Of the two games in the Xbox Zero’s GTA collection, Vice City was the clear standout for me. Apart from the refined gameplay, flying vehicles, and a talking protagonist, it also had a more appealing world. Vice City has wide streets, bright colours, trees, plus the radio is filled with poppin’ 80s sounds. Now I revisit that world.
As a detour from Spyro games, I picked up on another game starring a dragon that Amaze (developer of Shadow Legacy and the first two Legend games on DS) made for handhelds.
I’ve played a version of this game before, on DS. As with Lethal Alliance, I figured the PSP version as the lead platform would give a better experience. Turns out that unlike Lethal Alliance there are pros and cons to both, and I ended up preferring the DS version! Note I left the multiplayer component—ostensibly these games’ selling point—completely untouched and just judged the campaign.
Dragging on my “complete” Avatar playthrough series project thing, we pick up with the PSP version of the first game. You’ll recall that the first released game (except for the PC version), despite its generic title and boxart, features a unique story set in between Books 1 and 2, wherein the Gaang picks up Haru and scoots all over the four corners of the world to confront a new mechanical menace.
The PSP game was made by TOSE, as was the DS one. The two share much in common, most notably having identical maps for all areas; the PSP version has the edge though in that the clumsy screen-rotating shoulder buttons are cut, and it’s therefore much easier to navigate. It lacks the charming 2D sprites, but makes up for it with nice dialogue portraits, and the simple 3D models are sweet in their own way as long as the camera doesn’t zoom in too much.
There’s more though, much more. On the PSP the game is souped up mightily compared to the DS outing, with equipment, upgrades, and sidequests fleshing out the experience much more. A seamless game world, and most importantly regular save points that restore your health (or “honor points”) for free are essential features bafflingly missing from DS. In terms of features and presentation it falls in between the main console version and the DS edition, although the GBA’s purity and polish still give it superior appeal and playability.
The DS game can boast one or two things for itself: a fun variety of food items, a full party of four, and brief voiced cutscenes; I felt the absence of these on PSP, especially when certain characters are required, forcing the player to backtrack for swaps. But on balance it’s no contest. On PSP you get gameplay that’s at times challenging but fair, also a useful minimap! It’s a mediocre action RPG but as a fan of the series I loved experiencing this story once again, and the different elemental machines make for great villains with cool designs whose attributes also inform the gameplay.
Speaking of which, as is customary, let’s look at unique elements this game contributes to Avatar lore. Full portraits of all NPCs is a good way to show off the dress of the different cultures you encounter, as well as a good look at Lian’s design. The plot and script are nothing new over the other versions (making the same gaffes as the other versions of this game, such as mistaking Omashu for Ba Sing Se), but as before I appreciated seeing the occupied port town, the earthbender training camp, the village in the shadow of the Southern Air Temple, etc.
As always I also noted animals not seen elsewhere. These include the new mouse/squirrel-cat hybrid, and a blue-ish kind of chicken; as well as the blue armadillo(?) wolves and odd deer seen in other versions. There’s ordinary cats in the village adjacent to the Air Temple, but the show already had one of those. There’s a few spirits too, with the familiar horned bear in chapter 3, but also a new six-legged tortoise in chapter 5 and a blue tiger/wolf in chapter 6. These little tidbits are so exciting to me! Anyway thanks for indulging me.
PS. One final bafflingly stupid piece of trivia: a formatting error on the printing of the game’s UMD disc displays the spaces that should be there in the title as question marks, as you can see in this picture I took.
Well. During my scathing review of the DS version of this game, I speculated multiple times on how superior the PSP version would surely have to be. Turns out… I was completely right! I was amazed at how much better this game was on its lead platform.
Every one of my complaints in the DS game was addressed on PSP: Rianna and Zeeo are in fact developed better through animations and voice acting; they felt more believable as a team. Their abilities are more useful, and fun. Level design is more dynamic; there’s a bit more of a combat focus but this version pulls it off well and irritating touchscreen minigames are completely absent!
