Best PSP Games: 15 Games Worth Playing

God of War: Ghost of Sparta

Two God of War games came out on PSP, and both were excellent. But for this list, I would go with Ghost of Sparta. It has a very satisfying combat system, great-looking graphics, and varied locations. It is especially impressive when some enormous creature suddenly appears in the middle of all that scenery and you actually have to fight it.

Kratos sets out to confront his past and find his brother Deimos. Along the way, as usual, he leaves a trail of bodies and destruction behind him. If you know the early God of War games, you will settle in quickly: chained blades, attack combos, magic, and button-prompt finishers.

And hitting enemies here really does feel good. Kratos launches them into the air, slams them into the ground, grabs them, and throws them around. Later you get a spear and shield, plus the ability to set the blades on fire. The latter is useful for breaking enemy armor, among other things. So there is no need to rely on the same move over and over.

Between fights, you climb walls, jump across gaps, and solve puzzles. The camera is fixed, so you do not have to keep adjusting it yourself. On a PSP with only one analog stick, that is a very welcome choice.

That said, if you dislike finishers where the game tells you which buttons to press, there is no escaping them here.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

Vice City Stories takes us back to the city of palm trees, neon signs, and eighties music. This time, though, you play as Victor Vance, and the story takes place two years before Tommy Vercetti's adventure.

Victor starts out in the military but gets pulled into criminal trouble pretty quickly. From there, it is familiar GTA territory: take missions, steal cars, get into shootouts, and try to lose the police. Or you can put the story aside and simply drive around the city with the radio on. In GTA, that can sometimes be just as entertaining as the missions themselves.

There is also an interesting system of its own here. Victor can take businesses away from rival gangs and build up his own criminal empire. Capture a property, buy it, choose what kind of operation to run there, and complete the related missions. Gradually, the city starts making money for you. Rivals can attack your businesses too, though, so you cannot manage everything in peace.

There is a lot packed into this handheld game: a large city, cars, motorcycles, boats, and helicopters. Automatic aiming can be awkward in shootouts, though, and some missions can be irritating. Fail one, and now you have to drive all the way back to where the gunfight started. Even so, carrying this version of Vice City around with you is still very cool.

Burnout Legends

If what you like most in racing games is speed and the chance to slam a rival into a barrier, Burnout Legends is exactly what you want. There is a dedicated boost button: hold it down and the car becomes noticeably faster. The boost meter drains, of course. To refill it, you have to take risks by skimming past traffic, driving into oncoming lanes, or drifting through corners. You can also ram rivals and send them into walls, which fills the meter too. But you still have to watch the road. Lose focus for a second and your stylish overtake turns into your own crash.

Besides standard races, there is Road Rage, where you try to wreck as many opponents as possible, and Pursuit, where you drive a police car. Crash mode has an even better objective: cause the most expensive pileup you can. That means choosing exactly where to hit so the biggest possible chain of cars crashes behind you.

Legends pulls tracks and ideas from the early Burnout games, so it feels like a big collection of everything people liked about the series. It does demand your attention, though. Even if you are in first place and everything seems fine, one bad collision can ruin the race. The sense of speed, on the other hand, is more than strong enough.

Tekken: Dark Resurrection

Tekken: Dark Resurrection is already a great fit for PSP simply because it is a full-sized fighting game you can easily launch for a few matches. Pick a character, enter the arena, get punched in the face, and then start figuring out what your fighter can actually do.

There are plenty of characters, and they play quite differently. Some rely heavily on kicks, some focus on throws, and others hit hard. Familiar faces include Jin, King, Paul, and Yoshimitsu, while Dark Resurrection also brings in Lili and Dragunov.

At first, you can learn a few simple combos and use them to get through fights against the computer. Gradually, though, it becomes interesting to understand spacing, block at the right time, and punish an opponent after a failed attack. There is enough depth here to last a long time. The animation is also excellent, so the fights are simply enjoyable to watch. Complex inputs on the PSP d-pad are not comfortable for everyone, though. The controls take some getting used to.

There is no shortage of modes either. You get Story, Practice, Tekken Dojo, and even bowling. Yes, you can take Tekken fighters and send them off to knock down pins.

Daxter

In Daxter, Jak's orange sidekick finally gets a game of his own. While Jak is locked up, Daxter takes a job as an exterminator. The city happens to be full of insects, so he has plenty to do.

The job is surprisingly fun. Daxter runs through levels with an electric flyswatter and a spray gun, jumps across platforms, and squeezes through spaces where a larger hero would simply get stuck. The sprayer is not just for dealing with bugs, either. It can keep Daxter in the air for a short time and help him reach new places.

Between the main missions, you can hunt for hidden items. Daxter also has dreams where he imagines himself as the hero of famous movies, such as The Matrix. This exterminator certainly has no shortage of confidence.

