Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar Toronto , Rockstar Leeds
Genre: Beat-'Em-Up
Release Date: Feb 12, 2007
Language: MULTI
Type: .CSO
Size: 1.52 GB

Description:

Back in 2005, Rockstar released The Warriors for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, a beat-'em-up based on Walter Hill's 1979 cult classic film of the same name. While it might seem like an odd choice for a developer to sink any effort into retelling such an obscure and weird movie through game form, The Warriors proved that such an endeavor could be well worth the effort. The Warriors didn't just retell the film--it added a huge amount of backstory to the characters and situations, and it was good backstory too. On top of that, the gameplay served as some of the best beat-'em-up action you could find in the 3D era of gaming, thanks to a steadfast dedication to making gang battles look and feel just right. Now The Warriors has gone the PS2 hand-me-down route and made its way to the PSP, but unlike so many of the previous PS2 ports to hit the system, The Warriors makes for a comfortable fit on Sony's handheld. The gameplay, storyline, and presentational elements have all held up with only a few little translation kinks here and there, and rather than shove in a bunch of unplayable extra content in a vain attempt to make the game look new and fresh 18 months later, Rockstar elected to keep the price low at a mere $20. If you have never experienced the game on other platforms, that's a hard deal to pass up.
The Warriors documents the trials and tribulations of, well, the Warriors, just one of hundreds of gangs bopping their way around New York City in the late 1970s. The movie from 1979 picked up just as the Warriors were on their way to a huge meeting, held by one of the city's biggest gangs, the Gramercy Riffs, and its enigmatic leader, Cyrus. At this meeting, Cyrus poses a single question to the hundreds of gang representatives in attendance: "Can you count, suckas?" Pointing out that together the various gangs of the city outnumber the police by a three-to-one margin, Cyrus lays out his plans for a unified gang movement--a single 60,000-member gang that could rule New York. But just when it seems like the crowd is behind him, a lone gunman fires, killing Cyrus and sending the crowd scattering as police surround the area. The opening scene of the game shows this exact sequence of events but shifts dramatically away from the movie from this point forward. From there, we hop into the wayback machine to a few months before this meeting, a time when the Warriors were still working to up their rep on the streets.

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Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sumo Digital
Genre: Tennis
Release Date: Oct 7, 2005
Language: MULTI
Type: .CSO
Size: 153 MB

Description:

If the sole objective of a game for a handheld system like the PSP were to emulate an existing console video game, then Virtua Tennis: World Tour would be a smashing success. Everything found in Tennis 2K2 for the Dreamcast (which became Sega Sports Tennis upon its arrival on the PlayStation 2) can be found in World Tour. Despite the relative age of the source material and the number of times Sega has trotted it out already, the gameplay is still zippy and fun, and the whole package generally feels pretty fresh, thanks to some subtle tweaks.
It can be taken for granted that World Tour will be instantly accessible for those with prior Virtua Tennis experience, though even first-timers will find the controls to be both intuitive and responsive. You can use either the D pad or the analog stick for player movement, and when you're charging up for a swing, the direction you hold will influence the trajectory of the ball. The X, square, and circle buttons on the PSP correspond to three different swing types, though beginners can just use the standard topspin shot to get by for a while. Sooner or later, though, you'll meet an opponent who will clean the court with you if you don't also learn how to take advantage of the lob and slice shots. This is actually very indicative of how Virtua Tennis handles the learning curve on the whole. Basically, even if you don't know what you're doing, you can pick up the fundamentals and have fun for a while, though the game never stops gently nudging you to improve your overall play.

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Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment
Developer: Sony Online Entertainment
Genre: Action Role-Playing
Release Date: Mar 22, 2005
Language: MULTI
Type: .ISO
Size: 338 MB

Description:

It seems somewhat curious that Sony Online Entertainment, the company that popularized the term "massively multiplayer" with EverQuest, would not capitalize on the fairly rich universe that's grown from its seminal online role-playing game for its first game for the PSP, a hack-and-slash RPG called Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade. Unlike the EverQuest-derived Champions of Norrath games, which serve as the template for Untold Legends, this game features a whole new high-fantasy universe, albeit one recycled almost entirely out of rather generic Dungeons & Dragons parts. It has the right idea, which is basically the same idea that made the analogous Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath so enjoyable, but there's not much enthusiasm in Untold Legends. This leaves a game that, while hitting most of the necessary bullet points, is just going through the motions.
The lineage that birthed Untold Legends is pretty clear. From Diablo to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance to Champions of Norrath, this is a hack-and-slash RPG that follows closely in the footsteps of its predecessors. You'll choose your character from a small pool of magic users and fighters, and your choice here will determine what types of equipment you'll be able to use, whether you'll focus on ranged attacks or up-close melee attacks, and whether you'll depend on "power" (more traditionally referred to as mana). All the combat happens in real time, which works well enough for the most part, though certain choices made in compacting the established control template onto the PSP--specifically, demanding that you hold both the right trigger and the circle button to block attacks--are a little clumsy.