I was so impressed with this game in comparison to the miserable DS port that I enjoyed it very much, even engaging better with the story as well. The question I’m having more trouble answering is: is it a good game in its own right? The controls can be clunky, and the shooting is not amazing. But I think the buddy gameplay with all of Rianna and Zeeo’s separate possible actions, not to mention combo attacks, makes up for this and adds enough depth so that it ends up feeling like a decent enough handheld action game. Plus it’s a neat little Star Wars side-story that fits well in the universe. I must reiterate: absolutely avoid the DS version. This one is pretty good.
Monkey Ball is cute and all, but this game gave me what I always wanted out of the franchise: a full world to explore with the tilting-rolling mechanics. Having NPCs to chat to and quests to undertake appeals to the 3D platform adventure nut in me, in a different way to the core puzzle-action levels that Monkey Ball is about in most of the games outside this one. I like those bits too, and the quick resets help the trial-and-error gameplay stay compelling.
Unfortunately I slipped off the difficulty curve. I cleared out the first world with some difficulty, after adjusting to the slow-paced but rewarding traversal compared to the unforgiving and hectic puzzle stages. The theme park world was trickier, and I just made no progress in the clockwork world and had to put the game away. Retrying the same challenges again and again gets tedious, and the combination of momentum and precision was too much for me to master.
It doesn’t help that I was playing the PSP version, with its technical limitations, load/save times, and inferior joystick. An octagonal gate like the Gamecube controller’s is ideal for this game and I felt a little handicapped without it. Nevertheless, I did enjoy what the game was presenting to me while I lasted on it. This game gets a bad rap that is, I feel, unwarranted. At the least it shows to me that Traveller’s Tales have always been capable of more than just Lego games, although they’re decent at that too.
Like many kids in my generation, I grew up with the English dub of Dragon Ball Z and GT on morning television before school. Fighting games are a natural fit for the series; able to have a wide selection of characters from the series’ cast, while trying to replicate the action that it’s famous for. Unfortunately fighting games don’t always agree with me too well.
This game was ultimately frustrating for me. Part of it was that I couldn’t git gud enough to beat the final mission, losing a half hour on each failed attempt. But part of improving at the game is not just practicing with different characters, but grinding for booster cards, getting lucky with or exploiting the opponent AI, and slogging through the map portions all while drowning in a sea of loading screens. Not to mention the incredibly sloppy proofreading on the script, but that’s just a nitpick.
I don’t want to be unfair to the game, considering my blind spot for “traditional” fighters. By all accounts this is a good example of the genre. I did have fun when I felt evenly matched with the AI. And when the plot went in unexpected directions—such as seeking out the dead Future Gohan in the Other World, snapping him out of his hallucinations of constant android battling with the help of dead Goku and Bardock, and him then somewhat mirroring present Gohan’s Buu arc—I was delighted. Having Cooler, Broly, and Janemba show up in the story is silly and fun. And the game looks great too.
My problem with the missions is how much of an endurance challenge they are. You fly around an overworld map, protecting cities from bad guys. A neat idea in principle, but every map essentially plays out the same and an unlucky matchup late in the mission can really set you back, all the while each clash has multiple lengthy loading screens transitioning to and from the battle mode and rewards screens. I struggled to understand these missions early on, came to really enjoy myself in the middle as the plot went in different directions and I got to grips with it, but by the end had too much frustration and resentment from the growing difficulty curve and my inability to keep up. And that’s even after finding a cheap strategy with Mr. Buu.
Oh I guess I didn’t explain that this game is a scenario outside the bounds of the series; it explores how Future Trunks would have dealt with Buu in his timeline. As such it’s a nice idea with the potential for fanservice, even before they start bringing in the movie villains and revisiting New Namek and the Other World. I really liked how it expanded in that way on what we’ve seen already, although the progress of the plot gets bogged down a little at times to account for more fights. I would recommend it for patient fans or if you have some skill at the other Budokai games, otherwise just watch that one scene from Super where they deal with the “Future Trunks Buu arc” scenario in literally 40 seconds!
