Must have PSP games

[BaconTastesGood]

If this thread has been posted before....I don't care, link me up if you insist. I'm about to get a PSP and so far the major games I've heard claimed I must have are Daxter, GTA:LC, and "a good racing game". Any others?

[RickH]

GREAT:
Wipeout Pure
Burnout Legends
Daxter
Virtua Tennis
Lumines ($10 at Blockbuster!)

OK:
Exit
Ape Escape On The Loose (port of the first AE game)
Gripshift
GTA:LCS (rent first, you might hate the controls)
Hot Shots Golf (and I don't particularly like golf)
NFS Underground Rivals
Lemmings (basically a port of the original PC version)
Me and My Katamari (control scheme hurts it)
Mercury
THUG 2 Remix
Tokobot

BLAH:
Twisted Metal Head On
Untold Legends BoB (the first one, maybe the sequel is less generic)
MediEvil Resurrection (nasty difficulty kick after 3 or 4 hours)
Namco Museum BC
Ridge Racer (its biggest flaw is that it's just another damn Ridge Racer)
SSX on Tour

AVOID:
Death Jr.
Dynasty Warriors
Midnight Club 3 (unforgivable load times)
MX vs. ATV unleashed (ditto)

[Jazar]

Gotta add Syphon Filter to the "GREAT" list. That game kicks ass from here to next week.

[steve]

I think Burnout Legends is better than the more recent versions of Burnout, precisely because it's more like Burnout 2. So that's highly recommended.

If you dig that retro thing, I'd go for some of the old-school compilations: Midway, Capcom, etc. They look awesome on that screen.

[Rywill]

Definitely Buy:

Burnout Legends
Hot Shots Golf


Consider Buying:

Lumines (others love this game, but I find it so-so)
Field Commander (unless you've played Advance Wars, I guess -- but I hadn't, and FC is pretty fun)


Don't Buy:

LOTR Tactics (all-around bad)
Exit (great idea ruined by too much difficulty)
Midway Arcade (ruined by bad controls)
X-Men Legends 2 (others liked it, but I really hated this game)

[Erik]

Def Jam: Fight For New York is surprisingly terrific. The fighting engine has the leisurely pace, brutality, and tug of war flow of a good wrestling game, plus really satisfying moves and character progression. After Dead Rising and Saints Row, I decided that I'm only going to buy games that let my character rescue the president's girlfriend or fight for new york or etc wearing nothing but underpants. This has that. When I was a kid, my brother scratched out the word "me" on the cover of a copy we had of John Howard Griffin's "Black Like Me" and wrote in "Erik". That turned into a war of writing each other's name under "Black Like" whenever one of us thought to do it until the cover eventually fell off. So if you're a racist like me or my bother, you'll like Def Jam even more since you're mostly beating up annoying rappers.

[curst]

Superb:

Lumines
Wipeout Pure
Hot Shots Golf
Virtua Tennis
Loco Roco
Burnout Legends
Tekken:Dark Resurrection

Superb if you can stand the seriously awful load times:

Midnight Club 3
WWE Smackdown-VS-RAW 2006

Good, maybe wait for a price drop?:

Metal Gear Acid 1 & 2
Me And My Katamari (Superb! if you haven't played KD to death already)
Mercury
Tokobot
MVP Baseball 06
Twisted Metal Head-On

Bad:

LotR:Tactics
Untold Legends
Ridge Racer
Dynasty/Samurai Warriors

[Nathan]

I like Outrun 2006 a great deal. It's still just Outrun, but it has nice graphics and good load times. There's a lot of unlockable stuff, and you get credit towards them for just about anything you do in the game.

[JM]

The Untold Legends sequel is crap.

Pro Evolution Soccer 5 is GREAT. Monster Hunter is OK. Football Manager is OK/GREAT.

[mouselock]

Don't Buy:

X-Men Legends 2 (others liked it, but I really hated this game)

I'm going to assume you simply don't like the genre of game, as the only thing wrong with X-Men Legends 2 on the PSP was possibly load times. And they weren't egregiously bad, just noticeable. (It was mainly annoying when the game would load voices/music after being suspended in an action-packed location.)

[Kareem]

Have to reiterate the Burnout Legends love. That game got me through so many commuter trips unscathed.

[Charles]

The Megaman X remake is pretty awesome if you are a megaman fan. There's also valkyrie profile which is pretty good.

[Bee]

MLB: The Show is pretty good.

[RickH]

And while there's a PSP thread, I'll throw this out: Where the hell is the internet functionality? Only a small percentage of games are playable in infrastructure mode, and the only game I'm aware of with downloadable content is Wipeout Pure. Ad hoc is great, but I think that impresses game reviewers a lot more than end users, who are unlikely to buy multiple systems and games or have others with PSP's and the same games handy.

I never thought it would be the case, but Nintendo's handling the internet and wireless multiplayer with the DS better than Sony is with the PSP.

[Kirian]

Monster Hunter gets another vote, as does Syphon Filter.

