Summary

  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker are iconic PSP games that have stood the test of time.
  • God of War: Ghost of Sparta offers an emotional storyline with Greek mythology references, while Killzone: Liberation delivers intense combat and a futuristic war setting.
  • Secret Agent Clank provides a unique twist on the Ratchet & Clank series, while Lumines offers a visually appealing puzzle game experience with a catchy soundtrack.

The 2000s were a decade of trying new things in the video game industry. One of the biggest trends was a push towards handheld gaming. With Sony being a big name in the gaming industry, they wanted to keep up with this new trend. Thus, the PSP was born.

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Whether you loved yours or never owned one, there were quite a few titles that graced those tiny PSP discs. Of all the PSP games that came out in the years that followed, some stand above the rest and still hold fond spaces in people's hearts and shelves. Here are the best of those PSP games.

10 Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep

Grab Your Keyblade

It's a rather odd name for a game, but Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is a game that was well-received by fans of the series. It follows a similar JRPG style that had been set up by earlier games in the series, with plenty of memorable characters from the Kingdom Hearts universe.

There's a grand adventure for those who choose to wield the Keyblade. It's an adventure unlike any other and one that helped Kingdom Hearts stay relevant even now.

9 Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Maybe Crime Does Pay

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was a game that helped put the PSP on the map as far as mobile consoles go. For most purposes, it felt just like any version of the GTA franchise, and it ran pretty well on such a small console.

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It followed Cipriani and his escapades in Liberty City, of which few were legal. This was big for fans of earlier GTA games, as characters previously seen in Liberty City were back in the spotlight, for better or worse.

8 Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

There's A Snake In My Boot

Life as Snake never seems to be easy, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker doesn't prove that theme wrong. Things are changing ever since the end of Snake Eater, and Peace Walker's Colombia is a place full of danger where power changes hands in the most gruesome of ways.

Like most other Metal Gear Solid games, the focus is stealth and completing missions as elegantly as possible. It's a game that helped set up the series as it was it is today, which is great praise for this long-going universe.

7 God Of War: Ghost Of Sparta

Blood, Gods, And Revenge

It only made sense for the Sony classic God Of War to have a game available for the PSP, and Ghost Of Sparta brought Kratos' revenge story to the handheld screen. The game is full of references to Greek mythology, and the cast of characters has some big names on it.

But, what else can you expect when you've decided to fight against the gods themselves? Ghost Of Sparta had a surprisingly emotional storyline and there's a lot of backstory revealed in this installment of the series.

6 Killzone: Liberation

A War Unlike Any Other

Killzone: Liberation saw the return of one of the most heavy-hitting FPS game series that Sony has seen. This time though, they went with a top-down third-person perspective, but other than this, much of the gameplay and story is classic Killzone.

Far-off planets, futuristic weaponry, and a war that seems like it will never end. The Helghast never takes war lightly, and the missions could get pretty brutal in this handheld game, making it a great game for those who love the more combat-heavy side of gaming.

5 Secret Agent Clank

Shaken, Or Stirred?

The Ratchet & Clank series has been a PlayStation heavy-hitter for quite a while now, and yet it was some surprise to see Clank get his own standalone game in Secret Agent Clank. In a plot that only this series could imagine, a precious gem has been stolen from a museum that's worth a lot of money.

It's up to Clank to don his tuxedo and find out who the thief is. There are plenty of puzzles and stealth sections to test your skills and even a part where Clank turns into a kaiju, turning this experience into a game that's unlike all others in the series.

4 Lumines

A Game Of The Future

Those who had a penchant for puzzle games found solace in Lumines, a Tetris-like game with a pretty interesting design. Lumines is all about matching colored blocks together to keep the stack you have on screen from reaching too high.

As with most, the levels just got harder and harder. But, you were also able to enjoy plenty of bright visuals and graphics that went along with a pretty impressive soundtrack, so it was pretty hard not to nod your head along as you tried to beat your high score.

3 Burnout Legends

A Heavy-Hitting Racing Game

This racing, and often crashing, series of games had its title that came out for the PSP in the form of Burnout Legends. Included were the usual race and time-challenge modes that you would expect in a racing game.

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But the thing that made this and the rest of the Burnout franchise stand out from its competitors was its focus on crash physics. So much so that Legends had a mode all about trying to cause as much damage to other vehicles as possible. And all in a nice handheld format.

2 Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Lara Croft VS. ...Dinosaurs?

While it dropped on multiple consoles, the PSP version of Tomb Raider: Anniversary was not to be overlooked. It was a fun look back to the history of the Tomb Raider series with its side-scrolling platformer style of gameplay.

Lara Croft is on the hunt for Atlantis, and like all of her journeys, it's not going to be easy. There's a reason Tomb Raider has survived as a series for decades now, combine a fun style with an interesting plot, and a memorable protagonist, and you have something people will enjoy.

1 Spider-Man 2

With Great Power...

Spider-Man has always been a great choice for superhero video game adaptations, and it doesn't get much better than sitting down with your PSP and enjoying Spider-Man 2. It has web-shooting, crime-solving, and everything in between.

While it may be an older title compared to some of the more recent Spider-Man games, Spider-Man 2 still holds up, showing a large map full of exploration, plenty of missions, and a story that is classic superhero good vs. evil. Plus, you have Bruce Campbell narrating the whole game, so you can't go wrong.

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