Join today to claim your daily loot

22 Video Games You Absolutely Have to Play, According to PlayStation's Godfather

1-23

Ignacio Weil

Gaming - October 18th 2026, 20:00 GMT+2

Cropped About — About this gallery:

Shuhei Yoshida’s taste in video games leaves plenty of room for the strange stuff. Alongside celebrated PlayStation adventures, his 22 recommendations include smaller games with ideas that can catch even seasoned players off guard. It’s an intriguing selection from the longtime executive affectionately known as PlayStation’s godfather—and a tempting excuse to reconsider your backlog.

We’ve arranged his picks by release date, from newest to oldest, so you can explore the choices without turning them into another argument over first place.

| © Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg

Cropped Nine Sols — 1. Nine Sols (2024)

A successful parry in *Nine Sols* is practically a down payment on an explosion. Yi absorbs energy from deflected attacks, then uses talismans to return the favor with considerably more enthusiasm. Red Candle Games builds its demanding 2D action around that exchange, placing it inside a beautifully drawn world where Taoist imagery meets advanced machinery. Learning a boss’s rhythm becomes its own pleasure, especially once you stop treating every incoming attack as an invitation to panic. | © Red Candle Games

Cropped Sifu — 2. Sifu (2022)

That nightclub bouncer can take years off your life. In *Sifu*, resurrection ages your martial artist, and crossing age thresholds trades maximum health for harder hits. Replaying earlier stages to finish younger gives practice a tangible purpose beyond chasing a better score. Sloclap’s close-quarters combat rewards positioning, well-timed defensive moves, and a healthy appreciation for throwable furniture; eventually, a room that once demolished you becomes an action sequence you can choreograph yourself. | © Sloclap

Cropped The Binding of Isaac — 3. The Binding of Isaac: Repentance (2021)

*Repentance* is an expansion with an alarming disregard for how much spare time you have. Building on *The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth*, it adds routes, enemies, bosses, and items to a roguelike already stuffed with dangerous possibilities. Its appeal lies in discovering how pickups interact, then trying to keep your improbable creation alive. Beneath the grotesque imagery sits an elaborate exercise in improvisation, where familiarity helps enormously without guaranteeing that the basement will cooperate. | © Nicalis

Cropped Inscryption — 4. Inscryption (2021)

You should probably worry when your card-game opponent also controls the room you’re sitting in. *Inscryption* makes that imbalance wonderfully uncomfortable, mixing a deck of woodland creatures with escape-room puzzles and a host whose hospitality leaves something to be desired. Sacrificing cards to play stronger ones creates deliciously nasty tactical decisions. Meanwhile, clues around the cabin encourage you to stand up, investigate, and question how much of this arrangement you actually understand. | © Daniel Mullins Games

Cropped Returnal — 5. Returnal (2021)

Housemarque’s arcade instincts are all over *Returnal*: read the projectile patterns, keep moving, resist the temptation to admire the fireworks. Surrounding that precise shooting is Selene’s unnerving ordeal on Atropos, an alien planet where death returns her to the crash site. Changing equipment and environments force fresh decisions on subsequent attempts. The friction between learning to control a fight and failing to understand your surroundings gives this science-fiction nightmare much of its bite. | © Housemarque

6. Before Your Eyes (2021)

*Before Your Eyes* asks you to recount a life to a ferryman, then makes holding onto its memories physically difficult. Blink detection advances scenes with the movement of your own eyelids, sometimes cutting short a moment you desperately wanted to keep. Family expectations, childhood attachments, and artistic ambition give those fragments their meaning. Such a simple interaction could have been a novelty; here, it makes the passage of time feel disarmingly personal. | © GoodbyeWorld Games

Cropped Fall Guys — 7. Fall Guys (2020)

A race becomes a different proposition when every competitor has the balance of an unattended shopping cart. *Fall Guys* sends its wobbling contestants through obstacle courses where clean platforming must survive contact with a crowd. Reading a hazard correctly helps; getting flattened by someone else’s mistake remains a possibility. That collision between skill and slapstick gives the competition its personality, making an undignified early exit almost as entertaining to watch as a carefully earned victory. | © Mediatonic

Cropped Nioh 2 — 8. Nioh 2 (2020)

