What are some good PSP games?

sleepybisexual@beehaw.org to Gaming@beehaw.org – 68 points –

I wanna get into non Nintendo stuff. What are some good PSP games in generals.

Pretty open to genres

Mainly action games, also open to RPG games and shooter games

Any genre really

99

In no particular order:

  1. Half minute hero: quirky, quick, hilarious, and a bit stressful at times. It's a perfect mobile title.

  2. Disgaea: infinitely scaling/playable strategy rpg. You can power through the game pretty quickly, or take your time and slowly become a god so strong that even friendly healing spells miss you.

  3. Patapon (2 and 3): rhythm based game about using drum commands to get your little dudes to complete missions.

  4. Dj max (any/all):dance dance revolution for your thumbs. Korean game featuring Korean artists. One of my favorite continuing series.

  5. Monster hunter (freedom through portable 3rd): action rpg all about them boss fights. Kill monsters, use their parts to hunt tougher monsters in a game all about incremental progression, inventory management, and learning movement patterns to git gud.

  6. Patchwork hero: do you like the dig dug stages where you slice off bits of the land to drop enemies into the water? This is that except they are airships and you must defend your homeland

  7. Lumines (1 and 2): musical game about matching colors and making combos in a tetris-esque style game. The devs went on to make tetris effect.

  8. Cladun 2: so I heard you like action rpgs, infinite scaling, pixel art, and enough grindy systems that even my power tools get jealous. Enter Cladun.

I'm wondering if I missed any I spent a disproportionate amount of time on.. But these were the first ones to pop into my head.

Edit: I am finally home so I can look over my games... and I definitely forgot a couple.

  1. LOCO ROCO! It's a very simple platformer in which you guide your little dudes through stages by using the L and R to tilt the stage. You collect fruits to increase your dude into a larger dude, or several dudes, depending on the situation.

  2. N+ Be a platforming Ninja, die a lot.. like a lot a lot. It's.. simple and hard and so satisfying to clear one set of 4 stages at a time. You can even make your own stages if you're feeling up to the challenge.

The PSP was a fantastic system for racing games, despite the lack of an analog throttle. If you want to get into this genre, this console is a great starting point:

  • Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast: Perhaps the best version of Outrun to date and an ideal game for people not that used to the genre. Easy to learn, hard to master. It's gorgeous to look at, the arcade-style gameplay loop is perfect for a portable system and so much fun that you don't really mind if you lose.

  • FlatOut: Head On: A very different take on the arcade racing genre. This one blends challenging stock car racing with over the top minigames that involve drivers being used as virtual bowling balls. It all makes sense, just try it out, if you don't mind the generally high difficulty. Head On is a near 1:1 port of Flatout 2/Ultimate Carnage, just slightly simplified visually to run on the system.

  • Colin McRae Rally 2005 Plus: As the name implies, this is an ever so slightly reworked port of the PC and console game. It's near 1:1, with only some modest visual downgrades. This is where Codemasters' rally games peaked prior to Dirt Rally - and unlike Dirt Rally, which is a bonafide racing horror game, this title is accessible to players of all skill levels, with only players who are really into simulations being miffed about the lack of per-tire simulation. Career progression from modest FWD cars to spicy Group B monsters is absolutely exemplary and tracks are a delight, both visually and in terms of design.

  • WipeOut Pure: This might just be the best game in the series. Perfect controls, perfect track design, perfect career mode. The only flaw is that on original hardware, the frame rate isn't always stable. I would highly recommend Pure as an entry into the series.

  • MotorStorm: Arctic Edge: One of those "concession games" for older systems as the new generation was already out, releasing for PS2 and PSP - but it's actually more fun than the mainline games, at least in my opinion. It makes perfect use of the hardware, the vastly different vehicle classes and their strengths and weaknesses are tons of fun, just like in the mainline series, and the track design is wonderfully vertical. It also looks magnificent, which seems to be a trend among PSP racing games, now that I think of it. The developers were so confident in the tech of this title that they included a photo mode, which I don't think all that many PSP games have.

  • Gran Turismo: Everyone expected this to be a mobile port of Gran Turismo 4, but it's not. While it retains the presentation, large roster of licensed cars, real-world and fictional tracks and highly refined simcade driving physics, there is no conventional campaign. Instead, you create your own racing events and can only buy from a small selection of cars each virtual day. It's an interesting concept. Do try it out just for the wow-factor of having a game this photorealistic on the PSP and perhaps stay for the fun you can create yourself. If you lack the creativity, people have created random event generators: https://sites.google.com/site/gtpspcampaigngenerator/ Gran Turismo is also to this day - and someone correct me if I'm wrong - the only mobile racing game that features a full 1:1 recreation of the iconic Nürburging, which alone makes it worth playing.

  • Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition: Classic Midnight Club on the go, but this time with customization. What's not to love? Controls are so accurate, every other arcade racer will feel sluggish by comparison, it looks great (again), the cities are huge, there's tons to do, it has just the right difficulty, challenging without being unfair and it perfectly encompasses this bygone era of early to mid 2000s street racing, even better than any Need for Speed of the time, in my opinion. Like all of the Midnight Club games, this one is also great for just randomly driving around without any goals in mind.

  • Test Drive Unlimited: Speaking of randomly driving around, this game represents perhaps the very peak of this idea. Shrinking down the entire island of Oahu at 1:1 scale with its real-world street layout (and some creative liberty in regards to buildings), this one is truly a miracle of optimization. The result may not be the prettiest racing game on the system, but the bouncy, responsive driving physics - which so closely mimic that of Gran Turismo 2 that I'm convinced they straight-up copied them - more than make up for any visual shortcomings. This also means that this cut down version of the 360/PS3/PC game (visuals, some vehicles and customization) is more fun to play than the big version, which has comparatively flat driving physics that straddle the line between arcade and simulation nowhere near as well. If you like the idea of living the idea of living the life on a Hawaiian island, buying homes and cars to fill their garages with, racing down long coastal straights and maneuvering through twisty mountain roads, then this might be right up your alley.

Patapon

The soundtrack to that game got burned in my head forever...

Pata pata pata pon. Dunka dunka dunka don. Pon pon pata pon.

Same for me, I have only beaten the first title, and I struggled a lot, I think the latter titles are even harder... Oh boy.

Daxter and MediEvil Resurrection are two of my favorites.

Making a new comment off my other reply because I have more niche recommendations: Carnage Hearts EXA, you program robots to fight each other, actually quite in depth.

Good RPGs: Valkyrie Profile Lenneth, Legend of Mana (originally PS1)

Phantasy Star Portable 2: pretty decent PSP version of the phantasy Star online game.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, kind of a weird "fighting" game, very unique mechanics, but really fun, lots of fan service, and tons of really really excellent music from across the final fantasy series

SoulCalibur Broken Destiny: solid entry in the series even on portable

And Castlevania Symphony of the Night (originally PS1)

Weird that nobody mentioned the GTA games on PSP

Vice City Stories and Liberty City Stories are absolutely awesome GTA games somehow squeezed onto the PSP

Downloaded vice stories, is there an order to play them

they're just prequels really, I can't remember anything groundbreaking. It'd /maybe/ be better to play 3 and vice city first, but it's mostly just callbacks. Liberty city stories protag is just a quest giver. Neither super spoils the other but I might be wrong.

They have a crisp cubish feel which was fun, I remember playing around with mods

The Parasite Eve game on the PSP was pretty good. Mega Man Maverick Hunter X and Mega Man Powered Up were both good too.

I enjoyed Metal Gear Ac!d games which were a sort of card game / turn based spin off in the metal gear world.

I'm currently playing Persona 3 Portable so if you are into those kind of games it is pretty great.

I think someone else mentioned it but Valkyria Chronicles is worth checking out, another turn based delight.

Persona is a series I'd like to get into, where do I start?

Personally, if platform doesn't matter Id say 4 golden, 3 Reload, then 5 Royal. Purely from a mechanical and dungeon standpoint I think you will progress the most naturally from worst to best from there

4 Golden is now the oldest "modern" Persona game, I personally feel that 1 and 2 are just a little too old for you to get as much out of them as 3 forward, but that's my take, if you're very tolerant of older games you may wanna start older. Each entry has an independent story and characters, so I don't think that order matters as much as the progression of quality of life and dungeon mechanics.

I haven't played 1 or 2 personally but would echo what is being said here for the rest.

I played p4g first and fell in love with it. P3P is pretty similar really but with slightly less QoL things going on but I don't find it too much of a downgrade to be honest.

Either way each one has its own story then with similarities like in spell names and the like, similar to how final fantasy is.

Every PSP I own must have the following games ready to go at any time:
-Lumines
-Rock Band Unplugged
-Patapon 2
-WipEout Pulse
-Final Fantasy: Crystal Defenders (gorgeous small tower defense game, but with enough strategy behind it for hours of play)

What are the others? What's lumines?

Lumines

So a Tetris like puzzle game? Sounds nice

It's a pretty great game. Really good music and one of those gameplay loops that is easy to pick up and difficult to master. If you like Tetris and the like, Lumines is worth your attention.

I'm not one for tetris like puzzle games, but I eventually got sucked in and spent 60 hours with the game. It's really good!

Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?

It's not amazing, but as far as side-scrolling platformers go, it was fairly compelling.

Also the PSP can play PS1 games, so you have access to a pretty big library of classics.

I don't know if I could call it good, exactly, but one unique concept that I haven't really seen captured anywhere else was the Dungeon Maker series on PSP, that allowed you to build dungeons that you would then explore/fight/loot, to give yourself funds to build out further/deeper, ad infinitum. It was clunky, controlled pretty stiffly and basic as ARPGs go, and after a certain point you kind of went on autopilot, but there's a certain je ne sais quoi to it that I really quite enjoyed, especially if you planned out your builds. I think a similar title was released on the DS but it was turn-based and not particularly well-executed.

metal gear portable ops 😎

K, tho is there an order for metal gear games? Where do I start? I have metal gear solid (the gameboy colour port)

You might want to wait on Mgs 3 if you have a modern console or modern PC

Metal Gear Solid Delta is coming out this year which is a complete remake of MGS 3 Snake Eater in the FOX Engine

not really, portable ops is pretty much self contained as a story. just hop in and enjoy ma cyber friend 😎

Maybe not your speed genre-wise, but Final Fantasy Tactics has a version for the PSP. Goated game.

My personal must-play PSP titles:

  • Monster Hunter Freedom Unite
  • Patapon 2/3
  • Lumines
  • Wipeout Pure
  • Gran Turismo
  • MGS: Peace Walker
  • Tekken 6

Are action RPGs okay? If so, Ys: Oath in Felghana. It's a remake of Ys III, which is also available on other platforms. However! The PSP version has features that other platforms do not, the main two being voice acting (other ports just have beeps when text is displayed) and a whole new mechanic, which is reminiscent of Final Fantasy's Limit Breaks.

One potential caveat, though: this is probably the hardest entry in the series. Fights are hard, but never cheap. If you're okay with that, you should have a good time.

I’ve got to recommend Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. One of the most legendary games in the series for its sheer amount of content. It might feel a bit dated if you’ve played World or Rise, but still good

It also looks astonishingly good for the platform, at the cost of having very small areas.

If you like ARPGs, I remember enjoying Untold Legends a lot as a kid. Was a PSP launch title, and had a very dark themeing. I don't know if my kid memory can be trusted on the quality but I've seen a few other people recommend it on here so I doubt it's bad.

god of war (2 games)

How do I get into the series, I'm a Nintendo kid but wanna try the series

Assention is the first game chronologically in the story followed by chains of Olympus. Those are the PSP entries. Get em and go.

Work Time Fun is a sort of strung-out Wario Ware that I really enjoyed back in the day. If you like minigames, trinkets, and grinding, then check it out.

Final fantasy 1-4 (the qol changes are great and the music was gorgeous). You can't go wrong with the GTA games. God of war games were also super fun.

Edit: ayo we meet again 👋. Small world lol

Hai. Yea, I'll get ff. Also playing god of war. Started with the ps2 one

Goodluck mate

Yea. At the second boss??? Rn

The 2 hydra heads

I kill them bit they keep regennign

It'd the one after you get pesiodens rage

Maybe check out a walkthrough or guide? Been a long time since I played gow1. But iirc you have to climb up the boxes near their head (after they've been knocked out) and jump on the platform that has an anchor attached to it.

  • Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection and Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max are in top shape on the PSP with extra characters and decent single player content.

  • Rock Band Unplugged is a stealth sequel to Frequency and Amplitude, worth a try for juggling a whole band's worth of instruments.

  • I also had a lot of fun with Half-Minute Hero, Lumines, Everybody's Golf Portable 2/Hot Shots Golf Open Tee 2, and the racing games DdCno1 mentioned.

  • And that's not even getting into the excellent options for emulated games, both retail and homebrew.

  • RetroAcheivements PSP games sorted by number of players is a good way to see the most popular games.

I'm asking so I can get ROMs of them.

Wouldn't tekken need some fancy 6 button controller?

Tekken? Nah. It's a four button game, and you only need to map the shoulder buttons if your character has a good move with a weird button combination like Square+Circle. Street Fighter Alpha 3 really needs all 6 buttons, though.

You might want to search for a RetroAchievements collection of PlayStation Portable games.

This series ain't for everyone, but I personally like the Hatsune Miku Project Diva rhythm games and recommend them since I like the variety of songs they have.

I hope I don't derail the thread, but I feel like this is an opportunity to ask about a couple of games myself:

How are the two PSP Valkyria Chronicles games and do they perform well on PPSSPP? Preferably Android (Snapdragon 670, Adreno 615, if that helps), but PC is fine as well.

