New Release: BioShock 2 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Valid 2/9-2/13

It’s only been alive for just over four years now and already Sony’s PlayStation Portable has accumulated a gargantuan library of games, with must-play titles that span every genre from action that matches the quality found in console games (God of War: Chains of Olympus) to games that would seem impossible on the PSP like music games (Rock Band: Unplugged). Join GamePro as we count down over thirty games no PSP owner should pass up in this all-new 2009 edition of the greatest PSP games ever created.
Read the original version of GamePro’s The Best PSP Games here!

31. Beats

Beats

Yeah, we’ve got the Beats and it’s easy to understand why: slick, yet simple graphics combined with basic button-pressing rhythmic gameplay. Tack on a low, low price and there’s no reason you shouldn’t groove to the Beats too.

30. Tokobot

Tokobot

Prehistoric robots take platforming to a new age in Tokobot–a short, but sweet romp through ancient ruins that test your jumping abilities and skill in commanding a legion of loyal mechanical pals. Only its short, linear single player story keeps Tokobot from being more than a diamond in the rough.

29. Twisted Metal: Head On

Twisted Metal: Head On

The only game on our list that lets you barrel through the Eiffel Tower as a psychotic clown behind the wheel of an ice cream truck, Twisted Metal has as much morbid appeal as hard-hitting vehicular action. As long as you put in the time to learn the controls, you’re sure to smile barreling through the wreckage of fellow players online.

28. Killzone: Liberation

Killzone: Liberation

This handheld sequel unshackles the PlayStation 2 first-person shooter series for top-down play. The perspective takes some getting used to but thankfully all of the in-your-face action remains intact, letting you beat back creepy Helghan invaders on the war-torn surface of Vekta.

27. Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles

Pair a previously unreleased installment with a lauded classic and you get a UMD with a silver lining. Series favorite Symphony of the Night comes as a bonus for completing the tough-as-nails Dracula X game, which boasts a beautiful 2.5D graphical update. Two great games in one package that won’t drive a stake through your wallet.

26. Silent Hill Origins

Silent Hill Origins

What Silent Hill Origins lacks in originality, it certainly makes up for in scares. Nothing comes close to this disturbing handheld thriller. As a prequel to the console games, Origins sets a macabre stage for the series with its gritty graphics, horrific scenes, and psychologically taxing gameplay. Without a doubt, the only game on our list that’ll having you screaming like a little girl . . . asking for more.

25. WipEout Pulse

WipEout Pulse

The king of futuristic racers goes online in the second portable installment of the WipEout series. While it hasn’t made as much of a splash as WipEout Pure, Pulse packs in more options, better graphics, and added online gameplay that puts it ahead of the pack. Vehicle customization and the ability to take snapshots during memorable races give the game a unique twist. Infused with a fantastic electronic soundtrack and slick visuals, it’s clear that there’s more than just good racing flowing through Pulse’s veins.

24. Burnout Legends

Burnout Legends

Combining the best of the series and smashing it all together in one fantastic package is Burnout Legends, the ultimate in crash-tastic racers. The lack of online gameplay is a serious oversight, but there’s still more than enough speeding tickets to earn and cars to crash in the satisfying single-player and local wireless modes.

23. Daxter

Daxter

Jak’s obnoxious fur-ball friend finds himself a leading ottsel in one of the PSP’s earliest hits. Although Daxter doesn’t innovate much, it’s the first handheld platform-action game to provide a true console experience with mouth-watering graphics and seamless gameplay.

22. Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow

Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow

Focusing more on action than stealth, Gabe Logan’s second PSP adventure unquestionably tops the genre. Logan’s Shadow surpasses Portable Ops in terms of control, even if it isn’t as rich an experience. Don’t let this gem get lost in Snake’s shadow–one of the PSP’s best.

21. SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Tactical Strike

SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Tactical Strike

The third SOCOM for the PSP ups the tactical element for more deliberate, thoughtful action perfect for portable play. An impressive array of features including online play, voice commands and chat, and an 11-mission single-player campaign easily make it best of the handheld series.

20. Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters

Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters

Fitting tools of destruction in your pocket can be difficult when you’re going commando, but Size Matters makes it possible. The first portable outing for Ratchet and his robotic buddy Clank establishes a new standard for handheld action with top-notch graphics, a challenging story mode, and full online multiplayer. Adjusting to limited camera controls takes time, although it’s a minor complaint in the face of big action on your little screen.

19. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Phenomenal real-time battles and gorgeous graphics put Crisis Core among the most impressive handheld games around. Cameos from popular Final Fantasy VII characters make it a trip down memory lane, even though its innovative gameplay does much to differentiate it from other RPGs.

18. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the WarLords

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the WarLords

Tetris may have opened the way for portable puzzlers, but Puzzle Quest stands above the pack. Its unique combination of puzzle-solving and role-playing is like nothing else out there. Not only does it provide immense depth, but also makes the game incredibly addictive. +1 charisma for this PSP version thanks to a cleaner presentation, although the DS edition gets a special enchantment for intuitive touch controls. Anyway you put it, Puzzle Quest levels up handheld gaming as a must-own.

17. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite

The best way we can describe Monster Hunter to the uninitiated is by thinking of it as a grittier, more Lord of the Rings-influenced take on the world of Pokemon. Oddly enough, the game’s publisher Capcom proudly boasts that the Monster Hunter series is actually even more monstrously popular than Pokemon is in Japan. The latest installment in the beast busting series is a completely revamped version of Monster Hunter Freedom 2, loaded with new missions, monsters, weapons, and armor with some gameplay tweaks also sprinkled in there for good measure, which makes Freedom Unite the ultimate version of Monster Hunter.

16. Rock Band Unplugged

Similarly to how PSP ports of graphically advanced console video games like God of War and Resistance can leave one skeptical, we didn’t know how the hell Rock Band would work on a handheld but for reasons other than graphics (let’s face it: Rock Band/Guitar Hero games’ visuals aren’t all that awe-inspiring). How exactly do you play drums, guitar, not to mention sing on a PSP? Thankfully no miniaturized instruments accompanied the PSP-exclusive version of Rock Band, which took a more Amplitude and Frequency approach to creating music in the game where the player rocks out solo by taking up each instrument individually, cycling through them (with the exception of singing). Now, if only they’d bust out a DS version of Rock Band so we could have vocals in a handheld Rock Band game due to the platforms built-in microphone.

15. Star Ocean: Second Evolution

Released early this year, Star Ocean: Second Evolution is an enhanced remake of the PlayStation-era classic RPG Star Ocean: The Second Story. If you like console role-playing games and have never picked up any of the games in the Star Ocean series, you owe it to yourself to check it out and there’s no better game to take for a test spin than Second Evolution, which is crammed with delicious new goodies like additional playable characters, scenarios, artwork, and best of all, new animated cutscenes. It may not be as well known as Final Fantasy or even Dragons Quest in the realm of RPGs, but Star Ocean isn’t any less of a franchise.

14. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

It always comes as somewhat of a surprise just how many gamers missed out on the original Final Fantasy Tactics on PlayStation. Oddly enough, Tactics shared little with the RPG behemoth aside from “Final Fantasy” being in its title. Some of the series’ traditional spells and creatures like its mountable overgrown chickens are featured in Tactics, but other than those things it has a completely unique feel to it, from its epic score, to its rich water-color-like environments and art-style, to its heavy emphasis on strategy. The PSP-exclusive Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is a revamped version of the PS1 classic game and proof that the game hasn’t aged much since its initial release.

13. Daxter

Taking place during the events of Naughty Dog’s first sequel, Jak II on PlayStation 2, the PSP-exclusive Daxter allows you to play as Jak’s small sidekick and weasel/otter mixbreed, Daxter. Aside from switching up the series’ protagonist, the game also plays with some interesting ideas such as having you hired by an old man named Osmo as an exterminator and eventually having to figure out a way to save your humanoid friend and partnet Jak who’s been imprisoned by Krimzon Guards. The bottom line is that, while the game does introduce some new forms of gameplay and a new main character, it’s still Jak & Daxter at heart and shouldn’t be missed by fans of the series.

