Deals Now On Sony Psp Games

Review by M. B Cole:

When I saw that I had a package yesterday, I opened it up…and then nerd glee ran through my hands to my arms and then to my heart. Kratos had arrived.

I ran to my shop (actually I walked as fast as a grandma around a shopping mall) to open this tantalizing package of war. Screw work!! Actually I cant do that because I’m in Iraq and I have to get things done to help protect the troops. But once I was done with all the work for the day I popped the game in the PSP and hit the power button.

When I began to play, I couldnt believe the graphics. The PSP is seriously a PS2 in your hands. The game is just beautiful. The levels are nicely done. They even have the camera effect where it pulls out very far just to show you how small you really are compared to your surroundings. Your chains graphical effects look really good and even better as you upgrade them. Even the graphics for little things look great…for instance…when you open a chest under water, the chest begins to release thousands of tiny bubbles while you struggle to open it. I just thought that was a nice little touch.

The gameplay is incredible. Kratos is extremely easy to control. I’m just amazed at how fluid he moves. Bashing baddies…lifting them in the air…grappling them back onto the ground..and then finishing them off is nothing but a few well pressed buttons mashes. Not hard at all. And I’m not talking about the button sequence fighting either. Speaking of those, there are some really good ones in this game.

The sound is sharp and pleasing. The musical score can really put you in a mood to kill every living thing around…but then make you want to stop and smell the ashes of a burning hades. If you’ve played part 1 or 2, then you know what to expect with the sound effects, and it’s here also. Sound great in my Bose Earbuds.

I have only a COUPLE of gripes about the game. I’m not completely done with it, but I can tell the game is going to be short. That’s going to be a downer because I really like this game and just dont want it to end for at least 2 week..heh. Another gripe I have is that the game froze up on me once. Only once..so hopefully not again. Just make sure you save every time you get the chance.

Something that isnt a gripe, but a ‘Just so ya know’, playing on Normal is pretty dang easy. There are 4 modes…Easy, Normal, Hard, and God (which is greyed out at first). If you are pretty experienced with the game, I’d go with playing Hard.

Something parents should think about when pondering if they should get this game for their youngin. This game is based during when Rome was the hot spot. So when you see some of the female Gods, usually they are topless. Also there is a scene where Kratos frees two topless women and well…gets to have sex with them. You dont actually see it, but they show a vase or something rocking around while you hit a series of buttons to pleasure them both. Funny if you are older, but maybe not funny for parents with children.

All in all, I recommend this game completely for your PSP. It is definitely in my top 5 games for the PSP. That would include Ratchet and Clank, FF Tactics, Burnout Legends, and I dont have a 5th one yet..(it’ll probably be the new Final Fantasy).

UPDATE:

Well after beating the game about an hour after posting this review, I will say it’s definitely a short game. Also make sure you stay for after the credits. Well…you’ll have to because you cant skip cut scenes (which I LOATHE that you cant do it in any game).

Review by N. Durham:

God of War stands as one of Sony’s best original franchises, and now the vengeance-driven Kratos and his deadly chains have come to the PSP. Fans of the series will also be more than happy to know that God of War: Chains of Olympus stands as the best action title to hit Sony’s portable system yet, as it nearly flawlessly brings everything that has made the God of War series so good, and packs it into one small disc. Taking place before the events of the original God of War, Chains of Olympus finds Kratos as general serving the gods, and also finds him struggling with obeying his orders, or doing what he feels he should. Undoubtedly the best looking game to hit the PSP yet, God of War: Chains of Olympus retains the excellent production values, addictive combat, tight controls, solid puzzle elements, and unlockable extras that will keep you glued to the game. The only real downside to Chains of Olympus is that as a whole, the game is too short. This one flaw is acceptable though, as Chains of Olympus boasts a brilliant score, more fantastic voice acting, and some dynamic action sequences that are easily the best to be seen on the PSP yet. All in all, God of War: Chains of Olympus is a more than welcome debut of Kratos on the PSP, and is by far the best action game to hit the PSP yet. Needless to say, if you own a PSP, God of War: Chains of Olympus is an absolute must own, and the definition of “killer app”.

