WotR 75 - Playstation. Portable.

Hidden treasures await

Case Studies

Everybody’s Golf
On the PS2 this is one of those games you’ll play for about five minutes before turning off and settling down for a good three hour session with something more worthy. Big mistake. The PSP version takes that 5 minute rush and puts it in your pocket for when you really need it. Essential PSP-fodder.

King Kong
Not one of the wonders of our age perhaps, but the game is rather compelling in a low-brow kind of way. The pace of the game suits the PSP rather nicely, with each level taking (at most) 20 minutes to play through. The almost total lack of other characters in the game really hurts the atmosphere though.

Wipeout Pure
The PSP poster boy. This may not be a direct port of an existing title, but this is pure wipeout in your hand. You don’t need to know anything else. Bodes well for any future versions making the transition rather nicely.

Ape Escape P
Odd game Ape Escape. Somehow managing to survive to it’s third (or is it fourth) iteration despite being fiddly, derivative and annoying. It must be the monkeys. PSP version is a remix of the first two PS2 games from what I can gather and the bright colours work much better on the PSP screen than some other games I could mention.

Prince of Persia
Talking of which. Sadly this is The Warrior Within rather than the majestic Sands of Time. Although the second game in the series does get a lot better after the interminable opening boss battle. The PSP version manages to be almost exactly the same as it’s under-the-telly cousins, warts and all. It really does benefit from being able to resume from sleep-mode at will though.

Tomb Raider Legend
You’re among friends, you can admit it. Tomb Raider is one of those guilty pleasures that we all like to indulge in from time to time. The latest version is a bit of a return to form for La Croft (dodgy cut-scenes and annoying sidekicks notwithstanding) and, if you can handle girls staring at you as if you’re some kind of sick pervert because you’re playing it in public, it survives the transition to the PSP remarkably intact. Including all of those annoying ‘physics’ puzzles.

Katamari Damacy
You know something, if they’d just ported the original Katamari Damacy to the PSP, I’d have been happy. As it is, this ‘new’ adventure ticks all the right boxes but manages to leave the charm at the door. Avoid.

GTA Liberty City Stories
Again, not a direct port, but a ‘new’ story set in dark familiar streets. A pretty straightforward relocation of GTA’s charm to the handheld screen. Blurry legs aside.

Outrun 2006
Fast cars? Check. Courses? Check. Annoying girlfriend ‘pleasing’ gameplay? Check. I’m not the right person to be judging this game, but the PSP version is every bit the game that it’s five inch cousin is.

I’m going to start this with a question - where is your PSP right now?

Bottom of your sock drawer? Lying on a dusty shelf? Broken and waiting for repair? Wherever it is, I’m willing to take odds that, unless you're using it for sneaky emulation purposes, it’s not sitting in your pocket waiting for your eager hands to coax gaming joy out of it.

Socks? Check. Pants? Check. PSP?

It seems that, once the initial lure of that screen has worn off, the PSP just doesn’t have the games. What are we supposed to be playing on it? Mercury?

Maybe we’re looking in the wrong place. Take a good look at the PSP release lists to see that Sony is pitching the PSP somewhere else entirely - Tomb Raider Legend, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Worms, Outrun, Gradius, the list goes on. Sony is leaving the idea of exclusive handheld content to Nintendo and, instead, is pushing the PSP as the PS2 you can take anywhere. Hell, even the standout PSP moments so far have been conversions of existing PS2 era games (Ridge Racers, Wipeout, Everybody’s Golf) and both Lumines and GTA Liberty City Stories are making the transition the other way.

The question that crossed my mind was this: "Is it actually viable to skip the home versions and get the same enjoyment out of the portable one?"

I can see the question forming on your lips already - "but why would I want to play the same games again on the PSP? Why should I care?"

And there is one very simply answer. Time.

In recent months, I’ve bought Psychonauts, Shadow of the Colossus and Resident Evil 4 (among others) and I simply haven't had the time to give any of them the play that they deserve - and, essentially, that's money that I can't really afford pissed up the wall.

Public Transport was invented for making use of the PSP

And yet, I’ve had time to play, and enjoy, most of the games shown on the left. Because I can play Tomb Raider on the bus, or play a spot of Ape Escape at lunchtime, or tackle that particularly tricky GTA mission while chilling with a pint on the banks of the Thames. Yes, there are problems - games that rely too heavily on dual analogue sticks can sometimes feel a little clunky, colour schemes that work fine indoors on a 32" TV simply don’t translate well to a portable screen viewed in direct sunlight, the PSP is a little too hard-edged to be comfortable for any length of time and you don’t get the full graphical splendour that you might expect at home.

But none of that really matters. See, it’s not a question of playing the ‘superior’ home version and then playing it again on the PSP. We already choose between PS2, Xbox, 360 and (if we’re lucky) Gamecube versions when we buy a new game. Maybe we should add the PSP to our list of potential platforms for new games - we really aren’t losing that much by choosing the PSP version.

Apart from a fiver.

July 2006