Welcome to the third instalment of Electronic Theatre’s Unsung Heroes feature. This week, it’s the turn of the PlayStation Portable; a system not renown for an endless supply of classics, yet it too has it’s fair share of big hitters. However, those of you who haven’t yet seen our Unsung Heroes: PLAYSTATION3 or Unsung Heroes: NintendoDS articles may not be aware that it’s not the big hitters that matter here. What we’re looking for is the also-rans; the underappreciated and the overlooked.

            For those of you not yet familiar with the Unsung Heroes series, the rules are as follows; games eligible are those UMD-based releases that Electronic Theatre feels have been underrated, or treated unfairly since launch. And for the Multi-Region PlayStation Portable (along with every other system) we’re keeping it based strictly on titles that have seen UK launch. Below are five top choices for the format that you may well have missed, and would be wise to look at again.

DragonBall Z: Shin Budokai

            How could a DragonBall Z game possibly be overlooked? It’s the simple fact that, while it may have sold well amongst fans, many passed-by this handheld offering in favour of the home console release. However, DragonBall Z: Shin Budokai isn’t a down-graded sibling of the home consoles, and to treat it as such is to miss out on one of the most frenetically enjoyable Beat-‘Em-Ups currently available on a handheld console. The game is effectively a 2D offering, with the 3D space being reserved for the effects of special attacks and the use of a player’s Ki Energy. What makes DragonBall Z: Shin Budokai unique is the sheer pace of the title, demanding lightning-fast reactions on later difficulties and against human opponents.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

            It has often been commented that First-Person Shooters on the PlayStation Portable simply don’t work. The lack of a second Analogue Nub often makes for rather inaccurate Control Systems within First-Person games on the format. Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex didn’t rectify this issue. Indeed, it didn’t even attempt to make excuses for it was with this year’s Coded Arms: Contagion. Instead, the game was designed around this often crippling issue. Players were given not only the ability to run-and-gun with the best of them, but also bring into battle their Tachikoma – a personal tank that could not only be commanded on the battlefield as a pre-emptive Brothers in Arms, but also be mounted and used to cross terrain and lay waste to enemies. Both your own armourment and your Tachikoma’s could be customised, and the game’s graphical fidelity was more than an average compliment to the PlayStation Portable at launch.

Guilty Gear: Judgement

            Another Beat-‘Em-Up makes it’s way onto the PlayStation Portable Unsung Heroes list, simply by being itself. Guilty Gear is a series that, despite many claims otherwise, has never truly performed well outside it’s original established Hardcore fanbase. And so, the PlayStation Portable and NintendoDS offerings of earlier this year were quite refreshing tastes of what the series can offer. Although not playing it’s best game, Guilty Gear: Judgement is arguably one of the finest handheld adaptations of an arcade franchise. The title is split into two separate games, Guilty Gear: Judgement and Guilty Gear X2 Reload. Guilty Gear: Judgement contains Story Mode and Survival, in which the Levels are set as those in a Scrolling Beat-‘Em-Up Guilty Gear X2 Reload is your classic console adaptation of an arcade title, featuring all the usual Training and Survival Modes that would be expected of a home console release.

Infected

            A title that saw great success in the US, a ridiculously extended delay for the European release resulted in the game arriving on UK shores with little fanfare. Majesco’s Infected was a game that utilised its host system’s features in more inventive ways than most. Featuring small-scale Free-Roaming Arenas, the player was tasked with blasting the “infected” straight to hell, under strict health, ammo and time constraints. The Multi-Player options, however, invited much more attention. As an early title for the system, the online play was impressive, but the Infection System was even more so: when a player defeated a human opponent, the defeated player than became “infected” with the winning player’s virus. The next five players which the defeated player would beat would then pass on this same first infection, allowing your insignia to travel were you yourself may not. With it being possible to follow the location of you infection online, the sight of it covering half of the US, Europe and even some of Africa was incredibly inspiring.

Power Stone Collection

            Although not in itself a genuine PlayStation Portable title, Power Stone Collection arguably improved upon its predecessors. Offering both DreamCast releases on a single UMD, Power Stone Collection revamped the series with crisper Character Models and more detailed scenery. Though some may feel that Power Stone has since been outdated, the chaotic formula and charm of the series will still see plenty of Hardcore gamers becoming hooked, despite it’s reported lack of modern ideas.

Kev J.

12/10/08