The best PSP games are not the games we imagined when Sony.The 1. 2 Best Games on PSPSony's first handheld gaming system has been replaced by a younger, shinier model. Maybe you've waited this whole time to get a PSP, or maybe you've inherited one from a friend who bought a new Vita. Either way, now you need some games to cement your relationship. Below, find our list of the 1. PSP. We've bumped it up in honor of the fact that the handheld came out in North America nine years ago today. Vita owners get a special bonus: All of the games on this list can be downloaded and played on the Vita, with the exception of Lumines 2 and Every Extend Extra. Note, however, that Vita owners can't buy the physical copies from the links in this post; you'll have to download digital copies from the Play. Station store. The chattier, shorter partner of the Jak & Daxter games gets the spotlight on a platform that's just his size. Daxter's turn as a cosmic exterminator provides him the spotlight in a platformer game that's as funny as it is well- tuned. A Good Match for: Looney Tunes buffs. Jak's sidekick shares the insecure bluster of Daffy Duck and is animated with such detail and charm that he could be related to Bugs or Pepe Lepew. Not for Those Who Want: Bad- assery. It makes sense to focus Daxter on primarily platforming since Jak tends to handle all the action hero stuff in the J& D games, but fans expecting more high- octane action will be disappointed. Watch it in action. Purchase from: Amazon . There's no story here; EEE's focused on experience, pushing you to detonate ever bigger explosion sequences to get higher scores, ranks and levels. A Good Match for: People who like to push themselves. Peppered with items to ramp up the speed and difficulty, this title's levels are actually dynamic, ever- mutating puzzles that demand patience. If you do it right, self- detonation rewards you with increased playtime and increased lives. Underneath the feast of color, design and sound that EEE offers, the rigid algorithmic nature of the PSP action/puzzle hybrid is where it finds its true beauty. Not for Those Who Want: Clear progression. The arcane mechanics of EEE will stymie even its most ardent fans and it's all the more frustrating knowing that more levels. Ive played FF III on the DS. For some reason I prefer my RPG's on a handheld console. IT'S THE BEST PSP GAME SO FAR. Final Fantasy Tactics is widely held to be the greatest tactics RPG ever made, blending demanding battles with a lovely art style and a terrific story. A Good Match For: Those who like fighting from a bird's eye view, anyone who's ever wanted to defeat their enemies with the power of mathematics. Not A Good Match For: Those looking for a fast- paced action game, or a forgiving one. FFT is a game for careful planners, and it can be punishing to newcomers. Read our article looking back at why Final Fantasy. Tactics is so beloved. Purchase from: Available digitally from The Play. Station Store. Don't trust that name fully. Jonathan Mak's idiosyncratic creation is a shooter but its experimental synaesthetic design melds sound and visuals in a way that's anything but everyday. One minute, you're shooting amoebic shapes in what looks like a neural network, the next you're blasting back robot hordes in a trippy mech nightmare. But, the whole retina- sizzling experience is so tightly- tuned that you'll be hypnotized and hungry for templates that come next.
A Good Match for: Abstract art enthusiasts. Everyday Shooter splashes hues and shapes across the screen and brings them to life in surprisingly creepy and breathtaking ways. Not for Those Who Want: A relaxing ramble. Everyday's beauty gets married to a nerve- wracking difficulty that forces you back to the first stage when you run out of lives. Watch it in action. Purchase from the Play. Station Store. When the antihero of Sony's God of War games got shrunk down for a portable prequel, Kratos lost none of his formidable fury. Chains of Olympus translates the series' signature combat flair and mythological scale to the handheld, raising the stakes of what was possible on the PSP. A Good Match for: Riders of public transportation. Chances are, your daily commute offers plenty of opportunities to get good and pissed- off. Thankfully, this title lets you take out your anger on the monsters of Greco- Roman myth, not fellow passengers. Not for Those Who Want: Comfortable hardware. A few crucial quicktime sequences require precision movement on the PSP's nubby thumbstick and, yeah, it's just not built for that. The sketchy input from this part of the hardware must be why Kratos is so angry. Watch it in action. Purchase from: Amazon . Thankfully, there are ways to pad your time, but there's still a huge amount of stress and fun packed into Half- Minute Hero's short bursts. A Good Match for: Efficiency experts. Not only does this quirky Atlus title provide an extra- lean cut of RPG in the Hero 3. You can get your concentrated side- scrolling shooter fix in Princess 3. RTS planning in Evil Lord 3. Not for Those Who Want: Level Grind. While hilarious, the super- compressed