If you are going to get Wipeout Pure, import the European version. The European version has access to an exclusive set of tracks and vehicles designed by some European artists. The tracks are utter, utter genius.

Also, look out for Disgaea PSP in the near future.

Addendum: It is possible to trick your PSP into playing ad-hoc games over the internet by using XLink Kai. I have not managed to get it working, but the fairly full games do permit me to assume it works. I suspect the problem is my dongle.
Further Addendum: Downloadable content for the EU is at http://tinyurl.com/hpagn and the page looks very messy.

[fuzzyslug]

MLB: The Show is pretty good.

I'd avoid MVP for this one. MLB: The Show is my current favorite on the PSP. I didn't like MVP much at all.

Someone had to remind me about Tekken. That's going to cost me.

I'll echo the Burnout love. I've beaten the race mode in that one. Great, great handheld wrecking game that is even more impressive given its insane speed.

I'll also throw some love towards Twisted Metal. Great remake of the series with full multiplayer support (even co-op) over the net. Virtua Tennis is also a great remake.

Don't forget to get Lumines. It's one of the very few games made specifically for the PSP. It shows.

[BaconTastesGood]

Cool, it sounds like then a good "starter" set of games would be:

Daxter
Burnout Legends
Syphon Filter

Lumines, V Tennis, and Hot Shots Golf are probably great games, but just not for me.

[Thomas Wilde]

I'm going to lift my voice in glorious dissent against Syphon Filter, simply because I absolutely despise the "face buttons as second thumbstick" control decision.

[Jenn]

If you like music games then DJ Max is really solid. It's a Korean game but there's no regional lockout. It's in the same style as beatmania but check the site to make sure you like the songs.

[KaoFloppy]

A List Thread! Must Join! Sadly, I have no PSP, so I will sit on the sidelines next to Coconut Monkey.

[Theodore Rex DX]

Monster Hunter!
Darkstalkers
Burnout Legends
Valkyrie Profile

Haven't played UGnG yet but that looks awesome. I figure the Gradius collection will rocks also, but have also not played that.

[Hans Lauring]

I want in too... but Curst posted my list.

Only thing I'd change is move Riiiiidge Raaaacer from 'bad' to 'good'.
I like it a lot. Great tracks, fun arcadey driving and good tunes (the only thing I hate in Burnout Legends is the generic EA soundtrack). Perhaps it's just more of the same, but I don't own a PS2 so I don't care.

[Angrycoder]

The Gradius collection far from rocks. They didn't tweak it at all for the psp display, and it really hurts the games. You can play in widescreen mode, but it just stretches and filters everything into unprettiness. In the case of gradius I, you can barely see your own bullets because of the filtering. You can also play the games in their original aspect ratio, with borders on the sides and top/bottom of the screen, but it is almost too small to be playable.

[Theodore Rex DX]

Hmmm. Well, I'll probably buy it anyway. How are the controls?

[curst]

Def Jam: Fight For New York is surprisingly terrific.

I loved the XBox version. If it's basically every bit as good on the PSP and doesn't suffer from bad load times, then yeah, add DJ:FFNY to the "must have" list.

I was just burned badly by WWE Smackdown-VS-RAW 2006. It's not as fast-paced and not as brutally violent, but it has a much, much better character customization mode, and it's fundamentally similar otherwise, so I really like the PS2 game. However, the PSP's version has such bad load times that someone made a Youtube video showing them sitting there for almost six minutes waiting for a match to begin. And that's not an exaggeration if you use custom-built characters... you can have up to six players in one match, and it takes the PSP about a minute to load one of those custom characters.

[curst]

Oh hey, I somehow forgot about Armored Core:Formula Front. It hovers just under must-have status.

[Dante Rising]

Armored Core: Formula Front is fantastic.

[jfletch]

Im gonna be getting a PSP soon, here are the games I want (well, am asking my girlfriend for): UGnG, Gradius Collection, Maverick Hunter X. Maybe Exit and Powered Up later on. The system's library is morphing into a very cool 16-bit 2D style thing.

I really dont like Lumines, I dont see what the big deal is, but I guess its worth a shot for $10.

I really hope that new Carnage Heart comes out here.

edit: is ac:ff any good if you've been sick of the series since PSX?

[Tom Chick]

Since we're doing another thread where we list our favorite PSP games:

The latest Untold Legends is the best action RPGer
LocoRoco is the best platformer
Monster Hunter is the best RPG, but not in the conventional sense of RPG
Wipeout Pure is the best racing game
Burnout: Legends is the best driving game
Hot Shots Golf is the best dink-around-with-something-over-the-long-haul game

And I guess I'd say Syphon Filter is the best overall game on the PSP. Don't miss Syphon Filter.

-Tom

[Moore]

hotshots and megaman PU are the best values, infinite replayability, forever.

Armored Core was a lot of fun as well, BUT- you can easily build an uber mech. I cant play it anymore, becuase I have a godmode mech, ruined the game in about 3 days.