"Come out and play."
Sony's first handheld system. It was a major success in Japan, though Sony's strict localization policies stymied ability to competition with the Nintendo DS elsewhere. Despite that, its capability to natively emulate PSX titles and to run scaled down PS2 graphics has given it a vast library with large variety. Though much of the games remain Japan exclusive, fans have been hard at work to give them proper translations.
The system is easily cracked, allowing for a multitude of emulators, fan-made "ports" of PSX titles, some homebrews, and the ability to manually change the CPU clock. Many of these are available on the PSN store, so Vita owners should take some time to look around.
The list
| Box Art | Title | Genre | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception | Flight | Ace Combat X has the same epic dogfighting, megalithic bosses, and awe inspiring free roam maps as its console brethren, while also introducing a branching campaign structure, making it one of the biggest games in the series. |
|
Ace Combat: Joint Assault | Flight | Somewhat a of a departure from other Ace Combats, but still one of the most memorable PSP exclusives. This is thanks to its numerous epic boss confrontations, an astounding instrumental soundtrack (plus some PS1 tunes and a random jrock song thrown in) and fun characters including a Lex-Luthor-like villain. |
|
Adventures to Go! | RPG / Roguelike | Mixes stuff from classics for a solid RPG. Battles resemble Dragon Quarter (but tiles vs free-flow), magic is combined Light Crusader style, dungeons are random (but you'll influence what's found), and character interactions are amusing. You play as Finn the The initial price may have been off-putting for some, but it's now roughly $15 (100 kr). A pretty good deal. |
|
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II | Fighting | An updated version of the awesome BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Portable. All the effects are still in check, with the exception of the sprite resolution. A good way to practice your combos on the go if you have the console version.
There's a newer version, but it's JP only. |
|
Burnout Dominator | Racing | Burnout Dominator focuses on boost chaining- if you boost for long enough, your entire meter is replenished, thereby making it possible to boost indefinitely. In fact, the courses are designed with exactly this in mind, and the game's Dominator events require that you keep this up as long as possible without crashing. The game is brilliantly executed, and has a great sense of speed.
Also check out Burnout Legends for even more Burnout goodness, or if you simply dislike the Dominator mechanic. |
|
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles | Platformer | The formerly PC Engine exclusive Castlevania classic, Rondo of Blood, has been given a 3D makeover for the PSP. If you love whipping skeletons, this is your game. Not quite as hard as the NES Castlevanias, but still fairly difficult (unless you use Maria, you babby). |
|
Class of Heroes | RPG | A First-Person Dungeon Crawler inspired Wizardry based around STRATEGY. So think ahead before your ass gets ashed. The meek-willed and meek-brained need not apply. Like old school dungeon crawlers, dungeons are full of traps, loot, and hordes of monsters. There's also a number of side-quests, and helpful shit like alchemy and party-based attacks. If you like these sorts of games and are looking for a fair challenge, you'll love this. Gets notably easier after gaining a few levels, provided your party setup doesn't suck. Note: Has sequels, Class of Heroes 2 is out now but the rest currently Japan only. |
|
Crimson Gem Saga | RPG | An old school (think SNES era) JRPG with the typical Attack-Skill-Item-Run battle system. Simple, fun gameplay with fantastic looking character sprites and decent voice acting. Tends to go for fairly cheap as well. Also on iPhone, if you so desire to play it that way. |
|
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII | Action RPG | A prequel to Final Fantasy VII that focuses on Zack and his friends- all members of SOLDIER- as they try to cope with the breakdown of the organization. The gameplay mixes real time combat with a “slot machine” for overdrives, summons and leveling. |
|
Crush | Puzzle | A very unique puzzler where you 'crush' your world from 3D to 2D and vice versa to navigate and remove obstacles. Pretty good replay value, since some of those trophies take some serious brain-busting. Was recently remixed and the story was made cheerier on 3DS as Crush 3D. |
|
Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower | Fighting | A port of Vampire Chronicle for Matching Service (Japan-only game for the Dreamcast), which allows the player to choose a fighting style based on all previous Darkstalkers arcade titles. Includes unlockable endings from the previous games, beautiful sprite-work, and supports multiplayer via WiFi. If you've never played a Darkstalkers game before, this one is worth looking into. This game actually released a week before the PSP in North America. |
|
Darius Burst | Shoot 'em up | Taito's mecha fish shooting series makes a return on the PSP, a perfect fit for it since the resolution emulates the widescreen arcade setup of old rather nicely. With 3 different game modes, 3 different Silver Hawks to choose from and a sizeable gallery of unlockables, there is still lots to do here in spite of only having half the number of stages compared to usual. There has since been a proper arcade release reusing the aforementioned setup, but good luck finding that unless you live in grorious nippon. |
|
Daxter | Platformer | You play as Daxter, the sidekick from the Jak and Daxter series, working as an exterminator. Better than it sounds. Expect purdy graphics, huge stages, a good sense of atmosphere, and plenty of aerial platforming involving Daxter's spray gun. |
|
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness | SRPG | Astoundingly addictive turn-based tactics gameplay. Exclusive extras include Etna mode and ad-hoc multiplayer. Despite what you may hear, you only REALLY need to grind in post-game, as it makes the main story stages seem laughably easy in comparison. One of the best ports/remixes that this has gotten, and it's gotten a shit load of them. |
|
Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days | SRPG | Plot isn't completely related to the first so you can easily pick up. Graphics are smooth and nice. Enjoy grindan all those 9,999 levels and reincarnating 90 times all over again, this time with new guys. As an added bonus if you have Disgaea 1 save data on your stick, you get an exclusive loli ronin. Highly Recommended. Has some extra DLC stuff too. |
|
Dissidia Final Fantasy | Action | An innovative over the top fighting/action/platformer game the likes of which has never been done before. It can take a while to figure out though and sadly the game is dunked in a pool of egregious RPG bullshit such as chocobo play plans (???) and a thing where you choose which day of the week will give you more exp (???), but it doesn't really matter. The gameplay feels rigorously tested and manages to stay compelling even after the hundreds of battles required by the story. Highlights include being able to equip new attacks on your favorite character (choose button mapping, even) and a brilliant postgame with AI that will push both you and the gameplay to its limits. |
|
Dissidia 012 | Action | An expansion to Dissidia Final Fantasy, adding a prequel saga and new playable characters. After finishing the prequel story, the game rolls right into a second arc that covers the entire story of the first game, with all the cutscenes intact. Because of this, some players choose to skip the first game altogether. |
|
DJMAX Portable 1, 2, Clazziquai Edition, Black Square, Fever, Hot Tunes & 3 | Music/Rhythm | A tl;dr, get |
|
Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai 2 - Another Road | Fighting | A fantastic DBZ game on the PSP with arguably the fastest, smoothest fighting gameplay system of all Dragon Ball games. Bold statement, but I stand by it.
