The way my schedule in life works, I don’t have access to my home consoles a majority of the week. So a majority of the time I play handheld games. Which is great, because handheld games are great. But sometimes I want that console experience in the palm of my hands…and that’s where PSOne classics come in.
The PlayStation Store offers old PlayStation One games up for download, and I couldn’t be happier with the service. I can download these games onto my PS3, and then transfer them to my PSP! I grabbed a cheap 16GB memory stick off of Amazon (only $65, which isn’t bad considering a lot of them go for well over $100), and currently have the original Metal Gear Solid as well as Final Fantasy VII on my PSP, available to play whenever I want.
Practically the actual size, all the actual awesome.
Now of course there are some minor issues. The PS1 controller featured two analog sticks, and four shoulder buttons. The PSP has only one analog sick, and 2 shoulder buttons. That’s where the restrictions come in: Dual-Shock only games will never be available for PSOne play, and older games have modified control schemes. The L2 and R2 buttons are delegated to left and right on the analog nub, with up on the nub designated to L2 and R2 pressed simultaneously. That fix aside, though, it’s awesome.
And you still get the complete package. You can change discs and controller input from the home menu (so you can complete the classic Psycho Mantis boss fight in Metal Gear Solid), and you can view the entire manual, as well as front and back art. Nothing’s been scraped and it plays great.
On top of that, due to the greater resolution of th PSP screen and the superior sound system, these old classics look and sound BETTER than the originals! Not by much, but Final Fantasy VII is sharper by comparison, and Metal Gear’s cutscene dialog couldn’t be clearer.
Ever since Sony had to kick it up a notch at E3 this year, they’ve put attention and care into everything they do. The PSOne lineup before then was awful, with a handful of mediocre titles. Since then, though, we’ve seen Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Tekken, Syphon Filter, Tomb Raider, and many more coming in the very near future. It’s great to see so many classic titles readily available, and for so cheap! Titles have yet to exceed $9.99, and considering that Final Fantasy VII goes used for upwards of $40, that’s more than a bargain.
For anyone looking to get extra use out of their PSP, or looking for fun things to do with their new PSPGo, I highly recommend the underappreciated PSOne classics library. It’s one of the best ways to get a full on console experience in the palm of your hands.
October 2nd, 2009
As someone that plays a lot of games, and as someone that is terrible at most of them, I’ve come to realize that there’s a lot to be frustrated about in games. Whether it’s something in games of the past or modern frustrations, games are always going to find new and exciting ways to make people angry and annoyed. So right now, I am going to go over a few of the worst.
8 Million Random Battles in an RPG
I pretty much want to die whenever I’m playing any RPG with random battles, and you can’t take two steps without entering battle. Exit a battle, and enter one right away. Then walk another three steps, BATTLE. And oh man, nothing’s worse than when you are JUUUUST about to exit one room and go into another and you have one last battle before that. And then there’s when you see a save point up ahead, and get like three battles in a row before you hit it, and then die. Ugh. Luckily random battles are dying a slow and awesome death, but the games that still have it still have that problem.
Escort Missions
Snake, protect me even though before this point in the game I have proven myself to be totally capable of taking care of myself in battle!
Nothing is worse than having to babysit another character in a game. You’ve got yourself to worry about, and then some other character comes along who is weak and powerless, and you have to take care of them too? AND they’re controlled by AI, a technology that has yet to prove itself after being in games from the beginning? NO THANK YOU. The above image is from Metal Gear Solid 3, where you’ve got to protect Eva, a woman who has proven herself to be quite powerful in battle. She may be injured a bit when you have to take care of her, but still, it’s the worst. You have to give up all your food and items to heal her, she gets weak really quickly, and she is painfully slow. All escort missions are the worst, but that one always sticks out because it ruins an otherwise amazing game.
The one exception to the rule here is Ico, where the entire game is an escort mission. But the game is such a beautiful work of art that it’s exempt from being annoying.
Inventory Management
This would be a lot easier if I had room in my inventory for a shotgun, but NO, I have 7 different types of ammo and an egg taking up all that room.
I am all about games shooting for realism, and trying to make you feel like you’re in the game, but come on. I want infinite inventory all the time because nothing is worse than having to shift around objects and items to accommodate stuff. The Resident Evil games are the worst with this, ESPECIALLY the first one. Having to get rid of stuff and drop stuff and move stuff around and sacrifice stuff is beyond frustrating, because you just want to have everything. I know there’s challenge and strategy there, but it also presents itself with a ton of unfair situations that make the game entirely impossible to enjoy. Resident Evil 5 fixed this a bit, with tons of space to store stuff that you can’t access until the next checkpoint, but you’re still stuck with only nine items when you play. And if you get a fancy new gun but have no place to store the ammo, well, have fun with your paperweight.
I could go on for about 20 more years of frustrating things, but I am already in a horrible mood from writing this article. Thanks a lot, games industry. Maybe I’ll bust out another installment when I have nothing better to write about.
August 21st, 2009
Follow Us
Follow Us