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Publisher: Codemasters
Developer: Codemasters
Genre: Cricket
Release Date: Aug 31, 2007 (EU)
Language: English
Type: .ISO
Size: 319 MB

Description:

Ricky Ponting 2007 Pressure Play (otherwise known as Brian Lara Pressure Play for gamers in the UK) is the first appearance of Codemasters' long-running cricket series on the PSP, although the UK-based company has handed over development reins on this game to Australian development house IR Gurus. Pressure Play is, in essence, a stripped-back version of the console games released earlier this year and features a similar gameplay style but with far fewer match options packed into it.
Codemasters' International Cricket games in 2007 focused almost exclusively on the one-day form of the game, with the main gameplay mode being the ICC Cricket World Cup held in the West Indies earlier this year. Pressure Play for the PSP similarly focuses on the World Cup, with all of the official teams, player names, and uniforms included. Sadly, all of the other modes included in the console version--such as test matches, Twenty20 games, and the ICC Champions Trophy--have been left out, making for a pretty meagre experience once you get bored of reliving the ICC Cricket World Cup. The gameplay of the International Cricket 2007 games were already pretty bare mode-wise, but Pressure Play is even worse, meaning its long-term appeal is severely restricted. Thankfully, Pressure Play also features a two-player multiplayer mode via wireless, allowing you to extend your gameplay with any friends who may also have the game.

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Publisher: Konami
Developer: Creat Studio
Genre: Sci-Fi Adventure
Release Date: Sep 18, 2007
Language: English
Type: .CSO
Size: 216 MB

Description:

The original Coded Arms was nothing special, but it did garner a fair share of attention because it was the first first-person shooter for the PSP and people were curious about how the game would handle the system's lack of a second analog stick. It wasn't really much of a game, but apparently someone thought a sequel was necessary. Enter Coded Arms: Contagion. It improves on its predecessor in a few ways and does have online play, but those improvements aren't enough to make it good. Combat is still dull, the story is unoriginal, and the level design is average. There's nothing truly interesting about the game--it's just sort of there.
Contagion's story is a mishmash of a bunch of generic sci-fi themes. Cliché one: You're an elite special forces agent. Cliché two: You've got futuristic armor and a fancy heads-up display. Cliché three: During a routine training mission, things go awry when (cliché four) the virtual reality simulation goes haywire. Cliché five: It's up to you to figure out what's going on, (cliché six) save your squad, and (cliché seven) stop the terrorist group hell-bent on yadda, yadda, yadda...
Like other PSP FPSs, Contagion's control scheme is hardly ideal but does the best it can with the handheld's single analog stick. There are several different control schemes to choose from, but the default layout will probably work best. You move with the analog stick, look around with the face buttons, fire with the right shoulder button, and jump with the left shoulder button. You also lock-on, reload, change weapons, and zoom with the D pad.

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Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Genre: Mission-based Driving
Release Date: Aug 7, 2007
Language: English
Type: .CSO
Size: 306 MB

Description:

Sad as it is to report, Crazy Taxi just isn't very much fun anymore. Though they were once shining examples of over-the-top, wacky-as-heck arcade driving games, the original and its sequels have not been treated kindly by the years, a fact highlighted by Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars for the PSP. This release includes Dreamcast ports of both Crazy Taxi and its follow-up, Crazy Taxi 2, then tosses in a bit of ad-hoc multiplayer, and calls it a day. What it doesn't do is adjust the game in any way, shape, or form for modern times. The shallowness of the gameplay is likely to turn off anyone who isn't intensely nostalgic for all things Crazy Taxi. And even those folk will likely take umbrage with the sluggish gameplay and dodgy controls in this version.
Any card-carrying Sega fan already knows what to expect from these two games, but for the uninitiated, a brief synopsis. In both games, your goal is to take control of one of four different cabbies and drive around the city lickety-split, picking up customers and getting them to their desired location. That might not sound like much of a concept, but the thing that made the games so much fun back in the day was the jaunty, kooky nature of the gameplay, where driving like a maniac to fly over hills and narrowly avoid head-on collisions actually made your passengers happier and increased your score. Cars bounce off one another like they're made of rubber, and insane drifts take the place of proper steering. Likewise, big jumps litter every city block, and in Crazy Taxi 2, you can even use supercharged hydraulics to leap over any oncoming traffic. The game also imposed some rather stiff time limits for each passenger, lending to the immediacy and frantic pacing of it all.