Great for fans of the series who want a DBZ game for on-the-go fun. Fighting mechanics are fast and fun, roster is filled with fan favourites, some good replay value, just all around a great DBZ fighting game. |
|
Echochrome | Puzzle | A highly conceptual puzzler that has you changing the camera's perspective to modify the environment for armatures to escape. The sequel, Echoshift, has you messing around with time to solve puzzles. |
|
Every Extend Extra | Shoot 'em up | A shoot 'em up in which your only method of defense is to blow yourself up in a strategic area, trying to take as many with you as possible. |
|
Exit | Platformer | Some like it, some hate it. A very stylish game, where you play an 'escapologist' and help people escape from dangerous buildings. The slow walking and ungainly running may put people off, |
|
The Eye of Judgment: Legends | CCG | Now you can DRAW CARD and MANA CHARGE on the go! It's a regular videogame this time- no camera or physical cards required- perfect if you just wanted to know what the PS3 game played like. There's a new single player campaign featuring an epic storyline and gorgeous anime styled artwork. |
|
Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake | Capture the |
A cartoon-styled fantasy action game played using an overhead perspective (making it kind of like The Legend of Zelda) featuring team based gameplay and copious amounts of blood. (Yep.. exactly like Zelda..) Choose one of several jobs such as Warrior, Archer, or Priest, and run amok killing the opposing team's doods or making a run for their princess. Sprawling maps offer plenty of strategic choke points, outposts to capture, and hidden shortcuts you can use to get the drop on your enemies. Includes a single player campaign with narrated storybook style scenes between missions. |
|
Fate/EXTRA | RPG | Text heavy, but well translated. Choose one of three different servants (Saber, Archer, or Caster), and let the adventure unfold as you try to piece together your forgotten past. The game can get a little repetitive in terms of the pacing, which holds it back from reaching its full potential, but is still a decent experience if you have the patience. |
|
Final Fantasy | RPG | An updated port of the first Final Fantasy released in celebration of the 20th anniversary. The game mostly makes use of the groundwork laid by the PS1 and GBA remasters but brings a few new additions of its own. Character sprites look all RPG maker, but some of the spell effect animations and monster art are ballin'. Be warned however that the game has random battles and that the encounter rate can get pretty over the top. (In some places they can occur with a single step) |
|
Final Fantasy II | RPG | The second of the two ports that were released for the PSP in celebration of the Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary, this one being Final Fantasy II. Features an additional dungeon not seen in the GBA remix, which also added a few new dungeons of its own. Not as widely-liked as the first, but has its fans. Be warned however that the game has random battles. |
|
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection | RPG | A remaster of Final Fantasy IV, plus The After Years, and an all new Interlude chapter that helps bridge the two. Be warned that the game has random battles and that the encounter rate can get pretty savage in some places. |
|
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions | SRPG | A port of Final Fantasy Tactics from the PS1. The port suffers from a lot of stuttering during battle animations, which can be jarring at first. On the flip side, this version has new animated cutscenes that add a dramatic flair, a new translation (although some might be put off by the olde style english) and you get to save to up to fifteen slots using just one save file. Whichever version you go with, it's one of the best SRPGs thanks in large part to its excellent job system.
A patch has been released that fixes the slowdown/lag issues. There is also a patch that 'unstretches' the aspect ratio, resulting in sharper and cleaner visuals. CFW is required! Patch here Installation instructions here |
|
Final Fantasy Type-0 | Action RPG | Fourteen different playable characters, playable summons, a world map, chocobo breeding and a fantastic story. The gameplay is difficult and will kill you if you get careless but is fun and faster than Crisis Core. (No slot machine!) Much grittier and bloodier than previous Final Fantasy games.
