Top 20 Best and Worst PSP Games (PlayStation Portable)

[Nz17]

Please discuss.

The general rule with these lists: if you think a top twenty game is missing, then please let us know what game to drop in place of it. Present your argument well, get it seconded, and it could affect this list... nay, this entire site... nay nay, the entire field of video game research! For really reals. I mean, just think about it, someone could find this list years from now and it might act as the starting point getting him or her going on an excellent gaming odyssey.

For a fairly full list of PSP releases, check out our video game Online Rarity Guide. Be aware that this master list contains a large number of releases, so please filter diligently. (PROTIP: To filter out the UMD video releases, be sure to select "U.S. Game Releases" at the ORG database.) And remember that ports, compilations, and remakes do count. Only nominate games which got an English-language release as it is the widest-known language for our site's visitors and therefore these games are the most accessible for them. Plus we know how tons of games got left in Japan for the PSP.

Thank you for your nominations and supporting arguments. These lists will be in alphabetical order. When we fill out the lists to our satisfaction, we'll move this thread to the "Classic Discussions" sub-forum.

Let's get this party started!

Top 20 Best PSP Games

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Top 20 Worst PSP Games

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[kupomogli]

The PSP is an amazing system, so great choice of a thread.

I'll start off with games that I think belong in the top 20.

Dracula X Chronicles

Rondo of Blood on the PC Engine is a great game, but it had some balancing issues where it'd be a bit easy or too difficult. Stages are better designed, some receiving pretty big changes, like the second half of stage seven or stage five which not only had its stage redesigned, but also two entirely new bosses(one that you fight on stage seven if you didn't rescue both girls.) Dracula X Chronicles is overall the easier game, but it's still difficult game and not overly difficult at certain points.

As a bonus, not only d oes Dracula X Chronicles include all the music from the original game, and SotN and all level music can be customized to your liking, it also includes Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night with redone voice acting. Sure, people will miss the cheesy opening of SotN, but overall the voice acting in the DXC version is far better. There are a couple new weapons added into the game, Axe Lord Armor is easier to get in the regular game, and Maria is now a playable character, and not the NitM Maria, but a Maria that actually plays like Maria.

The game scored well in reviews overall, but most of the reviews wrote off the remake as a crappy game because they suck as gamers and rated it on the inclusion of Symphony of the Night. This isn't just a cut and paste remake like my next choice on the list, this amazing game is a complete overhaul that the developers took the time to rebalance and redesign and includes bonuses like the original and SotN. Imo it's the best game on the PSP and belongs in everyone's collection.

Final Fantasy 4 Complete Collection

Final Fantasy 4 has been ported several times, sometimes with additional content, and remade once on the DS which is mostly a new game in the same world. Final Fantasy 4 Complete Collection isn't an all out remake, but rather it's a graphical remake that includes the additional content of the GBA games with none of the bugs that the US version has or the button lag of the PAL version. Final Fantasy 4 Complete Collection also includes The After Years, which the first eight chapters are a bit disappointing, borefests that last from 30 minutes to an hour each, but the last chapter is 10 plus hours of an incredibly well designed dungeon with many bosses and many items to slowly increase your parties strength.

The developers took an already amazing game and redid the graphics so that they would stay true to the original game(with a few changes introduced in the GBA versions) while making it look better. The tileset is the same with far better quality with every single tile in the original version accounted for. They took the sprites of every single monster and made them far more detailed and for most monsters there's no difference from the original version and the PSP version. The higher quality instrumentals of the DS version was reused for this PSP version with better quality sound, and if you happen not to like the higiher quality, you can always reuse the original music.

This game is a love letter to all fans of Final Fantasy 4. Being one of the best RPGs ever made, it's a love letter to all RPG fans in general. Below are some comparison pieces from the PSP game and the original just to show what they did to make the game look better while remaining true to the original. The only mishap with the game is the character sprites don't look so great.







