What are your favourite PSP games?
My wife just surprised me with a new PSP battery after listening to me moan about not having one ever since reading PerfectDark's most recent PSP article. After messing around with broken USB cables and jumping through hoops to un-spoof my old prome-2 firmware version for too long last night, I finally got ARK4 running and had a blast playing Wipeout Pure.
My favourite PSP game back in the day was probably Monster Hunter Freedom Unite... so many late nights spent playing that with friends in my freezing flat. There was something special about LAN parties with handheld games. I remember putting serious hours into Peace Walker and Dissidia too.
Now I want some game recommendations... tell me which games you loved on the PSP! I might even have a look around for some UMDs!
167 replies
Cave Story and Dracula Chronicle X on the psp was pretty great!
I still have my PSP on my desk, on who knows how many battery replacements. I come back for:
Nobody mentioned Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep. That's pretty much kh1/2 off ps2 except on a handheld. Super cool and replayable game.
Loco Roco was nice and I don't think its been mentioned.
@VerseAndVermin @PeculiarGoat Agreed! Forgot about that one.
PATA PATA PATA PON!
Play patafour! (I was once a major maintainer! It's a bit abandoned now but if any souls wanna help it's ripe for the taking)
FEVERRRRR!!!
I just got a new battery and screen for my Darth Vader PSP2000 just to play this but have been struggling because the audio is so terrible which makes it difficult to hear the beat over the other sound effects. I had to try three different pairs of modern headphones to find one that even worked and yet the audio is still so hard to hear. IIRC the original earbud that came with it was a mono piece (just one ear) so maybe I need to buy an amp or something. Or perhaps its the 30 years of hearing abuse I've subjected myself to in the interim that is the culprit.
Could be the perhaps part... or your audio jack is defective - the PSPs audio output is fine. Maybe try some cheap inears or Ports Pros if you can.
There's a disturbing lack of Phantasy Star Portable 1 & 2 in this thread.
Also want to second Rock Band Unplugged because it has similar gameplay to the ps2 game Amplitude.
Locoroco. It was just so sweet and cheerful.
The sounds the balls made were just beautiful. Oooooo
So cute.
And I loved the main theme.
I can't believe out of all the comments there's so few mentions of Locoroco. It was soooo good!
Wow I had forgotten about this game… definitely going to give it a jam again!
Brave Story is a great RPG that doesn't overstay it's welcome and that I've enjoyed a lot. The enemy design was what really got me into it at the time, but the fun story and quality of life features kept me going
LocoRoco, Patapon, the God of War priquel and Crisis Core
And also Armored Core Formula Front, it's such a weird game in the series.
Oh, and Carnage Heart EXA. I've never managed to actually get far, but it's the most unique mecha game there is. You program your mecha from scratch using logic blocks, and you can make it fully autonomous, fully manual (but you have to program each button press), or a combination of two. It takes as many hours to learn as an Armored Core game would take to complete.
I played Lumines so much I would see squares when I closed my eyes
We should call that something. "The Lumines effect"?
Every time I hear a song from that game, the world starts looking like Minecraft.
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters.
Played through that sucker more times than I care to admit to.
Same, and I heard people saying that one is the worst game of the series ;-;
Final Fantasy Dissidia duo decim and Crisis Core were the only games I really enjoyed on the PSP.
Dissidia is probably the best Final Fantasy game no one remembers anymore
Yeah, I played Crisis Core, VII-IX and GoW on mine a lot. I may have even had a Jax and Dexter on it? I can’t remember. It was wild to me that I could play my final fantasy games on it.
Original games - LocoRoco Midnight Carnival, Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII, Daxter, Trails in the Sky trilogy, LittleBigPlanet PSP, Silent Hill Origins, MGS Peace Walker, Gran Turismo... Remasters/ports: SMT Persona 2 Innocent Sin, Lunar SSSC, Breath of Fire III, Tales of Eternia (all of these games are JRPG, and all of them are the best version of these games in my opinion), Crazy Taxi, Prince of Persia games, Tomb Raider games...
There seems to be an overwhelming amount of JRPGs on the PSP right? It could take years to get through them all haha.
Yeah, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite was probably also the game I spent most time on my PSP.
It depends on what games you like, but I loved Persona 3 Portable and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.
If you liked Monster Hunter, you could also try God Eater. It is a really gold Monster Hunter Like with a good story!
I like so many different types of games so all recommendations are good… I’ll check those out. God Eater sounds appealing, I haven’t played anything from that series!
There is a good fan translation patch for Monster Hunter Portable 3rd - could be right up your alley.
Patapon 2
Well, there's no competition. It's Danganronpa.