PSP version only released in Japan but it has a full English translation. The HD remaster on PS4, Xbone and PC is available worldwide in English. |
|
Fired Up | Car Combat | Almost shockingly fun car combat. However, it's especially notable that the filesize is quite small. |
|
Gachitora!: Abarenbou Kyoushi in High School | Being a Badass / Beat 'em up | Imagine GTO+Yakuza. After saving an idol from jumping off the local high school roof, through your very convincing "persuasion" skills, you get hired by the principal to work as a teacher. It's your job as a teacher to help all the students with their problems. You do this by "persuading" them while having a "battle of the minds", that plays out like a standard beat 'em up boss battle. Of course you just don't help students with their teenage troubles, you also get to beat up various delinquents and other scum. |
|
Gitaroo Man Lives! | Music/Rhythm | A quirky music game ported from the PS2. Has all original music, representing a wide variety of genres. You fight demons, aliens, and giant robots with the power of rock. Protip: The new Duet songs can be played even without a partner. With a name like "Gitaroo" you might think this is all J-pop and Japanese radio rock, but you would be wrong. Oh, so wrong. |
|
Gladiator Begins | RPG/Beat 'em up/Being a goddamned gladiator | A pretty bare-bones simulator of life as a slave forced into the Roman arenas. What it lacks in level design and mission variety it makes up for in excellent combat mechanics, a metric shitload of customization, and the freedom to punch the helmet off of your opponent's head, and subsequently beat him to death with it. |
|
God of War: Chains of Olympus | Action-Adventure | God of War on the PSP, complete with everyone's favorite button-mashing, quick-time-eventing, gory bald albino Spartan. The graphics are impressive and it has the feel of a full God of War title. |
|
God of War: Ghost of Sparta | Action-Adventure | The second God of War title to be released on the PSP, featuring excellent graphics, new weapons, and a fun mechanic where you can hold a button down to cause your blades to be engulfed in fire, for increased damage. (Drains meter) The game also introduces armored enemies which can only be defeated this way. |
|
Gradius Collection | Shoot 'em up | 'Contains the arcade versions of 1-4. Plus Gradius Gaiden (originally a PS1 exclusive released only in Japan.) |
|
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars | Action-Adventure | Top-down like 1 & 2 (muh nostalgia) which means its hard to see ahead of you when driving fast. It's a port of DS version, so the touchscreen gimmicks have been modified into analog stick wagglin' minigames. The game still has the driving & shooting gameplay and a decent story. Not the best GTA ever made but still recommended for anyone who owns PSP/PPSSPP. |
|
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories | Action-Adventure / TPS | It's GTA 3 on the go with an all-new story. What's not to like? |
|
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories | Action-Adventure / TPS | In this game you play as Victor Vance, BAD ASS SUPAFLY MUHFUGGA and brother of Lance Vance. FUCK SHIT UP YO! Be sure to set the CPU clock speed to 333 if you're running CFW to maximize your fps, and Vice City Stories Cheat Engine for some crazy shit. (Flying cars, driving on walls, and more) |
|
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus | Fighting | The latest update to the GGXX series. Warning, it has a TON of voiced lines for the story mode, so if you want a smaller filesize, go for the older XX. (screen is a little cropped, compared to Wii/PS2 version) |
|
Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Universe | Mech / Shooter | Final entry in the Japan-only Gundam Battle series. If you're a UC Gundam fan, you absolutely have to play this. Addictive gameplay, and has literally every mech from every UC series and movie. Gain skill points after completing missions to enhance your mech. Nothing fancy, but it's serviceable. Unlike other Gundam games, this one plays fast. Fuck walking around like a tool, you're going to be buzzing around like a god damned hornet. Mech models look great. Sadly, Universe is only in moonrunes, but one of its predecessors, Gundam Battle Royale (which is the same game with less content) is almost entirely in English. The first game, Battle Tactics, is also in English, but plays more like the shitty PS2 games. Has a sequel titled Gundam Assault Survive but is generally considered worse than this one. |
|
Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus | Fighting | The latest game of the Gundam vs series, and one of the best ones yet. Has a few extras compared to the arcade version like new mechs, more arcade routes, a mission mode, and more Mobile Armor giant bosses. 4 player ad-hoc is possible. Game is Japan only, but not needed to understand the game. Has sequels on the PS3, Gundam Extreme Vs. and Gundam Extreme Vs. Full boost(Arcade only for now, PS3 port coming soon.) Since PS3 is region free, get Extreme Vs. Instead of this one if you don't have it already. |
|
Gunhound EX | Mech/Run and Gun | Fantastic port of the 2009 PC exclusive and spiritual succesor to Assault Suits Leynos II. Play as a badass mech blowing shit up all over the place, the more shit you blow up; the better your score gets (which is important if you want to get them sweet upgrades). Very hard and punishing, plus the in-game dialog may become annoying very quickly, since the dialog boxes cover a good chunk of the screen and can hide projectiles/enemies coming at you. JP only, but very gaijin-friendly.
Also, play the "Simulator" first, so you get used to the controls and different mechanics |
|
Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure | Action RPG | A charming 3D platformer-RPG ported over from the Japanese-only PC version. It plays close to a modern Ys game (3D Zelda-like with more asskicking and less exploring and gadgets). Lacks some of the extras PC got via patches though. Oh well. |
|
Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom | Visual Novel / Romance | A Samurai Romance aimed at women, but don't let that stop you. Takes place at the end of the Edo period of Japan, and while it is a visual novel romance based on the perspective of a female character, it is essentially a war story that includes memorable characters and a captivating plot. Features Japanese voice acting and multiple endings. Adapted into a two-seasons anime and two different manga series. |
|
Half-Minute Hero | Puzzle, plus added minigames | An assortment of RTS, action RPG, and shoot 'em up(not at the same time though), all with a unique 8-bit art style and built for quick, addictive play. Epic music and witty parody. A sequel was made for PC. |
|
Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl | Farming | An updated PSP port of Back to Nature alongside the only official English release of Back to Nature for Girl, very well done PSP port and Back to Nature may be the greatest Harvest Moon alongside 64. The usual fun, comfy and cute gameplay and atmosphere of Harvest Moon games. |
|
Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley | Farming | A remake/port/sequel (we can't tell) of Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland for PS2. Much better than Save the Homeland. You can get married this time (but still cannot have kids for some reason), there are new features to play with and waifus to court and/or marry. |
|
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law | Courtroom simulator | It's actually made by Capcom, and plays exactly like Phoenix Wright. It's fully animated, and looks just like the show. |
|
Hexyz Force | RPG | Sting takes some elements from Riviera and Evolution to make a surprisingly solid RPG. It actually has TWO pretty different stories (using the same battle system), yet they cross over every so often. Definitely worth a shot if you don't mind something different or are a fan of the two mentioned games above. |
|
Higurashi Daybreak: Portable | Fighting | Port of the PC doujin game. Supports awesome 4 player ad-hoc action. Only available in Japan. |
|
Initial D: Street Stage | Racing | Port of arcade DORFITO racing game, Initial D Arcade Stage 3. Good graphics, nice music, SPEEDY SPEED BOY! |
|
Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier | Platformer / Flight | Continues where Jak 3 left off. Lost Frontier is both a 3D platformer and a surprisingly fleshed out flight game. |
|
Jeanne d'Arc | SRPG | An SRPG version of the story of Joan of Arc, with plenty of anime-style fantasy and voice-acted cutscenes to boot. With good-looking, fully 3D graphics, it's a quality title. Watch out for ZE ACCENTS. |
|
Juiced: Eliminator | Racing | Participate in a variety of events including drag racing, team races, pink slip races, and even exhibition events where the goal is to perform "stunts" in the alloted time. As well as normal races of course. The game has eight rival characters who respect you more as you achieve certain goals. A calendar system is used when choosing events and the whole thing is kind of like an RPG. Tons of courses, and the soundtrack is awesome! |
|
Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble | Being a Badass / Beat 'em up | You are a student in a school trip. You are also a badass who desires to go around kicking the asses of other badasses because you wanna be the ULTIMATE BADASS! Or you can sleep in all week. Takes some elements from God Hand and River City Ransom, which also kickass. Has 3 sequels (and 2 inferior prequels), but none of them have been announced for localization. |
|
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep | Action RPG | A Kingdom Hearts prequel game in which you play three characters- Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. The game can be enjoyed with little to no prior story knowledge. Decent combat plus some exploration/puzzles, combined with excellent graphics for PSP, and an elaborate story that manages to tie into various Disney universes surprisingly well. If your PSP has CFW, there's an english patch for the Final Mix version. New keyblades, d-links and, if you're willing to sacrifice battery, higher-quality textures. |
|
K-On! Houkago Live | Music/Rhythm | You enjoy rhythm games like Guitar Hero? You think you can play them even without the guitar? You honestly believe that 5 buttons and a strum switch is more hardcore than a dpad and 4 buttons? FUCK you. You will get your ass HANDED to you by this moeblob rockband.