Dreadful Fight DS/PSP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvJkKwk8qYE SNES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B08Nhzrp41c
Main Theme DS/PSP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cuI_vjZWS0 SNES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5sf3CZWKvA

Gundam Battle Universe

The last game in the Gundam Battle series until it turned into the worse Gundam Assault Survive(which isn't that bad, but just bad ideas added to it.) If you play any previous game in the series, Gundam Battle Royale, Chronicle, Tactics, you'll get the same games but less content and a few minor changes to the game mechanics. Unfortunately the game is in Japanese only, so if you don't know Japanese, then you'll want to be a Gundam fan so you know what's going on.

In Gundam Battle Universe, you create your own character and from 0079 all the way up to Char's Counterattack in the UC timeline, you take part in 100+ of the main missions throughout the series. You start off in one era and then after you complete the final mission, you move onto the next era in the timeline and can change your allegiance. If you were on the federation side during the one year war and 0080, in Stardust Memory you can be part of the Delaz Fleet. In Zeta Gundam there is the AEUG, Titans, and Axis, so you'd do one of the three, and so on and so on. Missions will all vary depending on the side you're on as will the mobile suits.

You start with a single mobile suit and as you complete missions, you'll get new mobile suits and experience points. The experience points can be added to your suits to improve every single aspect of that suit. Movement speed, boosting speed, jumping speed, HP, defense, and then each weapons attack, accuracy, etc. There are 300 different mobile suits in the game and while a a decent amount of them are similar to other versions, there are some that might be completely different. Some of the suits starting in Zeta can even transform fly like they would in the series.

Star Ocean First Departure

I'm not including the second one even though it's a better game as it's a port with minor changes plus voice acting. Star Ocean First Departure is a complete remake of the original SNES game to be mostly similar to Star Ocean the Second Story.

Half Minute Hero

Four different fast paced games with the RPG puzzle game as the main selling point. I actually like all of the games except for the princess mode which is a sort of generic shmup.

Since the main selling point is the RPG, I'll just go along describing that though. The game has a large number of stages that start off small and get pretty large. While playing you're getting in random battles, increasing exp and gold, purchasing new equipment, and then killing the boss of that stage. The game can be played like an RPG as you can speak to the goddess as many times as you want to increase the time back to 30 seconds, but the game is a puzzle game that's cleverly disguised as an RPG and does a very good job.

[FieryReign]

Ridge Racer was addictive as all hell and had super smooth controls. Powersliding at ridiculous speeds and trying to keep your boost going was good fun. Best racing game on the system, in my opinion. I've never played Gran Turismo on the system but I'm sure it's just as boring and tedious as the rest of the series...

I thought the Daxter game was pretty good. I had a good time with it and remember the control and camera being tight.

The absolute worst was Rengoku. The entire dungeon looked the same and the control sucked. Konami even had the nerve to make a sequel that I never played. Did it sell that well to warrant a sequel?

[Leo_A]

PSP had some excellent compilations. I'd nominate Sega Genesis Collection, Activision Hits Remixed, Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded, and Capcom Classics Collection Remixed.

A few were pretty poor (Atari Classics Evolved and EA Replay leap to mind as disappointments), although they're not contenders by a long shot for the top 20 worst PSP list.

[RPG_Fanatic]

One of the best is Breath Of Fire III How could you not want one of the best RPG's on the PSone not portable! Sucks that it was only available in the U.K. and you had to import it. But it's worth it.

[Tanooki]

Yeah they did do dumb stuff with some quality RPGs. I found it local to me years ago, but it was a UK release -- Tales of Eternia (Destiny 2 on PS1 remastered a bit nicer.) It was such a fun ride playing that game.

I'd nominate Gurumin and Popolocrois as some solid games worth the positives list. The first was a story/stage on a map based 3D platforming adventure that was pretty fun start to finish, the other is kind of a throwback style RPG but it was overall well done and the hand drawn visuals were a nice touch. I also feel MGS Peacewalker still was best at home on here, not the re-releases.