Review by Superstar Reviewer:

Sonic Rivals pits Sonic the Hedgehog against some of his buddies that appeared late in the series. Knuckles, Silver, Black etc. I think about the time Sonic started having buddies was when the franchise became less fun. You rocket around 3d tracks with no time to react to what you encounter which means if you play online, someone will have cold memorized the track and will kick you silly. If you play in story mode, its very little fun unless you have the reflexes of a chipmunk on crack.

Gone are the days of using your intellect and mastery of the controls to get through the map. Now, you hang on and I guess if its summertime and you are 10, you play over and over to learn the map thoroughly. The best thing about the original Sonic on Genesis was the imagination inventing puzzles and bosses. Now, the levels are stunningly pretty, and you go fast, and the bosses suck and the control is not trustworthy. I won’t play anything where I can’t control the character because the system is too busy doing something else, which begs the question : It’s 2d, why is it so hard to

make a game that plays as well as the Genesis (I guess the PSP is 100X faster)?

Pick it up if you want to play with friends. The story mode is useless.

Review by sirrahs:

I haven’t played this game very much but I can say that my wife LOVES it. She gets so excited that I cannot talk to her at all when she is playing. She yells at the opposing characters and sometimes has a few choice words but I won’t go into that. If you like a fast action game without too much strategy, then this game is for you.

Review by Lisa Shea:

Talk about the ultimate mobile game for mature gamers who love the Sopranos and Godfather series. Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories is the perfect game for the PSP.

Let me say again – this is a MATURE game. There is sex, there is swearing, there is a LOT of violence. Anybody who buys this game for their 8 year old is making a grave mistake. It really bothers me a lot when people buy adult games for kids and say “Oh I didn’t know”. It clearly says right on the box. There are a TON of adult gamers out there, and we like mature games, just like we like R rated movies. These games aren’t meant for kids. They are made exactly the way us adults like them – full of adult situations.

That being taken care of, this is an *incredible* game. Let’s start with the gameplay. It’s hard to even imagine, looking at say a DS or GameBoy game, that any handheld could produce gameplay like this. You have a fully detailed, fully laid out cityscape. You can drive down any road, walk around amongst the people, watch the rain and sun and fog roll in. The storyline is great. The missions are great. Heck, even the sidegames are great. There are hidden packages to find, rankings to achieve, races to run, you name it. You could play this for months.

The graphics are spellbindingly beautiful. It’s hard to believe this is a handheld game. You get rain falling down around your car as it careens past easily identifiable stores on a road, while pedestrians stroll down the sidewalks. From shooting tasks, to driving races, to handling a number of other situations, the graphics draw you into this world.

Let’s talk about audio. There is a great selection of “radio stations” to listen to as you drive around. The voice acting really draws you into the story, to relate to the various characters involved. I’ve always loved the audio on the GTA games, and this is no exception.

Yes, this game requires a 2.0 update to run. The update is INCLUDED ON THE DISK. Anybody who has trouble finding it must be missing some basic computer skills. It’s right on the main disk menu when you put the disk into the system. It’s free, it’s included, it’s easy.

I can’t say enough good things about this game. Let me try to figure out some down sides. Hmmm, well it’s on a small screen. Heck, that’s the whole point, that it’s on a portable system. When I go on trips, I can bring it along with me. I think that’s fantastic, to have a GTA system to bring on the plane or bus. I *did* find the storyline in general to be on the annoying side, truth be told. I really liked the original GTA3 storyline where you were a valued employee moving up in the ranks due to your skill. I found it frustrating in this one to play in essence an “uppity jerk” who is constantly put down either by his own mob buddies or his mom or other people. It didn’t make the game nearly as enjoyable for me. This is my leisure time after all, to endulge in fun dreams. My fun dream isn’t of being berated and harassed. That being said, the mom in the Sopranos always drove me completely insane too. You have to give a writer the leeway to write his own story, and if that’s what he wants to write, you go with it.