K-On is an Anime about cutesy schoolgirls founding a rockband. This is the official game. It has all of the popular songs from the show and a few very good choices from the extended CD's. This is a 5 man group: Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Bass, Keyboard and Drums. You can play EVERY SONG with either of those five, on TWO DIFFICULTY LEVELS and they play COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Lead guitar is heavy on the righthand buttons but throws in a few d-pad commands from time. Rhythm guitar is more balanced but still heavy on the buttons and more inputs. Bass is extremely heavy on the d-pad, because Mio is a lefty. Keyboard uses all the colors of the rainbow and drums will steel your ass with rhythm training. If you search for a challenge and like the J-Pop this is for you. Even if you are rythmic and like rhythm games you will find your balls firmly pressed to the walls. Japanese only but it's not too hard to figure out and works with ppsspp perfectly. This game is great! Gameplay video here |
|
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky First Chapter | RPG | The first of Falcom's highly successful trilogy of story-heavy RPG games, which garnered a lot of popularity in Japan. Plays like your standard console RPG, but in which battles are done is more of a grid based sRPG/cRPG style. If you have the patience, you'll find yourself with the best universe ever created in a videogame, with well developed characters. The ending is build-up for the events of the next game of which is said to be the best part of the series |
|
LittleBigPlanet | Platformer | A port/sequel/spin-off that is nearly identical to the PS3 version, except for less level layers and (obviously) inferior graphics. The level creator is incredibly buggy and convoluted, but the game is pretty decent as a single player romp, with stages that will test both your platforming and puzzle solving skills. |
|
LocoRoco | Platformer | A surreal experience controlling amorphous blobs in a dreamy, pastel world. Definitely worth a look for the smooth animation and unique controls. |
|
Lumines II | Falling Block | An early system seller, Lumines was like a musically themed version of Tetris. The sequel, Lumines II, sports a broader assortment of music and tons more skins, with some skins featuring actual video. Expect to see the entire music video for Black Eyed Peas "Pump It" while you're playing. |
|
Lunar: Silver Star Harmony | RPG | A remix of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete that has new voices, hand-drawn graphics, remastered music, Legend's Arts Gauge, and a new prologue about The Four Heroes. (Note: buying from PSN is HIGHLY recommended as UMD load times can get kinda sucky. The translation and voices could be better (given WD's awesome original), but as is, they get the job done decently. |
|
Macross Ace Frontier | Flight / Combat / Arcade | BEST GRAPHICS. Awesome control. You can even control the original SDFM. Just memorize the moonrune menu, memorize the controls and choose the robots that do the super rockets rather than the melee attack. UPDATE: Macross Ultimate Frontier has been out for a while now. It's the same, but more. Another sequel, Macross Triangle Frontier is also available. |
|
Mawaskes / Puzzle Guzzle | Puzzle | A so-cute-I-can-die puzzler where the goal is to complete diagonal shapes and rack up combos. The more combos you get the more blocks fall on your opponent (like Tetris Attack). It's small, and fits on almost any memory card. Known as "Puzzle Guzzle" in NA and "Mawaskes" everywhere else. |
|
Medal of Honor: Heroes | FPS | A good first person shooter on PSP. (For what that's worth..) It's rather simplistic, but absolutely nails it when it comes to the overall feel of the controls, weapons, sound effects, and reload animations, making the game just satisfying to play. There's even a skirmish mode included. |
|
Mega Man Maverick Hunter X | Platformer | A 3D makeover for the original Mega Man X. Gameplay is pretty much identical. Has an extra game mode where you play as recurring villain, Vile, who has 3 customizable slots for different attacks. |
|
Mega Man Powered Up | Platformer | A remake of the first Mega Man, with a dose of SD and goofy voice acting. Has a remixed soundtrack, remixed level designs, and two new robot masters- Time Man and Oil Man. Also includes an excellent level editor, which happens to be very easy to use. You can also play as all the Robot Masters, MM3 style Megaman, no-suit Rock, Roll (who has tons of alternate outfits), and even Proto Man. |
|
Archer Maclean's Mercury | Puzzle | Control a liquid blob of mercury through a maze. It's sort of like Labyrinth, or Super Monkey Ball, but with a blob instead of a ball. The blob can be rubbed against pointy objects to split into two, which is usually required to solve puzzles. Some puzzles also involve changing the blob's color, and at times you might even need to merge two different colored blobs to create a third color- it's madness! The game received a cel shaded sequel, Mercury Meltdown, which has an enormous amount of stages, and near impossible difficulty. |
|
Metal Gear Ac!d 1 & 2 | Stealth / Combat / CCG | Card-based tactics spin-off to the Metal Gear series. It's surprisingly fun if you approach it with an open mind. Also, STEREOSCOPIC 3D MOTHERFUCKER! |
|
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops | Stealth / Combat | Has a story unlike Portable Ops Plus. There's a lot of plot aspects continuing from 3 and leading into MGS, although it's retconned away by Peace Walker. The game is sparse on voice acting and the controls can take a wee bit of time to get used to. There's around 40 hours worth of content if you play every mission. |
|
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus | Stealth / Combat | This game actually has no story, and is just a stand-alone expansion to the original Portable Ops. The original game is not required, but you can transfer your roster (including unique characters) if you have a save file. You can recruit a shit ton of soldiers including Old Snake and it's essentially there for the new Infinity Mission, which is you running through randomized maps trying to find checkpoints. |
|
