Image: Push Square
Ugh! A bullet has been dodged! After Sony made the strange decision to release lower 50 Hz PAL versions of PS1 games with PS Plus Premium in NTSC countries like Taiwan, many gamers were expecting the worst. The Japanese release offered hope, as platform support increased for the higher 60 Hz versions, but I didn’t have much choice, as they were the only versions that included support in Japanese.
The acid test was North America, then, and we’re glad to report that all titles available so far use the 60 Hz NTSC format. This means they run faster and smoother than their slower PAL counterparts. This applies to all games, including first-party releases such as Wild Arms and Ape Escape, which opted for 50 Hz versions in some Asian countries. It will be a relief for American gamers who were understandably worried about having worse versions of the games they grew up with, similar to the PS Classic console.
Now, that doesn’t completely absolve Sony, to be honest. Some of the filters and aspect ratios used by your emulator are still weird, as noted in a recent Digital Foundry video. There is also the small issue of Europe, where we are likely to end up with 50 Hz versions due to licensing and language support. We could forgive Sony for this unfortunate situation if rivals like Nintendo had not yet come up with a solution: offer both ROMs and allow users to choose.
Of course, we have our fingers crossed, the company will listen to the comments and we hope that all this can be resolved in due course. In the meantime, if you’re curious about which PS1 games you can expect to play with PS Plus Premium, check out our list of All PS Plus Games via the link.