hi- jinx of HMH will have no appeal for RPG fans who like to farm their way through a world and accrue XP at a more leisurely pace. Watch it in action. Purchase from: Amazon . Crafted by the dev studio founded by Tetsuya Mizuguchi. You'll hear tunes linked to almost every sub- genre of electronic music, from sprightly techno- pop to ominous dub. If you ever waved glowsticks at a dance party, Lumines will make you happy. Not for Those Who Want: Predictability. The mechanics of playing a Lumines game never change but they will speed up or slow down from level to level. So, sometimes the timeline that wipes matched cubes away will be extra speedy and sometimes it'll be an agonizingly slow sweep across the screen. Watch it in action. Purchase from: Amazon . Almost everyone was taken by surprise when it arrived on the PSP, especially as the system was entering its twilight. But Peace Walker hit great emotional highs and evolved the gameplay around co- operative play and with strategy elements. A Good Match for: Triplets. This Metal Gear lets players team up through its campaign and delivers new weapons and mechanics so that multiple Snakes can effectively sneak and shoot through the Costa Rican jungle. Not for Those Who Want: To play solo. It's possible to complete Peace Walker. The result's a singularly unique experience with insanely catchy mechanics. A Good Match for: Ant farm owners. There's an entire sub- genre of video games built around amassing and deploying little virtual creatures. Pressing certain button combos in time with the beat will prod your little minions into charging enemy factions, throwing spears or taking cover under their shields. So it's funky and think- y at the same time. Not for Those Who Want: To skip memorizing things. The button- mashing in Patapon's not the kind of mindless combat found in so many other games. You need to pay attention to what you're hearing and pressing, and will wind up with some . But the general consensus is that the PSP version of the RPG originally made for the PS2 surpasses its forebears. Combat's improved and it's got a bit more content than the first two iterations, impressive for a portable title. A Good Match for: People who want more video game heroines. The biggest addition to P3. P is the all- new option to play as a female protagonist, which tweaks several plot elements in the game. For a game set in a high school that lets you call on friends as support characters, it's a welcome addition. Not for Those Who Want: An entirely different Persona 3. Good as it is, there's no getting around the fact that a lot of this game still feels like something made for the PS2. Worse yet, the superbly executed cutscenes get cut from Portable due to the PSP's technical limitations. Watch it in action. Purchase from: Amazon . Peerless techno soundtracks. Sleekly dangerous design. These elements piloted almost every Wipeout to the winner's circle of gamers' hearts and the portable Pulse was no different. New tweaks like an customizable progression system and. A Good Match for: Recycling advocates. This handheld Wipeout lets you race on its tracks backwards and forwards, with subtle differences in each orientation to make it more than just going the wrong way. Not for Those Who Want: A Sunday drive. Some of the speed classes go as fast as 7. Watch it in action. Purchase from: Amazon . Also, please put down the gun. It can be a bit slow at times, but if you've got the patience, Trails is really something special. A Good Match For: Anyone looking for a standard? Read back through our update history: Update 3/2. We've made a quick change to this list. Tekken Dark Resurrection and Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins have been cleared off to make room for Final Fantasy Tactics and The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Want more of the best games on each system? Check out our complete directory: The Best PC Games . Interesting, experimental indie games? RPGFan Feature - Top 2. PSP RPGs. The PSP brought a lot of remakes from its home console siblings into the hands of players on the go. Some of them included a lot of rework, while others chose to not mess with the good thing that the original game was. Star Ocean: Second Evolution is one of the latter, although it did feature updates to the battle system to keep things fresh. It looks good, it sounds great, it's fun, and that earns it a place in our list. While the story eventually took the fantasy road, it's hard to deny that this strategy RPG had the right combination of Level- 5 magic, strategy, and character- building. The charm of tactically triumphing over the foes of France as heroes like Jeanne and Gilles de Rais is pretty undeniable, and that's why we knew this one had to make our top 2. PSP. Since these two games were originally released on the PC- 8. Because these two games each represent half of a single story, they tend to be packaged together, and this latest release (dubbed Ys I & II Chronicles) is easily the best one yet. We would recommend later games in the series before giving these classics a try, but