This is a must-own game. It’s a game for ADULTS. But it’s a game with epic scope, great graphics, and great gameplay. Highly, highly recommended.

Review by :

“Liberty City Stories” continues rockstars succesful GTA sereis, this time on a handheld device. Dont let that scare you away though. GTA: LCS is the killer app the PSP has been waiting for.

- Liberty City is back from GTA III. Its the exact city.

- New story though. Completely new missions,mini missions, races, etc that will last you a while

- Over 70 vehciles, including classics like the Inferno, Cheetah, and more. Big rigs, motorcyles, boats, helicopters, and planes are included as well.

-Graphics rival PS2 versions of GTA, and with the PSP’s high res LCD screen, it will probably look better.

***A new element: Multiplayer. On the PS2/Xbox, you really couldnt have a multiplayer feature, because the game was played on one TV screen. On the PSP, up to 4 players can be thrown into the city all at once. Instead of buying weapons, you find and run over them, much like an FPS. You can grab cars, ram your friends, snipe/camp one area, etc. The possibilities are endless, and this type of multiplayer has never been seen before on ANY GTA game. This alone is worth purchasing the game.

Review by Nite:

After the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in theaters we got Lego Star Wars; a game that was a lot of fun to play simply because it emulated the movies rather well with all the characters being made entirely from Legos. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is even better for the simple fact of nostalgia. Any Star Wars fan will enjoy this.

The PSP version is actually not all that different from the console versions. In fact, this is like carrying around the console version. So if you want to play Lego Star Wars II on the go, you can do that just fine with the PSP.

You’ll begin the game in the Cantina in Mos Eisley. This is the hub, and from there you can go into any of the three episodes and play through them. At the start you’ll only be able to choose A New Hope, but after completing the first chapter, you can choose The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi. As you go through the three episodes you’ll some of the most memorable moments of the movies acted out entirely with legos. These moments aren’t only memorable, but they’re given a hilarious charm. These moments are also from the actual original versions of the movies as well. In other words, Han Solo DOES shoot first.

The game is visually striking. Seeing your favorite characters from the original Star Wars films as legos is quite a treat. Not only do you get to have nostalgia with Star Wars, but with legos as well. Even better are the hilarious antics of most of the scenes. To benefit the nostalgia even more is how John Williams’ classic score accompanies each and every level of the game. For a Star Wars fan this game is the ultimate nostalgia.

As you play through each of the classic episodes, you’ll be in control of several characters. Not all at once, but you’ll end up having to switch. At times you may only have two characters, at others there may be as many as seven in your party at once. Your characters, depending on who they are, also have their own unique skills they can use. Jedi for example, can double jump and use the force. Those who wield blasters have a grappling hook that allows them to ascend to accessible platforms. The droids can open up special doors for you. Other characters, like the Jawas and Ewoks will be able to go into vents and access areas the other characters can’t. In all actuality, they’re really no different than their counterparts in the original Lego Star Wars. Also like the original Lego Star Wars, you’ll constantly have to switch between characters in order to get through each and every area. You’ll have to switch to R2-D2 to open up a door, for example. More than one person can play at a time, which is also really cool. You can also beat up your allies if you wish, and they respawn instantly. The gameplay isn’t completely the same, though, there have been some small tweaks made here and there.

The additions to the gameplay aren’t huge, but they are welcome. As you progress through levels all your characters may be able to assemble certain materials together to form a droid to help them fight. In the original Lego Star Wars this ability was only given to the Jedi, but here everyone can do it. There are also moments when you’ll have to dress up as a stormtrooper in order to gain access through certain doors. You’ll also be given the chance at some point to dress up as a bounty hunter and you’ll be able to use Thermal Detonators. Characters also have their own unique abilities. Chewie, for example, can rip a stormtroopers arms right out of his sockets. All of these are welcome additions, and that’s not even all there is to the gameplay. From time to time you’ll be in command of vehicles. Landspeeders, the Millennium Falcon, the X-Wing and more as you take on some of the more memorable moments from the film, like destroying the death star.

