Ah, the much lamented Playstation Portable. It is, quite possibly, one of the best hand-held consoles ever made. Well, it is for me. I admire Nintendo, I admire what they have done with the DS and the Gameboy consoles, but the games don't float my boat. They're a bit too, I don't know, cheerful? Anyway, the PSP, here is four games on the PSP worth, at the very least, tracking down on eBay.
1. Ace Combat X. Skies of deception.
I've been playing the Xbox 360 Ace Combat 6, which is brilliant. However, it's inching towards realism and further from the original Playstation title. That said, the PSPs version of Ace Combat is a homage to the original. It's awesome. For my money, it's more like the arcade than any of the PS2 versions, and certainly the 360 version. The replays are better. The plane customisation options are better. The cheesy lines are better. ...and it looks fantastic. Buy it now!
2. Killzone liberations.
The PS2 version of Killzone was something of an anti-climax, and thanks to this, Killzone Liberations on the PSP is often ignored. Adopting the sins of it's father so to speak. Yet, it is quite a different game and very enjoyable, and like all PSP media, can be picked up for trifling amounts of cash, and it is brilliant. I kid you not.
3. Ridge Racer
Ridge Racer on the PSP was the turning point of the series for me. As a fan of the original, I could see over time the Ridge Racer series was merrily losing it's way, the makers, Namco, kept playing around with realism, each time moving further-and-further away from the original Ridge Racer. The Ridge we all knew and loved. Especially me. This path to ultimate driftless-destruction with added realism culminated in R:Racing. Some hideous, powerslide-less racing game, from the Ridge Racer stable.
Then came Burnout. Burnout, as far as I am concerned, is like loosely guiding a cruise missile down some tarmac. I am controlling the game ... just. Burnout lacks finesse, style and real joy to be honest...
Anyway, at some point Namco seems to have realised that there was a market for arcade racers, tossed their realism plans in the bin, and bought us the greatest version of Ridge Racer ever. Better than the 360 RR6, better than PS3s RR7.
...and contains Reiko Nagase before she got those gappy front teeth.
4. God of War.
I like God of War. Mindless violence ...hmm.
I like my violence bloody, and my women semi-naked. God of War was written for me and my ilk. Great streaming chains of death? "Yes please" I say. In some ways GoW is like Ridge Racer. It's fairy crude, you just sort of wander through the levels repeating yourself time-after-time, but instead of setting faster lap times, you are killing ever increasingly large greek mythological beasts ...that said, there is an elegance. And getting that mindless hacking-and-slashing just right is very reqarding. If you liked God of War on the PS2, you'll like this.
