The PSP was ambition personified, so much so that it’s kinda wild to look back and realise what exactly Sony cooked up in 2004. For a 21 year old handheld, the PSP shot for the moon with its tech, and so did today’s games.
Boxer’s Road 2: The Real
Remember boxing games, anyone? Seems like the gaming industry bloody doesn’t, as EA have left the Fight Night series dormant, and the last proper boxing game we got was Undisputed, which was fine.
During the PSP era and before it, boxing games were a lot more prevalent, but even the mighty Fight Night struggled to make the jump to handheld as the “swing stick” that controlled punching couldn’t make the move to the analog stick-less PSP. Thankfully for the boxing game fans in Japan (or those with the dosh to import), Boxer’s Road 2: The Real was a fitting replacement.
A sequel to a PS1 boxing game — love that Geocities box art — Boxer’s Road 2: The Real uses the D-pad for movement and the face buttons for punching, but the PSP bumpers are used to either sway or modify the punches you throw. It’s a bit of a complicated system, as the swaying especially is what separates the pros from the bozos, but once you’ve got your head around it, the gameplay is way more rewarding than any other boxing game on PSP.
Throw in an intricate career mode, where your weight and fighting style mattered so much more than in other boxing games, and even a first-person perspective if you really wanna be a sicko, and you’ve got a real boxing contender right here. Love to see this break from its chains here.
God Of War: Chains Of Olympus/Ghost Of Sparta
But yeah, look. We’re just going to be honest here: some of the most impressive PSP games of all-time are the ones that are just scaled-down PS2 games that still manage to capture everything that the big brother counterpart is capable of. Is that the most interesting thing in the world? You tell us in the comments, but there’s no denying that games like God Of War: Chains Of Olympus and Ghost Of Sparta had no rig ht actually working as well as they did on the PSP.
Despite missing the right analog stick used for dodging attacks in God Of War, both Chains Of Olympus and Ghost Of Sparta managed to fully translate the core combat experience with the smaller number of buttons. What’s more impressive though is that the actual action on screen hasn’t missed a step either. From massive bosses to waves of enemies, the cinematic action of God Of War fully made the transition to the smaller screen.
There’s even the occasional breaks for puzzle solving too, making it a complete 1:1 translation. Ready At Dawn’s ambition could have sunk this project, but God Of War on the PSP is undeniably brilliant. I’m at peace with never getting that God of War collection, though.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Saying that a Hideo Kojima game is ambitious isn’t breaking new ground, like saying our YouTube Members are the nicest people on YouTube. Seriously, you are all megababes. We already know our members are lovely, and we all know that Kojima’s level of detail in video games is unmatched. But people often overlook this one.
Compared to MGS 3, Peace Walker’s detail isn’t as huge, but the changes made to the core gameplay were some exhaustive and well received that it became the direction that the series would move towards in Metal Gear Solid V. Even the core gunplay alone in Peace Walker was a vast improvement in general, but the overall structure is where the gameplay received most improvements.
Because the PSP was handheld, Peace Walker used a mission-based structure to allow players to experience the game in bite size chunks, instead of being forced into a 30 minute long conversation where someone explains cardboard boxes, how they are made, and how the Patriots did it all along. God love Metal Gear. Peace Walker also introduced the Mother Base mechanic to the game, with Snake kidnapping soldiers and personnel via the Fulton Recovery System to work on the Base, researching new weapons and tools for Snake to use on missions.
It’s ludicrously good looking for a handheld game of the time and most importantly addictive, turning what could have been a merely decent spin-off into a thoroughly engaging and incredibly deep handheld stealth-based management and dating sim that’s almost completely playable in co-op. It’s pretty ace.
Ace Combat X – Skies Of Deception
From the original PlayStation where it was known as Air Combat, a factoid that really tripped me up in a PS1 quiz over on the second channel, all the way up to today, Ace Combat has been flying high as the pinnacle of aerial combat games, with their fast yet realistic gameplay mechanics and impressive visuals, serving as a benchmark for what that particular console is capable of. Namco would achieve that magic again with Ace Combat X – Skies Of Deception, which boasts best in class graphics and gameplay all on the diminutive PSP.
