Complete Poker Software Listings
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PSP Reviews
Naruto: Shippuden Legends: Akatsuki Rising
Naruto has become the new Dragon Ball Z. The sort of franchise that seems to churn out video games and never reaches the bottom of the barrel. Its as if the franchise has no limit on the fans’ patience, but it certainly tests mine. Waaaay back when I started this gig, one of the first games I reviewed was Naruto: Clash of the Ninja 2. The Smash Bros-esque control scheme, and unique character design was ...
NBA 10: The Inside
NBA 10: The Inside on PSP shows that even developers are getting the sense that sports games are becoming like cars. You don’t need a new one every year, but they’ve always got a new model. So how do you sell multiple iterations of what is essentially the same game? Well if you’re Sony, you add enough into the game that it feels as if there are two or three games included.
First up is the ...
Soul Calibur Broken Destiny
Apparently Namco Bandai had the idea to bring Soul Calibur to the PSP as a title for novices. Not a great plan really, as essentially most of the PSP’s core audience are likely as hardcore as the console audience. So Broken Destiny really ends up being hobbled by making the main course of the game little more than a complex tutorial. I tried to be tolerant of the lengthy tutorial, but when I realized that ...
Final Fantasy: Dissidia
Only SquareEnix could decide to celebrate twenty years of Final Fantasy, the "go-to" RPG franchise, with a fighting game. Not only that, the publisher some managed to pull it off and actually make the game worth playing for both fighting and RPG fans. It seems fitting to take one quintessential Japanese genre and celebrate it with another that is just as identified with the culture.
I should note that fans of Final Fantasy aren’t going to miss some of ...
Rock Band Unplugged
I gave up on the music performance genre of games after Guitar Hero II. Don't get me wrong, I love them and think they are amazingly fun, but I simply don't have the amount of time necessary dedicate myself to the mastery of these types of games. I've tried the Rock Band franchise and a couple of the later Guitar Hero games, but only for a few moments each. Imagine my surprise when I found ...
Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PSP)
Star Ocean: Second Evolution for the Sony PSP is a remake of the classic Enix PSone RPG that introduced the series to American audiences. The first installment, made for the SNES, was only released in Japan and thus never made much impact outside of import shops in the US. The original US title of this second installment, localized by Sony themselves, was Star Ocean: Second Story. For its time, the game was a PSone classic. ...Star Ocean: First Departure (PSP)
Star Ocean is one of the slower-moving RPG series around; the first installment appeared on the SNES system, and never made it to US shores. Star Ocean: Second Story made it to the US, but by the time it appeared, the platform of choice was the original PlayStation. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, the third chapter in the series, didn’t make its debut until the PlayStation 2 era, and sometime later this ...
Yggdra Union
If you wanted a sure fire hit for the ailing PSP, this isn’t the formula you want to follow: remake an obscure title from the Game Boy Advance, and make sure that title is as niche a genre as possible. While that may sound a bit harsh, but that is exactly what Atlus did releasing Yggdra Union for the PSP. I can tell you that when I use the phrase card based RPG, ...
Pipe Mania
Pipe Mania is not a new idea. Then again, not many games are these days. Back in the 80s and 90s, this game was called Pipe Dream. Modern gamers might recognize it as the hacking minigame from Bioshock. In any case, the formula behind it has been around for decades: place random pipe pieces on a grid so that a liquid (seemingly invariably called “flooze”) gets from point A to point B without spilling.
While ...
Buzz! Master Quiz
Trying to bring the "game night" hit Buzz to a handheld console seems absurd. The quiz show franchise is so keenly based in multiplayer that moving it to a solitary experience removes most of the fun in playing trivia games. Buzz does manage to keep some of the fun, and with included multiplayer modes, it allows you to share, but this is still a lacking experience in one of the best non-core franchises out ...
Secret Agent Clank (PSP)
Rachet and Clank has been a popular franchise throughout the life of the PlayStation 2, and even now extending into the PlayStation 3 era; but Secret Agent Clank is a solo outing on Sony’s handheld platform for the platform hero, and it’s an entertaining, if mildly predictable outing. In the game, Clank’s pal Rachet has been framed for a crime he didn’t commit, and the driving force of the plot is for Clank to ...
Space Invaders Extreme
Back in Middle School I had a paper route that went by a 7-11 that had arcade cabinets for Asteroids, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders. Everybody loved Donkey Kong, but I never seemed to be able to get past the third level. I did, however, manage to no embarrass myself on Asteroids and Space Invaders. As time went on I came to appreciate the “twitch” action that Space Invaders provided and have always had ...
