Best PS3 Games To Buy Before The PS Store Closes | Screen Rant
The PlayStation 3 digital store is reportedly closing down soon, taking with it a chunk of Sony's gaming legacy in the form of digital games still only available on that platform. While exact details of this alleged shutdown are not yet available, it has drawn attention to a number of the PS3's best games that might become very hard to acquire by year's end.
Sony is not the first major platform holder to shut down a digital shop and condemn digital-only releases to the dustbin of history. Nintendo closed the Wii Shop Channel after 13 years in early 2019, a storefront that had many unique titles taking advantage of the Wii Remote and other Nintendo-specific features. Other platforms, including Discord and Twitch's short-lived game stores and that of the Ouya, vanished due to a lack of success.
This reported PS3 store shutdown will not affect every PlayStation 3 game, of course. Retail game discs will still work, and the vast majority of big PlayStation 3 releases fall under that category. However, much like Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade, Sony and other third-party publishers first experimented with smaller downloadable titles in the PS3 generation. While some of these games got PC ports or rereleases on other, later systems, others never released anywhere else. Here is a sampling of some of the best PlayStation 3 games not available on other consoles. Although not all of these games are digital-exclusives, there's a chance their physical versions could skyrocket in price if they're taken offline.
Tokyo Jungle is a unique survival game that starts players off as a Pomeranian in a post-human Tokyo, where they must find food and shelter after the pet food runs out. Players can eventually take control of a whole zoo of animals and even a couple of robots as they discover what happened to humanity.
Digital-Only? - No (Japan-exclusive solo physical release, collected in Best of PlayStation Network Vol. 1 elsewhere)
The original Fat Princess is a 2009 multiplayer-focused PSN game that Sony really got behind. The game received its own events in PlayStation Home, representation in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, and even a sequel on PlayStation 4. While the mascot status of the titular princess may be in question in 2021, her original PlayStation 3 appearance still has its fans.
Digital-Only? - No (collected in Best of PlayStation Network Vol. 1)
Released just months before the PlayStation 4, Puppeteer is still one of the best PlayStation exclusives most players haven't heard of. A platformer where the wooden hero repeatedly replaces his head to progress, this Japan Studio game was ahead of its time. For anyone enjoying the resurgence of '90s-style platformers, Puppeteer is an easy recommendation.
Digital-Only? - No
One of the many PixelJunk games from Q-Games, PixelJunk Racers: 2nd Lap is available on PS4 via PS Now game streaming, but it is still only permanently purchasable on PlayStation 3. Racers is a top-down speedway game in the vein of the classic Micro Machines, and it's a small, arcade-like title that never made it to PC alongside its other PixelJunk brethren.
Digital-Only? - Yes
The first game from English developer Just Add Water, Gravity Crash is an amalgamation of several arcade classics that used vector graphics instead of the more traditional pixels. While the game isn't a perfect recreation of games like Tempest, it offers a real old-school challenge that helps it stand out from other arcade remixes both then and now.
Digital-Only? - Yes
Trash Panic is Japan Studio's unique spin on Tetris. Players maneuver falling blocks of trash into distinct patterns in order to crush them down and make more room in an ever-expanding dumpster. It sounds simple, but the game takes inspiration from the original Katamari Damacy in its level progression and adds a physics system to the puzzle pieces, making this an unpredictable spin on the puzzle classic.
Digital-Only? - Yes
A wholly original spin on the long-running Yakuza series, this zombie-filled spinoff never found a release outside the PlayStation 3. A non-canon side-story set after the events of Yakuza 4, Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima team up with Ryuji Goda and Shun Akiyama to clear their beloved Kamurocho of the infected citizenry.
Digital-Only? - No
The last game from the studio behind TimeSplitters before it reformed as Dambuster Studios, Haze isn't a good game. It was largely critically panned after a massive promotional campaign. Still, this is a huge, AAA game that was once destined for release on all platforms but ended up as a PlayStation 3 exclusive. It's a game worth acquiring as a historical curiosity, if nothing else.
Digital-Only? - No
The first game released by DrinkBox Studios, Tales from Space: About a Blob was an early sign of the talents of the studio that would eventually release Guacamelee! and Severed. Players control a blob character from space that platforms around cities and unique abilities to absorb mass and grow in size. The game received a rapid-fire sequel called Mutant Blobs Attack, which released on most platforms, but the first in the series remains solely on PS3.
Digital-Only? - Yes
Modern gamers might see Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars in action and believe it's some strange variant of Rocket League, and that's because the game is a direct prequel to the current worldwide phenomenon. Released on PlayStation 3 exclusively back in 2008, the game has more varied gameplay than Rocket League, but that design decision proved unsuccessful. Only when developer Psyonix focused the idea into a sport-like experience did it attract a huge audience.
Digital-Only? - Yes
One of Sony's premiere franchises in the PlayStation 3 era was Resistance, Insomniac's trilogy of first-person shooters that pitted Earthlings against their new alien overlords. The games tell a full, critically-acclaimed story over the course of three releases, but neither Sony nor Insomniac has seen them fit to port forward to further PlayStation consoles. This important bit of Sony history remains locked in the past, and it could soon join countless other PlayStation 3 games in inaccessibility to fans and newcomers alike.
Digital-Only? - No