*Nioh 2* gives your stamina bar enough responsibility to deserve a salary. Attacking, evading, and recovering Ki all feed a combat system where timing matters well beyond landing the initial hit. Stance changes expand your options, while Soul Cores let you borrow yokai abilities and Burst Counters punish dangerous enemy attacks. There is a lot to absorb, admittedly. The reward is an action RPG that keeps offering more control as your understanding catches up with its ambitions. | © Team Ninja

Cropped Hades — 9. Hades (2020)

Being sent back to your father’s house should feel like a setback. *Hades* makes it an opportunity to catch up with an exceptionally entertaining household, giving Zagreus’s failed escapes consequences beyond another attempt at the bosses. Olympian boons reshape your attacks, encouraging experiments that can turn an unfamiliar weapon into a favorite. The real achievement is how naturally those repeat runs support the relationships: persistence means improving at combat while discovering what everyone has been keeping to themselves. | © Supergiant Games

Cropped Genshin Impact — 10. Genshin Impact (2020)

Treat *Genshin Impact*’s party as a chemistry set and its combat becomes considerably more interesting. Switching between four characters lets elemental abilities interact, rewarding combinations over simply fielding whoever hits hardest. Beyond those battles, Teyvat supplies the climbing, exploration, and enticing distant landmarks that make an open-world detour so difficult to resist. The character-collecting gacha deserves scrutiny, but there is substantial craft in the adventure surrounding it—and plenty to investigate before chasing another glamorous recruit. | © miHoYo

Cropped Ghost Of Tsushima — 11. Ghost of Tsushima (2020)

Jin Sakai’s most effective tactics are often the ones his upbringing tells him to reject. *Ghost of Tsushima* builds its samurai adventure around that tension, pairing formal sword confrontations with stealthier methods of dismantling the Mongol occupation. Different combat stances make reading an opponent’s defenses worthwhile, while the island’s striking landscapes lend the fighting a cinematic backdrop. You can appreciate the disciplined swordsman fantasy and still understand the persuasive argument made by a well-placed smoke bomb. | © Sucker Punch Productions

Cropped Dead Cells — 12. Dead Cells (2018)

The most dangerous moment in *Dead Cells* is often the one when you decide you’ve become good at *Dead Cells*. Its brisk movement and satisfying weapons encourage confidence, while enemy patterns punish attacks made without an exit plan. Branching paths give each attempt a different shape, and equipment discoveries invite changes of strategy. Death discards the immediate run, but experience survives in your hands: an encounter that once seemed unfair eventually becomes something you dispatch almost casually. | © Motion Twin

Cropped crash bandicoot — 13. Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (2017)

Three adventures, countless crates, and ample evidence that your childhood reflexes may have been exaggerated in the retelling. *Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy* rebuilds Naughty Dog’s original platformers with fresh visuals, a unified save system, and expanded opportunities to play as Coco. The changing pace across the collection keeps things lively, from carefully measured jumps to *Warped*’s vehicle excursions. Time trials add another temptation once you’ve finished a level: surely you can do that again, only faster. | © Vicarious Visions

Cropped Doki Doki Literature Club — 14. Doki Doki Literature Club (2017)

Poetry assignments provide an unexpectedly effective foundation for psychological horror. *Doki Doki Literature Club!* introduces its cast through the familiar rituals of a school romance visual novel, encouraging you to learn personalities and seek approval. That investment matters when the reassuring presentation begins to fracture. Team Salvato understands how much trust players place in a game’s conventions, then puts that trust under pressure. Go in knowing the cheerful artwork conceals disturbing material, and leave the particulars undiscovered. | © Team Salvato

Cropped Let it Die — 15. Let It Die (2016)

Grasshopper Manufacture makes climbing a tower feel like a particularly questionable lifestyle choice. *Let It Die* throws you into the Tower of Barbs, where scavenged equipment and deliberate melee combat determine how far a fighter survives. Its abrasive personality gives the struggle a flavor far removed from solemn fantasy adventures. The free-to-play grind can test your patience, but the appeal is understandable: scraping through an ugly encounter with whatever you managed to find has its own grubby satisfaction. | © Grasshopper Manufacture

Cropped Bloodborne — 16. Bloodborne (2015)