they're still very playable. Besides, with the Vita's Ys: Memories of Celceta on the horizon, Ys I & II Chronicles makes for a great history lesson. Fans will argue over which release is the best, but having updated sprites, the entire sequel and a brand new interquel ensures that Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection is the most comprehensive. Once you start playing The Complete Collection, it doesn't take long to remember all of FFIV's best qualities. The sequels, The After Years and Interlude, take what you know about FFIV and flip it around, delivering a unique take on the world, characters and systems. While none of the games available have the deepest story or gameplay in the genre, the quests of Cecil and his son Ceodore are epic, endearing, and goofy in equal measure. Final Fantasy IV was a masterpiece when it was released in 1. Darkdeath Evilman came out of nowhere to be one of the truly great games on PSP. But you don't have to shoot for level 9. Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days. In fact, it's probably better if you don't spend your time that way, because you could miss out on the second plotline written specifically for this PSP port, in which Axel, the self- styled . But no matter how you play, it's easy to find at least one of Disgaea 2's many gameplay options that you'll enjoy for as long as you choose to play. Creative Uncut hosts tens of thousands of high quality video game artworks covering hundreds of games, so definitely check out their collection if you're a fan of artwork. Handheld wars: Play. Station Vita vs. Nintendo 3. DSThree (or four) different handhelds. Remember when Nintendo claimed gamers were living in the . While Nintendo attempts to maintain its historic clutch on the handheld market, and Sony rethinks portable consoles with Play. Station Vita, it's clear Apple's i. Pad (and new i. Pad Mini) has forever changed the way the video game industry will look at gamers- on- the- go. Here's a rundown of the games and features behind the three major portable gaming devices vying for your dollar. Battery power: How long can your device go? Battery life is a huge factor in the enjoyment of any portable gaming device. Nothing's worse than sitting, bored on the bus, with a dead handheld in your lap. The i. Pad has made significant strides over the past few years, increasing its battery life to as much as 1. Obviously- -as with any portable device- -mileage may vary with cellular access and Wi- Fi usage. Comparatively, the Nintendo 3. DS and the Play. Station Vita offer about half the battery life of the i. Pad. The Play. Station Vita will usually keep things moving for about four hours, while the Nintendo 3. DS will last around three hours with steady game play. Both the i. Pad and the 3. DS require a significant time investment when it comes to recharging. Three very different screens. While all three devices use LCD displays, resolutions and physical characteristics vary wildly between the Play. Station Vita, Nintendo 3. DS, and i. Pad. Nintendo took a gamble on the 3. DS, creating a device presenting stereoscopic 3. D without the need for glasses. The top screen is 3. The 3. DS features an 8. The third- generation i. Pad is of course well- known for its extremely crisp picture, also known as the Retina Display. The display measures 9. The Play. Station Vita features a 5- inch, 1. Also worth noting: The Nintendo 3. DS XL offers 9. 0 percent more screen real estate, while the just- announced i. Pad mini reduces the display to 7. Weighing the devices' different weights. As technology improves, handheld gaming devices seem to grow thinner and lighter; important when you're lugging around a heavy bag. The Play. Station Vita hits the scales at 9. Wi. Fi) and 9. 8oz (3. G). Comparatively speaking, the original Play. Station Portable weighed 9. The Nintendo 3. DS weighs in just a little under the Play. Station Vita at 8. Given its larger size- -despite its impressive thinness- -it should come as no surprise the i. Pad tips the scales at 2. The i. Pad mini, however, weighs just 1. Obviously, the difference of mere ounces, or even a half pound, will affect people differently. If you're a commuter with a small bag, weight is fairly important. But for road trips, half- a- pound isn't that big a deal. What's under the hood. Size and weight are good indicators of the portability of a handheld gaming system, but the longevity of your new device will also depend on processor speed and memory. The tiniest hardware in the world won't amount to much if it's only capable of running Pong. The Play. Station Vita features a 2. GHz quad- core, ARM Cortex- A9 chip. The speedy processor is backed up by 5. MB of RAM. Both the Nintendo 3. DS and 3. DS XL run on a 1. GHz dual- core ARM CPU. The 3. DS also halves the RAM found in the Play. Station Vita, only packing 1. MB. But while the Play. Station Vita may have twice the horsepower of the Nintendo 3. DS, the new fourth- gen i. Pad utilizes the A6. X chip, built in- house by Apple with custom ARM cores. While details are still a bit slim, Apple claims the A6. X