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PSP felt like it's own genre

ProgenitorCastle

ProgenitorCastle

Banned
Hey GAF, after having my latest addition to my PSP collection arrive today, Megaman Powered Up, and put it asides my other PSP games I feel like many of it's games have certain things in common that gave it the PSP flavor:

  • Fun gameplay
  • Vibrant 3D graphics
  • Catchy music
  • Intuitive level editors and the encouraging of sharing them
What say you GAF? Do you find that the PSP and it's library have things in common?
 
TheInfamousKira

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Crisis Core, both Dissidias, FFI-4, Silent Hill Origins, Third Birthday, Final Fantasy Tactics, all of that sweet, sweet PS1 emulation, it was my little portable weeb machine.

Edit: oh fuck, Portable Ops and Peace Walker, too!
 
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baphomet

baphomet

Member
Shit load times
A lot of bad controlling games

For all the gems the PSP has, there's a lot of trash.
 
ValiantTraveler

ValiantTraveler

Member
You might be onto something. The PSP definitely was the top choice for devs who made low-budget 3D games. They moved eventually to the 3DS.

Lumines had a killer soundtrack for sure.

Anyone who is looking into the PSP library, you should play the 2 MGS games, Crisis Core, the 2 God of War games, & Persona 3 Portable.

I turned my PSP into a fine PS1 emulator too.
 
Captain Toad

Captain Toad

Banned
So Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lions is the same genre as that Mega Man game and the PSP God of War games?

But, I hope we see the best of PSP make it over to PS+ Premium.
 
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Pejo

Pejo

Member
The single analog stick made devs get creative with moving the camera. That's probably most of the "uniqueness" with PSP games, at least 3D ones. It's also how I found peace in "the claw".
fbDHcZvU35wdHUoQHBFKSZzQskcMeGRj75zA7kcOrV8.jpg
 
P

polybius80

Member
ProgenitorCastle said:
Hey GAF, after having my latest addition to my PSP collection arrive today, Megaman Powered Up, and put it asides my other PSP games I feel like many of it's games have certain things in common that gave it the PSP flavor:

  • Fun gameplay
  • Vibrant 3D graphics
  • Catchy music
  • Intuitive level editors and the encouraging of sharing them
What say you GAF? Do you find that the PSP and it's library have things in common?
Click to expand...

back in the day it was said that PSP games are "console like experiences" instead of "portable games", portable games were usually puzzle, rpg or games that dont require you quickly respond or in the case of action and fighting games they were much more simpler versions of "console games", that was the norm at that time, but the console was released in a time were tech allowed games as complex as the ps1-saturn-n64 era and even run games form that era, even NDS that had a more "portable game" focus had some games more proper of a home console, its similar to current situation with cell phone games where games are designed around touch controllers, in a situation like that developers were very cautious making action games, maybe this is what caused that "PSP feeling" where they try to balance the gameplay so it looks like a home console game but you are holding the screen in your hands with smaller controllers with all the problems it represents and those aspects are considered too, of course its a generalization as there are developers that put a console like game in a portable system and leave the player the responability of finding a comfortable way of playing that dont mess the gameplay, be it tv output, external controllers, etc and also there are gamers that can play anyway and dont care too much about the conditions of the place where they play

at the I was very impressed with daxter, tomb raider legends, metal gear peace walker, the god of war games, soul calibur broken desitny and a game of the simpsons(forgot the name) and of course warhammer
 
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01011001

01011001

Banned
the PSP felt like if the PS2 and the Dreamcast had a baby. due to the handheld nature of the system the games were usually more arcady, but due to the late PS2 era release and in parts thanks to the underpowered Wii it got a ton of Console, PS2 style, ports (the underpowered nature of the Wii also helped the PS2 get a few more titles late in its life)

but that PS2 x Dreamcast feeling also came in part due to the controller layout. it was basically exactly the Dreamcast inputs, with the only difference being the shoulder buttons not being analog.
that layout similarity also made it so that many games felt like Dreamcast era titles
 
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ProgenitorCastle

ProgenitorCastle

Banned
01011001 said:
the PSP felt like if the PS2 and the Dreamcast had a baby. due to the handheld nature of the system the games were usually more arcady, but due to the late PS2 era release and in parts thanks to the underpowered Wii it got a ton of Console, PS2 style, ports (the underpowered nature of the Wii also helped the PS2 get a few more titles late in its life)

but that PS2 x Dreamcast feeling also came in part due to the controller layout. it was basically exactly the Dreamcast inputs, with the only difference being the shoulder buttons not being analog.
that layout similarity also made it so that many games felt like Dreamcast era titles
Click to expand...
I think this nails it. Just finished up a session of Mercury Meltdown and indeed it has that Dreamcast arcadey vibrance to it. Face and shoulders control the camera too so there's that also
 
01011001

01011001

Banned
ProgenitorCastle said:
I think this nails it. Just finished up a session of Mercury Meltdown and indeed it has that Dreamcast arcadey vibrance to it. Face and shoulders control the camera too so there's that also
Click to expand...

yeah, even down to the graphics, that "slightly below PS2" kinda look to everything. it really feels like a tiny Dreamcast that got fed some shrunken down PS2 games xD
 
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Dis

Dis

Member
Dream-Knife said:
It was basically a portable PS2. I was blown away when I first saw one.

