Bought a PSP

[16bitter]

Now I want software suggestions. I have a few ideas (Twisted Metal, GTA, Darkstalkers) but I'm sure (I guess) there's more to pick up, yet I've not paid enough attention to know what the gems are amongst the duds in the broad. Or about anything niche so far, for that matter.

Give me some titles and descriptions, guys.

[Drixxel]

WipEout Pure. The gameplay's pretty much as you'd expect from a WipEout game, but there's some snazzy new weapons, a barrel-roll speed boost technique, and the elimination of energy-recharging pit lanes (sacrifice unwanted power-ups to recharge instead). The odds of you digging it are extremely high if you enjoyed previous WipEouts.

If you've never played MediEvil on Playstation, MediEvil Resurrection is sure to entertain. If you have experienced the PlayStation original.. well, you'll probably still enjoy Resurrection, although some levels were cut (for no good reason, might I add). Lots of level exploration and fairly straightforward combat, with a variety of weapons at your disposal. ..a unique sense of humour and atmosphere.

Then of course there's ol' Lumines, which I have not had the chance to play, but I've not read a negative thing about it. Apparantly it's a highly-mezmerizing puzzle game of absurd quality.

...and if you can wait awhile, Goku Makai-Mura looks absolutely smoking. If I were to buy a PSP for one game, this sparkling new Ghouls 'N' Ghosts would be it.

[j_factor]

Mercury is pretty good. It's basically the character from The Ooze put in Super Monkey Ball style stages. And... yeah. Exactly how that sounds.

Kingdom of Paradise is a pretty good action-RPG from Climax. It's kind of basic, nothing terribly special, but it gets the job done.

Virtua Tennis: World Tour is a great successor to the Dreamcast classics. If you like Virtua Tennis, it definitely won't disappoint. Unless you'd like a sequel that does a ton to differentiate itself, as you won't find that here.

Metal Gear Acid is okay if you like card battle games. It's not nearly as good as Card Fighters Clash, though. Actually it's also not as good as Lost Kingdoms or PSO Ep. 3.

Other than those, I highly recommend Lumines and WipEout Pure. And that's pretty much it for the system.

Many games that should be good, aren't:

Death Jr. -- I was interested in it based on the previews, but man does it suck. It's just really poorly made; shoddy workmanship infests every aspect of the game.

GripShift -- It was a great concept, and this would've been a unique and awesome racer if the cars didn't handle like crap and tracks weren't narrow up-in-the-sky things with nothing on the edges.

Frantix -- Again, good concept, bad execution. It's a "setpiece puzzle game" (meaning you have to solve a series of specifically designed, predetermined puzzles) where you have to collect all the gems to make it out of the room. It's kind of like Lolo for NES. Except it controls like Zoom! for Genesis. And when you've got numerous environmental hazards, crates to pull, and levers to push, you don't want Zoom's controls. Compounding this are uneven and inconsistent puzzle designs, and time limits that are sometimes far too short, and you've got a giant exercise in frustration.

Infected -- They somehow managed to take the monotony involved in a generic 3D hack 'n slash, bottle it up in super-concentrated form, and dump it all over a 3D shooter.

Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory -- This game does the same thing as Infected, only it's an action-rpg, and it's actually worse. Avoid!

Smart Bomb -- This puzzle game focused on precise actions gives you precious little time and zero margin of error. It feels like it's trying to be fast while the core gameplay is kind of slow and methodical by nature.

I wouldn't bother with MediEvil as it's actually inferior to the original Playstation version which was released in 1998. I feel that's kind of inexcusable, and I would recommend seeking the original if you have any interest.

Proceed with caution on Darkstalkers. It controls horribly on PSP (which should be expected - ever play Darkstalkers with a standard psx pad?), and the load times are pretty bad, which is less tolerable on a portable system. The controls really sink this game IMO; not only do we have the SF2-for-SNES-style 6 button gameplay with 4 face buttons thing, but the stupid d-pad made it frustratingly hard for me to pull off even basic moves.

A few upcoming games, like Makai-Mura and Loco Roco look pretty good, but I'll let you look yourself for preview stuff. I also heard there's going to be a new Lemmings game, which would certainly be something to look out for.

[Melf]

Is Legend of Heroes out yet? That looked pretty rad.

[Dartagnan1083]

trade it in for a DS if you haven't done so already.

Otherwise, here are my suggestions

-Lumines
-Extend Every Other
-Ridge Racer
-Wipeout Pure

[GenkiVideoGames.com]

A wee bit harsh on the PSP. Of the goodies we had the pleasure of play testing for suitability (!!!) for the site over Christmas:
Star Soldier is a belting old school shooter,
Puyo Puyo Fever is great fun especially being able to play two player on the same console,
Taiko Drum Master is very wacky, but in a nice way.
However the pick of the bunch must be Princess Crown. We loved the Saturn version, so I guess we're a bit biased!
Happy gaming. :cool:

[dementia]

I've got a PSP. Guilty Gear XX #Reload almost never leaves it. I love that game.

So yeah, it's a total port machine. My favorite original content would be Lumines, but that's about it.

[Dartagnan1083]

The PSP can rot in hell as long as its movie section is over twice as large as its game section.
I see machines that activly TRY to be more than just a game machine to reflect that in the low quality selection. as a movie player/piss poor iPod-clone, I'm starting to see its intended role becoming more secondary as time goes by.

worthwhile original content is STILL lacking even after all this time.
Usually, Konami and Capcom would be all over a console by this point. . .but it hasn't happened yet.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm, very interesting :roll:

[GenkiVideoGames.com]

I guess Sony just know alot about consumer electronics and have decided that a games only machine won't sell in the type of figures a combi UMD/Games/Photo Storage etc machine will. Sad, but it reflects the shift we have seen in the UK towards mainstream gaming (and the resulting dull racing titles...) I wonder if that shift has begun in Japan? With the tragic demise of Sega, I guess it's down to, dare we say it, Nintendo to keep things game orientated. Long live the sweaty otaku! :)

[j_factor]

I guess Sony just know alot about consumer electronics and have decided that a games only machine won't sell in the type of figures a combi UMD/Games/Photo Storage etc machine will. Sad, but it reflects the shift we have seen in the UK towards mainstream gaming (and the resulting dull racing titles...) I wonder if that shift has begun in Japan?

PSP has not been selling very well in Japan. DS is flying off the shelves though.

[GenkiVideoGames.com]

Very true. I think Doubutsu no Mori would have had alot to do with that. And the fact that lots of children would have had a couple of 10,000 Yen notes burning a hole in their Pokemon purses after New Year gifts. Dare I say it, I wish Nintendo well as they truly understand the hardcore (re: grizzled) gamer. :)

[16bitter]

Ordered Alpha 3 Max directly from Capcom for the d-pad. Now I can finally play Darkstalkers.

Of all the Street Fighters, I have the least experience with SFA3. As far as gameplay, I have no idea how this compares to the arcade. Animation-wise it appears to be missing some key frames -- such as T.Hawk's backward walk animation being MIA AGAIN -- which is rather pathetic considering this is a port of an 8 year old game to what's touted as PS2-junior; to top it off, the reviews I read all credited it as a perfect translation in the area of animation. Took me five minutes to know better, and I've barely played this game in the arcade or at home.

Also of note, it appears that the tradeoff for those extra games on Capcom Classics Remix will be the SFII games.