Top 5 PSOne classics for Xperia Play

Let’s be honest – the PlayStation library is the reason many of us have got an Xperia Play.

It’s just a shame there aren’t more available - there's no sign, for instance, of the much adored Final Fantasy VII or Metal Gear Solid.

Sony promises that more titles are on the way, but in the meantime the current library will do its best to relieve your insatiable retro hunger. Here’s a short list of the best the PlayStation Pocket app has to offer so far.

Syphon Filter

He ran a little bit oddly and by now he looks a lot, er, blockier than he used to, but Gabriel Logan can still fight his way back into our hearts. Alongside Lian Xing, Logan is on an operation to prevent the release of a deadly virus on the streets of Washington. He ends up on an even more vital mission that takes him as far as Kazakhstan.

The third game in the series is also available on the Market, and it improves a lot on the first. But you don’t get to fight an enraged French mercenary with a flamethrower, seductively calling your name in his thick Parisian accent, “Gabriellllllle Low-gaaaan.”

WipEout

There’s no shortage of racers available on the Market (there’s three on this list, for heaven’s sake) but if it’s futuristic hover racing you’re after your first stop is bound to be WipEout. The alternative is Jet Rider, which is good but a teeny tiny bit too difficult.

That doesn’t mean WipEout is a walkover. You’ll be bouncing off walls, veering wildly round corners, and falling to your doom down giant gaps in the track in a challenging hover race. If that wasn’t enough, there are missiles, boosts, shields, mines, shockwaves, and more scattered around the track to pick up. And if you don’t make the most of them, your opponents certainly will.

Everybody’s Golf 2

Golf isn’t for everybody. It’s long-winded, difficult, and downright dull at times. But Everybody’s Golf IS for everybody. It's accessible and fun for several players at once thanks to the fact that it’s naturally a turn-based game.

There’s nothing like passing the phone to your friend to take his turn, evoking the cosy pleasure of sharing a control pad back in the day. That’s what most of us like best about retro gaming – the games themselves might actually play worse than we remember, but the nostalgia potential is limitless. Everybody’s Golf 2's single-player can be a little stale, but with even a single friend it improves tenfold.

Destuction Derby

In the absence of the excellent Driver by the same developer, Destruction Derby will probably satisfy your desire to drive dangerously and wreck everything around you. Originally released in 1995, the game is based on real-life redneck demolition derby events and, as the title suggests, it makes no apology for its destructiveness.

You can either play a simple race around the track, bouncing off the sides of your opponents, or you can enter The Bowl, where the goal is to pester, t-bone, and generally smash all the other cars to bits and be the last one standing. The game modes are a little limited, but as a great pre-cursor to the Burnout series this is worth checking out.

Cool Boarders 2

About as arcade a snowboarding experience as you can get, Cool Boarders 2 sees you racing down from snowy peaks while pulling off tricks and rad moves.

Tournaments between you and the computer become pretty competitive affairs when you’re both trying to shave seconds off your time by taking a sneaky shortcut, or making a perilous jump just to save time.

And if you do well enough, you’ll unlock Gray, the Alien snowboarder. Everybody knows that aliens are amazing at winter sports.

All the games mentioned here can be nabbed from the PlayStation Pocket app or from the Android Market for £3.99.