Players are given the choice between novice and normal control schemes, with novice giving the game a more arcadey feel, while normal controls are for the simulation diehards who aren’t happy unless they look like this. What makes Ace Combat X – Skies Of Deception a lot more ambitious compared to other Ace Combat games is the branching paths of the campaign. The choice of missions you undertake then affect how the overall campaign progresses, allowing you to find new occurrences and even change the ending in a key way.
Throw in a treasure trove of unlockables, like new missions, planes, paint jobs and upgrades, and Ace Combat X is not to be missed. Bravo if you already have this one in your collection.
SOCOM – US Navy Seals: Fireteam Bravo 1 and 2
Sony is clearly allergic to both good ideas that don’t involve remaking a four year old game, and also money considering that they haven’t made a new SOCOM game in over a decade. This is the live service franchise, Sony!
Sony’s take on tactical military shooters was practically prolific during the PS2 era, carving out its own niche as the co-op shooter of choice at a time when online console gaming was still in its infancy. The almost overnight success and subsequent sequels for SOCOM of course meant that a PSP spin-off was inevitable, and while Fireteam Bravo 3 is a perfectly fine tactical shooter in its own right, the first two games are so much more ambitious and deserve celebrating.
For starters, Fireteam Bravo 1 proved that the tactical shooter formula could work on the PSP, and it’s something that devout SOCOM fans likely thought would never happen in the mid 2000s. Still, the real ambition of Fireteam Bravo 1 & 2 comes with the Crosstalk feature, which allows players to communicate with SOCOM 3 and SOCOM: Combined Assault respectively. As you’d expect, Crosstalk let players unlock new weapons and skins for the multiplayer modes by completing missions, but the real genius move for Crosstalk was that the objectives you complete in one game affected the outcome of missions in another, from reduced reinforcements to faster deploy times.
It’s a cool, innovative and ambitious way of rewarding dedicated fans, and Rockstar should port the next game to reward fans for being patient ahead of GTA 6.
GTA: Vice City Stories
While GTA 6 is likely going to take the crown of the best game in the series set in Vice City, allow us to throw a curveball your way in the form of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories — and not just because it’s got Phil Collins in it.
Sure, many people consider the original Vice City to be the peak of PS2 nostalgia, with Tommy Vercetti’s Scarface inspired journey through the seedy underbelly of the 80s standing out among the best PS2 games ever, but Vic Vance’s journey in Vice City Stories might be just that little bit better, and a lot of that is because of the improvements made to the overall gameplay.
Following up on the also madly ambitious Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories was developed and released after GTA: San Andreas, which meant that VCS had the benefit of many gameplay improvements, chief among them being the fact that Vic Vance can actually bloody swim. Not something you can say about stinky Tommy Vercetti, I’ll tell you what. On top of that, Vice City Stories also offered an empire management mechanic, where you bought and defended property from rival drug kingpins, similar to the San Andreas gang war mechanic.
All of that together, complete with the entire PS2 map condensed onto the PSP, and it’s clear that VCS deserves so much more love than just in our memories.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
You know what, remakes are a slept-on avenue of ambitiousness. Some of the time.
That might need a bit of explaining, but the idea that someone thinks they can take an already completed work and either massively improve on it or completely alter it into a different yet still recognisable shape is ambitious as hell. Also, ballsy too, especially when it comes to established franchises. Some fans do not like changes. Not always without reason, though.
Anyway, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is definitely an ambitious take on the original game, as it completely redefines and recontextualizes the events of the game to tell a new story. It’s bold, and much better than that PS Vita Silent Hill game that was basically just Diablo.
