You may recall our review of the PlayStation Classic this past week, in which we expressed heavy disappointment with the final product. Everything just feels off about this plug-and-play system, from the questionable emulation to the lack of an AC adapter to the iffy selection of available games. (Seriously, no Parappa?!)
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But if you really want to see how embarrassing it is, check out the above video, in which we see PlayStation hardware outperformed by…a console based on 16-bit hardware.
In a clip posted by the YouTube channel 8 Bit Flashback, we get a look at Ridge Racer Type 4 running on both the SNES Classic and PlayStation Classic. For good measure, the host even runs them side-by-side so we get a good idea of how they compare. The results are surprising, to say the least.
It turns out that, despite being based on “older” hardware, Nintendo’s system actually runs this particular game better than the actual PlayStation Classic.
As the race begins, the narrator talks about the processors that the SNES Classic and PlayStation Classic use. “So if we go off just the specs alone, the PlayStation Classic should be the clear winner…but that’s not the case, at least with this specific game,” he explains.
He managed to hack the SNES Classic to run PlayStation games with the help of an emulator. By the time the video gets to the fifty-second mark, Ridge Racer has a smoother framerate on the SNES Classic than its competitor. That’s insane, considering that the latter is supposed to be more powerful.
The SNES performance does skip a little bit, but the host explains that the controls on that version of the game are “far better” than the sluggish PlayStation Classic version. This is due to a slight delay that causes turns to be miscalculated, possibly with the PAL video format that a few games use. “The PlayStation should be able to play its own games better,” he explains.
That doesn’t mean the SNES Classic wins overall though. The next game 8 Bit Flashback dove into was Tekken 3. While the game looks good, the narrator notes issues with sound and gameplay. That said though, the fact that the SNES Classic can still show up Sony’s own hardware with one of its bigger games is a bit of a shock.
Watch the whole video above. It breaks down a few statistics with the test and shows just how sluggishly Ridge Racer runs on the PlayStation Classic. Now that the system has been hacked, we’ll see what improvements can be made.
The PlayStation Classic is available now. But if you really want to deliver some old-school love for the holiday season, we advise you to go with the SNES Classic instead.
(Hat tip to Nintendo Life for the scoop!)
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