Locoroco is… like… a cross between Katamari, Badland, and World of Goo? I dunno man. It’s a simple but engaging platformer where you tilt the whole world using the shoulder buttons, which makes your blobby little character roll around, and both buttons to nudge, making them jump. When you eat fruits the “Locoroco” gets bigger, and can split into multiple smaller copies of itself, although in practice this is rarely useful and mainly used when it’s automatically activated contextually.
I guess the headline feature of this game, apart from its accessible and simple control scheme, is the aesthetics. The soundtrack and visuals are charming and disarming, an inextricable part of the game’s identity and make it a little bit special. Not that there aren’t other games that hit the same notes, but this one is very solidly constructed into a convincing package with heart.
Secret areas and hidden collectibles are fun to find and pick up, and often have you doing interesting things with the mechanics, or meeting a strange creature or geometric shape, doing a small rhythm minigame to entertain them. Pickups go toward a mode where you expand the house of your little “Muimui” pals; this aspect is not especially entertaining or rewarding but it’s better than just having numbers on a menu screen. Other little modes include a stamp book and a few underwhelming minigames.
It’s clever, it’s fun, it’s cute. As with the entire PSP library I’m late to the party and not an expert on the standouts, but this one is a gem. Of course the studio is overworked on a bunch of varied projects for Sony, so don’t expect another one of these, but it’s worth seeking out for the price I found it at.
I’ve played the big boy version of this before, but wanted to try out its little brother for a few reasons. One, the sequel burned me and made me yearn for the greater variety of the original game; two, I do find it interesting to see alternate takes on things I enjoyed; three, Wookieepedia had some details indicating that there was extra content in this version; four, it’s by Krome Studios, the famous Australian developer.
To address each of these points… it was good to return to this setting; seeing Rahm Kota in Elite Forces and reading some designer notes and the tie-in comic reminded me of the care and design work that went into this project. It’s a real successful attempt to tell a new Star Wars story that feels authentic but with a slight reimagining of what bombastic Force powers would make an exciting video game.
In terms of this being an alternate take, it does present value as a separate game to the HD version. Instead of a cut-down port, this game (released on PSP, PS2, and Wii) reworks a lot of stuff and is practically a new experience because of it. The way some of your abilities work, the unlock system, collectibles, are familiar but fresh. (Confusingly, the buttons for lightning and push are swapped compared to its counterpart.) Levels too have new layouts, and enemies sometimes require different strategies. By the end of the game my favoured technique was the Force Choke followed by pummel, which auto-flings physics objects at the gripped target., including other nearby enemies.
This slightly dinkier version doesn’t use the same advanced physics engine as the main game, so physics interactions aren’t as smooth. But there’s still a decent amount of stuff to fling around, and if anything it’s less trivial to simply throw objects around to obliterate dudes, forcing you to think a bit more about handling groups of enemies.
In terms of new content I was pleased by the differences. True, some things were cut, such as the medical frigate level and the Sarlacc in the return to Felucia, as well as some other setpieces I remembered. But Krome’s additions were very welcome: several interludes in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant involving fights with simulations of wacky ancient Sith, a new level on Bespin rescuing Garm bel Iblis (who was previously only a cutscene character), and new characters including some diverse gangs of pirates and scoundrels, even an evil Gungan! Also apparently unique to the PSP version is a scenario mode that sees you replaying classic events such as the battle at Jabba’s sail barge (with a more intense Boba Fett fight), or Anakin and Obi-Wan’s duel on Mustafar, as well as an Order 66 wave-survival mode and a Jedi duel mode. Good value!
To my last point, I’ve never actually played anything by Krome before, but it’s good to support local development, right? Except I bought this second hand from the US, so it’s not really supporting them much… er, moving on.
