The Sony PSP - Review - Game Sack

Hello and welcome to Game Sack! At long last I'm finally taking a look at the Sony PSP. That's because thanks to the so-called Playstation TV here I'm actually able to get quality captures of the games. But before we take a look at those games let's take a look at the Sony PSP itself. The Sony PSP in 2004 sony decided to enter the portable market with a powerful new system that was far ahead of anything on the market at the time launching in japan at the end of 2004 and the rest of the world in 2005 the sony playstation portable or psp was truly a powerful system it was the first and only portable game system to use disk based media the sony universal media disk or umd was a proprietary format which could hold up to 1.8 gigabytes of data on a dual layer disk sony even tried to push the format by releasing movies on umd the system featured a wide 4.3 inch screen with a resolution of 480 by 272 pixels the psp go which was released in 2009 featured a 3.8 inch screen and lacked a umd drive requiring all games to be downloaded the control layout is similar to a playstation 2 controller but with only one set of shoulder buttons and a sliding analog disc in lieu of an analog stick there's also a slot for sony's proprietary memory stick to increase the amount of storage the internal rechargeable battery allowed anywhere between three and six hours of gameplay depending on the game you can also purchase video cables to play on your tv but you need to make sure to get the right cables for your specific psp model the psp is powered by two 333 megahertz cpus a gpu running at 166 megahertz and between 32 and 64 megabytes of ram depending on the model the sony psp was officially discontinued in 2014 selling about 80 million units with about 1300 games released worldwide right now that we know a little bit about the hardware let's move on to the games now these may look a little bit rough when they're blown up to full screen i don't think they're too bad but you might if you want to see what the psp really looks like then watch this episode on a psp size screen which like i said is about 4.3 inches diagonally anyway onto the games hot shots golf open t is the first portable entry of sony's extremely approachable golf series the strength of this series lies in how easy it is to pick up and play you have your typical swing meter but if you're close enough to the hole it'll tell you the optimum power that you want everything is extremely well put together in this game and it's very hard to stop playing i seriously recommend it even if you don't like golf or sports games the graphics are perfect for the handheld and move very fast and smooth the music is upbeat if you enable it but you don't have to this is the perfect game to play if you're in a waiting room somewhere or you might even consider hot shots golf open t2 despite being released three years later this is pretty much just a slight upgrade of the same game even the music is the same there's really no need to own both games but if you want one and you have a choice go for part two here do you like strategy rpgs then make sure to try out jean dark from level five you play as jean whose village has been destroyed by demons you start hearing the voice of god and an armlet affixes itself to you giving you quite a bit of power the story is loosely based on joan of arc if you haven't guessed that already in fact the story is quite good and can be darker than a lot of other games have played in this genre the game itself plays like a 3d shining force if you're familiar with that you'll have no issue jumping right into this one you have a certain amount of space each character can move after that you can fight if you're close enough to an enemy of course certain characters can attack from further away than others after all of the characters in your party are done the enemy gets a turn of course the game throws more at you than just the normal shining force stuff like the armor jean can wield if things go a certain way in battle there's also a group shield that can happen and more stuff like that the control works well enough though sometimes it's a bit cumbersome to navigate your cursor along the grid but it's certainly nothing that'll make you pull your hair out the stages can take quite a bit of time and they get fairly big between the stages there's lots of story to be told often you'll see anime cutscenes and they look really nice you'll also be able to buy things in the shop and equip your characters with new items and magic attacks each stage has a specific objective so pay attention to your goals and also what you need to prevent from happening the graphics are nice if a bit grainy the colors are all very well done the music is adequate and it certainly doesn't get annoying overall this is a fun one and it can be quite addictive if you enjoy these types of games printe can i really be the hero is an interesting 2.5 d action game from nis you play as a creature who sort of looks like a penguin but in fact you're the soul of a criminal and there's this whole lore around it from the disgaea series where all this is from which i've never played the story is cute for about 15 seconds but i'm here for the action you're equipped with a double jump a slash type of attack a butt stop to stun enemies and an air attack when you do an air attack the camera angle switches and you attack downwards you can turn off the camera angle switching if