The PlayStation Classic is a weird thing where Sony is just copying Nintendo again and people don’t seem to like how it’s done. The end. But really, all the articles about “how to make a real classic” are just lists of favorite games.
So far I haven’t really seen any of these mini consoles that I’d go out and buy for various reasons, mainly it’s either too much trouble to get or, more frequently these days, I end up having a number of the games already and the price doesn’t really fit with what I’d really want out of it. And of course someone can just always immediately become an expert at Linux and load a dozen ROMs they found on a website made of viruses onto a Raspberry Pi if they don’t find the selection good.
Long story short, everyone would just go with the apparently necessary staples, some of which are already on there. Final Fantasy VII because everyone loves that for some reason. Cloud has weird paintbrush bucket arms. Then Metal Gear Solid because it surpasses Metal Gear by being in 3D. As far as things that aren’t on there, I can think of Castlevania at least. Also the Japanese version gets some other, more interesting games in place of some of the more Western ones, including Armored Core because apparently it’s more important for Westerners to steal cars and shoot in stealth extra hard than drive robots and play through weird stories. But after that, I don’t really know.
So I could totally just list a bunch of random games I like that don’t require joysticks, but I don’t really feel like doing so. I’d just end up listing games I have in some form, but the whole thing that would get me to buy a mini console would partly be it having a bunch of games I don’t already have.