Sony Rolls Out PSP go Offerings
San Francisco plays host to SCEA's official PSP go launch event and we were there to check it out. Everything from Minis to GTA inside...
Published: September 23, 2009
[Games]
Now we get to the good stuff. There were a ton of promising games at the event, from the criminally under-hyped Half-Minute Hero to Sony's own offerings in sim racing to mini-game-laden roundball to arctic off-roading to tactical pew-pew with plenty more in-between. It's not unfair to say that this was as much a showcase of what Sony had coming out as some of the heavier hitters from third-parties, and games like Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines and GTA: Chinatown Wars prove the hitters are indeed quite heavy.
-First-Party-
We started by checking out some of Sony's own offerings, stuff we either hadn't seen in a while or were checking out for the first time. Buzz! Quiz World is actually going to be the first pure download title for the franchise, and while it's heading to the PS3 as well, the only way you'll be able to get the $20 game on the PSP is via the PlayStation Store. We took a look at two modes, Virus, where a picture was slowly revealed but the longer we waited to identify it the lower our score would be as a virus was eating away at it, and Double or Nothing, where if we opted to double down, we were treated to a Press Your Luck-style board with 400 and 0 points squares and we had to tap X to stop the marker on the right square. The truly interesting part about the downloadable nature of Quiz World, though, is that there will be downloadable packs to complement the 4500 questions you get in the initial purchase, and that the game will finally support the user-created MyBuzz Quizzes first introduced in Buzz! Quiz TV on the PS3.
Most of Sony's other offerings, though, were familiar: LittleBigPlanet was a more polished version of the E3 build, SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 offered a new warehouse mission but little else beyond more polish that we didn't see last time we took a look, Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier was looking as good as when we checked it out just a few days ago and Fat Princess: A Fistful of Cake continued to be an impressively miniaturized port of the PS3 game with all the maps and a quarter of the online players found in its bigger cousin.
About the only game we couldn't get time with (it was being played constantly, a good sign) was PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe, the awesome PS3-and-then-some port we first took a gander at earlier this year, but we were promised a meatier look in the coming weeks anyway. With review builds of NBA 2010: The Inside, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge and Gran Turismo already in the office, we figured you'd probably rather get our final verdict on those games, which you will in indeed have in the next few weeks.
We did, however, get the chance to spend our first hands-on time with LocoRoco Midnight Carnival, and it was actually the first (and as far as we know, only) game to work without ever having to open the PSP go. Controlled entirely with the shoulder buttons, we were able to zip through the menus with the system open, then slide the screen down and enjoy the game in all its glory without any pesky buttons getting in the way. Now, you don't have to even open the system; the shoulders are used to scroll through any options in the steamlined, obviously horizontally-oriented menu, and pressing both works as an okay, but the d-pad and X accomplish the same task.
Heading into the first level, we instantly set to work trying out the new Boing mechanic. See, if you tap one of the shoulders while holding the other, the ever-cheery (and constantly singing) locoroco will do something of a super-jump, granting far greater hang time and distance than before (tapping both at the same time does a normal jump so you're not overshooting your mark). Chaining the Boings together in rapid succession can actually allow for things like scaling parallel walls and, thanks to the new ability to squeeze into smaller spots automatically, the whole flow of the game is decidedly speedier than before. From what we could tell in our limited play time, that's a good thing, as we quickly zipped through areas and ping-ponged our way up into areas that would have never been reachable before. The goal of finding flowers and getting to the end of the stage while avoiding the roco-munching Moja seemed the same, but the level design had a decidedly more challenging bent this time around.
Now we get to the good stuff. There were a ton of promising games at the event, from the criminally under-hyped Half-Minute Hero to Sony's own offerings in sim racing to mini-game-laden roundball to arctic off-roading to tactical pew-pew with plenty more in-between. It's not unfair to say that this was as much a showcase of what Sony had coming out as some of the heavier hitters from third-parties, and games like Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines and GTA: Chinatown Wars prove the hitters are indeed quite heavy.
-First-Party-
We started by checking out some of Sony's own offerings, stuff we either hadn't seen in a while or were checking out for the first time. Buzz! Quiz World is actually going to be the first pure download title for the franchise, and while it's heading to the PS3 as well, the only way you'll be able to get the $20 game on the PSP is via the PlayStation Store. We took a look at two modes, Virus, where a picture was slowly revealed but the longer we waited to identify it the lower our score would be as a virus was eating away at it, and Double or Nothing, where if we opted to double down, we were treated to a Press Your Luck-style board with 400 and 0 points squares and we had to tap X to stop the marker on the right square. The truly interesting part about the downloadable nature of Quiz World, though, is that there will be downloadable packs to complement the 4500 questions you get in the initial purchase, and that the game will finally support the user-created MyBuzz Quizzes first introduced in Buzz! Quiz TV on the PS3.
Most of Sony's other offerings, though, were familiar: LittleBigPlanet was a more polished version of the E3 build, SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 offered a new warehouse mission but little else beyond more polish that we didn't see last time we took a look, Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier was looking as good as when we checked it out just a few days ago and Fat Princess: A Fistful of Cake continued to be an impressively miniaturized port of the PS3 game with all the maps and a quarter of the online players found in its bigger cousin.
About the only game we couldn't get time with (it was being played constantly, a good sign) was PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe, the awesome PS3-and-then-some port we first took a gander at earlier this year, but we were promised a meatier look in the coming weeks anyway. With review builds of NBA 2010: The Inside, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge and Gran Turismo already in the office, we figured you'd probably rather get our final verdict on those games, which you will in indeed have in the next few weeks.
We did, however, get the chance to spend our first hands-on time with LocoRoco Midnight Carnival, and it was actually the first (and as far as we know, only) game to work without ever having to open the PSP go. Controlled entirely with the shoulder buttons, we were able to zip through the menus with the system open, then slide the screen down and enjoy the game in all its glory without any pesky buttons getting in the way. Now, you don't have to even open the system; the shoulders are used to scroll through any options in the steamlined, obviously horizontally-oriented menu, and pressing both works as an okay, but the d-pad and X accomplish the same task.
Heading into the first level, we instantly set to work trying out the new Boing mechanic. See, if you tap one of the shoulders while holding the other, the ever-cheery (and constantly singing) locoroco will do something of a super-jump, granting far greater hang time and distance than before (tapping both at the same time does a normal jump so you're not overshooting your mark). Chaining the Boings together in rapid succession can actually allow for things like scaling parallel walls and, thanks to the new ability to squeeze into smaller spots automatically, the whole flow of the game is decidedly speedier than before. From what we could tell in our limited play time, that's a good thing, as we quickly zipped through areas and ping-ponged our way up into areas that would have never been reachable before. The goal of finding flowers and getting to the end of the stage while avoiding the roco-munching Moja seemed the same, but the level design had a decidedly more challenging bent this time around.