Oh and the Parodius collection is also great.
Jeanne D'Arc
A fantastic RPG.
It was indeed
Did they ever manage to port Jeanne D’Arc to any other platforms? It would be a shame if they didn't it was an excellent game.
As far as I know it's either PSP or you play it on an emulator.
Figured as much, thanks. My PSP is a release model and is iffy. I'll probably try and track down an iso file some day since I don't think there is a viable way to play the PSP physical media any other way.
Surprised so few people mentioned it. It's one of the best tatical RPGs I ever played.
There are plenty of good titles already mentioned here so I'll go with something less popular.
Puzzle Quest! Man, I was way too addicted to that game!
It's so easy to just keep going. It's great!
+1 for Pangya!
What a fun and silly story this has! I have spent countless hours playing this! Overall my favorite game on the PSP.
Honestly the only real negative is the gotcha system for getting most of the accessories.
It's been so long since I played this game I genuinely forgot about the gacha store. Shows how much I interacted with it (maybe I was just lucky enough to get by with what I got). At least most other things can be bought normally.
Golf game with a story mode? That sounds interesting!
It's a silly and light hearted romp about a golf tournament, with a cast of weirdos as your rivals. It's pretty fun as long as you don't mind anime aesthetic and tropes (it's not egregious or anything, I just know some people are allergic to anything anime adjacent).
I never owned a PSP, but tried a few in an emulator. Really missed out on a fantastic device and game library. I think there are some obvious famous games that many recommend, as such
Also kind of ports I think, maybe new games in series, I'm not sure. But just able to play these on a portable device is awesome:
I didn't play much on PSP yet. Following are also interesting:
And the list goes on and on. This was an awesome handheld.
Seconding Lumines. One of the few puzzles games that captures the feel of Tetris while still being it's own thing
Motorstorm and WipeOut were truly great!
Yeah there are so many cool looking games to choose from!
Crisis Core Dissidia Locoroco Lumines
And the vast catalog of PS1 games you could download from the PSN store.
@Omegamanthethird @PeculiarGoat That was a nice perk.
The only game that others haven't mentioned but I think you should definitely check out is Ace Combat X (never mind Joint Assault though).
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Technically, the PSP version is called Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness as it has added content and a few QoL changes. Agreed on it being great though.
Thanks, I felt something was off with that title. Just searched for Disgaea PSP and that's what came up.
My favorite is when I go pspspspspsp to my dog and he comes over for cuddles.
No but really, if we're talking full exclusives, Ridge Racers 2 is pretty much all the good stuff about the old RR series but with better graphics and most of the content from all games. If we're talking non exclusives (sometimes the best version though), Final Fantasy IV, Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles, Final Fantasy Tactics WoTL, and Tactics Ogre, Let US Cling Together are pretty top tier
Don’t think I’ve played a Ridge Racer game since the original and I can remember barely remember it. A lot of people are recommending RR2 so I’ll give it a shot!
I’m not going to lie even when it was brand new I thought the PSP’s graphics were lame for 3D games and never wanted one. But it might have been the prevalent art style.
There's a huge gap between the PSP & the PS2 in terms of 3D graphics. For handheld though, the PSP did its best
Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilmaniis a really good rogue like, that actually plays like rouge (the original game), but has a lot of nice gameplay additions, a crazy anime story, permanent upgrades and enough depth to stay interesting
Awesome, I was also going to say Z.H.P. They did end up making a PC port finally which is on Steam which is pretty solid.
wipEout, Jeanne d'arc, Battlefront, locorocco, peace walker, Ys seven, Mega Man Powered Up, Gran Turismo, Dissida, Final Fantasy Tactics, Ghosts of Sparta
All the usual suspects are already mentioned, but I have to shout out one of the most unique and addictive strategy games I have ever played, What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord?
That’s a really unique sounding game.
There is a sequel to it as well.
MHFU is definitely my favorite too. very fond memories as I'd get together with my friends (who had moved away) once or twice a year to do the big hunts we struggled with on our own.
I also really liked star wars battlefront: (rogue squadron?). was a bit shit to aim with no second stick but I remember the incinerator plus a lock-on killed anything real quick.
Nothing quite like getting snagged in a Plesioth hip-check hit-box together with friends!
I’ll probably get some hate from the pure JRPG community for this comment (and I don’t disagree either)…
I loved Lunar: Silver Star Harmony when it came out. I didn’t play the originals, I’d just moved to the states and was living on a couch at my mom’s place and honestly things weren’t great for me… but I did bring my PSP with me and picked up Lunar.
I fell in love with that game, the music, anime cutscenes and I also really liked the art style (the comment that will piss off a lot of ppl) because I didn’t have the nostalgia. I was able to put my headphones on and escape for a bit!