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker | Stealth / Combat | Big Boss goes to Costa Rica, starts a mercenary company, and defeats a walking robot that launches nukes - you know how it goes. The game features excellent graphics and offers you a choice between shooter style and action style control schemes. Note that a remaster of the game is available in the MGS HD collection on PS3/360. The remaster is not included in the Vita version of the HD collection, but the PSP version can still be played on it. |
|
Metal Slug Anthology | Run and Gun | Metal Slug 1-6 on the go. Features unlockables like music and wallpapers that you can just get from Google, and the loading and saving features may be off-putting to some, but hey, it's still fucking Metal Slug on the go. |
|
Metal Slug XX | Run and Gun | Upgraded port of Metal Slug 7 for the Nintendo DS. Not the best game in the series, but still pretty awesome. Beautiful sprites and music. Now with MULTIPLAYER and Leona. |
|
Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition | Racing | Quite possibly the best open world racer for the PSP, featuring an insane level of car customization, a robust selection of vehicles (which even includes motorcycles and SUVs!) and a massive campaign spanning three cities. (San Diego, Atlanta, and Detroit) The framerate and load times drag the game down a little, but being such an ambitious port of a PS2/Xbox game, it's understandable. |
|
Midnight Club: L.A. Remix | Racing | L.A. Remix is slightly scaled down compared to the previous game as there are only two cities this time. (L.A. and Tokyo) However the option to use racing bikes is left intact, as are the Zone and Roar abilities. There is nothing quite like sliding through a corner in slo-mo! Definitely try it sometime! |
|
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite | GIANT LIZARD HUNTING SIMULATOR | Monster-hunting gameplay with excellent graphics, a variety of weapons, and a steep learning curve. Just be warned that the game arbitrarily forces you to wait up to 60 seconds every single time you finish a quest, as this can be a deal breaker for some. |
|
Monster Hunter Portable 3rd | Action-Adventure/Monstah Huntin | Includes new armor that sports a very samurai feel, some new weapons, and the ability to have up to 2 felynes/cats as companions. May never leave Japan so rev up that translation patch. There's also a wiki. Some say it's easier compared to MHFU, but it looks MUCH better. Lacks MH3U's underwater combat but also lacks 3U's "half elemental damage" bug.
Ported to PS3 in HD, yet your save data can transfer between both versions, if you, you know, can. "Supposedly" coming out on Vita. |
|
MotorStorm: Arctic Edge | Racing | Fantastic addition to the extreme arcade racing line, Motorstorm gives you stunning visuals, great physics and the most evil AI ever in racing games history. Seriously, if you go with the bike or the ATV, watch the fuck out for that snowplow! And yeah, you can also race with the snowplow crushing your opponents into the ground. The sense of speed is great with snow and mud flying into your face and the music is good too. |
|
N+ | Platformer | A |
|
Nayuta no Kiseki | Action RPG | Completely unrelated to the rest of the saga. Falcom's new take in a "story-driven action RPG". Basically means MGS4 long cutscenes and the action of Ys with anime aesthetics. Only in Japan and contains huge walls of text but the action's still enjoyable. Plays similar to a platformer, with RPG elements and hack n slash gameplay. Amazing soundtrack as expected. Has a English translation (Place names not translated) |
|
Need for Speed: Underground Rivals | Racing | Unexpectedly one of the best racers on the system. It plays really well, has great course design, and a long campaign with some extra race types like drag racing. The game uses a unique setup where every race in the game has three difficulties. If you enjoy a fun, challenging racer and don't mind doing everything three times, give this a look. |
|
Need for Speed: Carbon- Own the City | Racing | A PSP NFS that has both an open world and a story, complete with flashy comic book style sequences. The graphics and framerate are shockingly good for a game that has free roam, and the map is brilliantly designed, complete with hidden crates you can look for. The game puts you immediately into the action and is very easy to get into, while also featuring the ability to recruit wingmen that you can call on in the middle of the race to rustle opponents or set spike traps! (But, umm, try not to run over your own spike trap.) |
|
Neverland Card Battles | Strategy / CCG | Yu-Gi-Oh crossed with a strategy RPG. A rather unique twist of card and strategy games combining a few elements from both for a sort of tactics/card fusion. Gameplay is easy to learn, but deck building can be enjoyably deep at times. Music can get grating rather quickly. |
|
Pangya Fantasy Golf | Golf | Port of the popular Korean golf game. Like Hot Shots Golf, only better. Tons of fun, if you're into faux-weeaboo sports sims or delicious pirate lolis. Pull off some insane, physics defying shots. The story is surprisingly decent, and funny too. |
|
PaRappa the Rapper | Music/Rhythm | FUCK YES YOU ARE THE BEST PORT EVER! |
|
Parodius Portable | Shoot 'em up | Collects all 5 Parodius games, humorous parodies of Konami's own Gradius series. A few song changes, but rofl who cares? Finally, a PLAYABLE version of Parodius MSX! |
|
Patapon | Rhythm RTS | A charming combination of rhythm, action and RTS. You press certain buttons in time to the chanting to make your squad move, attack, etc. Pon Pon Pata Pon. |
|
Patapon 2 | Rhythm RTS | This sequel includes new modes and features, such as the "evolutionary tree" and multiplayer mode. Has double the content than the first one, so it's reccomended to get this one instead if you have to choose just one. |
|
Patapon 3 | Rhythm RTS | The final Patapon game released on the PSP. Has even more content than the second, but the second is preferred since this one only has 4 Patapon you can control, though each being able to be customized quite extensively. Notably darker story and atmosphere, but never gets GRIMDARK or 3EDGY5U. Still quite solid, but not the first you should start with. |
|
Phantasy Star Portable 2 | Action RPG | Basically run around and attack enemies using a variety of melee and ranged weapons, collecting exp and loot along the way. A significant update over Phantasy Star Universe and Phantasy Star Portable- you can roll and block now, and PP is no longer attached to weapons, but a stat like HP. Also features a pretty good if somewhat cheesy story.