It will probably only take you five hours at the very least to complete the story mode of all three episodes. However, Lego Star Wars II is full of extras. Each time you dispatch an enemy, whether it be in story mode or not, you’ll earn money. You can also destroy certain objects and obtain money. You can use the money you gain to purchase cheats and hidden characters. Each time you get a new character they’ll walk around in the hub, and you can switch to them. “Purchasing” characters isn’t the only way to get them. You could easily just use one in story mode and you’ve got him or her. You’ll also get hidden characters if you’ve got save data from the original Lego Star Wars. Just unlocking all the characters takes a lot of time.

The importance of unlocking characters is so you can play through certain aspects of the free play mode. There are places that in story mode the default characters couldn’t reach. These hidden characters might be able to reach it, though, and so you will find yourself playing through levels again. The good news is these levels are so much fun that playing through a second, third or even fourth time is no hassle at all.

Free mode also offers a way for you to customize what a character looks like. You could put Yoda’s head on Luke Skywalker’s body, for example. This is mostly just a lot of fun to mess around with. Some combinations are just all out crazy. You could, for example, put Chewbacca’s head on Leia’s body from when she’s wearing the slave outfit in Return of the Jedi. This really doesn’t do a whole lot for the gameplay as a whole, but it is quite fun to mess around with, and the combinations are endless.

The only real problem with this game that I can really think of is that there is little, if any, challenge at all. Each time you die you respawn right where you left off and you have infinite lives. There’s really no such thing as a game over. If you die the only penalty is that you lose money. However, the sheer fun factor of the game is enough to do away with that, and still makes Lego Star Wars II a treat.

Lego Star Wars II surpasses the original in just about everyway. It’s a Star Wars game for the classic trilogy done with instant perfection. If you love the original Star Wars movies, you’ll definitely want this game.

On the positive side

+Based off the original theatrical versions and not the special editions

+Beautiful game

+Addictive gameplay

+Co-op mode

+Several extras and hidden characters

+Customizable characters

+Tons of replay value

On the negative side

-The story mode is quite short

-While not really much of a con for this game, it’s got very little challenge

Review by R. Cho:

Although this game is loads of fun, there is an annoying technical setback. I have a 4GB memory stick in my PSP. I figured it’ll be big enough for all of the game saves, music, pictures and movies. Well, this game didn’t even recognize the memory stick. I send email to the tech support, and they said the game is designed only to work with the memory stick comes with the console. Not only they failed to notice that not every PSP comes with a memory stick, also they failed to mention what is the max size memory stick can be used. So I bought a 512MB stick, and the game works with it. I don’t know if 1GB or 2GB will also work, but I know 4GB won’t work for sure.

About the game play, there is lots of humor, and fun features. The graphic is very nice for a portable game, and the game story sticks very closely to the original star wars movies. But there is couple of issues. The camera angle can be a little annoying in some scenes and have some long loading time issue. Other than that, it’s a fun game to play.

Review by Howard D. Fisher:

The idea for this game is fantastic. Take a bunch of classic arcade games we’ve all played a million times before and update them with newly improved, “evolved,” graphics. And they rock! The graphics are great, the sound effects are sufficiently retro without sounding silly, and the games retained their same heart. Overall, a really fun PSP game.

Having said that, however, there are two distinct problems. First, if you have XBox Live Arcade, you’ll recognize all these games as the same ports that have been trickling onto XBLA for the past year or so. This UMD is a much better deal, though, getting them all in one package instead of – each through XBLA. However, the PSP controls are just a little too wonky for the games that require more precision, such as Missile Command or Battlezone, especially when you compare them to the X360 controls (which, granted, weren’t that precise to begin with, but they are better).

Second, the game makes a big deal about containing over 50 Atari 2600 games available to be unlocked. However, instead of unlocking them a few at a time as you make incremental progress through the new-and-improved games, the developers decided to make them ALL unlockable once you achieve EVERY goal in EACH evolved game. So basically, the unlockable Atari 2600 games are an all-or-nothing deal. Stuck on the last achievement? Tough! You’ll NEVER play ANY of the 2600 games until you get that last achievement. And that makes getting any of the achievements that much less of an accomplishment than it should be.

