Full PS Plus Premium list of games contains oodles of retro goodness

A D-pad in the PlayStation Plus logo
(Image credit: Sony)

The full list of PS Plus Premium games is now available to view on the official PlayStation website, and there's plenty of retro goodness to indulge in if you're willing to pay a bit more each month for the Premium tier.

We were treated to the first batch of PS Plus Premium titles not too long ago. However, it was just a selection of what we can expect when the subscription service relaunches towards the end of June (dates and times of the relaunch vary by region, with the service already live in Japan). 

Now, though, what appears to be the full list of games coming to PS Plus Premium has appeared on the official US PlayStation website. It's quite a robust, eclectic mix of games, too, featuring a rather large helping of retro games from the PS1, PS2 and PSP libraries.

Standout titles in the list include Demon's Souls, Returnal and Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut for PS5, alongside old-school favorites like Ape Escape, Everybody's Golf, and Wild Arms 3.

A solid start, but we have concerns

We can't be upset with the wide range of games the PS Plus Premium tier is offering at the cost of a monthly sub. A myriad of genres are covered, and there looks to be plenty of nostalgia to mine from the inclusion of those older PS1 games, too. 

And with more games being added to the service post-launch, we're certainly excited to see just what kinds of games Sony can manage to add to its relaunched PS Plus service further down the line. Fondly remembered franchises like Metal Gear Solid and Ridge Racer immediately come to mind.

However, Sony may have a bit more work cut out for itself than it's letting on. Early impressions of PS Plus Premium's emulation of PS1 games has been mixed. A good portion of the games featured are the PAL versions, and thus only run at 50Hz. As such, there's a noticeable impact on framerate not seen with the 60Hz NTSC versions of the same titles.

Additionally, for some games like Everybody's Golf, a Digital Foundry analysis revealed that Sony has applied a frame blending technique to help smooth out the lower PAL version framerate. The issue here is that the technique leads to ghosting of the image, making camera movement appear much blurrier than on original hardware.

Still, the robust list of games is a promising start. We just hope that Sony takes on player feedback after the service has launched to improve emulation across the board.

Rhys Wood
Hardware Editor

Rhys is TRG's Hardware Editor, and has been part of the TechRadar team for more than two years. Particularly passionate about high-quality third-party controllers and headsets, as well as the latest and greatest in fight sticks and VR, Rhys strives to provide easy-to-read, informative coverage on gaming hardware of all kinds. As for the games themselves, Rhys is especially keen on fighting and racing games, as well as soulslikes and RPGs.