I recently got the Lunar Remastered Collection on Steam and it didn’t hit the same way as it did on the PSP. That game got me through some tough times!
Oh and GTA: Chinatown Wars is phenomenal!
I always had a great time with Field Commander. Before my PSP broke it was basically the only game I played.
SW:BF2 was also really nice because the autoaim made it a really nice power fantasy.
Now I want to play it again. Anyone know a good PSP emulator?
I really loved playing the racing games on it. -Ridge Racers -Gran Turismo -Street Supremacy (Tokyo Xtreme Racers) -Initial D: Street Stage
Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions
Arguably the best way to experience the game.
I got a PSP exclusively to play Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Would not recommend lol
Oh man, I quite remember enjoying Birth By Sleep, but it seems I’m in the minority.
I loved it, got the translated Final Mix version to play it again
Dozens of us!
Lumines! All of them. I might go home and see if my PSP or Vita still hold a charge (and I can find the games).
I got Wipeout Pure so I could do the browser exploit wayyyy back in the day. I ended up really enjoying the game too!
Wipeout Pulse is great as well! I also loved DJ Portable Max (there's 3 of them)
I just miss game sharing. Multiplayer games across 2 PSP's with only one copy of the game was so peak. Tekken specifically I guess to answer the question
The Nintendo DS had thst too 😁
I don’t think I ever tried game-sharing… really cool idea for a handheld feature though!
No one ever talks about it, but Ratatouille game on psp was really fun, seemed superior to the home console versions in terms of fun
PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe & Everyday Shooter are amazing games from small indie studios.
LittleBigPlanet, Ratchet and Clank and Daxter are some must plays from Sony.
GTA Vice City Stories, MGS Peace Walker, Star Wars Battlefront Renegade Squadron are fun games from third parties.
Honourable mention for The Sims 2, not for being good. But for being interesting
I didn't realize they ported Everyday Shooter to the PSP. I loved that game on the PS3. They released a PC port, but it sucks because you can't aim as well for some reason.
I think it’s because it’s a 8 way aiming than 360 shooting
That's exactly it.
It seems crazy to me that The Sims 2 is on a handheld… but it looks like the PSP version is a bit different to the original?
It’s like a point and click adventure game. With sims characters, vampires, ailens, and a cow worshipping cult
Sounds bonkers!
It’s not a good game by any stretch. But it’s a fun experience. If you can’t play it, a YouTube play through is well worth the watch
Aw man, this reminds me that I have a busted PSP I need to fix. I've been wanting a pocket emulator for some time, and I used to have a PSP ages ago that I'd jailbroken to play SNES games lol
Alas, PSP plays SNES games pretty poorly, need a lot of frameskip. GB/NES games work great. Not so much GBA. Even the Vita struggles with GBA, to my dismay!
I never had issues with SNES game performance. I bet some emulators did better than others, or maybe some games used features that didn't emulate efficiently like mode 7 graphics or star fox with its 3d chip.
It’s definitely worth fixing up!
If you're into racing games, you could try ‘Colin McRae Rally 2005’ — it's quite good and even requires a bit of knowledge about racing setups.
‘Race Driver 2006’ is also alright, it's an expanded port of ‘TOCA Race Driver 2’ with lots of content and okay physics.
There's ‘Twisted Metal: Head-On’, which is reportedly pretty good and in the vein of the first two games in the series (which had a different feel from 3-4 and probably ‘Black’ too).
If you're into making music, check out LittleGPTracker: it's a tracker-style app that works on PSP among other platforms and allegedly can load samples, as a tracker should. Inspired by the famous LSDJ for the Gameboy.
Oh hell yeah I hadn’t even considered running a tracker on PSP. I’m a big fan of LSDj and Dirtywave!
Forgot to mention: ‘Sid Meyer's Pirates!’ is reportedly good on PSP, and it's in my queue as a classic economic sim.
‘Pilot Academy’ is a remarkably difficult flight sim. Try also ‘R/C Stunt Copter’ on PS1 for extra credit.
There are several ‘Airport Hero’ games, from the ‘Air Traffic Controller’ series, aptly named for being simulators of ATC.
I've also heard good things about ‘428: Shibuya Scramble’, which is a detective visual novel adventure.
An ATC simulator on handheld seems like a bizarre game development choice… I must see this game in action!
There were also games from that series on GBA, NDS, 3DS, and five games on phones.
Again forgot: I'm not sure that the PSP games are officially translated to English, since the series primarily targets the Japanese market. But there might be fan translations.