If the unlockable games had NOT been included in this package, it would be a sweet deal all on its own. If you want to play these classic games, get this UMD. Just be prepared to be playing ONLY these 12 games until you unlock all 48 achievements.

Review by Mark:

I have the Atari collection for the Nintendo DS and boy, was that a disappointment. I wish I could have gotten my money back. This on the other hand is so much better (and cheaper) that I was not expecting it to be this good. The 11 games come in two versions, classic and Modern (evolved). The controls take getting used to since games like Millipede and Centipede had a control ball, this you have to use joystick or direction buttons. There is also unlockable versions of Atari 2600 games too, over 50 according to the box but I haven’t gotten there yet. Highly recommended games. Remember back in the 80s when these were top? An arcade game cost a few thousand and you get all these for with better graphics (but not better controls).

Review by ps2 gamer:

If you’ve owned a PSP for a long time you’ve probably kept hearing that it doesn’t have any good games. Daxter proves otherwise. If you’ve been bored with all of the games the PSP has now, be bored no longer! Daxter is quite possibly the best PSP game out there, with awesome graphics, gameplay, story, and many more features.

If you’re a hardcore fan of the Jak and Daxter series like me, then you won’t be disappointed with this game. It does everything great. The story takes place between Jak 1 and Jak 2. If you rememeber, at the beginning of Jak 2 Jak arrives at haven city. He is then immediately captured by the Krimzon Guards, but Daxter escapes. Jak is put in prison, and then the game skips 2 years later and you see how Daxter saves Jak. The game’s storyline takes place in those 2 years, and you’ll learn how Daxter saves Jak and what he has done in that time. At the beginning of the game, Daxter is offered a job as a bug exterminator. He takes it, because he hopes that while he goes around exterminating bugs he’ll also find Jak along the way. By the way, these are metal head bugs, so they’ll put up a fight.

Now, first of all, let’s get the bad stuff out of the way. This game is kind of short, and you’ll be able to finish it in 10-13 hours. Also, some people might find it disappointing that haven city is smaller than it was in Jak 2, and there aren’t any people walking in the streets, even though they’re flying in zoomers. However, these are very minor problems, and they don’t affect the game in any very bad way.

Now on to the good things. This game’s graphics are absolutely phenomenal. They are the best graphics on any PSP game out now, and I daresay that they’re even better than the graphics of many PS2 games. I’m not exaggerating. They are absolutely gorgeous. There is an impressive amount of detail in all of the environments you’ll visit, and they all look very unique and great. Just take a look at Daxter himself (the character). His fur looks so realistic and cool, and all of the textures in the game are similar. The character designs are also cool and unique.

Speaking of characters, here they are. There’s Osmo, which is an old man who’s also Daxter’s boss at the exterminator shop, yet he’s very kind. There’s his son Ximon, who is a surfer kind of guy. There’s Osmo’s daughter Taryng, which is a Lara Croft-like gal with a British accent who gives Daxter all of his weapons. There’s Kaeden, some kind of creepy guy who really hates Daxter and his friends. And there are a few other characters, some of them from the other Jak games, like Errol and Count Vegar.

Another thing that the Jak series are greatly known for is their variety. Daxter delivers that too. There is a big variety of missions and things to do, and you’ll do things ranging from simply killing bugs, to chasing a Truck on your scooter while it shoots bombs at you, to shoot down a bug with a turret while you’re on a vehicle, and more. Also, there’s lots of action and platforming to be done in this game. Like I mentioned earlier, you’ll be fighting metal head bugs, and they’re all different and unqiue. You’ll get several weapons in the game: One being an electric flyswatter, which is basically a melee weapon, a sprayer which lets you stun enemies, a flamethrower(self explanatory), and a sonic blaster, which lets you shoot a bomb that creates a shockwave. You’ll also have to pick up floating green orbs to power up tour sprayer weapons. Other than that, you also get an upgrade that lets you temporarily fly in the air with your sprayer, and you’ll have to pick up green orbs mid-air in order to feul your sprayer and allow you to stay up a longer time. Jumping and flying around makes up this game’s platforming, and its really very fun.