it annoys you you have a total of 1 000 lives to get through this game and you just might need them all it's a tough game but fortunately checkpoints are everywhere the control is decent but i feel it could be better there's definitely some noticeable lag in the jumping and sometimes i feel like i get stuck climbing up on a ledge while getting attacked the graphics are nice for the system and there's plenty of color the music is excellent it really fits the action unfortunately the sound experience has ruined whenever the printies talk and they talk a lot i got this dude they say dude a lot and trust me it gets old super fast and instead only serves to annoy you what's with all the badass demons coming around lately dude i guess the developers thought it would be endearing maybe if it was just a single character that said this it would be less annoying however each and every printing is a different soul yet they all share the exact same personality oh well at the end of the day this isn't the best platformer in the world but it's one i think you should try three years later we got pretty too dawn of operation panties dude that's right this time you're actually hunting down stolen panties while the game's title and premise probably won't appeal to anyone who's mentally matured past 12 years old the game is ever so slightly refined over the original the controls are the same but i swear they feel a hair better there are also a few new things like an easy mode and enemies that spring you high when you bounce on them it's also easier to enter into the brake mode by filling your combo meter but wait there's more they also added an ice stage as well as an underwater stage these are stages that gamers absolutely love in their platformers other than that it's literally more of the same and it's just as annoying with this personality once again there are nice graphics and good music just be sure to try one of these out to see if you like pretty yeah dude hex's force is a turn-based rpg from atlas and sting right at the start you can choose from two different stories to play through which will obviously give this title some replayability i chose cecilia's story she's a cleric and her town gets attacked and an artifact is destroyed now she needs to save the entire world as far as the story goes it's about average for an rpg it's certainly nothing bad but it's also not overly enthralling as you run around you can rotate the world with the l r buttons which reminds me of the grandia games the battles are thankfully not random as you see the monsters on the map as you wander around the turn-based battles are mostly familiar which is good in my opinion nothing overly complex moreover they're fun to play and usually don't get repetitive i really love the colors in this game it looks nice there's also a few anime cutscenes here and there to enjoy the music has plenty of good stuff but a few of the tunes do get kind of old after a while it's not the best traditional rpg in the world but it's certainly not bad i'll show you what i can do as you can already tell there's quite a variety of software on the system it's like a mini playstation 2. speaking of the playstation 2 some of the heavy hitters on that system got really cool portable versions there are two god of war games on the system that i should mention quickly even though we've shown them before these are best described as cinematic action games god of war chains of olympus was released in the first half of 2008. this is a high dollar production and you can feel it if you enjoyed the game on the playstation 2 then you'll enjoy this as the action and flow are pretty much identical there are some quick time events and you've got to be really fast i kept messing them up and when you do that whatever enemy you're fighting will suddenly gain at least 25 percent or more of their life back the graphics are great for the system if not a little dreary the frame rate is variable which i'm never really a fan of and there's some screen tearing overall this is a good one if you enjoy the series god of war ghost of sparta was released in late 2010. you can take everything i said about the first psp god of war game and apply it here it's more of the same except that this one is definitely more forgiving on the quicktime events for that reason alone i prefer this one over chains of olympus for me each of these games are good to play through exactly once and then never play them again both of these have hd remasters on the playstation 3. rage racer was a launch game on the system this is basically the greatest hits of the ridge racer series up to this point featuring many tracks from the first four games if you're familiar with the series then you'll have little problem adapting to this one and you'll be drifting all over the place otherwise it might take you a few laps to get completely used to the controls the more you drift the more nitrous you'll get for a speed boost the graphics are really nice especially considering it's a launch title the music is mostly experimental techno and some of it's pretty good two years later ridge racer 2 is released but only in japan europe and australia screw you north america this is more of an update than a true sequel kind of like ridge racer revolution was compared to the original ridge racer you have some new tracks as well as the tracks from the previous games all of them there are also some additional music tracks as well once again the