An updated version of the game Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity is currently Japan only. but a translation patch is incoming. |
|
Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle | SRPG | Enhanced port of the PS2 NIS game. Loli necromancer and her phantom companions overcome prejudice, do odd jobs for money, save the world. Distinguished from other NI SRPGs in that the movement is not grid-based (which can be exploited, especially on ice levels) and that you can use literally anything you can pick up as a weapon. Even a fish. Even your opponents. As with the Wii port, the PSP version revamps a number of aspects, such as streamlining stat displays, adding a new scenario, some new items and attacks. The PSP version also includes new NPCs, items and hidden quests. |
|
PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe | Tower Defense | A sprite-based tower defense game with a great art style, calming music, and many fun towers to wield. |
|
Pop'n Music Portable 1 and 2 | Music/Rhythm | Part of Konami's "music simulation" series about hitting nine big colorful |
|
Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? | Platformer | Nigh-masochistic platformer (odds are you'll use nearly every life you get, and that's if you're GOOD at it). Features those penguin critters from Disgaea. Extra levels as DLC. |
|
Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! | Platformer | Much improved sequel of the above. Has a baby mode for all of you who found the first too hard and need to practice, as well as some power-ups and stuff to help you out! New DLC and more playable characters like Prinny Laharl and Prinny Asagi. |
|
Power Stone Collection | Fighting | Both of the hugely popular Dreamcast brawlers in one neat package with a few extras. Fun, but I hope you like squinting. |
|
Project Diva + Project Diva 2nd | Music/Rhythm | A very fun rhythm game featuring Vocaloid characters, namely Miku Hatsune. Japanese only, but still easy to figure out. There is a patch that translates the menus into English here : (2nd) out now. Also in arcades in Japan and hi-res when connected to PS3 + DLC.
A third sequel, Extend, is also out and considered the best. Project Diva F is available on PS3 over here in the states. |
|
PQ: Practical Intelligence Quotient 1 & 2 | Puzzle | Engaging puzzle solving in an Intelligent Qube-esque world. |
|
Pursuit Force | Racing | An innovative police chase driving game where you can leap onto enemy vehicles, kill everyone in it, and take control of their car. The controls are simple, but the game offers a surprising amount of strategy, and the mission designs do a good job of exploring the concept as much as possible. That said, the game is really freaking hard- be prepared to plan your actions ahead of time and restart (many, many times) the moment things don't go perfectly. Curiously, sleep mode is disabled while the game is running. |
|
Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice | Racing / Third Person Shooter | Differs from its predecessor in a major way. The on-foot segments are a much bigger emphasis this time around, and they received an overhaul- you must stop moving to fire your gun, and aiming is done manually with the analog nub. It's solidly executed, and as close as you're going to get to a Resident Evil 4 like game on the PSP. |
|
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords | Match-3 | An addictive 'RPG', where the battles are actually Bejeweled-style puzzle games. The sort of game where you think 'just one more fight', then you realize it's 4:30 in the morning. Prepare to cuss, your enemies cheat or get lucky always. |
|
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters | Platformer | A well-made hybrid 3D platformer slash third person shooter, that manages to be one of the best games in either genre on the PSP. You'll also dig the great graphics and music, and the sense of humor. |
|
Rengoku II: The Stairway to H.E.A.V.E.N. | Action RPG | You play as Gram, a combat android who is trying to remember his past life as a human and what happened leading up to his death. As you would probably expect, this involves climbing a tower and taking down robotic floor bosses based on the seven deadly sins. Each part of your body- legs, torso, head, and both arms, can be swapped out with other parts that can be found from defeated enemies. Thus, the game is sort of like an on-foot version of Armored Core, and features incredibly fluid hit detection, controls, and gameplay, as well as an awesome soundtrack. Depending on what kind of weapons you decide to equip, the game is either a beat-em-up or a third person shooter, or both. |
|
Resistance: Retribution | Third Person Shooter | Big budget rollercoaster ride with top notch graphics and great one-liners. The game is very pick up and play, and all of the guns possess secondary fire functions with interesting effects. |
|
Ridge Racer | Racing | It's Ridge Racer. RIIIIIIIIDGE RACER! Features incredibly fluid and innovative gameplay, and has many of the tracks from the series' past. If you like this, there's also the Europe/Japan only Ridge Racer 2, but aside from the addition of a several courses, the majority of which are from Ridge Racer Type 4, virtually nothing was changed. |
|
Riviera: The Promised Land | RPG | An upgraded port of the GBA version. Now fully voiced, with remixed music and translation, and other additions. Note that the sprites are merely upscaled versions of the original GBA. Nice backdrops make up for this, however. Game is basically a waifu simulator thinly veiled behind RPG battles if you like this stuff. |
|
Salamander Portable | Shoot 'em up | More Konami shmup goodness. Contains the arcade Salamander, Life Force, the awesome but short Salamander 2, an updated Gradius 2 from MSX, and the first system port of XEXEX. |
|
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona | RPG | Different from more recent entries, but the translation's been revamped and everything is smoother (in loading and accessibility) and has a number of nice additions such as animated cutscenes and some new music. Dungeons are first-person maze crawling, similar to old SMT and the recent Strange Journey. |
|
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2: Innocent Sin | RPG | It's an enhanced port of the Persona game the west never got due to some questionable content in the plot (such as Hitler). The game takes place in a town with a curse that makes all rumors come to reality. The delinquent Tatsuya and his friends have to use the powers hidden in their mind to battle an evil cult. The characters and story are amazing and the best in the series. The gameplay is manual command and/or tactics-driven (you choose) and your party can combine some spells for powerful combo spells.