Also there’s a bunch of other distractions that keep you busy and allow you to do things other than doing the main missions. You can roam around Haven city (by the way, you get a scooter to do it with) searching for secret areas and collectibles, you can go to levels that you’ve already played in order to pick up secrets you might have missed there, and perhaps most importantly, you can play mini-games called “dream sequences”. These are very fun, and in them, you make Daxter go to sleep on his bed, and he’ll have dreams in which he’s the hero, and his dreams take place in movies like lord of the rings, the matrix, braveheart and more. They’re basically just minigames in which you have to mash buttons according to what appears on screen, and they’re really fun. You can unlock different combos for your flyswatter and other cool secrets if you play them. However, you must first collect enough precursor orbs in order to unlock these dreams.

There is also a multiplayer option called bug combat. You can pick up special bugs in your main game and use them in this multiplayer option. Each bug has 3 attacks it can use, and it’s sort of a turn based rock-paper-scissors game with RPG elements. Claw attack beats Spit, Spit beats trap, and trap beats claw. You also get all kinds of unlockables for this from the main game, if you find them. You can get power ups that improve your bugs’ health, attack, and more. You also get tokens that you can use in the middle of the combat, and they’re things like shields that protect you from attacks, things that cancel your opponent’s move, things that let you switch your attack after you already picked one, etc.

Overall Daxter is the best PSP game that’s ever come out. I hope that other companies keep making games like this. If they do, the future looks very bright for the PSP. So if your a Jak and Daxter fan, or if you just own a PSP, you should definitely buy this game.

P.S. You can also connect your PSP to your PS2 via USB cable, and if you have Jak X: Combat Racing, you can unlock cool stuff for it from the Daxter game. These things inculde: Four different characters to drive as, and a car called the Daxtermobile.

Review by Adam Sugarman:

I was truly worried about the PSP for a while there; it scared me that I saw people in the streets using their glossy new gaming system solely as an MP3 player becasue of the lack of games. After Mega Man: Powered Up was sold out in my area (the game store clerk said that people are asking about new PSP games all the time, in the hopes for a killer app), I knew the system was truly in trouble. Thank god for Daxter. As the first truly orginal great PSP game, it sure was a long time coming.

You pick up between Jak and Daxter and Jak and Daxter II. It takes place right in the middle (remember when Daxter bailed Jak out of jail? This game shows how that happened), and Daxter gets sidetracked by becoming an exterminator. Armed with an electronic fly-swatter of sorts, he goes up against the denizens of evil…er…the evil cockroaches and such of his world in the hopes of bailing his faithful buddy out. In truth, the story is purely functional. Don’t expect Final Fantasy VII or anything here.

The first thing you’ll notice is just how absolutely amazing the game looks on your little LCD screen. Bright and colorful (and high resolution to boot), I can safely say it is the best looking PSP game yet released. It is truly like having a PS2 in the palm of your hands. The one affliction of PSP gaming so far has been the terrible loading times, and thankfully Daxter all but eliminates it with its clever door system. Instead of breaking gameplay up with a loading screen, the game puts you in a small area, usually an elevator or something, while the game loads. There is some slowdown, too, but it is barely noticeable. Also, that Ottsel sure is animated well. Daxter wags his tiny tail back and forth, he has hair sprouting all over, and he looks just like an Ottsel should (if they existed, that is).

Once you’re done drooling all over your brand new PSP’s screen (and wiped off the saliva, hopefully), you’ll start realizing just how great the gameplay is. It hearkens back to classic 3D platforming. There are a few weapons to choose from, but combat takes a back seat to pure platforming fun. And platforming hasn’t been this fun since that little Italian stereotype hopped onto the scene. The level design is smart and interesting, never drab and thankfully corridor and warehouse free (it starts to scare me that even platforming games are starting to have corridors and warehouses). Despite the city setting, the developers have found interesting ways to get varied landscapes into play.

The voice-acting is pitch-perfect, too. The music is appropriate, and the sound effects are well done. You’ll swear you were there swinging around that little swatter, wagging your tail and climbing walls right along with Daxter.