graphics are really nice and run at 60 frames per second the same announcer from the last game is back and he's just as excited two laps to go overall this is definitely the better of the two ridge racers on the psp but i do kind of wish it were more different than the first yeah it's a new record two laps to go burnout legends from criterion and electronic arts was released in twenty thousand i mean two thousand five this one plays mostly like its big console brothers specifically burnout three and burnout revenge you race as a generic car trying to come in first all while crashing causing others to crash and generally just having a hell of a good time you earn boost by taking risks such as driving on the wrong side of the road or bumping up against your opponents the gameplay is all quite intuitive there are other modes like road rage where you need to take down certain number of other cars to proceed there's even a pursuit mode where you're the cop and you're basically playing chase hq if you're familiar with that game you ram the criminal's car again and again until he dies forever and ever the graphics are really good but they only run at half the frame rate of the console burnouts the music is all licensed most of it being pretty much garbage with a few decent songs here and there burnout dominator came out two years later so get this the game starts with a video that you absolutely cannot skip telling you how the game works which isn't hard to figure out i mean come on it's burnout it's one of the most simple games from that era taking risks while burning refills that's bad enough but the first stage of the game is constantly interrupting you telling you how to play it literally what the video just showed you criterion and ea must really think their customers are insanely stupid a baby can figure this game out once you get past that nonsense the game improves unfortunately i don't feel it's quite as good as burnout legends you start out in an old clunker doing drift challenges to earn points eventually you get to a real race that has you on a big track with lots of speed and action there are many different things you can try to achieve while playing other than just meeting the requirements of that particular race like drifting for so many yards or whatnot think of it like trophies just extra challenges this game has the same quality of graphics as burnout legends for the most part but the licensed music is actually slightly better except for avril levine what is she doing on here overall it's still a really good portable burnout game there are two wipeout games for the system the first is wipeout pure sure it's a poor man's f-zero but out of all of the poor man's f-zero racing games out there the wipeout series is probably the best this controls really well and it restored my faith in the series as i was really turned off by the controls of the original game this is still floaty but it feels smoother thanks to the analog disc thing i still kind of suck at the game but i suck a bit less at this one the graphics are fast and smooth and the soundtrack is the european techno that we've come to expect from the series a few of the tracks are actually even kinda good two years later we got wipeout pulse this one seems to have a higher production value the tracks themselves are definitely more interesting in this one it does seem to be slightly more difficult compared to wipeout pure i'd prefer these games without the weapons as i don't really feel that they add anything of value the weapon effects do look really cool though this was released on the ps2 in europe and you can also get both of these psp wipeout games upgraded in hd on wipeout hd for the playstation 3. this is another good entry into the wipeout series outrun coast to coast is even on the psp i'm amazed that they even attempted this at all back when this was released on the big boy consoles i was super impressed at the quality of the graphics and they still look fantastic on the psp sure the resolution and detail level is cut way down there's more fog and the frame rate is variable but at least there isn't much if any screen tearing all of the game modes and music have made it over so if you like outrun this will keep you busy for quite some time what are you doing and of course you have gran turismo this is one of those racing simulators that kind of takes a while to get into like all games in this series i initially hate it but the more i play the more it grows on me you'll definitely be doing a lot of slower speed races at first in order to earn money to buy better and faster cars the graphics are really nice for the system at a rock solid 60 frames per second however the controls can take a while to get used to the music is mostly excellent so it gets bonus points for me want some sweet kill zone first person shooter action well then don't play kill zone liberation that's right this one is more of an overhead run gun which honestly i think is a nice change of pace the structure and pacing of this one is similar to a standard first person war game though you have missions to accomplish ammo to grab and secondary weapons to use and of course you have a radio buddy who magically knows exactly where you are and what you're doing at all times rico should be in that area you even get partners that roam around with you which you can give minor commands to of course it doesn't take much for them to fall in battle which requires you to rejuvenate them