Then you're probably all set with Dirtywave, but you could also be interested in looking at SunVox for Android. It's a combination of a modular synth, tracker and sequencer. Has a rather peculiar interface, and has been around on portable platforms like PalmOS for twenty years.
I'm not sure that the app can currently be bought, since the author is in Russia and will certainly not receive the money (not right away, at least), but afaik one can pay him directly and he'll arrange the apk.
For my taste, SunVox is too much in beep-boop territory, so I prefer desktop trackers with some gnarly samples and effects, but the app is definitely good.
God of War: Chains of Olympus. I got pretty good at the sex minigame.
ModNation Racing is basically Sony's version of Mario Kart and I remember it being pretty fun. The characters and cars are customizable.
LittleBigPlanet was pretty reduced in size for the PSP version, but I still had a great time with it.
Yeah, for me it’s The 3rd Birthday, Jeanne D’Arc, Lumines, and Tactics Ogre. All of them are straight bangers.
Crush and ff tactics remake stood out to me but there were a bunch of great games on there wipeout, monster hunter, persona 3, etc. Crush is a 2d/3d puzzler with a really interesting soundtrack and ff tactics the story and characters and soundtrack hold up well.
Rengoku 2, I wish there was a modern game that could expand on the gameplay of it.
Was looking to see if anyone recommended this one. Very simple game, but the action and progression are really addictive.
Monster Hunter 3rd with English patch is incredible! I got all my friends’ PSPs modded when the fan translation came out and we all played together, it was mindblowing!
Otherwise DJ Max Portable is 99% of my PSP and Vita time. DJMP2 is the best of them.
Neopets rpg
People have mentioned a lot of good ones, so I'll just mention ones I haven't seen listed.
The port of Disgaea 2 is also excellent and has added content like D1 did.
I think I’ll beat everything in Wipeout Pure pretty quick so could jump straight into Pulse… do you know if much changes between the two games?
I think most online say Pure is better. I liked Pulse more and played a lot more of this. They're very similar and if you like the Wipeout formula then you won't be disappointed either way. They do feel a bit different and I forget the specifics. I think Pure had a "drift" type feel to the driving that Pulse didn't.
Pure is my first Wipeout (I grew up in an F-Zero X household). I was surprised to find how much like Mario Kart it feels rather than F-Zero though with the weapons and drifting.
Thexdar. I thought it was even better than the DOS version.
The only game I remember was the FF7 one. I'm such a nerd for the story, I can't even remember if it was good or not. I do remember that by the end I was so OP that the game had to force a cut scene of the main character being all beat up, even though I was still full health, or near enough.
Crisis Core is the only time I cried over a video game. Such a great game
Damn, I should play it again. I barely remember it.
CC was such a good game. There is a PS4/5 remaster of the game now and its excellent as well.
Crisis Core or something? I’m on a bit of a Final Fantasy buzz at the moment so this could be worth checking out!
Yeeahh that was the one!
I think every single favorite of mine is listed already so I will list the niche one I don't see:
Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus
Work Time Fun
Probably Lumines. Nothing amazing from a gameplay standpoint --- lots of falling block games out there --- but the music makes it a fun experience.
That being said, you can get it on Steam now, so don't need a PSP.
Gottlieb Pinball Classics was fantastic on the PSP. I quite enjoyed the Burnout games on it too.
tomb raider legend has an awful framerate but then puzzles are fun, patapon is addictive, crisis core ff7 is a gem! ridge racer is also a fave
Death Jr. 1&2
Work Time Fun
Space Invaders Pocket! One of the more complete Space Invaders collections.
...Also Space Invaders Extreme, although the DS version is preferable.
There's a really nice port of Dariusburst, too. And N+ is always a good time on any system.
Untold legends: brotherhood of the blade…. And the unfinished elder scrolls oblivion
@PeculiarGoat Lumines was one of my faves,even though I got it as a pack-in.
Lumines is getting so many mentions… sounds like a must-play!
@PeculiarGoat It’s a Tetris-style puzzler that does a great job highlighting the PSP’s strengths! Sony was smart to include it.
Not sure why everyone skips a generation back to the PSP when the Vita was backwards compatible.
Uncharted Golden Abyss was a pretty decent Uncharted game, and even offered motion controls in some useful ways.
I never owned a Vita unfortunately. I suppose I could emulate it on the Steamdeck though!
Vita notoriously doesn't have too many good original games, though it works well as an emulator of PS1/PSP/SNES etc. that also has a few bangers. I'm currently playing through the remake of original XCOM, which is great except the interface was obviously made for the faster PS3.
There's a shitload of visual novels for some reason, though.