I really enjoyed this; a revisit but with a whole new game experience. The definitive story would be some synthesis of bits from both versions, which I gather is what the novel is maybe? In any case, the PSP version specifically represents a great 3D action game on handheld and if not an equivalent experience to the HD one than a comparable one at least. Plus the character models are lower-detail so you actually get less of an uncanny valley effect during cutscenes!
Moving on with Castlevania games, I played the version of SotN which is unlockable on the PSP’s Dracula X Chronicles. This is a pretty faithful port of the PS1 original, but with improvements to performance/frame rate, a redone English script and voice acting, and the addition of Maria mode (a better one than the Saturn version).
Symphony of the Night is widely regarded as a great game and it started the “Metroidvania/Igavania” subgenre within the series, with a 2D open world-type experience, with levelling up and loot and all that good stuff. It was pretty great and just as smooth to play and satisfying to clear as the three DS instalments that I’ve played; however, I enjoyed those later games more than this.
There are intangible and possibly subjective tweaks that have been made over the years, such as balancing: I found almost half the game overly easy, even without grinding levels. There are conveniences like the DS’s second screen being used to persistently display the map, or selectable destinations in warp rooms. And I had the feeling playing this that it was cluttered with systems I didn’t feel the need to use, like the two-hand system or the spells that use complicated inputs. I often had an overabundance of hearts, and although I like familiars following me around they didn’t seem that useful. There’s also little variety in the different weapons you find; overall I was unprepared for how many improvements I perceived to have been made to the sequels.
The classic twist in this game is the inverted castle, which opens up if you fulfil the right conditions. This is a neat idea with potential, but the design of the castle made it unnecessarily hard to traverse the inverted version; the superjump maneuver was needed too often, and while I understand that castles really aren’t designed for you to get around them upside-down it made it less fun.
As always there are some bonus modes; Richter is more versatile than in Rondo of Blood but still sluggish. Maria was delightful to play as again, with challenge coming from her low damage output that needs to be offset by using her animal companions. I’ll note here that being a direct sequel to Rondo a few years later works in its favour, and not just in reusing enemy sprites; continuing the story with the same characters is fun and reintroducing Alucard makes for a great dynamic between the three as well as Shaft, Dracula, and Death.
So for the most part the game is built to the high standards expected of the best Castlevania games. But I think they managed to do better as they went on. Sorry fans.
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles was high on my list of PSP gems. Primarily a remake of the PC Engine game into 3D graphics, it’s known for having one of the best unlockables of all time: the PS1 classic Symphony of the Night, tweaked with a new script and other improvements. I’ll get to that later, but to play it I had to get through the main feature.
In 2D Castlevania land, I haven’t had much experience with the older stage-based style. I prefer the free-roaming RPG ones, but even with my preferences this game won me over. Eventually. To get to the point of appreciation and satisfaction, I had to learn, and death was my teacher. Literally in some cases, because you fight the Grim Reaper. Yes, it was difficult, but mastering the controls and finding the secrets turned out to be fun and rewarding.
I also enjoyed the game much more after unlocking Maria, the second playable character. She’s faster than the sluggish Richter, can nimbly double jump and slide, and has more versatile weapons. I also had to understand the game’s structure: I was expecting to do whole runs of the game, but a portable-friendly stage select can easily take you to any point to find the hidden levels and optional bosses, and you can change character at any time.
I may still prefer the open-world freedom and self-paced experience of the later games, but Rondo is a great example of how a game’s design can deliver a focused, challenging, and fun experience; all of which is more or less identical in this remake to the 1993 original. For what it’s worth, of the 2(!) linear Castlevanias I’ve played, this is the best! Also, check out the Castlevania 4koma I translated; there’s officially translated ones for this game too, linked in that post.
Moving through my PSP stack, I got a hit of nostalgia from this smashy crashy racing game. It was released on the same day as Burnout Revenge, which we owned on our old Xbox. This means it shares a soundtrack (containing several tracks I quite like), but as it turns out Revenge was the one with new features, while this one apparently is a sort of compilation of content from the first three games.
