By Tyler Chamberlain - WHAM! Gaming
It has been almost 2 months since the release of Sony’s popular handheld. Now that the dust has settled and you’re holding a shiny new PSP in your hands, you need to know which games are worth your hard-earned gaming dollars. While the majority of launch games are of very high quality, there are a few titles that stand head and shoulders above the rest. What you will find below are must-haves for fans and one in particular should be a mandatory purchase for every PSP owner.
While finding a high quality game for the PSP may not be very hard, finding one featuring new intellectual property is a different issue altogether. Developers are increasingly banking on existing franchises instead of gambling with an unknown brand. Four out of the five games on this list come from an existing game series, though one with a major gameplay twist. However, the games do cover a wide variety of genres, from two arcade racers, a third person car combat game, a turn based strategy game and an action puzzler.
RIDGE RACER
Ridge Racer is a series that saw games launched for both the Playstation and PS2 releases and for the PSP it is no different. This arcade racer is back with its super high speed races featuring a variety of creative cars, stiff competition, incredible break-neck drifts and one heck of a pulse pounding soundtrack. While the gameplay experience may be simple - there is no weight transfer, no grip management or racing lines, these cars don’t even use brakes. - the fun you can have while driving the many tracks is outstanding. Races usually consist of starting in 12th place and doing your best to make it past all your opponents and before you run out of time and reach the finish line. While the difficulty of the A.I. isn’t incredibly high, the format can provide for some very close, high energy finishes.
The gameplay isn’t the only draw to Ridge Racer though, as it also features what are likely the best PSP graphics so far and a high intensity electronic soundtrack that stands out above all others on the PSP. Purchasing this racer should be a no-brainer for anyone with any interest in racing as it provides an experience like no other on a handheld.
WIPEOUT PURE
Similar to Ridge Racer, the Wipeout series has been around on Sony systems for quite a while now. Unlike Ridge Racer, the Wipeout games have seen both highs and lows in terms of quality and popularity. I’m glad to say that Wipeout Pure is with out a doubt the best game in the series. Wipeout Pure can be summed up fairly easily: Insane futuristic racing at speeds over 1000mph, with high energy weaponry, turbo boost pads and some of the craziest tracks and toughest competition you can find in any game.
While both Wipeout and Ridge Racer are fast, arcade style racers, they both have an individual feel and play style that makes it hard to recommend one over the other. Wipeout may provide higher intensity action due to its weaponry and tighter track design, but it also features fewer tracks and unlockables, and the difficulty is high enough that making it to the fastest classes may not be a possibility for some. Either choice would satisfy any racing game fan, but true racing addicts should pick up both as each provides a unique and fantastic racing experience.
TWISTED METAL
Don’t let yourself be fooled by the cars, Twisted Metal is no racing game. The objective in Twisted Metal is not to beat your opponents to the finish line, but to beat them into a mangled hunk of metal. The vehicles range from sports cars and motorcycles, to monster trucks, bulldozers and even an ice cream truck. What separates them from what you may encounter on the roads yourself is that every one is loaded to the teeth with all sorts of rockets, bombs and other devious weaponry. Twisted Metal plays exactly like a first person shooter that you might find on your PC, the only difference is in how your character moves.
The game places you and up to six opponents in one of many various arenas with only one goal, survival. You fight using your standard machine gun, one of many collectible weapons you’ll find on the map, or by inputting fighting-game style commands on the d-pad to release energy based attacks. What makes Twisted Metal soar is that it is one of the few PSP games to feature Infrastructure mode wireless gaming, which means even once you’re done enjoying yourself and unlocking everything in the single player game you can play for hours online against friends around the world.
METAL GEAR SOLID: AC!D
Fans of the Metal Gear series may be disappointed to know that Ac!d represents a great departure from the previous gameplay in the series. Instead of just creating another Metal Gear sequel with the same formula of stealth action gameplay, Konami has thrown a twist into the mix. Ac!d represents what is probably the birth of a genre, the turn-based stealth-combat card game. That’s right, it’s a turn-based card game. The action may be gone, but what’s left is one fantastic, innovative game. Ac!d challenges you to make it through each mission using only your wits and your card collection. Before each mission you can create your deck of available cards, which you then draw from during the mission to create a hand of 7 playable cards. Using only your cards you must sneak through each map completing objectives as requested. What makes Ac!d stand out is both the depth and variety of the tactical combat. With over 200 different cards available during the game, you are given many options and combinations for defeating or sneaking past your enemies and completing your objective. It may not be a game for everyone, but if “turn-based card combat” doesn’t make you cringe in fear, then you need to give this title a shot.
LUMINES
Sometimes a games success isn’t built on a previous brand name, or on complicated graphics, or even on deep, innovative gameplay. Every now and then, a simple game comes along which just blows all the others out of the water. Lumines is one of those games. On paper it sounds just like a Tetris clone. Drop blocks of two colors, trying to make cubes of a single color with them. If you are successful then the blocks disappear, if not then they build up and its game over. It’s a simple enough concept, one that’s been seen with some variation for almost 20 years.
What makes Lumines so much more than that is all the little touches that have gone into both gameplay and presentation to create one of the most addictive games in years. For example, the blocks don’t disappear immediately when you form a cube, instead you must wait for a “timeline” to pass for them to be cleared away. By varying the speed of the timeline along with the speed of the falling blocks Lumines is able to create levels that feel surprisingly diverse, each with its own personality. It doesn’t hurt that each level also comes with a very distinct graphic and musical style. The backgrounds as well as the music soundtrack and effects are linked directly to what’s going on in the game, start clearing block like mad and the tempo and volume of the music picks up, while the background will increase the intensity of its mesmerizing images and effects. It comes together seamlessly to create the best puzzle game in recent years and the of the must-have title for the PSP.
The trouble with PSP ownership isn’t trying to find the great titles among the mundane, but having to choose only one or two of the many amazing, high quality games. The future for the PSP looks bright indeed if the quality of upcoming games can keep pace with all the stellar titles that have shipped at this point.
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