Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars
Right. Forget the conversion of Crazy Taxi 2 that's present on the UMD. It's too slow and the second game was never as good as the original anyway. Also, unless you really feel the need to play with your mates, forget the two-player mode as well. Instead, focus on the two things that make this UMD so special – Crazy Box mode and the amazing conversion of the arcade original.

 
Above: From the bouncy suspension to the bright haircuts, it's all here

When you learn how to play the game with the advanced techniques, arcade mode can last up to an hour a time as you work faster than the clock can count down. You start showing off. You start sliding right up to people's feet to minimise stop time, or drifting to a halt to get the most out of your score multiplier. Deeper than it had any right to be, this quick-fix arcade game is one of the most rewarding and deep games you'll ever play.

WipEout Pulse
The first WipEout on PSP was brilliant, making up for a dodgy outing on PS2 and returning to the series' roots. This sequel takes everything that did well, adds solidity and inertia and makes it look even better. The result is one of the most accessible and rewarding games on the system. It makes use of PSP's unique abilities too. No other handheld allows you to download new racecraft and tracks to expand the game like this. Heck, you can even download the entire game from PSN if you want to go all tech-tastic.

Above: Is it wrong that we want to eat those particle effects?

Novice players will love the rollercoaster feel of the tracks and dedicated gamers will strive for gold medals on every event. And no matter what your level of skill is, everybody loves blowing up other racers, which this version does most satisfyingly. WipEout HD may be the best version of WipEout on any system but, tellingly, it takes 90% of its cues from Pulse.

Power Stone Collection
We really don't understand why Power Stone disappeared from the gaming radar. Sure, the second game got greedy and every idea the designers had seems to have been thrown in without worrying about quality over quantity, and the four-player battles were too chaotic for standard definition TVs to cope with convincingly. Unsurprisingly, the same thing is even more true of the game on PSP. But, like Crazy Taxi, it's the first game that's worthy of your attention.

Above: Falcon here was called Fokker in the Japanese release. Hehehe

True one-on-one 3D combat is a rarity even now, but Power Stone nails it, hits it with a fireball and then pulls a pillar from the ground and smashes it in the face. The trick is to go against your Tekken-conditioned brain and forget close-up combat. The punch and kick combos are lame and messy and if you approach it like that, you're going to find this unsatisfying and dull. The fun is in using the environment to great effect, throwing chairs or launching yourself from the ceiling at your opponent.

The olde-worlde styling makes it more timeless than modern, realistic fighters, and learning how to tame your character's alter-ego after collecting three gems in battle is where the key to victory lies. It's a frantic dash for the gems with loads of 'yes!' and 'oh no!' moments, and so over-the-top, it's down the sides and round again. If you take it as a straight port of the first game alone, 'PSP' may as well stand for Power Stone Portable. It's that good a fit.

26 Nov, 2008

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