The result is a good-looking 3D platformer with a funny lead character. You occasionally have to adjust the camera, especially before jumps, but the controls are generally easy to understand. If you want bright levels, platforming, and secrets to hunt for, Daxter fits the bill very well.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

By the time of Peace Walker, Big Boss is already building an army of his own. That means sneaking into enemy bases is only part of the game. Between missions, you also have to manage people, equipment, and the development of your base.

You recruit people for that army directly from the enemy. Find a promising soldier, knock him out, attach a Fulton recovery balloon, and send him back to your base. One is good in combat, another is useful for equipment development, and a third belongs in the medical unit. Enemy guards suddenly become potential employees as well as obstacles.

The better the specialists at your base, the better the equipment they can develop. That gives you a reason to replay missions: find a valuable recruit, obtain a blueprint, or clear a familiar area more carefully. Missions are separate, which works well for a handheld game. You can finish one and put the console away.

Fights against large military machines can drag on, especially when you are playing alone and have to keep firing at a boss while managing ammunition. The PSP camera controls also take some getting used to. But the combination of stealth missions and building your own army is extremely engaging. To follow the story, it also helps to know at least how Metal Gear Solid 3 ends.

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite

In Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, you accept a hunt, prepare your gear, and head out after a monster. Win, gather materials, turn them into weapons or armor, and go after the next target. And the next one is usually even bigger and meaner.

It sounds fairly simple, but the combat itself demands patience. With a heavy sword, you cannot just swing mindlessly in front of a monster's face: your character has already committed to the attack while the monster has decided to leap at you. You have to learn enemy movements and understand when it is safe to attack and when it is better to back away.

Weapons change the game significantly. A great sword, dual blades, lance, and bow all require different approaches. You also need to bring healing items, watch your stamina, sharpen your weapon, and prepare properly for each hunt. So there is plenty of equipment management before you even set out.

Freedom Unite can keep you busy for a very long time, especially if you enjoy learning how monsters behave and gradually putting together better gear. But you will have to kill the same monster many times. The material you need does not drop after every hunt, and that can get tedious. Controlling the camera with the PSP d-pad is not especially comfortable either.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Crisis Core tells the story of Zack Fair, a SOLDIER working for the Shinra corporation. He dreams of becoming a hero, carries out missions, and gradually learns what his employer is really doing. Along the way, you meet Cloud, Sephiroth, and other familiar Final Fantasy VII characters.

Combat takes place in real time. You control Zack, attack enemies with a sword, dodge, and use magic. Abilities can be changed through materia. These are magical stones selected in the equipment menu: one lets you attack with fire, another restores health, and a third gives you a special sword move. Materia can also be fused to create new abilities and improve Zack's stats.

On top of the normal combat system sits another rather strange feature: the DMW reels. They spin on their own during battle, and the combinations that come up grant bonuses and trigger special moves. At times, it feels as though someone bolted a slot machine onto an RPG. Eventually, though, you start to see how the system connects to Zack and the people he knows.

The main story is interesting, but the side missions quickly become repetitive. Often they are just another short trip through familiar areas with battles and treasure chests. I would not recommend doing all of them one after another.

One more thing: although Crisis Core takes place before Final Fantasy VII, it reveals important details from that game's story. If you plan to play both, it is better to start with the original Final Fantasy VII.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

This one is turn-based tactics. You control a squad, move fighters across a grid, and try to finish each battle with enough people left to take part in the next one. Meanwhile, a struggle for power unfolds around you, and Ramza and his friend Delita gradually end up on opposite sides of the conflict.

You can spend a long time developing your squad. Characters have jobs such as knight, archer, several kinds of mage, monk, ninja, and many others. Abilities learned in one job can be combined with another. For example, a fighter can keep the ability to heal allies even after switching to a completely different main role.

You also have to think carefully on the battlefield. Height, distance, and the direction of your attack all matter. Spells do not activate immediately, so you need to watch the turn order and understand who will move before your mage finishes casting. You cannot leave a fallen ally on the ground forever either: there is a risk of losing that character permanently.

It is a large game with an interesting story, but it is not easy to learn. The menus, jobs, and rules all take time to understand. The PSP version also suffers from slowdown during some animations, especially spells.

Persona 3 Portable

In Persona 3, you play as a male or female high school student. During the day, you study, socialize, run errands, and decide who to spend time with. At night, an extra hour appears that most people do not even know exists. During that hour, the school turns into an enormous tower full of monsters.

Ordinary daily life matters just as much as trips into the tower. Build relationships with people and you gain advantages when creating Personas. Those Personas provide combat abilities, and the main character can switch between them. So a conversation after school can quite literally help you during the next nighttime expedition.

Combat is turn-based. You look for enemy weaknesses, knock foes down, and launch team attacks. Persona 3 Portable lets you directly command every member of your party. Choosing a female protagonist also changes some relationships, dialogue, and events, so it is a substantial addition rather than a cosmetic option.