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress
The Naruto games have been coming at a pace that would overwhelm the fanbase of most shows. With several genres, systems, and development teams, these games range from forgettable to passable. The newest PSP installment, Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress manages to take the PS2 series, Ultimate Ninja and scale it down for the PSP. That seems to work perfectly, albeit for a short time. Essentially this game suffers from what every ...
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2
I’m a fan of the Hot Shots Golf series in general and logged many hours on the first PSP entry in the franchise, Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee. Now, along comes the long-awaited follow up, Open Tee 2. And the only real problem is, there’s not really as much new content as one might expect. The same formula, the same control scheme, most of the same courses, the same collectable gear and even, to ...
Blokus Portable: Steambot Championship
Blokus has been around for a while – initially a board game from about 5 or 6 years ago. Now it hits Sony’s handheld with Blokus Portable: Steambot Championship. This is a pairing of the board game with the characters from the game Steambot Chronicles as opponents.
Disregarding the fact that there are characters from a specific universe populating the game world, there are problems with the presentation and ...
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Like so many of the games that have rounded out the world of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core is a prequel to the classic PSone RPG. Much like the cell phone game that captivated Japan, Crisis Core is a game that tells the story before the story we all know and love to replay every five years or so.
Unlike many of the other Final Fantasy VII-inspired spinoffs, though, this one does not focus on ...
Manhunt 2
When I reviewed the first Manhunt game four years ago, my thoughts on the game were somewhat lukewarm. While the premise was unique with a lot of potential, various aspects of the execution just failed to deliver. For one thing, the game was heavily stealth-based, but offered players few stealth options. It was also pretty repetitive and tedious. And, as much as the Rockstar tried their darndest to make Manhunt the most brutal, grotesque game ...
MLB 08: The Show
Ever since the PSP launched, Sony has commited to making sports titles for their handheld platform every year, even if no one else would. When major league baseball went third-party exclusive with 2K Sports a few years ago, and 2K chose to pretty much ignore handheld development of their sports titles, Sony's baseball title has pretty much been the only game in town. While quality started low, this year's version is improved enough to ...
Wild Arms XF
Although most folks will rejoice when I say that the Wild Arms RPG franchise has finally arrived on PSP, hold on to your yippee-ki-yays for a moment, cowboy. The US Old West-themed fantasy series may now have a title on Sony’s handheld platform, but this PSP title is significantly different from the popular series that has done moderately well on PSone and PS2.
That’s because Wild Arms XF, developed ...
God of War: Chains of Olympus
When I heard the God of War franchise was moving from PS2 to the PSP for the Chains of Olympus chapter, I was skeptical at first. Sure, the PSP needs a solid action-adventure title as much as any other platform, but one of the main appeals of God of War as a series has been its larger than life sense of scale. How could the title maintain that appeal on the PSP’s rather smaller ...
Patapon
Describing Patapon is a bit like dancing about architecture. It can be done, but to truly understand what Patapon is about and how it plays, one has to actually try it out. Much like LocoRoco, Sony’s PlayStation Portable gets a unique title that screams of quirkiness, charm, and playability. Patapon features a combination of strategy and music/rhythm that hasn’t been done before. While it is innovative, that alone isn’t the reason to pick this ...
Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice
I have nothing against games that are “more of the same” – racing games rarely offer anything new other than more tracks and refinement of gameplay for example. This is where Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice comes in. The second game in this budding franchise, what we get is an action game for action fans that is about as fun as it is derivative. Then again, dipping into the same well over and over again ...
WipeOut Pulse
If you are unfamiliar with the gameplay style that the WipeOut franchise presents, then stop reading this. This review will not be for you. Instead I will be writing this review for those that have played at least one of the WipeOut titles, such as WipeOut Fusion for the PS2 or WipeOut Pure for the PSP. If you haven’t played a WipeOut game before, please go and do so. WipeOut Pulse is essentially the ...
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law
Anyone who has a cable package that includes the Cartoon Network and knows what the words Adult Swim really mean, will be familiar with Harvey Birdman, the TV series. An Alex Toth/Space Ghost-inspired character, Birdman is a former superhero turned attorney, and through this character Capcom supplies the PS2 and Sony’s PSP with a completely different take on the popular Phoenix Wright games hosted on the Nintendo DS.
Like the Phoenix Wright games, you play ...
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike
Thanks to the trendy popularity of Tactics-style RPGs, a lot of games that offer styles of game play far different from Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea, have been trying to fit the “tactics” label into their titles. SOCOM: Tactical Strike for PSP is one such example.
Anyone addicted to SOCOM games that are action based might feel like playing SOCOM: Tactical Strike is like utilizing a squad of soldiers who all have fibromyalgia. Yet the ...