Thank god for Naughy Dog. They have finally released the first true killer app for PSP.

Pros:

Incredible graphics

Fun gameplay

Varied levels

Great sound

Cons:

Slight slowdown at times

Review by H Hobby:

I got this case for my husband’s psp. The psp fits great and the outer rubber shell of the case seems quite durable. However, if you look at the picture, you’ll see a carabiner looped through a little strap on the case. That strap is held in place by a large rivet that’s punched through the case and sits in the corner of the area the PSP should sit. This means that any time the PSP is in the case, that rivet is wearing on the PSP, potentially scratching, or otherwise ruining, the finish on the back of the system. If you buy this, be prepared to line the bottom with some heavy cloth or something to take the rivet out of the equation. That being said, this case is excellent for protecting and carrying a PSP. The designers just need to make an adjustment.

Review by Hadi Rahhal:

It can carry 2 UMD discs and the earphones with the remote wire including the PSP comfortably.

And the quality is excellent

Review by J. S Thompson:

I bought this game while on vacation recently & have thoroughly enjoyed it. The game has versions of Battleship, Mancala, Chess, Checkers, Concentration, Othello, Chinese Checkers, and many more(Some of the games I’ve noted above are the brand name the board games go by–they’re called something else on this game disk.). While I cannot speak for the AI in the version of Go on this game as a previous reviewer has, I can say I found the AI on the games I have played to be fairly challenging and there are varying skill levels. I found the AI for the chess game very challenging–far more so than the AI for the PSP game Online Chess Kingdoms–interesting graphics-cruddy AI. The graphics are not state of the art, but with the number of games on this one disk for the price you pay, graphics shouldn’t factor into your decision. Well worth the purchase price, particularly for the number of games you get and GREAT for taking on the road!

Review by RJ:

I’ve been looking all over the web for reviews of this game, and there haven’t been that many. The game websites trash this collection, yet most of us players say good things about it.

I’ll totally agree with most of the players on this one. I bought this because I occasionally wanted to play Chess, and a few other board games when I’m away from home, and that is exactly what this game supplies – some nice board games to play on the road.

Yes the graphics aren’t much at all, but the fact that it lets you do jigsaw puzzles of your own pictures, and import your own MP3 tunes on here is a very nice feature. Plus, I don’t really care if the graphics are that great when I’m playing board games anyway. Great graphics are nice in other games, but the ones here are just fine for this game.

One of the small downsides is it doesn’t come with instructions for the games, so for the ones that you’ve never played before, you’ll have to lookup the instructions online.

Overall, and selling for the cheap price that it goes for, this collection is totally worth it.

Review by John M Spangler:

Retro games are good, but when they are done right, they can be great. This is easily the greatest arcade compilation I’ve ever played. Not only can you play these classic arcade games in the palm of your hand, but you can enjoy the best collection of them all in one. 20 games, including “redone” games of Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga and RallyX.

The quality of each classic is amazing and they play nearly exactly to the old arcade cabinets from the retro 80′s, graphics, music, sound FX and all. The bestest of the best is clearly Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man, RallyX and DigDug. But it doesn’t stop there. There are 4 new Arrangement games of those 4 classics, I like to view them as remixes. They are are redone, upheavels in levels, gameplay, sound and graphics. The arranged Galaga is very addicting and you’ll be hooked instantly. Dig Dug remade is basically the same game with better graphics and new enemies. RallyX, which was a decent game in the 80′s, is redone and very fun to boot. These “arranged” games could have been sold seperately and probably most would have been pleased with them.

The originals are as fun as you remember them and just as challenging. Getting to that “key” in Pac-Man is still no easy task. But for novice gamers, never threat, you can continue from where you left off on many of the old games. Some of the other titles included like Grobada, Motos, Bosconian, DragonBuster and Galaxian are very obscure, but amazingly, they still do offer some fun factor. The rest you may not spent much time with in the past and most you might not play much, but you’ll be happy with it overall.