12. Final Fantasy VII

While no frills or enhancements whatsoever were made to the PSP/PS3 version of Square’s role-playing magnum opus, why fix what ain’t broken? Last month, Final Fantasy VII was made available on the PlayStation Store for the affordable price of only $9.99! There’s really no better excuse to replay what many consider to be not only the greatest Final Fantasy game, but one of the best RPGS ever created (many of the GamePro editors are also guilty of playing through FFVII several times). And if Square finally gave us that full-blown PS3 remake of Final Fantasy VII, all our nerd desires will be satisfied.

11. Metal Gear Solid

Finally, gamers have the ability to take one of the most riveting action titles of all time with them wherever they go. That’s right, if you haven’t heard, Metal Gear Solid is now available for the Sony PSP as a download, and like Final Fantasy VII, another game no PSP owner should go without, it can be purchased for the extremely reasonable price of $9.99. We hate to sound like an official Konami press release, but there’s really no reason not to own the original, and arguably the best, Metal Gear Solid game for the PSP. It may lack MGS4: Guns of the Patriots’ mind-blowing graphics, but its compelling story and unforgettable boss fights are just too good to pass up…. even if you’ve played the game before.

10. Resistance: Retribution

When Sony’s sci-fi World War II shooter was first announced for the PSP it was hard to fathom much of the franchise’s luster and substance being sustained since it was being brought to a handheld. Boy, were we wrong. Not only did Resistance’s white hot intensity, combat, and inspired cast of gruesome extraterrestrials translate well to Sony’s handheld, it actually took the franchise in a fresh new direction by a new implementing third-person perspective . We don’t think we’re the only ones who said to ourselves, “damn this looks great for a PSP game” the first time we fired Resistance: Retribution up. Sony even somehow managed to pull off decent multiplayer support (a key draw of Retribution’s PS3 counterparts, Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2) with eight player matches that run as smooth as butter.

9. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

Only a Psycho Mantis couldn’t appreciate the sophistication stealth-action gameplay that Portable Ops dishes out exclusively on PSP. Totally original from the ground up, the game does more than port over the console series. Creative recruitment mechanics take advantage of WiFi hot-spots, letting you draft soldiers into Naked Snake’s espionage ring. Additionally, robust online play complements an intriguing single-player story. Don’t let this one sneak by you.

8. Grand Theft Auto Liberty and Vice City Stories

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

It might be hard out there for a pimp, but Liberty City Stories makes it easier by bringing the immensely popular Grand Theft Auto series portable. Keeping tabs on your lovely ladies while building the Leone crime syndicate is as fun as it is impressive. Liberty City Stories packs the enormous urban locale onto your PSP in an amazing feat of game engineering. Although not perfect, it’s hard to deny the pleasure you’ll get from this stellar side-story.

Or, for your 80s fix there’s Vice City Stories, which doesn’t offer much different from its predecessor other than its tropical setting, but that shouldn’t keep you from getting in on all the action. Exploring the crime-ridden streets of Vice City taking on action-packed missions is loads of fun, even if visiting Liberty City ought to be your first priority.

7. Tekken: Dark Resurrection

Tekken: Dark Resurrection

Portable pugilists finally have something to be proud of in Tekken: Dark Resurrection. Fine-tuned mechanics make it the definitive handheld fighting game, not to mention the most visually impressive. Online bouts are missing, although head-to-head matches using any of the 30+ characters is an acceptable consolation. Niggles with the controls prevent it from being ideal, yet it’s still the best example of handheld fighting given form factor issues.

6. LocoRoco / 5. LocoRoco 2

LocoRoco

Now every boy (and girl) can have a blob of their own thanks to the gelatinous platforming action of LocoRoco and its equally charming sequel LocoRoco 2. Using only the PSP’s two shoulder buttons, this cute and creative game has you guiding miniature globules through colorful stages. Charm helps alleviate the pain of LocoRoco being far too short for its own good, but given the tendency for its kid-voiced soundtrack to stick in your head you’ll be enjoying it well after your PSP is powered down. In fact, LocoRoco is one of the most original games you’ll find on any system.