Pretty much any game that uses the stick is unplayable though due to that horrible placement.
Click to expand...

To me i was blown away when i saw PS1 emulated on it. FF7 on the go?! I instantly wanted one.

Tactics Ogre remake was the best for me though. Shoutout to Dissidia and Crisis Core.
 
CamHostage

CamHostage

Member
baphomet said:
Shit load times
Click to expand...

It's weird to me that this is the story of PSP. Load times rarely bothered me, and usually did not seem extravagant for what you got.

Yes, there were the miserable sandwich-makers like the WWE games or the first Midnight Club, but many games had relatively reasonable loadtimes IMO, especially as the platform went on. Midnight Club: LA Remix for example cut down from 60 seconds or worse in the first game to maybe 15 for races. And then when you got into things like open-world games, loadtimes were practically not a problem once you had the game loaded. (Plus with Sleep Mode, your game was always loaded if that's what you were playing, so jumping into Vice City Stories or Test Drive Unlimited after putting it away in your bag for most of the day just popped you right in to play. Some developers designed (or ported) games badly on that idea of "bite-sized play" and let their games pop in and out of the menu, which inadvertently meant a loadtime both into the menu and then out to the gameplay, but action games with 10-minute play or smartly-designed games that loaded larger chunks of stages at a time before needing to hit the UMD or steaming games were a dream on PSP, whether you played them in 2-minute intervals or for 10 minutes or more.

It was a bad system if you switched games constantly, as boot-to-gameplay was unbearably long (even DS had painful downtime when switching cartridges, as does unfortunately even Nintendo Switch... makes me hope that Nintendo Switch 2/Pro add in NVMe architecture for rapid data access ala PS5/Xbox Series.) However, if you were plowing through a game over multiple play sessions or really loved going back to a game over and over, Sleep Mode and good level structure often made loadtime a minor issue on PSP in my experience.
 
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Azelover

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
It was really sexy, especially back then.

Having moving media as part of it really sucked, though. The Vita was better in that regard.
 
01011001

01011001

Banned
Griffon said:
It sill blows my mind at how far in advance the PSP was of everything else. They practically released a portable PS2 during the PS2's lifetime. With a great screen and an incredibly small and elegant form factor too.

Mine saw a lot of good use. I loved it.
Click to expand...

uuuuhhhhh... I wouldn't call the og PSP 1000 screen a "great screen"
the PSP 2000 screen was when it got decent. the PSPgo screen was the first one to actually be a great screen, less ghosting than the 1000 and 2000 and none of that semi-interlacing artifacting of the PSP 3000 screen

at the time it was a pretty decent screen overall, but there were better ones out there
 
Dr. Claus

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
ProgenitorCastle said:
Hey GAF, after having my latest addition to my PSP collection arrive today, Megaman Powered Up, and put it asides my other PSP games I feel like many of it's games have certain things in common that gave it the PSP flavor:

  • Fun gameplay
  • Vibrant 3D graphics
  • Catchy music
  • Intuitive level editors and the encouraging of sharing them
What say you GAF? Do you find that the PSP and it's library have things in common?
Click to expand...

I love the PSP, but they are not at all their own “genre”. They are just games. Essentially smaller titles that reach almost-PS2 level graphics.
 
AndrewRyan

AndrewRyan

Member
Still play mine, though mostly just NHL 07 since it's paused just before the first period face-off. Also play Secret Agent Clank, a nice little stealth game. Thinking about selling it actually since there's so many neat emulator devices to choose from nowadays.
 
ReBurn

ReBurn

Gold Member
I won mine at a Microsoft TechEd event in Orlando and the same day went to Downtown Disney to the movie store and bought the Capcom collection so I would have something to play. The disc drive died about 8 years ago and I was sad. I also won an Xbox 360 at that event. Microsoft was giving them away like candy on the trade show floor.

I don't think it felt like a genre of its own. It was a lot of fun and you could take games that were pretty close to PS2 quality on the go. I think what I liked most was that it felt like an extension of the PS2.
 
flying_sq

flying_sq

Member
I got a PSP day one, and really liked it. I eventually got an oled vita, then Sony killed it. Let's just say the homebrew scene is pretty awesome and I get to play MGS AC!D 1&2 again.
 
J

jaysius

Banned
Topher said:
I still play Puzzle Quest to this day.
Click to expand...
I can barely read that name, it makes me remember how awful they’ve treated it, Puzzle Quest must have really touched someone somewhere nasty to get the mistreatment that it’s gotten over the years.

They need to reboot it and not fuck it up with F2P and other mobile trappings.
 
Trunx81

Trunx81

Member
jaysius said:
I can barely read that name, it makes me remember how awful they’ve treated it, Puzzle Quest must have really touched someone somewhere nasty to get the mistreatment that it’s gotten over the years.

They need to reboot it and not fuck it up with F2P and other mobile trappings.
Click to expand...
And they should bring the original back to the AppStore. I paid money for that! (And for the DS version as well the PSP one)
 
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