10 PSP Games We’d Love To See On PlayStation Plus Premium

We believe in PSP supremacy.

GTA Vice City Stories
GTA Vice City Stories

The PSP felt like a handheld console ahead of its time, living up to the elevator pitch idea of a PS1 in your pocket. The little brother to the PS2 and PS3, the PSP is certainly one of Sony’s more unique ideas, and it was a damn sight more successful than the follow-up, the PS Vita. The less said about the heaps of UMD movies lining the shelves of any second hand gaming shop in the land though, the better. There’s only so many times you can see Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

With the announcement of PlayStation Plus Premium, Sony will be adding a bevy of PSP games for subscribers to download or even cloud stream. There are some games that have been ported in the past, but there’s also a slew of PSP classics that have been lost to time over the years. Now would be an excellent time to bring them back. Here’s our 10 suggestions for PSP games we’d love to see as part of PS Plus Premium.

 

1. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Crisis Core
Crisis Core

Final Fantasy 7 alone has tons of lore and additional story to pull through, never mind the entire series. With tie-in films like Advent Children and games like Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core, there’s a lot to play with, which makes Final Fantasy VII Remake such a more daunting game because it remixes all of that lore. Re-releasing a game like Crisis Core would make for an excellent primer on some lesser known or utilised characters, especially in the run up to FFVIIR Part 2.

Originally a PSP exclusive, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII saw players taking on the role of Zack Fair, Cloud’s best friend in the SOLDIER program. The game offers a look at the type of person Cloud is before the events of Final Fantasy VII, as the two men fight side by side on the behalf of Shinra. Crisis Core also offers more information and lore regarding the earlier years of big bad Sephiroth, making it an essential part of the tapestry that is Final Fantasy VII.

 

2. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War Of The Lions

FF Tactics
FF Tactics

Two Final Fantasy games? RPG fans are eating good with this list. Final Fantasy Tactics was originally released on the PS1 and offered a whole new way to play FF games, moving away from the regular JRPG battle style and moving towards a grid-based, strategy RPG. While that might not sound too unique in 2022, it was certainly ahead of its time back in the 90s, and even still when it was ported to the PSP in the mid-2000s as The War of the Lions.

Set in the world of Ivalice, which fans will recognise as the setting for Final Fantasy XII, the game follows a war between the Kingdom of Ivalice and a neighbouring country of Ordalia. Among all the political drama is the mercenary Ramza, a once nobleman who comes into conflict with Delita, his former best friend. You’ll play as Ramza, assembling a party to defend Ivalice from a variety of threats. Just make sure none of the party dies in battle. Permadeath is a pain like that.

 

3. Gitaroo Man Lives!

Gitaroo Man Lives
Gitaroo Man Lives

Rhythm games aren’t as much of a hard sell these days, but back in the early to mid-2000s, the best you could hope for from one was a bit of a cult hit. Gitaroo Man certainly fit that mould when it launched on the PS2, but PSP owners were greeted with an updated version called Gitaroo Man Lives! Given that there hasn’t been any news on the Gitaroo Man front since, that’s a hard statement to agree with, but who knows? Koei could bring the obscure picks to PS Plus Premium.

Gitaroo Man Lives is the same game players enjoyed back on the PS2, which sees players complete different songs by timing button and control stick inputs. It doesn’t sound fun when explained via text, but once the game gets going, there’s few games as enjoyable as Gitaroo Man. The Lives! version of the game also includes support for multiplayer, along with a Duet mode with two additional songs, making it the definitive Gitaroo Man experience.

 

4. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories/Vice City Stories

GTA VCS
GTA VCS

There’s an old saying that goes something along the lines of “everyone is the hero of their own story”. Spin-off games Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories accomplish that mantra by placing the player in a playground they’re already familiar with and showing you what a seemingly insignificant character did when you weren’t around. They’re amazing games when it comes to selling the history of GTA’s iconic cities, and the only real shame is that we never got a San Andreas Stories. C’est la vie.

Liberty City Stories is set three years before the events of GTA 3, and follows Leone mobster Toni Cipriani as he returns to the city to work for Don Salvatore Leone, before he ultimately becomes a contact for Claude during GTA 3. Meanwhile, Vice City Stories follows Lance Vance’s brother Vic a few years before GTA: Vice City, as the two men establish their empire. If you don’t recognise the name Vic Vance, it’s because he’s the dude getting gunned down at the start of Vice City. What a fall from grace for the lad.