The PSP version does make one major simplification: across most of the city, you move a cursor over static backgrounds instead of walking around directly. Inside the tower, you control the character normally and can run freely through each floor. There is a lot of dialogue, and the dungeon floors can become repetitive. But if the characters and their stories draw you in, wanting to know what happens next makes the next trip into the tower much easier to accept.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

Birth by Sleep has three main characters: Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. They travel through Disney worlds, meet Cinderella, Snow White, Stitch, and other characters, while also trying to deal with problems of their own. Each hero has a separate story. Their paths cross, but they see events from different perspectives.

The gameplay differs slightly between them as well. Terra hits harder, Ventus is faster, and Aqua is better with magic. Battles happen in real time: you run, jump, dodge, and hit enemies with a huge Keyblade.

You choose in advance which spells and moves will be available in battle. Use one, and it goes on cooldown. While you wait, you can use another. Leveled-up commands can be combined to create new ones. Over time, the system encourages you to keep trying new abilities instead of relying on the same few moves for the entire game.

Everything looks bright, the combat moves quickly, and there is plenty of content. Just keep in mind that seeing the full story means finishing the game with all three characters, which also means revisiting familiar worlds. And despite all the Disney characters, the plot is nowhere near as simple as the screenshots might suggest.

WipEout Pulse

WipEout Pulse is for anyone who has started to find ordinary cars too slow. Here you control a racing craft that hovers above the track. The speed is high, the corners are sharp, and the other racers are armed. The controls take practice, though. Simply steering in the right direction is not enough: you have to use air brakes to take corners cleanly. Keep scraping along the wall and you lose both speed and shield energy. Eventually the ship explodes and the race ends early.

Weapons are picked up on the track. You can hit an opponent with a missile or leave an unpleasant surprise for whoever is behind you. But a well-taken corner is often more useful than a lucky shot, especially when you move into faster classes and realize how poorly you actually knew the track.

There is also Zone mode, where the craft gradually accelerates on its own. All you have to do is steer and survive as long as possible. The first laps can feel calm, but soon there is no time to look around. The electronic music and visual design of the tracks fit the game perfectly. WipEout is definitely not a relaxing racer, though.

Patapon 2

In Patapon 2, you command an army of small one-eyed creatures. But you cannot give orders with a normal button press. You have to beat them out on drums, and you have to stay in rhythm.

One sequence makes the Patapons march forward, another tells them to attack, and a third makes them defend. You beat out the command, they answer with their singing, and then carry it out. When everything goes right, the army enters Fever mode and fights more effectively. Miss the rhythm, though, and your troops can lose their composure right in front of the enemy.

Rhythm alone is not enough. Before a mission, you need to build a squad, choose equipment, and decide who to bring. There are melee fighters, archers, and other classes. The second game also adds a special hero whose class and mask can be changed to affect their stats.

The most interesting moments come during boss fights. You can already see a huge creature preparing to attack, but you still have to beat out the right command on time. There is no panic-button dodge to save you. You do have to replay missions for materials, and a decent sense of rhythm helps a lot. Still, the mix of this strange little army, music, and funny artwork works remarkably well.

LocoRoco 2

In LocoRoco 2, you control the planet itself. Press L or R, the world tilts, and the round colorful creatures roll in that direction. Press both buttons together and they jump. That is basically the foundation of the controls for almost the entire game.

Along the way, the LocoRoco eat berries and grow. A large creature can be split into smaller ones to squeeze through a narrow passage, then joined back together afterward. The whole group is constantly singing, rolling around, and reacting to what happens in some very funny ways.

There are good levels behind those simple controls. You get slopes, springy surfaces, hidden passages, and places that are easy to miss completely on a first run. The sequel also adds underwater swimming and new abilities that unlock as you progress.

Simply reaching the end is usually not too difficult. Collecting everything is much more interesting: you have to examine the level carefully and try to reach suspicious-looking places. If you lose some of your creatures near the finish, though, you may have to replay the stage to get a good result.

The graphics are very simple but pleasant, and the music fits this little singing crowd perfectly.

Lumines

In Lumines, squares made from four smaller blocks in two colors fall from the top of the screen. You can rotate and move them. The goal is to build single-color squares at least two blocks by two blocks in size.

They do not disappear immediately. A vertical line sweeps across the field from left to right and clears the completed shapes. Until it reaches them, you can keep adding more blocks of the same color. So you are constantly trying to free up space while also watching where the line is.

The puzzle works well on its own, but Lumines pairs it especially well with music. The tracks change, along with the look of the playfield and the sounds of your actions. Even the speed at which the clearing line moves depends on the music. As a result, the same rules can feel very different from one section to the next.

It is best played with headphones. The calm does not last long, though: the line has not cleared the old blocks yet, and new ones are already falling from above. If you want a break from chasing an endless high score, there are separate puzzle challenges where you have to build specific shapes. It is an excellent format for the PSP: you can play one round or spend the whole evening arranging blocks.

Where to Start?

If you are just getting into the PSP, I would start with God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Burnout Legends, and LocoRoco 2. They show what makes them fun very quickly. Monster Hunter, Persona, and Final Fantasy Tactics are better saved for a time when you can sit down and learn them properly. One evening may not be enough just to get comfortable with their rules.