Die Hard Trilogy

Die Hard Trilogy is an unusual concept that crammed three completely different genres inspired by the film series with John McClane into a single package. The first part is a third-person shooter based on the first film, set in the Nakatomi Plaza skyscraper; the second is a car chase through the streets of the airport and New York based on the second film, with a time limit, ambushes, and insanely dense, chaotically moving traffic; and the third offers a first-person shooter loosely following on from the third film, in which the player walks the streets of New York searching for bombs planted throughout the city.

This genre mashup from studio Probe Entertainment was fairly bold for the mid-1990s — instead of a single discipline, the game offered three full-fledged game modes with different controls, pacing, and objectives, letting players pick whichever part suited their mood on any given disc. Each mode also had its own leaderboard and scoring system, encouraging repeated play and competition for the best score. The quality of the individual parts was uneven, but it was precisely this variety and playfulness with the film license that made it a refreshing alternative to the standard action games of the time, further complemented by dark humor and one-liners referencing the source films and Bruce Willis himself.

Die Hard Trilogy became a commercial success and is still remembered today as one of the better movie video game adaptations of the nineties, a rather rare occurrence at the time. The second, racing portion in particular became very popular among players thanks to its chaotic, entertaining take on the chase full of random collisions, which many remember as the strongest part of the whole package. Its boldness in combining three genres on a single disc makes it an interesting curiosity of the PlayStation library even many years later.

Why play it: For its bold combination of three genres on a single disc, and the chaotically entertaining racing chase that stands out the most from the whole package.