C charging cable has been embedded in a mock-up of the PS1’s controller connector plug, so you can pretend you’re back in the old days when you were strapped a couple of feet from your television. (Sadly, you also can’t upgrade your storage the old-fashioned way by plugging a memory module into the front; you’ll still need to pry this beast open with a screwdriver.)
cable boy
The decision to include this little Easter egg shows that someone at Sony has a long memory: the previous anniversary console, a PS4 turns 20 in 2014it also embraced gray but did not engage as thoroughly with nostalgia. (It did include the iconic PS1 startup sound, however, a feature we haven’t yet confirmed for this new version.)
The fake connector does not work; dates back to a less convenient time; most of today’s wireless native gamers will view this with utter bewilderment. But for members of Generation X it is beautiful and demonstrates a rare level of detail and care—Sony understands us. sony was there.
As a person who spends a lot of his time on PS5 playing much, much older titles…Tomb Raider remastered! Resident Evil: Director’s Cut! assassin’s creed! (Okay, that’s PS3, but you get the idea) – The Anniversary Edition collection is a dream come true, extending the goodness of the ’90s to most of the current PlayStation range.
Heck, it even made me wonder if there might be some use for PlayStation’s baffling Portal now that it has fancy ashy grips. For everyone else, the retro Pro is a clear improvement in both hardware and aesthetics, squeezing a bit more longevity out of a fairly expensive gaming rig, and let’s not forget the potential resale value in a few years’ time.
For those looking for a more recent bout of nostalgia, this limited edition of 12,300 numbered Pro consoles (a reference to the first release date of December 30, 1994) will surely allow you to relive the unseemly problems of the original PS5 launch just a short while ago. four years. . We can only hope Sony hits the ’90s here too and encourages all-night in-person lines outside Radio Shack on November 21st. And note that Sony has not yet revealed the price of the bundle.
(PS: Can anyone remaster? tenchu stealth assassins in time for this release?)