this annoying aspect kind of reminds me of the first gears of war game the game itself can be slightly cryptic it took me a bit to figure that i need to toss a frag grenade right into these sensors to disable them but let me tell you aiming your grenade can be a little bit of a chore the game is still pretty fun though the graphics are good but there's some screen tearing that pops up now and then the sounds are average for this type of game unfortunately there's no music during gameplay because you know it's super serious and all still i'm glad that this wasn't just another first person shooter all right like i said the library is a lot like that of the playstation 2 with more serious games for older players but is there any lighter stuff you know games with actual color in them hell yeah there is mega man powered up was released by capcom in 2006. this is a remake of the first mega man game only you know powered up it's not a straightforward remake as the stages while similar to the original have all been reimagined and redesigned in many ways the layout isn't the same the game also gives you a break as there are now many checkpoints in each stage but if you lose all of your lives and continue you'll need to start back at the beginning of the stage there's also an easy mode which can alter the stage slightly like having these extra blocks to land on the game even allows you to construct your own stages and you collect extra items as you play through the regular game that's pretty cool there are also brand new stages exclusive to this game to play through there's an option to switch to old style from the menu in the beginning this gives you the same exact stage layout and arrangement as the original game in a 4x3 aspect ratio but with the new powered up polygon graphics the controls are generally responsive but it can also be a bit frustrating it suffers from the same melodies that i feel infect the genesis remakes if you press a direction to run mega man will hesitate before he starts moving this makes dodging attacks a lot tougher than they need to be you can really see this when you change a direction see that he's pausing before he begins moving he feels i don't know sticky i know that this occurs in the original games to some degree but it feels much more exaggerated here and that's honestly not a good thing the control might be a bit more laggy than the original but you'll get used to it after a few dozen deaths or so i sure did i've never been a huge fan of the mega man series this is because i usually forget which order to play the stages in once you start unlocking weapons items and abilities it becomes way more fun and honestly quite addictive one change i really like is being able to switch weapons with the l and r buttons you can even unlock boss characters to play as i really like what they did with the graphics here and it's an excellent looking remake it's one of the few psp games that's not drowning and dithered graininess the music is kind of a mixed bag with some of the tunes suffering from a rather limp arrangement while others like bomb man and guts man sound awesome not the mega man game i would choose for a remake but they couldn't do the second mega man game because this one sold rather poorly psp owners hate mega man i guess if you like the first game then you will absolutely love this assuming the hesitating controls aren't an issue for you i got used to them mega man maverick hunter x was also released in 2006. that's right the title screen says 2005. no need to leave a snide comment i know about it they probably just didn't bother to update the year for the north american release it happens this one was actually made and released before mega man powered up but i played it after this one is a straight up remake with none of the new additions that mega man powered up enjoyed you have new graphics formatted for the psp screen and redone music but the same exact stage structure and mostly the same gameplay not that that's a bad thing if you enjoy mega man x a lot of dialogue has been added people who were kids when the original mega man games came out were teenagers once mega man x hit the stores so they needed a little bit more angst in their game maverick hunter x here delivers that in spades with super angry voice acting looks like you've gone maverick i'm taking you out overall this is a good looking and sounding remake that controls well enough give it a try but as for me i'll stick with mega man powered up half minute hero from marvelous entertainment is definitely a unique take on rpgs basically in each chapter an evil lord casts a spell which will destroy the entire world for whatever reason in 30 seconds and you have to stop them in that time you have random battles that happen often to slow you down it'll take you a few tries before you figure out each chapter in order to do everything fast enough often you'll need to go to a town or a cave to get an item fortunately the clock doesn't run when you're in areas like these you'll also often have to pay to reset the clock sometimes even more than once per chapter overall it's a fun and light-hearted take on the genre but it's definitely not for people who get stressed or anxious at these quickly running clocks crisis core final fantasy vii is an action rpg this takes place before the events of final fantasy vii proper you play zach who is a soldier working for a soldier you embark on many missions and come into contact with