4. Lumines II

Lumines II

This PSP title owes much to Tetris. Colored blocks fall from the top of the screen and it’s up to you to clear them by forming like-colored formations. Beautiful special effects and a snazzy musical soundtrack gave it a stylish edge over its 8-bit inspiration. We chose the sequel for a few nice little upgrades, but the original Lumines is nearly as good.

3. Patapon / 2. Patapon 2

Patapon

The beat goes on for the team responsible for LocoRoco in Patapon, a rhythmic real-time strategy game exclusive to PSP. Using the face buttons to pound out rhythmic commands to cutesy Patapon tribesmen, you guide them in a prophetic quest to return to their holy promised land. Patapon is more than just clever beats and pretty presentation though, offering in-depth equipment customization and battle tactics for beating massive screen-filling bosses. At the budget price of $20, you can’t afford to miss this game. And for a few dollars more you can pick up its superior sequel Patapon 2 which introduces a rather meaty multiplayer mode.

1. God of War: Chains of Olympus

God of War: Chains of Olympus

Like mana sent from the gods, God of War: Chain of Olympus single-handedly reinvents the action genre with its tightly-wound combat and unparalleled presentation. Unquestionably this is the finest-looking game ever created on any handheld, which is enough for every gamer to take a look. Even more, Kratos’ portable saga deserves praise for its superb design and energetic action. All in all, it’s bloody good fun.

Gearbox Software’s Borderlands is part first-person shoot ‘em up, part role-playing game, a dusty slog across the planet Pandora in search of the legendary treasures of the Vault.

Along the way, from the bus that drops your player off at the nearly deserted town of Fyrestone to the final showdown at the secretive Vault, a lot of looting and a lot of shooting is gettin’ done. That constant collection of Halo-esque recharging shields, stat-boosting artifacts, character class modifiers, grenade types and “bazillions” of guns is as much of Borderlands appeal as the four player, drop in, drop out cooperative multiplayer mode.

There are four classes to experiment with: the burly, melee-skilled Berserker; the turret-spawning Soldier; the Siren, whose Phasewalking skill makes her fast and invisible; the Hunter, who favors his sniper rifles and his pet Bloodwing. Each class comes armed with dozens of customizable skills and Borderlands packs in over a hundred missions to play through, so the game can’t be knocked for its lack of variety. Is everything else in place?

Loved
Co-op Is King: Borderlands is at its best during co-op, when the mix of enemies becomes more varied, when the challenges are made more difficult, and when you’ve got a partner to take the gunner position in one of the game’s vehicles. When player skills and capabilities complement each other well, you can churn through some of Borderlands’ less interesting fetch quests, hauling ass as a team to the next bounty, power leveling each other with quickness. Credit to Gearbox, who made the process of getting into a game relatively painless, minus a bit of confusion surrounding completed or half-completed quests from the game’s single-player mode.

A Magical Wasteland: To get the superficial stuff out of the way, Borderlands looks damn good. The “concept art” shading adds personality to what otherwise might have been flat, barren stretches of desert land. The Xbox 360 version holds up relatively well, only slowing down when things get really hairy and when the bad guys get really big—things drag a bit more noticeably during the game’s last hour, when some heavy action goes down. Player characters and enemy designs look sharp—we just wish there was a little more room for additional character customization.

One In A Bazillion: With randomly generated weapons, especially when almost everything is a gun of some sort, there’s valid concern that the variations will be difficult to notice, that every shotgun or machine pistol will feel the same. Fortunately, that’s not true in Borderlands, as weapon manufacturers, elemental attacks (fire, electricity, corrosion) and a long list of attributes make many guns feel surprisingly unique. The same is true for the one-off guns, typically picked up from a major fallen foe or given as a reward. These uniques, like the sub-machine shotgun Boom Stick or a burst fire rocket launcher, tend to be the most interesting variations, if not always particularly useful. You’ll likely settle into a quartet of reliable favorites that complement each other well, as well as come to appreciate the handy and illustrative “compare” option in the inventory screen.