Some might be a bit “squinty” eyed playing some of the old games like Pac-Man, the ratio of the originals were made for horizontal screens, so it’s very small on the widescreen PSP, but thankfully they offered a “stretch” option for most of the titles. It looks a bit weird all stretched out, but it’s better than playing on the little playing field.

Overall, this is clearly the best PSP game to buy, especially if you like classic arcade gaming, this is how it all began, no quarters needed…

Review by Arion Acurantes:

The Namco Museum Battle Collection is living proof that the past will always catch up with today’s advances, adding fuel to the argument that it’s all in the gameplay. Namco Museum showcases the founding concepts of most modern gaming, but, in essence, the sum of these games is all about the numbers. That, however, doesn’t change the fact that all of today’s games can trace their DNA to any one of these titles.

And gameplay is what you get with this collection. The PSP has been virtually retrofitted to give you a healthy dose of all your favorites from the early days of gaming, beginning of course with the immortal Pac-Man, the always imitated Galaga/Galaxian, and right on through to some little known but nonetheless engaging titles such as Rolling Thunder, Bosconian, and Xevious.

The four “arranged” versions (Pac-Man, Rally-X, Dig Dug, and Galaga) are sure to please a great many gamers with overhauled versions of their respective originals, but with a maximum six attainable levels in each of these games, sometimes the experience just seems a little short. The original versions, on the other hand, sometimes offer more challenge than their descendants, being impeded only by the fact that the only way to get the most of the PSP’s screen is to stretch the gameplay screen to fit and thus distort the original screen ratio.

If you’re the type of gamer who’s into the PSP mainly for its portability, Namco Museum could give you many hours of quick, satisfying casual gaming. Just pop it in and rack up those high scores.

However, if you have a PSP because you believe in its capability to equal its older brother and are on the lookout for seriously immersive, big-scale gaming, Namco Museum could do in a pinch, but it won’t rock your mind the way GTA:LCS, SOCOM, or any other hardware-maxing title is currently out there.

Namco Museum is seriously fun and worth a look. It may, on the whole, be old, but don’t dis this granddaddy just yet. There’s gold in them thar games.

Review by blackaciddevil:

I, for the record, don’t usually buy licensed games of movies that come out. For the most part, most of them are a waste of time & aren’t worth the money that is spent on them. However, I’ve had a few exceptions in my time(if you’ve read any of my reviews before). At any rate, I recently watched “Cars” on DVD and was entertained by it. So, when I was out shopping, I come across Cars, the game, for the PSP at an exceptionally low price. The kid in me came out again, I guess, ’cause I ended up getting the game. I honestly wasn’t expecting it to be worth much but I was pleasantly surprised that it ended up being the most ‘entertaining’ racer that I’ve played in awhile. Racing around familiar environments from the movie & hearing your favorites spout off all kinds of humor(“Say–later ‘mater…”), it was a real hoot. It’s a perfect fit for those quick bursts of gameplay while commuting on a bus or traveling by cars & such. There are 15 playable ‘Cars’ in the game with only three available from the get-go as you make your way through over 25 races. Although it may be geared towards the younger set, older folks-like me-can get into it too. It might not be as deep as, say, Need for Speed or Ridge Racer but it’s a solid racer…nonetheless.

There are, however, a couple of flaws in the game that hinder it from being a ‘great’ racer. First, the collision detection..it was really spotty at times with other cars as well as the environment. Second, while the game looked good on the PSP–it didn’t look as good as the PSP is capable of. It looked more to me like a higher-rez Nintendo DS game, actually. Given, it’s the gameplay that matters and this game has that in spades. Yet, I expected much more out of it. I could see the game looking this way if it were pushing as much code as Midnight Club 3:Dub Edition on the PSP but it isn’t. Sad to say, even Midnight Club 3 looks a heck of a sight better than this game.

Beyond that, Cars for the PSP is a delightfully entertaining racer that will appeal to both young and old. Definitely worth a look if you love racing.

Review by m:

yep i agree. i was also surprised, this is a pretty solid race game. Fans are going to love it too. The Multiplayer is sweet. I give it an overall score of 9/10.