multiple characters from the real final fantasy vii the story is pretty good and easy to follow it kept me interested being as this is an action rpg the battles are different from the original game they're different from anything i've experienced in any other game in fact basically you lock onto an enemy and engage the action you've selected at the bottom right of the screen are icons you cycle through with the l and r buttons this all happens in real time so if you need to take a potion or an elixir you need to cycle into your bag and find it all while you run around you can also select and use your magic attacks the same way it sounds frustrating but once you get used to it it's actually really fun and honestly i was used to this by the second enemy i fought so it doesn't take that long there's also a slot machine type of deal in the upper left of the screen these will automatically interrupt the battle to give you increased powers level you up or give you a super special attack i didn't care for this aspect as i find slot machines and gambling pretty boring i don't feel that this adds anything of substance to the game but at least it's automatic as far as i can tell and you don't seem to have to worry much about it i could have paid more attention or at least some attention to the tutorials if i wanted to figure it out but meh this game really dates itself with the flip phones that are everywhere not only that but everyone loves to send email back and forth as a prime means of communication you'll be reading a lot of emails wandering around a few of the areas can get a touch boring because they seem so empty mostly though i found this game to be extremely entertaining with some good characters towards the end of the game you might also be persuaded to feel some emotions the visuals are all very well done featuring some cool enemy designs the music is also extremely good though it's not from the original composer i ended up liking this one a lot more than i thought i would and i definitely recommend giving it a go activating combat mode conflict resolved now i certainly can't cover every single psp game and i'll probably miss your favorite simply because i'm not you but there are a few more that i want to mention because it's my show and i really want to talk about them so let's go of course i need to mention the ease titles that are on the psp like ease 1 and 2 chronicles this action rpg is a remake of the first two games or maybe a remake of a remake as it's based on ease one and two complete which is based on e's book one and two got all that good anyway i really like this one you can select either game right from the start there are small bits and pieces that have been added over the original game and most places are significantly bigger it still has the bump combat though so some people are still gonna complain but i really love the redone 2d artwork you can also choose from three different styles of the music i really like both complete and the new chronicles music i switch back and forth a lot just so i can hear how they both sound the only thing i don't like about this disc is that the scrolling is only 30 frames per second so it's a bit choppy this game is also one of the more expensive psp titles these days ease other felgana is a remake of ease three this one is rebuilt from scratch and now takes place in a 3d-ish world like the more modern ease games the story is the same but everything has been greatly expanded here even the music has been redone and it's incredible some of the areas don't work very well in 3d thanks to being able to fall all the way down to the bottom countless times very annoying i still prefer the original game as flawed as it is but this one is still fun to play if you're a fan e's arc of nepishtum is actually e6 this was not only the first east game to be released on the psp but also the first ease game to take place with these kinds of 3d polygons it's pretty rough around the edges all over but the gameplay is generally pretty good this is far from the best version of the game but it's still worth a try if you want a portable version lastly there's e7 which is only on the psp and steam this is also the game that prompted me to finally buy a psp this one is really well done though it starts a tad slow this is the first game in the series that's based around partner switching where you travel with up to three people and they each have a certain type of monster they're best at defeating for example using dogi as your main character will help you defeat rock monsters faster it's also the first game where you collect parts from enemies you defeated to make better items overall the game is very much worth playing with good graphics and excellent music just like you'd expect this is definitely the best ease game on the psp but i'm still hoping for a console port someday there are a few grand theft auto games on the system but the one i want to talk about is grand theft auto liberty city stories that's because this is the best selling game on the platform it kind of shows you that the audience that bought the psp generally skews a little higher in age than other portable systems like the ds this takes place before grand theft auto 3 and also in the same city it also plays just like you'd expect you can do missions which will result in you needing to drive from place to place to take care of business this earns you money and sometimes other things or you can just waste your