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Publisher: NIS America
Developer: Hit Maker
Genre: Role-Playing
Release Date: Aug 21, 2007
Language: English + Japanese
Type: .CSO
Size: 245 MB

Description:

It's not been a good year for dragons in games. Case in point: Dragoneer's Aria. There are lumbering lizards in it, but the game itself is as dull as a bread knife. And don't expect to find out what arias have to do with anything, either. This turn-based role-playing game tells a nondescript story, features unbearably slow battles, and misses the mark in almost every facet that makes RPGs fun to play. In fact, Dragoneer's Aria is the opposite of fun, and it's a game you'll do best to avoid.
You play as Valen, an academy student whose graduation is cut short by the attack of a mean black dragon. Seems the same dragon once hurled the world into chaos centuries before, and now he's back to destroy the friendly dragons that keep the world in balance. So Valen and his ultrafeminine braided pigtail depart from the city of Granadis to save the good dragons, though as is standard for this type of game, he gathers a few friends along the way. The naïve healer Euphe is so sweet she might as well have been dipped in sugar, while Ruslan's sarcastic attitude gives him the typical bad-boy-with-a-heart-of-gold role. The most interesting character is Mary, a pirate who breathes occasional life into the mundane dialogue but still can't save the plot from mediocrity. Even the twists don't make things interesting, since you can see them coming from a mile away.

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Publisher: Interchannel
Developer: Sumo Digital
Genre: Driving
Release Date: Dec 14, 2006 (JP)
Language: MULTI
Type: .CSO
Size: 800 MB

Description:

Codemasters is bringing its most extensive motorsports game to the PSP, complete with authentic performance cars, realistic damage, and challenging AI.

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Publisher: Atari
Developer: Kuju Entertainment
Genre: Fantasy Turn-Based
Release Date: Aug 14, 2007
Language: English
Type: .CSO
Size: 266 MB

Description:

Rarely is sorting through after-battle loot handled as poorly as it is in Dungeons & Dragons Tactics. While this PSP title from Kuju Entertainment is a mostly satisfying look at hardcore role playing, courtesy of slavish attention to D&D's version 3.5 rule set, a spectacularly awkward interface slows the action to a crawl both before and after the long swords come out. Venturing into the bowels of the earth to slay dragons and load up on gold pieces has rarely been so tedious.
Despite the title, D&D Tactics is actually a fairly straightforward turn-based RPG. The emphasis on tactical combat is only about as pronounced as you'd find in something like the old Gold Box games, which actually seems old-school appropriate for the debut of D&D on the PSP. Battles are the primary focus here, making the pace more measured than the standard contemporary RPG. But even though you need to have some appreciation for the 3.5 edition of the pen-and-paper D&D rules to truly enjoy this game, combat intricacies aren't too over-the-top. For the most part, you just need to have a reasonable idea of how to use each character class when it comes to melee and ranged fights, as well as some common sense when it comes to whipping out area-effect spells, such as a fireball. If you're a total newbie at this stuff, at least there are four opening tutorials to get you up to speed.

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Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: EA Canada
Genre: Soccer Sim
Release Date: Oct 8, 2007
Language: English
Type: .CSO
Size: 893 MB

Description:

You've got to hand it to EA Sports--whatever the platform, the developer knows how to take advantage of the hardware. FIFA 08 for the PlayStation Portable offers pretty much everything you could ask of a handheld football game, with local and online multiplayer, multiple game modes, and the ability to transfer data to and from the PlayStation 2. It also plays a solid game of football, and while it's not up to the standard of the home console versions, it's definitely fun to play.
EA Sports has crammed a lot into the game this year, and much of the content is exclusive to the PSP. While there are the usual quick match and tournament options, the supplementary modes really add a lot of longevity to the game. Take the football IQ mode, for example: It's a football quiz where you answer questions to score goals. If you correctly answer successive questions, your team dribbles the ball toward the goal, and if you answer incorrectly it comes back toward your own. Reach the goal and you have to answer two difficult questions in order to score, and if the other team is in a similar position you must give the right answer to save it. The game begins with easy questions about your favourite team and league, then moves on to other leagues and countries as you progress.

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