The core premise is the same, with Harry Mason returning home to try and find his seven year old daughter Cheryl, only to find that his consciousness keeps passing between the in-game real world and a realm referred to as the Nightmare. What makes Shattered Memories both ambitious and frankly brilliant is that Harry’s journey is told via a series of therapy sessions, with the choices you make in both therapy and as Harry affecting one another, leading to one of several endings. Is it better than the original Silent Hill? Nowhere near honestly, but it’s brave as hell either way, and shouldn’t be filtered out of conversations like it usually is.
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
The Syphon Filter series was stuck in a tough position by the time that the PSP rolled around. Three pretty incredible stealth shooters for the original PlayStation, and their legacy was threatened to be undone by an aggressively mediocre PS2 game in The Omega Strain. Gabe Logan needed to get a win back, and a move to the PSP proved to be just the ticket, as Dark Mirror was hailed by many as a return to form for Gabe Logan, with the non-linear gameplay of Omega Strain swapped out for the classic, linear stealth of the original trilogy. Normally, a game dropping non-linearity would be a point against it being ambitious, but Dark Mirror was a masterful refocusing of the franchise’s strengths.
Bend Studio took the previous game’s criticism to heart and pushed Syphon Filter back towards the golden era of the series, while retaining more modern elements including a cover system, and a slew of new weapons and gadgets for Gabe to play with. Without sounding like a broken record either, they did all that for a system infinitely less powerful than the PS2. Coming back from a big loss like Omega Strain takes guts, and Bend Studio showed both ambition and grit with Dark Mirror, along w ith the sequel, Logan’s Shadow. They also showed the end of the series with Logan’s Shadow, so way to go out on top, I guess? It’s time for this IP to stop sleeping, though.
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Arguably Square Enix’s strongest, most good ending hating soldier, Nomura has been working for Square since the very early 90s as a monster designer for Final Fantasy V, but his big break came as the director of Kingdom Hearts. If the idea of a crossover between iconic Disney and Square Enix doesn’t sell to you how ambitious Nomura is, the PSP entry Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, helped establish th e idea that you need to play every single spin-off of Kingdom Hearts in order to actually get the full story. That should give you some idea of how grand and ambitious Nomura’s plans for Kingdom Hearts are. He can’t be stopped.
Far from just being a retread of the PS2 games on the PSP though, Birth By Sleep is a worthwhile standalone adventure in its own right, as it’s a prequel to the events of the original game. A more action-oriented RPG, Birth By Sleep is set ten years before KH1 and follows three characters who were briefly introduced in Kingdom Hearts 2: Ventus, Terra and Aqua. Each character has their own scenario and unique story, making them worthwhile in their own right and not just a different set of moves to tell the same tale. Of course, there’s even a Nomura recommended path of playing through each story so you can understand everything, which should give you a sense on how ambitious the storytelling really is. It’s Terra, Ventus and Aqua, if you’re curious. There’s even multiplayer here, which seems weird yet also quite right. Right, today’s final game:
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Now for one of the other big Nomura games on the PSP, Dissidia Final Fantasy was originally considered to be yet another Kingdom Hearts spin-off, though reportedly Nomura was a bit uncomfortable with the idea of Disney characters smacking each other around. Deciding that Final Fantasy characters would do instead, Dissidia Final Fantasy launched to plenty of acclaim from fans, with tight controls, incredible graphics and a pretty robust story mode for a fighting game. Sounds lovely, but then the already established madlad Nomura had to strike again and create Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy, an equal parts prequel and remake of this first game with a ton of new features.
Duodecim is 12 in Latin by the way, so Dissidia 12 Final Fantasy. Don’t ask.
The core gameplay remains mostly the same, albeit with a couple of new abilities thrown in for good measure, while the obvious crop of new characters help fill out the game’s roster. Where Duodecim proves its ambition over its predecessor with the game’s Story Mode, as the first game played a bit more like a visual novel with 3D fights, and navigation was on a chess board broken up by cutscenes. Meanwhile, Duodecim features a fully explorable world map, the entire story of the previous game adapted to fit this new formula and another fully sized story mode as a mere prologue to that story. And you unlock the original game by beating it. Yes, the whole original game. Nomura you are one mad, often brilliant bastard.
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