*Bloodborne*’s cleverest provocation arrives immediately after an enemy hurts you: strike back quickly and recover some of that lost health. Suddenly, retreat competes with a powerful incentive to stay dangerously close. Transforming weapons and precisely timed firearm parries deepen that aggressive rhythm, making the hunt feel ferocious without reducing it to button-mashing. Yharnam’s Gothic streets provide a suitably dreadful classroom, where every successful encounter strengthens your confidence just enough to tempt you around another unwelcoming corner. | © FromSoftware

Cropped SUPER TIME FORCE — 17. Super Time Force Ultra (2014)

Your previous attempt is useful backup in *Super Time Force Ultra*. Rewinding lets you tackle the same stretch alongside earlier versions of your actions, layering firepower until a chaotic side-scrolling shootout starts resembling a carefully rehearsed operation. Experimenting with different characters makes the timelines fun to untangle. PlayStation players also get a particularly relevant recruit: Shuhei Yoshida himself, attacking with a smartphone that turns cheerful online communication into surprisingly effective ammunition. Corporate cameos rarely commit this hard. | © Capybara Games

Cropped Persona 4 — 18. Persona 4 Golden (2012)

A small-town murder investigation would be demanding enough without homework and a social calendar. *Persona 4* makes room for all three, dividing your attention between everyday life in Inaba and dangerous expeditions into a world accessed through televisions. Building friendships strengthens your options in battle, giving the quieter afternoons a practical importance alongside their emotional appeal. The mystery supplies momentum, but the cast supplies attachment; spending time with these people becomes a reward worth scheduling around. | © Atlus

Cropped Sound Shapes — 19. Sound Shapes (2012)

Listen closely while collecting notes in *Sound Shapes*: you’re assembling the music as you navigate the level. Creatures and interactive scenery contribute their own sounds, giving this platformer an unusually close relationship between what you hear and what you do. Contributions from Beck, deadmau5, and Jim Guthrie give the campaign distinct musical personalities. Its level editor extends the idea into composition, letting a carefully placed obstacle serve as both a platforming problem and part of an arrangement. | © Queasy Games

Cropped Journey — 20. Journey (2012)

Somewhere in *Journey*’s desert, another traveler may appear and quietly change the experience. You cannot introduce yourself or explain a plan; movement and musical calls have to carry the conversation. That limitation gives small gestures unusual significance, whether you wait for a struggling companion or follow someone toward a discovery. The pilgrimage toward the distant mountain works beautifully alone, but sharing part of it with an anonymous stranger can make its vast spaces feel unexpectedly intimate. | © thatgamecompany

Cropped Shadow of the Colossus — 21. Shadow of the Colossus (2005)

Sixteen targets sound manageable until the first one fills the horizon. *Shadow of the Colossus* turns its enormous creatures into encounters that require observation as much as bravery: getting within reach is only the beginning of figuring out how to bring one down. Long rides across the landscape give each confrontation room to linger. As the quest continues, the exhilaration of overcoming something so immense becomes increasingly difficult to separate from discomfort at what you’ve accomplished. | © Team Ico

Cropped Ape Escape — 22. Ape Escape (1999)

Chasing escaped monkeys gave PlayStation one of its smartest controller demonstrations. *Ape Escape* assigns movement to one analog stick and gadget actions to the other, making a net swing something more expressive than a routine button press. Spike’s expanding toolkit turns the pursuit into a mixture of exploration, experimentation, and comic frustration. The monkeys have places to be and little interest in cooperating, which gives the adventure a playful energy that survives long after its hardware novelty wears off. | © Japan Studio

1-23

Shuhei Yoshida has a few recommendations for your ever-growing backlog. The man affectionately known as PlayStation’s godfather lends his seal of approval to these 22 must-play video games, giving us a good excuse to rearrange our gaming priorities yet again. Having his name attached certainly raises expectations, but the fun is seeing where his taste overlaps with yours—and which unfamiliar picks might convince you to take a chance. Consider your next few evenings spoken for.

Facebook X Reddit WhatsApp Copy URL

Shuhei Yoshida has a few recommendations for your ever-growing backlog. The man affectionately known as PlayStation’s godfather lends his seal of approval to these 22 must-play video games, giving us a good excuse to rearrange our gaming priorities yet again. Having his name attached certainly raises expectations, but the fun is seeing where his taste overlaps with yours—and which unfamiliar picks might convince you to take a chance. Consider your next few evenings spoken for.