Siobhan Keogh: Five best moments from 20 years of Playstation

A scene from the videogame The Last of Us.

As PlayStation celebrates 20 years, Siobhan Keogh looks at what made them ground-breaking and what the future might hold.

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I'm a fairly platform-agnostic kind of gamer. I have a gaming PC and consoles from every major manufacturer sitting in my house, including handhelds. But when I first started playing 'grown up' games in my teenage years, the only gaming device I owned was a PlayStation One that my friends had bought me as a birthday gift from Cash Converters.

The games I played on that console, and on the PlayStation consoles that came after, shaped both my personal love of gaming and the wider industry in a profound way. This is particularly true in New Zealand, where the Xbox struggled to get a foothold and Nintendo was virtually unheard of. PlayStation had exclusive games that really appealed to Kiwis - properties that still hold sway today.

Last week, PlayStation turned 20 - the first PlayStation console was released on December 3, 1994. I thought I'd take a look at some of PlayStation's most influential exclusives and what it was that made them groundbreaking.

Crash Bandicoot

PlayStation One, 1996

This wasn't released until a couple of years after the original PlayStation hit shelves, but it's one of the games that has become synonymous with the console's early days. The game starred a scientifically enhanced bandicoot that escaped from the captivity of its lab. If you look closely enough, you can still see the influence of Crash Bandicoot on developer Naughty Dog's modern work; some of the chase scenes in Uncharted are eerily similar.

Final Fantasy VII

PlayStation One, 1997

Final Fantasy was already a popular series before VII came along, but nowadays when most people talk about the glory days of the series, they're talking about the adventures of Cloud and his posse of materia-wielding warriors. FFVII is probably singularly responsible for propelling Japanese role-playing games to mainstream status in the West - it was released in 1997 and other companies quickly followed. And the franchise is still chugging along, 17 years later. FFVII was nearly a perfect game - the story, characters and state-of-the-art (at the time) graphics made it a hit.

Singstar

PlayStation 2, 2004

I wasn't a big fan of the newest SingStar game, but once upon a time it introduced games - and the PlayStation brand - to people who wouldn't have considered buying a console before. Music games existed prior to SingStar but this one was something everyone could play. It also kicked off a massive rise in the popularity of music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

God of War

PlayStation 2, 2005

The PlayStation 2's God of War came out in 2005 to universal acclaim. The game was based on Greek mythology, complete with gore and sex. The series is still one of PlayStation's biggest-selling franchises. Unfortunately, it's also responsible for the proliferation of Quick-Time Events (QTEs) that still show up in games like 2013's Tomb Raider.

The Last of Us

PlayStation 3, 2013

I don't actually know yet how much of an influence this will have on games, because it's still a relatively new release. But The Last of Us was an instant classic, and it's safe to say Naughty Dog once again showed up game developers. It is a near-perfect representation of where gaming has gotten to in the past 20 years and where it's going. It had a diverse cast of interesting, relatable characters and it tugged on your heartstrings. It made you shiver with fear. And it was also a blast to play.

Into the Future

Sales of PlayStation 4 are significantly outstripping the Xbox One - it has 65 per cent of the two-console market worldwide. There's yet to be an exclusive for any of the current generation of consoles that has changed the industry the way the above titles have. But I have no doubt that in the near future there will be something big and bold and new, whether it's a PlayStation game or an Xbox game or a PC game. And it's nice to know we've got that to look forward to.

- TimeOut