A remake of the direct sequel, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, is also on PSP with a fan translation in the works. |
|
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable | RPG | A port of Persona 3 for the PSP. Includes the ability to play as a female protagonist with a "new" storyline. It fixes many of the original's annoyances, such as not being able to take control of your allies. |
|
Sid Meier's Pirates! | Strategy / Action-Adventure | YARR HARR FIDDLE-DEE-DEE, BEING A PIRATE IS ALRIGHT WITH ME! DO WHAT YOU WANT ´CAUSE A PIRATE IS FREE, YOU ARE A PIRATE! |
|
Silent Hill: Origins | Adventure | Easily one of the greatest PSP games, offering a huge world to explore, elaborate puzzles, a mesmerizing story, and stunning environments. There's also a "light/dark world" mechanic wherein you're able to transport yourself between two versions of the world by touching any mirror you find. |
|
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories | Adventure / "Walking Simulator" | It isn't connected to the other Silent Hill titles, and there's virtually no combat, but it is a pretty damn good psychological horror game on its own, with great characters and a story that keeps you constantly guessing. It's also a great looking game and a technical showcase- your flashlight casts shadows behind objects in real time! |
|
Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny | Fighting | Lacks a familiar Arcade Mode, but boasts an impressive selection of SC characters both old and new. A completely new original character, Dampierre, and Kratos from God of War join the traditional cast. No real story mode but still good to practice. |
|
Space Invaders Extreme | Shoot 'em Up | A fun remake of the classic alien shooting game, with all new graphics, effects, multipliers, powerups, and groovy music. Also available on Nintendo DS and Xbox Live Arcade. |
|
Split Second Velocity | Racing | Split Second grants you the ability to detonate parts of the environment in order to eliminate opponents or gain shortcuts. The "power plays", as they're called, are amazing to behold and feature a tremendous amount of variety. The amount of detail put into each course is staggering, as is the fact that they managed to pull it all off on the PSP. |
|
Star Ocean: Second Evolution | RPG | Slightly revised (and easier) port of Star Ocean: The Second Story from ye olde Playstation, featuring a few extras, such as backdrops for cutscenes, animated FMVs, and is almost fully voiced with some pretty good VAs, which is bittersweet. Because there is NO TEARAN INTO PIECES, or CRAWD ADVANCE FOWARDAN. |
|
Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX / Street Fighter Zero 3 Double Upper | Fighting | The most featured pack of any of the ports. Has all the extra characters the GBA port, also Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution. All the extra features from the PS1 and DC versions, and the Reverse Dramatic Battle that was formerly exclusive to the Saturn port.
Just be warned that the game does not contain any command lists. (Although the options menu lets you map specials to any of the main buttons.) |
|
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror | Third Person Shooter | Dark Mirror puts a number of gadgets at your disposal such as ziplines, infrared goggles, and a dart rifle with the choice of poisonous, explosive, or taser darts. Despite the PSP having only one analog, the game is surprisingly playable since it features a cover system, many guns include a lock-on function, and sneaking up on enemies with the combat knife is just really damn fun.
By the same studio that made the PSP Resistance game. Also has a sequel, Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow, but it's extremely glitchy. Only recommended if you just want to see how the saga ends. |
|
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together | SRPG | A remake of the PlayStation game, which was originally released on the Super Famicom and PSX. Created by the team that worked on the original, this version contains upgraded graphics, new characters, more maps along with MANY gameplay tweaks, which makes for a refreshing and quite different experience. Translation is new as well. |
|
Taiko no Tatsujin Portable 1, 2 & DX | Music/Rhythm | A taiko-drumming music game. Clean 2D graphics and addictive gameplay make it a must for any fan of rhythm games. Portable 2 expands a lot on its predecessor with more than 50 songs (and free DLC!), and the last iteration, Portable DX, tops the list with more than 70 songs (and DLC!), a full story mode and etc. Not like you'd be playing for the story anyway. And last but not least, DX is the only Taiko game on the PSP to feature costumes! Monster Hunter and Hatsune Miku costumes are available along with songs from both games :3 The only problem is that DX ditched minigames, present in previous versions, entirely. Also, YOU WA SHOCK! |
|
Tales of Eternia | RPG | A port of the PS1 game (known as Tales of Destiny 2 in the States, but it's not the actual ToD2), nothing major really changed unless you count the cropped image (to fit into widescreen ratio) and some changes to control (PSP have no R2 or L2, duh?). It was great then and it's still great now. No, it wasn't released in America, but it was in Europe. In English. Pick it up if you haven't played it yet. |
|
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology | RPG | Quest-based spin-off of the Tales series with good, bright graphics but horrible voice acting, you can turn it off though. You can also dress your male characters in pink frilly dresses from Idolmaster so they can be the leetle girl. There have also been two more games released (in Japan only) with the third game bringing in a total of 80 Tales characters (some unique though most are from former games). English patches for both sequels are available, translating everything nessesary to play the game (skits and story text are not translated). |
|
Tekken - Dark Resurrection | Fighting | An arcade fighting game featuring sick moves, memorable characters, and fun, responsive gameplay. Includes a quick tutorial to get you up to speed and an excellent practice mode that lets you pin moves to the screen or watch the AI perform them. Also included is a Dojo mode which pits you against various AI as you try to increase you rank, eventually unlocking more dojos with even tougher AI opponents. It's like a career mode, and pretty great. You can even customize your character. |
|