time causing havoc in the streets it's all up to you and that's what i love about this series it is kind of scaled back compared to grand theft auto 3 but that's to be expected the graphics are good for the system considering the overall size of the game and of course the radio stations while driving around can be hilarious the internet may appear new and fun but it's really a porn highway to hell if your children want to get on the internet don't let them it's only a matter of time before they get sucked into a vortex of shame drugs and pornography from which they'll never recover this game was also ported to the ps2 and mobile phones overall it's definitely a fun little gta you're a teenager so you're really important we understand that now it's time in 2006 capcom released ultimate ghosts and goblins once again the princess has been kidnapped and of course you need to rescue her if you've played other games in the series then the basics are very familiar you jump around and you get an assortment of different weapons you can shoot in all four directions like ghouls and ghosts and you can even double jump like in super ghouls and ghosts well once you get the winged boot that is but that happens at the end of the first level like any game in the series it's definitely challenging but this one gives you more hits before you die more lives to start out with and even responds you where you die this is all on the normal difficulty setting this game knows how tough it is there's also lots of stuff to collect if you want the proper ending and you can revisit the stages you've cleared to make sure you get everything the graphics are really good but i feel that the control is kind of weird since it's all polygons now you get used to it but it's just not the same or even as good as it is with sprites the music on the other hand is generally pretty good throughout this is indeed the ultimate ghosts and goblins game but that's to be expected since there's only two of these it doesn't hold a candle to either of the ghouls and ghost games however yep that's a technicality based on the north american names and yes i will die on this hill hammer and hero from irem was released in 2009. you may be familiar with the series as hammer and harry on the game boy or the famicom well here you play as again and not harry you have a hammer and you go to town trying to prevent an evil dude sublime plan you have a vertical attack with a square button and a slightly slower horizontal attack with the triangle button along the way you'll encounter people animals and things that are in some form of distress this is indicated by the sad balloon that's near them smash it to help them out and they'll often help you in some way you've got to be careful in this one as you die in a single hit and you get sent back you can smash a bubble to get a helmet which allows you to take an extra hit though between stages you can read thank you letters from all the people you've helped out you can also switch jobs if you have any available doing this changes your clothes and also your method of attacking the action stages the graphics are great and very colorful and i'd also describe the music is colorful as well the game is really fun but it can be frustrating since it's so easy to die still i definitely recommend checking this one out and there's the psp for you i know i didn't talk about castlevania the dracula x chronicles which is a really good game for the system but i want to do an in-depth review on that in the next castlevania episode i do down the road and a lot of psp games i've got to say they did not feel like cut down portable versions and that totally blew me away back in the day as for the system itself the analog nub thing kind of does take a while to get used to it's certainly not optimal and some games do suffer from the lack of a dual analog but come on it's the psp for what this thing is it's absolutely insanely awesome what do you think of the psp let me know in the meantime thank you for watching game sag you know i went that entire episode without once saying that the playstation portable or psp if you will is backwards compatible with the original playstations library and i want to play the best playstation game on it right now and that of course is clique the dna imperative i didn't want to play it anyway

Channel: Game Sack

Views: 215,218

Rating: 4.9216423 out of 5

Keywords: videogames, retro, sony, playstation portable, playstation, sony psp, sony playstation portable, vita, sony vita, sony playstation vita, sony os vita, ps2, sony ps2, sony playstation 2, playstation 2, sony playstation, hot shots golf, jeanne d'arc, prinny, hexyz force, god of war, ridge racer, burnout, wipeout, out run, outrun, gran turismo, killzone liberation, mega man powered up, megaman powered up, maverick hunter x, half minute hero, crisis core, ys, ys psp, gta psp, psp go

Id: pzDPfCC-iPs

Length: 38min 58sec (2338 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 01 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Best fucking show on the internet. Bar none.

[u/IselfDevine]

He covered mostly games I've never even heard of. Good decision since now he can always go back for part 2 and cover more of the well known games. I love waking up Sunday mornings and playing a new Game Sack on the tv while I'm still on my bed.

Ahhhhh..easy Sunday mornings.

[u/MikeChimeri]

He said "at the end of the day" again.

[u/Matthew0606]

Here it is folks.