Kotaku should i buy a psp

At the top of the list was the entertainment behemoth's plans for a renaissance of the PlayStation Portable. The PSP revival is being led by three key factors: A resurgence in developer interest in the portable, a push for more digital downloads, and rumors of a new, sleeker model of the device. While about 50 million people worldwide own PlayStation Portables, the device has, until recently, had trouble attracting developers. Last year, there was a dearth of good titles to choose from for the portable gaming device.

That's because back in , PlayStation Portable sales seemed to be bottoming out and a lot of developers decided to invest their money in other systems. Because games can take a year to a year and a half to create, that gap in development meant a dry year for PSP owners in It's possible to complete Peace Walker —which was built with multplayer in mind—by yourself but the grueling boss battles will make you wish friends were playing alongside you.

Developed under the auspices of the Sony Japan dev collective, the game merges real-time strategy elements—creating different types of soldier units, managing attack, defense and retreat tactics—with the rhythm-based controls of games like Dance Dance Revolution.

The result's a singularly unique experience with insanely catchy mechanics. A Good Match for: Ant farm owners. There's an entire sub-genre of video games built around amassing and deploying little virtual creatures— Overlord and Pikmin are recent examples—but Patapon ranks amongst the most unique.

Pressing certain button combos in time with the beat will prod your little minions into charging enemy factions, throwing spears or taking cover under their shields.

So it's funky and think-y at the same time. Not for Those Who Want: To skip memorizing things. The button-mashing in Patapon 's not the kind of mindless combat found in so many other games. You need to pay attention to what you're hearing and pressing, and will wind up with some "pon-pon-pata-pon" earworms before you're done. Not much was wrong Persona 3 the first two times publisher Atlus released it.

Combat's improved and it's got a bit more content than the first two iterations, impressive for a portable title. A Good Match for: People who want more video game heroines. The biggest addition to P3P is the all-new option to play as a female protagonist, which tweaks several plot elements in the game. For a game set in a high school that lets you call on friends as support characters, it's a welcome addition. Good as it is, there's no getting around the fact that a lot of this game still feels like something made for the PS2.

Worse yet, the superbly executed cutscenes get cut from Portable due to the PSP's technical limitations. Futuristic combat racing. Peerless techno soundtracks. Sleekly dangerous design. These elements piloted almost every Wipeout to the winner's circle of gamers' hearts and the portable Pulse was no different.

New tweaks like an customizable progression system and. A Good Match for: Recycling advocates. This handheld Wipeout lets you race on its tracks backwards and forwards, with subtle differences in each orientation to make it more than just going the wrong way.

He says his studios "spent a lot of time looking at it, evaluating devices and creating prototypes of games," short demos that focused on making Vita games special.

We've seen very handsome games that showcase Vita's power, like Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Perhaps its most intriguing function is cloud save sharing between the Vita and PlayStation 3, a better leap forward for PlayStation connectivity.

Sony's PlayStation Vita also has another concern: development support, which has slowed dramatically in the West. I asked Yoshida if Japan really needs the Vita right now, as the original PSP is still going strong, still well supported. Surely North America and Europe should get it first, I proposed, hoping that he might offer hints about the Vita's release date.

The PSP is still so popular. Sure this makes it the littlest PSP, but it's not an impressive enough unit to command a console-sized price. Sony has made owning a PSPgo financially more attractive recently, throwing in three free downloadable games for North America and ten for European customers , but publishers are beginning to drop support for the device, with Square Enix's recent release, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, unavailable for digital purchase.

You can't jam them into the thing and will either have to re-buy them or hang on to the older PSP too, which kind of defeats the purpose. There are lots of good games, most of them available on disc or as a digital download for any PSP or PSPgo with enough free memory for them games can be half a GB or more… big files.

Most genres are well-represented on the system. This program keeps expanding, so keep an eye on which PSP greats are now 10 bucks. There are some problem sectors of PSP-land. First, watch out for games that look like ports of console cameos. These are often bad, the result of shaky porting or, worse, developers who didn't solve a riddle.

The answer to that riddle is: Horrible idea… don't do it, because most have failed abysmally except the folks who made Resistance: Retribution good game! Don't let anyone tell you there are good first-person shooters on the PSP either. They are lying. One more warning, offered with heavy hearts: the download-only PSP Minis are, so far, only as uniformly good as iPhone games.

And if you know anything about iPhone games, then you know that ain't so hot. Actually, there will be a few cool ones to tide over people who have the system. The 3rd Birthday , an action-shooter sequel to Parasite Eve is coming out soon, as are sequels to Patapon Patapon 3 and Final-Fantasy fighting game series Dissidia Dissidia [Duodecim]. In some regions you can even use the PSP as a radio player or TV tuner, but check to see if that's available in your market first.

If you want to make the most of your PSP, you'll want to tap into a lot of the system's lesser-publicized features like these. Battery life on PSPs won't usually last you a long flight, though the system is ok for normal commutes.

Older PSPs have battery-life indicators that will be hidden by your thumb while you play. That can be a problem, so keep checking the power levels. More and more games are made available for download through the PlayStation online store, but releases often lag behind in-store releases by a few days, so download-minded folks will need to have some patience.