 

5. God of War: Chains Of Olympus

God Of War Chains Of Olympus
God Of War Chains Of Olympus

If you want just one game to showcase the brilliance of the PSP, God of War: Chains of Olympus would have to be the top pick. It’s number one rated on Metacritic for a reason, right? A prequel to the events of the original trilogy, Chains of Olympus sees resident angry man Kratos working in servitude to the Greek Gods, attempting to foil a plot by Morpheus and Atlas to bring Olympus to its knees.

One of the biggest praises given to Chains of Olympus was how effectively it managed to translate the action of the PS2 over to the PSP, especially when the handheld console had less buttons to play with. Still, the game was remastered and ported to the PS3 alongside Ghost of Sparta as part of the God of War: Origins Collection, so if Sony just wanted to hit re-release on that, we’d be totally okay with that, too.

 

6. Killzone: Liberation

Killzone Liberation
Killzone Liberation

Killzone didn’t exactly set the world on fire when it launched, being touted as one of those “Halo killers” that actually didn’t get anywhere near close to touching Master Chief. Killzone 1 was a competent FPS, to be sure, but it just wasn’t what it was hyped up to be. It would take Killzone: Liberation on the PSP to prove that the series had something special, and even then, it’s a completely different game to the rest of Killzone.

Set two months after the events of the first game, Killzone Liberation diverts from the formula of the original game by transforming into an isometric shooter instead of an FPS. The move would prove to be effective, as Liberation is one of the more enjoyable entries in the entire series. While there doesn’t seem to be a new Killzone game launching anytime soon, re-releasing a game like Liberation would make fans happy in the meantime.

 

7. Power Stone Collection

Power Stone
Power Stone

Look, I just want Capcom to do something with Power Stone at some point, is that so much to ask? Apparently, yes it is, but with PlayStation Plus Premium offering PSP games as part of its selection, the time is right for Capcom to revisit the series. The Power Stone Collection for PSP is just sitting there, untouched, so why not re-release it as part of the PS Plus Premium library so a new generation of players can enjoy it?

As you’d expect from the name, Power Stone Collection bundled together both games that were originally released for the Dreamcast and offers them in one great value package. Power Stone saw players compete in isometric arenas, using a slew of weapons and over the top moves to emerge victorious. The library could do with some local multiplayer/party games, and there’s few that are as entertaining as Power Stone.

 

8. Pursuit Force

Pursuit Force
Pursuit Force

One of the best parts of action movies are the car chases, and video games know this.

It’s no wonder that a game like Pursuit Force was commissioned, promising huge cinematic action across plenty of levels on a console you could fit into your pocket. What’s not to love? The game sees players heading the titular Pursuit Force in an attempt to stop organised crime in the fictional Capital State. As the Commander, you’ll take a hands-on approach to stopping cartoonish villains from wreaking havoc.

A mix of vehicular combat, on-foot shooting and on-rails sections, Pursuit Force moves at a mile a minute, with each level offering new challenges at an alarming pace. When the game launched, some were critical of the game’s punishing difficulty, but those concerns were addressed in the sequel, Extreme Justice. If Sony just so happens to want to port both, that’d be gravy.

 

9. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

Persona
Persona

It’s no secret that the Persona series has become just as popular as the Shin Megami Tensei series it’s spun off from, but due to different factors, many Persona players might only have experience with the two most recent mainline games, Persona 4 and 5. Fortunately, the earlier Persona games were remastered and ported to the PSP, and would make for excellent inclusions in the PS Plus Premium collection.

While all three games were available on the PSP in some form or fashion, we’re giving the nod to the first game’s updated version. ATLUS reworked the game from the ground up to make use of the PSP’s capabilities, and to ensure that Persona was a more user-friendly experience than the original game. If nothing else, it’s a better port than Persona 3 Portable, which removed a lot of content and the game’s explorable overworld.

 

10. Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror/Logan’s Shadow

Dark Mirror
Dark Mirror

The Syphon Filter series might have stumbled quite a bit when it made the jump to the PS2, as The Omega Strain just couldn’t match up to the quality of the original games. Fortunately, Bend Studio set the series back on the right trick with Dark Mirror and Logan’s Shadow, which revitalised the franchise before it was *checks notes* “put on the shelf and never used in any way again”. Oh, never mind. Maybe now’s the time for a revival.

Dark Mirror and Logan’s Shadow updated the gameplay to make it more of a stealth action shooter, and it was a huge boon. Both games see Gabe called to action to take down some more global conspiracies, upgrading the gameplay to make it more playable on PSP. They were also both ported to the PS2, so if Sony wants to add those versions instead for a bit of a lark, go for it.

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