I never played the after years or star ocean, but kupomogli's post I'd second.

[AceAerosmith]

I'll throw in a shitty game: Medal of Honor Heroes. I hated the controls (the 4 buttons were your view control), the missions (spend 20 minutes guarding this flag until reinforcements arrive, clocked), and the appearance (looks like a VERY early PS1 game).

[Zthun]

The PSP is an amazing system, so great choice of a thread.

I'll start off with games that I think belong in the top 20.

Dracula X Chronicles

Rondo of Blood on the PC Engine is a great game, but it had some balancing issues where it'd be a bit easy or too difficult. Stages are better designed, some receiving pretty big changes, like the second half of stage seven or stage five which not only had its stage redesigned, but also two entirely new bosses(one that you fight on stage seven if you didn't rescue both girls.) Dracula X Chronicles is overall the easier game, but it's still difficult game and not overly difficult at certain points.

As a bonus, not only d oes Dracula X Chronicles include all the music from the original game, and SotN and all level music can be customized to your liking, it also includes Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night with redone voice acting. Sure, people will miss the cheesy opening of SotN, but overall the voice acting in the DXC version is far better. There are a couple new weapons added into the game, Axe Lord Armor is easier to get in the regular game, and Maria is now a playable character, and not the NitM Maria, but a Maria that actually plays like Maria.

The game scored well in reviews overall, but most of the reviews wrote off the remake as a crappy game because they suck as gamers and rated it on the inclusion of Symphony of the Night. This isn't just a cut and paste remake like my next choice on the list, this amazing game is a complete overhaul that the developers took the time to rebalance and redesign and includes bonuses like the original and SotN. Imo it's the best game on the PSP and belongs in everyone's collection.

I wanted to 2nd this as truth. Of all the PSP games I've played, this is hands down a favorite and by far the best game on the system. I have never heard one person say this game sucks. This remake is a golden masterpiece. I also wanted to mention that the SOTN port has the original Maria fight, as well as the original Japanese voice overs. Finally, we got a port that's just as awesome as the Saturn version.

Others that I think need to be in the top 20:

1. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - It's just a port of Hour of Darkness. Still very much worth having if you don't have it on the PS2.
2. Star Ocean First Departure - SNES game ported to use the engine from Second Story.
3. Star Ocean Second Evolution - Port of the PS1 classic
4. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions - Ported with big class updates.
5. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth

I feel bad because I would just keep listing ports of older games, but that's where the PSP really shines in my eyes.

[Hawksmoor]

I'd like to nominate Jeanne D'Arc, Lumines, and Loco Roco for top 20 PSP games.

[Querjek]

I second Lumines. It was one of the reasons why I bought a launch PSP and the countless hours I spent with it speak volumes to the game's scope. It's truly a masterpiece and should have been the PSP's Tetris, as far as a console sales go.

[LiquidPolicenaut]

I would add the following to the best of the PSP list:

1) Lumines (I & II) - I, too, love this game and own 5 different versions of it (2 on PSP, 360, PS3, and Vita). One of the best puzzle games I have ever played and still enjoy it...

2) God of War (Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta) - truly showed a console game could be done on a portable. GoS especially showed what great graphicsthe PSP could pull off in the right hands...

3) Ridge Racer - Like Lumines, I bought it at launch and was just wowed with how great it looked and played...

4) Mega Man Powered Up - Nice lil SD remix of MM1 and sadly underlooked...

5) Ys Oath in Felghana - Great port of the PC version....

6) Lunar Silver Star Harmony - I am a long time time Lunar fan (bought TSS on Sega CD on its release day back in 93) and while I still dislike a few things from this version (load times, no overworld map to speak of, etc.), I DID like the graphics (which I find better than SSSC graphics) and the remixed music makes it sound more passable now (though it'll never beat the original TSS soundtrack). I was also nice to play at least one more traditional turn based JRPG