Quickly Addictive: Borderlands’ reward system, granting you big bonuses in cash and experience for completing quests, kept me coming back for more, even when I had planned to take a break. Just one more quest, I’d say, in search of new loot, new levels and new areas to explore. This quick addiction to the game’s frequent pay-offs was made more intense during co-op, when the rewards come much more frequently thanks to cash and experience sharing. (Warning: while the money and XP are shared, the rest of the loot is first come first served. That, and the lack of a secure player-to-player item trading option, means you should play with trusted friends.)

We Got A System: The game’s attribute system, focusing on elemental modifiers, reload times, clip sizes, and other weapon functions, works quite well. It’s not as complex as many of the role-playing games and massively multiplayer online games that it clearly borrows its weapon/shield attribute system from, but there is depth to it. For the most part, it’s easy to understand why one shotgun or shield is better than another, even if the naming system for items can be cryptic.

Second Wind: Second Wind lets the player keep firing with their dying breaths. Should they take out their killer before the screen fades to black, they’ll recover a fraction of their health and shields. Not a groundbreaking innovation, but something that saved my ass more often than I’d care to count. And I love it for that

Hated
Getting There Is None Of The Fun: You’re going to spend a lot of time in Borderlands going from point A to point B. And for the most part, all that hoofing it around is going to suck. Here’s a long list of reasons why. The game’s map is sometimes confusing, meaning I too often had to check and recheck and recheck my location via the menu screen. There is no mini-map overlay, unfortunately. Maps are lacking in key information, things like the locations of main characters, where town-to-town “transitions” actually go, and the ability to place your own waypoints. One of the faster travel concessions, the teleportation between “New-U” respawn points, is made less useful, because most missions don’t tell the player where to go to collect rewards, so teleporting can be kind of a crapshoot unless you’re taking good mental notes. Finally, vehicles, while much faster than walking, can sometimes get stuck on world geometry, resulting in a very long jog to your destination.

More Like Bore-derlands, Am I Right? Alright, Borderlands is fun, so that may be a little harsh. But at some point, between collecting 24 bottles of booze and scouring six Dumpsters for… whatever and running on foot all over the damn place, monotony can set in. Borderlands, especially when played solo, can get a little… dull. There’s plenty of grind here for those who like it, but there’s also plenty of grind for those who don’t.

Suspect AI, Suspect Aim: I saw the AI do some pretty dumb things during my time with Borderlands—about 22 hours, if you’re curious—which usually worked to my advantage. Granted, Pandora’s wildlife and lowlife probably aren’t that smart or they’d have found a way off this rock, but they’ll often forgo cover for standing in front of it or even on top of it. Some of the more difficult boss characters can act thickly as well, getting stuck in behavior loops that make them so much simpler to kill. Dumb though the AI may be, it has an amazing ability to keep its sights trained on you, unfairly in some situations. Like those son of a bitch turrets.

Borderlands gets a lot of things right, in particular the balance between being a first-person shooter and being a role-playing game. The shooting mechanics are sound, as are many of the role-playing aspects, save for a few design quirks. Growing and customizing my level 35 Siren was a great deal of fun, when the tedium of all that walking around didn’t spoil it. But where Borderlands excels is in offering a functional four-player cooperative loot-hoarding experience, with gorgeous environments to adventure in and smartly crafted items to collect or covet.

The game has a few faults, including its traveling inefficiencies—a weak map combined with plenty of long-range fetch quests—and its easily forgettable story line, but it’s still relatively easy to recommend, provided you can tap into the best portions of Borderlands, its cooperative multiplayer modes.

Borderlands was developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 20. Retails for $59.99 USD on consoles, $49.99 on PC. A copy of the game was purchased by Kotaku for reviewing purposes. Completed single-player mode, played 20 co-op missions on Xbox Live with groups of two and three players on Xbox 360. Tested splitscreen co-op mode.

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Send an email to Michael McWhertor, the author of this post, at mike@kotaku.com.