I really enjoyed the first on PC and bought IV ages ago, but I haven't played it because I kind of want to play the others first (which were never ported to PC or any other console for whatever reason).

From what I understand, all the games are more or less self-contained, so I can play IV without missing much but I'd really like to give II and III a shot if I can.

Was actually gonna ask lol, what PSP emulators are good. The fdroid ppsspp is from 2015

Lol, I saw the same thing when I hopped onto F-Droid.

I think the better options there are probably RetroArch or Lemuroid, which seem to be better maintained and can both use PPSSPP as the backend (though I think you need to add the libretro core for the emulator in RetroArch).

Hopefully their versions of PPSSPP are more up to date, but I'm not certain.

Edit: Actually best option seems to be the official site where they have a standalone APK, so you don't need to use Google Play (also, there's no difference between the "Gold" and regular version, it's just an option if you'd like to donate).

Syphon Filter Dark Mirror and *Logan's Shadow.. ....*if you don't mind unfulfilled endings and enjoy the gameplay

God Eater

Ghost in the Shell: The standalone Complex (play with vita or emulation for dual stick controls)

Coded Arms (play on vita or emulation to have dual controls)

Super Stardust Portable

Pursuit Force and it's sequel Extreme Justice

I have a vita and I'm intrigued about the dual controls. Remapping to the second analogue stick?

Yes exactly. You need the app adrenaline though..and of course to hack it. With the Vita being EOL, there's no legal downside or moral area

I have a retroid pocket 3+ which I prefer for PSP emulation but I do have Adrenaline on my Vita.

Crisis Core is the only PSP game I've played. It's pretty good. I suppose Monster Hunter is worth trying out, too.

The Armored Core Portable games are really good, if you can live with thr wonky controls. There's Tekken 5 Dark Ressurrection, great port of the same.fighting game of the PS3. Gran Tourismo Portable is nice, alongside Wipeout Pure and Pulse, and Ridge Racer are all nice racing game options. And I cannot go without mentioning Monster Hunter Portable 3rd! One of the best in the series, easy to get into and has a fan translation available.

Highly recommend emulation on those or playing on a vita for the nearly unplayable controls on original PSP

Star Ocean Second Evolution for me, faithful port of the original PSX RPG. It's very good, but if you do play it, it is worth researching which two skills help you power through the game lol.

If you're into racing games, I would suggest ATV Offroad Fury Pro. I've been thinking about it a lot lately; it's one of my favourites for that system

EDIT: Also, Monster Hunter games are a classic! I've never played any for the PSP, though

  • Mana Khemia: Student Alliance (really one of my highest recommendations, not just even on PSP. The best "magic school" game out there, imho)
  • Metal Gear AC!D
  • Patapon
  • Pixel Junk: Monsters
  • Neverland Card Battles
  • Monster Hunter Freedom Unite
  • Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
  • Aegis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos
  • PoPoLoCrois
  • Dynasty Warriors 2
  • Lunar: Silver Star Story

Honestly, I could do an entire separate comment of just RPGs, there were SO many good ones for PSP.

Do it, RPGs are fun

  • Star Ocean 1st Departure
  • Star Ocean 2nd Evolution
  • Ys 1 & 2 Chronicles
  • Ys: The Ark of Napishtim
  • Ys: The Oath of Felghana
  • Ys Seven
  • Final Fantasy IV
  • Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness
  • Disgaea 2
  • Disgaea Infinite
  • Riviera: The Promised Land
  • Corpse Party: Book of Shadows
  • Summon Night 5
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Persona
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2
  • Persona 3 Portable
  • Legend of Heroes series (I'm not such a huge fan of the Eiyuu Densetsu games, but they are very well-liked)
  • Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
  • Breath of Fire 3
  • Lunar: Silver Star Harmony
  • Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology
  • Astonishia Story
  • Phantasy Star Portable
  • Phantasy Star Portable 2
  • Growlanser IV: Overreloaded

Also, some more non-RPGs:

  • Armored Core Formula Front
  • Armored Core 3
  • Armored Core: Last Raven
  • Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception
  • BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
  • Fate Unlimited Codes
  • Fate/Extra
  • Fate/Extra CCC
  • Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley
  • Harvest Moon: Back to Nature

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, which is a nice 3D remake of one of the better classic vanias, Rondo of Blood. An updated version of Symphony of the Night is an unlockable in the game (as well as the original Rondo) so this is a great way to experience both games if you haven't already.

Dariusburst is a great shooter, only came out in Japan, I believe.

I started Trails in the Sky on PSP and haven’t been able to stop playing trails games since. Not the best in the series, but definitely where you want to start.