Tekken 6 | Fighting | Introduces six new characters, but the dojo mode has been cut and the story mode is only four opponents long. (And contains NO story battles) The game can still be an interesting diversion however, provided you care about unlocking the ending FMVs for all 40 characters, and provided you enjoy the Azazel battle, since the majority of playtime is spent fighting it. Beyond that, there's not much to do but grind for G to buy clothes/hairstyles with. |
|
Test Drive Unlimited | Racing | Build up a collection of exotic cars and take them for a spin on hundreds of miles of open road. This is one of the largest open world games ever created on any platform, the fact they somehow fit it on a PSP is very noteworthy in itself, and the graphics still manage to look quite good. Because of the sheer scope of the in-game environment, the later races can get to be really epic. It's also really enjoyable to just drive around and explore. |
|
The Warriors | Beat 'em up | A very immersive game that sits somewhere between being a GTA game and arcade brawler. Aside from fighting other gangs, some chapters will have you looting stores, causing mayhem, or spraypaint. The game's final chapter, which is an almost 1:1 adaptation of the film, will probably have you running to check out the film afterwards. |
|
Tokobot | Action-Adventure | A quirky Zelda OoT-style romp in which you solve puzzles and defeat enemies with the aid of small chicken-like robots, apparently. Has a PS2 remix with a few extras, but nothing major. |
|
Tomb Raider Anniversary | Adventure | The Tomb Raider remake looks and plays great on the small screen. Lots of stuff to unlock as well. Also on other platforms. |
|
Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix | Skateboarding | A nice port visually and gameplay-wise, but also adds a nice amount of fresh content, like entirely new levels. (They're not half bad, either.) |
|
Twinbee Portable | Shoot 'em up | 5 Twinbees on one UMD. Twinbee, Detana!! Twinbee, Twinbee Yahho!, Pop'n Twinbee from the Super Famicom, and even an updated port of Twinbee da! from Game Boy. |
|
Ultimate Ghosts and Goblins | Platformer | A very nice NOTE: If you don't want the unnecessary RPGish crap, there's a JP exclusive revision that's closer to the arcade experience. |
|
Valkyria Chronicles II | Tactical Shoota/Anime Simulation | Same as the first game with all the fun RPG strategy gameplay condensed to the PSP, however it is somewhat less interesting, not by much, due to cliché characters and plot. |
|
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth | RPG | Ported from the PSX with new, gorgeous FMV's. The 2D platforming and battles have aged very well, and the game uses a unique battle system, if somewhat confusing to newcomers. |
|
Virtua Tennis: World Tour / Virtua Tennis 3 | Tennis | A nicely polished game of tennis. Surprisingly fun even if you don't give two shits about the actual sport. |
|
Warhammer 40K Squad Command | Strategy | A nice turned-based tactical combat title. It's |
|
What Did I Do To Deserve This, My Lord!? 2 | Strategy / Defense | Build a dungeon, populate it with minions, hide the Overlord from the invading heroes. Short, sweet and very addicting. The first game in the series, Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do To Deserve This?, is included here, so no need to pick that one up.
Sequel number 3 is released too, titled "No Heroes Allowed". Much easier due to abusing the new water mechanic, but still hard (If you don't abuse the water, I mean) |
|
Wild Arms XF | SRPG | Has an incredible skill and class system that could arguably be put close to FFT's scale once you get every job/class. There's also varied maps/missions that require actual strategy and great music. |
|
Wipeout Pure / Wipeout Pulse | Racing | Both Wipeout games boast a great soundtrack, lots to unlock, and an insane sense of speed. These are a good pick if you're up for the challenge. |
|
WTF: Work Time Fun | Minigames | A fucking weird WarioWare-style minigame collection. |
|
Ys I & II Chronicles | Action RPG | Yet another remake of the original Ys duology. Almost the same as the Complete version for PC however, you can pick between two art styles for portraits and 3 soundtracks from the various remakes, one of which is exclusive to this version. Originally being a 1987-88 game and a port of a 2001 remake it's obviously dated however if you can accept this fact you'll find yourself with a very enjoyable game. |
|
Ys Seven | Action RPG | In Ys Seven you always travel in a party of three and can switch characters on the fly. Each character has either a slash, pierce, or smash attack type, each type being effective against certain types of enemies. The game is surprisingly damn long and features an excellent soundtrack. |
|
Ys: The Oath in Felghana | Action RPG | This is Ys III completely remade to play similarly to later Ys games, but still uses some faux side scrolling elements on occasion and even features platforming unlike Ys Seven. Expect some really difficult, white-knuckle boss fights. Don't worry, as the game actually lets you lower the difficulty if you fail a boss too many times. |
|
Yu-Gi-Oh Tag Force series | Card battle / Dating sim thingy | Tag Force 1-3 are based off the GX series, whereas 4-6 are based on 5D's. The first one is by far the easiest for beginners to get into, but gets stale quickly as the progression is mind-numbingly slow. With the free exploration aspect comes the dating sim-ish part which you have to focus on in order to progress in the story, and unfortunately it becomes very tedious in a very short time. Sadly, this is pretty much obligatory, considering the fact that you have to bond with people for them to join you in Tag Duels. Nevertheless, the games become better (and less beginner-friendly) with each installment, but mind that Tag Force 6 is not localized and current state of the English fan translation leaves the story mode completely in Japanese.
A seventh game, ARC-V Tag Force Special, is a crossover featuring characters from all series and over 8000 cards. JP only, but look for an English translation. |
|
Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman | RPG | Explore turn based dungeons as you train to become the Unlosing Ranger. Lots of humor, customization, and unique gameplay, with randomly generated maps that add tons of replay value. In this game you always start at level 1, but your base stats increase every time you die. If you're up for a challenge, be sure to pick this up. It's one of the better roguelikes this generation. |
Recommendation Copypasta
| Seventh Generation | ||
| Consoles | Mattel HyperScan - ZAPiT Game Wave - Sony PlayStation 3 - Nintendo Wii - Microsoft Xbox 360 - Tec Toy Zeebo | |
| Handhelds | GPH Caanoo - Tiger Telematics Gizmondo - GPH GP2X - Nintendo DS - Sony PlayStation Portable - Conny Pocket Dream Console | |