I had to google this because I thought for a moment that you meant there was a remake of the original original XCOM on Vita. As in "X-COM UFO Defense" (known as "UFO: Enemy Unknown" elsewhere).
Had me excited for a moment there.
Not that the rebooted series isn't good in its own right. But the original game was so good and would be amazing with some QoL improvements.
I mean, Wikipedia says that the 2012 ‘XCOM: Enemy Unknown’ is a ‘reimagining’ of that first game, however my memory isn't so good as to remember what the original was like in details. I can say, though, that probabilities <40% do result in hits sometimes, which is a definite upgrade.
Yeah it gets a little confusing.
But looking at screenshots of the Vita title, it's the remake not the original original. That is, not the one that came out in 1994.
This is the actual original game I'm referring to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO:_Enemy_Unknown
This is the 2012 remake which is the basis for the Vita version (still a good game, but I prefer the original. Could be nostalgia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XCOM:_Enemy_Unknown
Well, figuring out that it's not the exact same game was easy, since it's made with the Unreal engine.
I've actually read excerpts from the original's Wikipedia article yesterday, and it says there that Firaxis' reboot started as a plain remake, but gradually strayed from that, and the combat system differs somewhat.
Reportedly Julian Gollop, the designer/developer of the original ‘UFO: Enemy Unknown’, considers ‘Xenonauts’ to be a faithful reimplementation, and the game also has very good reviews. Gollop also made his own spiritual successor ‘Phoenix Point’, but it's not received as well.
Yeah I've had Xenonauts on my wishlist for a while but haven't pulled the trigger yet.
I had the original on PlayStation 1 and I was pretty young so I'm sure a lot of it is nostalgia. But at the time, I'd never played anything with even close to that amount of depth.
If you like music games, those DJ Max titles are awesome. And the PSP version of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is one of the best puzzle games ever made
Is DJ Max a similar sort of game to Guitar Hero?
Yeah
Valkyria Chronicles 2 and 3 are PSP exclusives, if you liked the first one on PC or PS3 (I think the 3rd game needs a fan translation patch though).
There's a couple decent Jak & Daxter exclusives, too.
I played VC2! Not sure if I ever finished it though… I should give it another go!
From what I recall the 2nd game is regarded by some as the weakest in the series, while the 3rd is considered quite good, so if you don't click with the 2nd's school theme and anime tropes, you may want to skip to the 3rd one, which I think has a more serious tone.
I'm sure I had at least some other games, but pretty much all I played on mine was Lumines and emulators.
I like Valkyrie Profile Lenneth. It's a turn-based RPG with a fighting game combat system. I enjoyed playing through the multiple paths of the narrative.
Turn based RPG with fighting game combat?! I can’t imagine what that looks like but I’m intrigued!
It's an enhanced port of a PS2 game. Vanillaware made a few weird games like that, they were really well animated too.
Cool I didn’t know there was an Obscure game on PSP, I remember the original being a blast on PS2!
Obscure even has local Coop which is a blast (you'll need a second PSP though).
Pretty obvious, but FF Tactics for sure, even though I'm not a fan of the War of the Lions translation. Unless you can emulate it, then play the PSX version with The Lion War mod. It has all the PSP changes but doesn't use the new script.
Try Crimson Gem Saga if you are into JRPGs.
I’ve never heard of this one… apparently it’s by a South Korean studio! Definitely gonna check it out!
Would love to own a real PSP, always adored 2000s Sony hardware. But I often emulate Ridge Racer and SSX on Tour!
Work Time Fun.
I would just play 5 Finger Filet most of the time 🤣
I liked Echochrome pretty much :)
Silent Hill Origins and Shattered Memories
I recall being disappointed with Shattered Memories when it came out because it was different to the usual Silent Hill formula… though I can’t remember what the gameplay was like now. The psychological test gimmick was a really cool idea though!
I'd say if you go into it expecting an SH1 remake you will be disappointed. If you just want a cool and somewhat relaxing psychological horror game than it won't disappoint. It's a very unique game.
Honestly, besides nostalgia value, the games really aren't that good because there's only one analogue stick. But back in the day my most memorable, enjoyed games were GTA, Daxter, and Persuit Force.
I loved my PSP, I really enjoyed
Pursuit force Tekken dark resurrection Patapon (and sequels) Ratchet and clank size matters and secret agent clank Castlevania dracula x Chronicles (it has symphony of the night built in as well)
I also loved having it for ps1 games i played ff7, silent hill and jet moto all ran smooth as butter.
NFS: Underground rivals, you can launch your car into the city sky at like 280mph, the nitrous refill in that game is way too generous. It also has Thank You For The Venom on the soundtrack. War of the Lions is 2nd.