doubles the computing and graphical processing power from the third- gen i. Pad's dual- core A5. X chip, which ran at 1. GHz. Getting online sometimes depends on how much you want to spend. Remember when we used to play games all by ourselves? Well, those days are largely over, as more and more developers are consistently placing online multiplayer and social network functions into games. Both the Play. Station Vita and the i. Pad offer models with cellular options. While the Play. Station Vita offers a 3. G- capable unit, the latest i. Pad models are capable of 4. G LTE connectivity. Of course, speeds are debatable, depending on your current location. The Nintendo 3. DS only offers Wi. Fi connectivity, but the incessant need for online multiplayer hasn't really made itself omnipresent in a Nintendo device, either. The cellular- ready models of i. Pad are functional with AT& T, Sprint, and Verizon networks in the US. In the case of Play. Station Vita, your only option is AT& T. What to do when you're not gaming. Sure, you're buying a portable device for gaming. But sometimes, it's nice to just have one gadget to perform a multitude of functions. While the i. Pad does offer a great gaming experience, it's built for a whole lot more. Productivity applications, photography editing- -as corny as it sounds, it's fair to say in most cases, . Movies and other entertainment are loaded onto to Sony's proprietary media cards, and are easy to watch. The Nintendo 3. DS offers a few functions, like Netflix, but the only feature to stand- out is the 3. D camera. Granted, the pictures themselves are a bit low- resolution, lessening the importance of that unique element. Taking advantage of your old game library. These days, backwards compatibility is a major factor on a gamer's decision to purchase a new piece of hardware. The Nintendo 3. DS is capable of accepting the nub- less cartridges of the original Nintendo DS; an extremely large library of games, thanks to the popularity of the device. The Play. Station Vita isn't quite so friendly. The Play. Station Portable used the now- defunct UMD format, and the Vita has no such physical media tray. Still, downloads from the Play. Station Store are readily available. But you'll feel a bit of a cringe every time you pay for a game in which you already own the disc. Apple's i. Pad obviously doesn't suffer from many issues with backwards compatibility. As a device born into the digital distribution age- -some may argue it helped create it- -the i. Pad has an absolutely huge library of . That said, the original i. Pad may have problems processing some new titles. The games and software make the device. Speedy browsers and cameras are great, but if we're being honest, it's the games that really offer the biggest draw to a handheld device. The Play. Station Vita, Nintendo 3. DS, and i. Pad each have unique software libraries to appease a wide variety of gamers. The 3. DS obviously benefits from the extensive- -and beloved- -first- party titles synonymous with games. Super Mario 3. D Land, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3. D, and Mario Kart 7 immediately come to mind. The Play. Station Vita is no slouch in the games department, either. First- party titles like Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Little. Big. Planet are not to be missed. A large selection of original Play. Station titles are now playable on the Vita, as well. While Apple may not have the first- party history of Nintendo or Sony Play. Station, the App Store is steadily becoming the biggest marketplace in the world for a huge variety of games. Stand- outs like Infinity Blade, Jetpack Joyride, and the ubiquitous Angry Birds are changing the way we look at handheld gaming. How much does it cost? Unfortunately, we live in a world where companies expect us to pay money for the things we want. Yeah, we think it's a bummer, too. But there's a considerable amount of price difference between the three major handheld gaming devices. The Nintendo 3. DS will cost you $1. The Play. Station Vita retails for $2. Wi. Fi+3. G) and $2. Wi. Fi only). Games for the Play. Station Vita generally cost about $4. DS. Apple's i. Pad is available in a number of different configurations, with prices ranging from $4. GB Wi. Fi model, all the way up to $8. GB 4. G LTE unit. The new i. Pad mini starts at $3. Games, or apps, for the i. Pad vary wildly in price. Currently, most games on the App Store are priced right around a dollar, but there's a ton of small, free games and even some $1. Everyone's a winner! Ok, so maybe all three devices are not equal, but they each offer their own unique experiences. The Nintendo 3. DS is the only way to get your Nintendo fix on the go, the Play. Station Vita offers a nice selection of titles on a 1. Pad is a gateway into the ever- growing App Store. No matter what you decide, it's an interesting time to be a handheld gamer. And while you're at it, be sure to check out our lists of Best 3. DS Games, Best Play. Station Vita Games, and Best i. OS Games to learn more.
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