I am doing video games, movies, music, and hobby games.
And like any good nerd I love me some video games. And I have the most unfairly maligned system that was still somewhat popular, the Playstation Portable. (PSP)
It had issues like a disk format on a portable machine and Sony's terrible memory card formats. But.. its also got some KILLER games if you like Roleplaying and Strategy games. (This blog shows where I stand.)
So.. let me show you my games!
We have Activision Hits Remixed which has a ton of good Activision and Imagic Atari 2600 games with cool 80s hits to listen to while playing (Atari 8 bit and C64 versions of many are better but nobody cares about the good stuff..) Adventures to Go is an ok SRPG. Atari Classics Evolved has neat versions of classic arcade games but to unlock the 2600 games you need to complete ALL ACHIEVEMENTS. No. BS. Blokus Portable is.. Blokus! And this is good. Capcom Collection is of course arcade titles from Capcom's glory days. Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles has the Japan only Rondo of Blood in original PC Engine AND a modern remade form, and the beloved Symphony of the Night. Darkstalkers Chronicle is more 2d fighting fun with a gob of Darkstalker characters. D&D Tactics is the closest thing to a proper D&D 3.5 game we have ever gotten and is really good once you get past a few issues. Dungeon Explorer is a lame Action RPG. EA Replay is basically (sadly) a collection of SNES roms and is thus inferior versions of classic titles most of the time. (SNES Ultima 7? WHYYY) Field Commander is an Advance Wars ripoff but fun. FF 4 Complete Collection is a MASSIVE compilation of Final Fantasy 4 and the downloadable sequel installments. But it still has you grinding like its 1991. Haven't played Crisis Core FF7 yet. Final Fantasy Tactics is one of the greatest SRPGs ever made this time with a good translation and bad load times. Generations of Chaos is one of the reasons I bought the PSP as it is very similar to Dragon Force on the Sega Saturn. Only not as good.
Ghostbusters is much like the PS2 and Wii versions with a cartoony style. Hopefully unlike the PS2 version it isn't crash happy. Gradius Collection is nearly every arcade Gradius title with save stating to get by how abusive the Gradius gameplay power up system is. Gripshift is kind of like Trackmania but not as good. Jeanne D Arc is a SRPG based around a fantasy version of well.. the Maid of Orleans herself. It is good. Jikandia is a cute looking and funny but unfun action platformer. Lemmings is a remake of the classic puzzler. Little Big Planet is the portable edition of the amazing platform game where you can make your own levels. Lord of the Rings Tactics is an ok SRPG with not much RPG at all. Lumines is a decent puzzle genre game. The Macross Frontier games are Japan only action games and are quite fun if you are a Macross dork like me and enjoy replaying the anime series. Mega Man Powered Up is a remake of the original Mega Man and also a construction kit. Maverick Hunter X is just a remake of Mega Man X. Both are pretty good and I am not even a big Mega Man fan. Metal Gear Acid 2 is a SRPG that uses a CCG mechanism. Its.. interesting but I need to give it more time. Mytran Wars is a turn based wargame that gets really bogged down with points grinding and long drawn out mech on alien crystal mech thing fights.
Pangya is basically Anime Golf. Fun because its Golf. Kind of creepy because its anime. Phantasy Star Portable 1-2 use the kind of sucky Phantasy Star Universe system of Action RPG. But they are Phantasy Star so I am required by LAW to buy them. Havent played Pololocrois which is an RPG, or Prinny which is an action game starring Disgaea's Prinnies. (Penguins who are low level sinners in hell who basically are abused by everyone until they pay their debts back.) R Type Command is a turn based wargame based on the R Type SHMUP series. Its really good. Rainbow Islands is a remake of the classic arcade game and pretty decent. The game under my flash is Salamander Collection, a Japan only collection of the Salamander/Life Force SHMUPS. I love me some Life Force. I haven't played Spectral Souls which is a SRPG. Star Trek Tactical Assault is similar to Starfleet Command and is a Real Time version of Starfleet Battles. Except it doesn't really control well. Star Wars Battlefront Renegade Squadron is a fun mission based Battlefield 1942 styled game only pint sized and with a fun story mode for us solo players. Tactics Ogre I haven't played yet but its a SRPG many people recommend highly. Valkyrie Profile is an absolutely AMAZING JRPG with platforming elements. Control a Valkyrie who is preparing warriors for Valhalla! Valkyria Chronicles 2 is a cool SRPG based on its amazing PS3 big brother. This one has better gameplay but a waaay weaker story (high school military academy? REALLY JAPAN?) and worse graphics than the game it is a sequel to. Warhammer is a CCG based on the tabletop CCG nobody played because it wasn't Magic or Yu Gi Oh. I haven't played it yet.
Warhammer 40K Squad Command is a decently fun turn based tactical wargame based on 40K though not using real 40K rules. Sadly the game itself is a prettied up but dumbed down version of a pair of N Gage WW2 games (I will talk about them in a later post.) Silent Hill Experience is more or less like DVD bonus features about Silent Hill games. Trails in the Sky is an absolutely MASSIVE JRPG I have yet to finish but I do quite enjoy it. Persona 2 I have just started. The Shin Megami Tensei games are a series of JRPGs normally taking place in modern times but you still have demons and such to fight and have magic and whatnot. The Persona subseries is about high school kids fighting them. I haven't gotten too far and am not sure what to think about it, or its system where you can try talking to the monsters before most fights. One of the characters in it is a white girl in Japan whose dad is a Japanophile but she loves Kung Fu movies and Chinese culture. She is kind of hilarious and rad. The three Ys collections are two remakes and one original game in the long running action RPG series. Oath in Felghana is absolutely amazing and might be my favorite Action RPG ever. 1&2 Chronicle is pretty good but keeps the original Ys combat mechanic of just bumping into things. 7 adds in a party system but I reached a point where it was nothing but backtracking to nearly every dungeon in the game but only a certain way to reach said dungeons and I play slowly at work on breaks with portable games so just gave up.
And that's my PSP collection as it stands. (I also have Ultimate Ghosts n Goblins but it can be featured in the follow up pictures I will be taking or have taken since the original collection photos were taken. Retro gaming is a hell of a drug!) I like the machine but for some reason it was never well regarded. Most of the titles I have you could only buy online or in Gamestops so most people never even heard of them sadly.
And that's kind of the problem. Its a great enthusiast machine but a mediocre mainstream one. Why play cut down versions of sports games you already have on the big machines?
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