As a result, while the core game is still pretty fun and exciting, it was lacking features or modes that I missed, such as traffic checking or the improvements to Crash mode. Still, this instalment’s conversion to the PSP is well done, and the game is well suited to the handheld for quick bursts of play, with a variety of race types: some focused on speed, some on wrecking rival racers.
It can get frustrating as the difficulty ramps up and gold medals become harder to get. Also you’ve got something of the tacky EA brashness to contend with. But it’s solid arcadey destructive car stuff. Just avoid the DS version, from what I’ve heard.
I borrowed the original two LBP games for PS3, and found that while they can’t stand up to the great 2D platformers in terms of mechanics, at least they’re fun enough with their charming handcrafted aesthetic, cute little setpieces, and a decent selection of reworked licensed music. The PSP version, a unique game in its own right, manages to effectively capture all these things and feels like, well, the real thing. It’s effectively a level pack and fits right in despite not being made by Media Molecule.
Of course, a major focus of the game is on the level creation and sharing… features that I didn’t make much use of on console and was unable to use on my e-1000 model PSP. Nor was I able to access my costumes and junk from my console play. Ah well, taking it purely as a small set of levels, it was fine; seeing what mild challenge would come next, dressing up my character, travelling the world to each new stereotyped location. Relaxing.
Sackboy/Sackperson is the closest thing Sony has to a kid-friendly mascot, and you can tell from these games that there’s at least some passion and love that goes into them. It’s too bad the platforming is so floaty and imprecise; the momentum works weirdly and you don’t always get the outcome you expect from a jump. Also I really am getting over the pretentious Stephen Fry narration. But anyway, this shouldn’t be overlooked as part of the LBP canon; it’s just as worthy as its console siblings.
Katamari’s concept is so elemental and fun that any game that uses it is bound to provide a good time, to me at least. This was no different but it seems held back by the limitations of the platform. The controls aren’t perfect and there’s not a whole heap of variety, but it maintains the core mechanics and delivers a charming package.
I’ve previously played just the PS3′s Katamari Forever, which has lots of content and many wild types of levels. Unfortunately its default puts an irritating visual filter over gameplay. That’s not a problem here, but you have other issues due to the PSP hardware. For one, you don’t get two thumbsticks for movement. In the Japanese and PAL versions you apparently don’t even get one, using the D-pad and the face buttons as a second D-pad, which is awkward at best. I was fortunate enough to pick up the American release which enables you to use the PSP’s thumbstick in place of the D-pad. It helps, but then you lose symmetry…
Compared to Forever, there’s also a lot more same-y levels. Sure each one asks you to prioritise certain types of objects, but I didn’t feel motivated to change my strategy around that, or even able to work it into my play most of the time. A lot of them are also in the same environments and the same methods work each time. The 5 optional special levels change it up nicely, but I wish there were more of them. You also have more loading times and breaks during gameplay, but that might be unfair for comparison since Forever seems to be the first game in the series to iron that out, on a much more powerful machine.
Basically I think playing Forever earlier has ruined me for the older games. It’s too bad because this is otherwise pretty solid. It’s as charming as any Katamari game can be; the conceit this time is not the King ruining the cosmos but just one group of islands. Animals then turn up to request different kinds of katamaris to replace them. Running around the home base island is fun, as each animal you help starts populating it. The music is a very strong set, with quirky hits from the first game (whose soundtrack I have partaken in many times) and others I hadn’t heard.
Hang on. Do I need to explain Katamari? You can absorb things smaller than you to get bigger, with the scale going from the tabletop to continental. You roll a ball around with a complicated control scheme; moving around is your only real action. The world is a delightfully Japanese low-poly wonderland set to an eclectic mix of tunes. It’s all capped off by a sense of wackiness that is a real joy to experience. These components are the Katamari formula that this game shares, and why I loved it. It’s just a shame the content seems lacking, at least after playing Forever (not to mention the multiplayer mode I couldn’t access on my e-1000).
