Topic: PSP Games

With the release of the Vita, I'm sure many view the ability to play many PSP games on it as a step backwards. But for the price of many PSN based PSP titles being under £8.00- there's certainly  value to be found in some of the better options.

So I thought those with Vitas and those still with PSP's could share their experiences with the Vita running PSP titles and what titles from the store are purchase-worthy- what you'd like to see etc...

I loved my PSP's and played many a great game on them- most of which are not on PSN for Vita- so for my 'what I'd like to see' I say primarily: Killzone Liberation and Darius Burst.

Killzone is a great, great game in isometric form and I think it was perfect for portable gaming.

I never had the chance to play Darius, the PSP had some great shmup Japan only releases, it would be nice if the Vita gets some shmup love-since the PS3 is severely lacking!

My PSN PSP purchases for the Vita are so far just Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max, which I've just sold the UMD for, and Metal Slug XX. SFA3M plays very well, the d-pad on the Vita really doesn't disappoint and I Zangief'd my way to victory happily on my first play through. It's really a far better design than the PSP (1000/2000/Go) and keeps SF fun to play rather than frustrating. The game looks good, the bilinear filtering helps soften the image and reduces the pixelated look, but as I say, it's a little bit soft- the colours look amzing though. SFA3M suffers a problem with game saves. On first getting the game I found I couldn't auto-save due to the game showing 'memory stick duo not found' message, and crashed when I tried to manually save. Googling this I found out that the game simply doesn't cope with more than 1GB/2GB reporting in from the memory card, this was an issue running on PSP's too apparently. I just follwed the advice I found through Google and loaded up my memory card with demos, I think I got down to 3GB free space before the game let me create a game save. Then I deleted the demos I didn't want. It still won't auto save/load but manual saving and loading works fine.

Metal Slug XX on the other hand is perfect. It runs perfectly and even with the wide-screen-stretch the graphics are great looking (for Metal Slug- obviously ) no issues saving etc and the controls are spot on too.

Even though these games are emulations they still function within the Vita system as other games do, ie you can suspend them and instantly restart. Another consideration for PSP games (though this will obviously vary quite a bit) is size on your memory card. SFA3M is a mere 95MB download, with Metal Slug XX being about 250MB- pittance in this age of Gigabytes!!

So yeah, my 2 cents- join in, take it easy.

I have Littlebigplanet PSP, Corpse Party, Final Fantasy IV the complete collection, and Final Fantasy Tactics. I might be buying PixelJunk Monsters PSP since they said it would be compatible with Vita next week. Littlebigplanet is the only one that I'm a little disappointed in graphics. It just seems a little unclear. Corpse Party and Final Fantasy IV look great and are 2 great purchases. Plug in some headphones and play Corpse Party at night.

I have a ton of PSP games, but I won't be playing many of them on the Vita, those memory cards are way too expensive.

The ability to play PSP games like Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker with the second analog stick is one of my favorite features on the Vita.

My PSP games are:
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Killzone: Liberation
LittleBigPlanet PSP
Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X
Twisted Metal: Head-On

I also own Motorstorm: Arctic Edge and Resistance: Retribution (which I was really looking forward to playing with the 2nd analog stick) but they still aren't supported sadly.

Wait, Killzone works?

Is that via PS3 download?

yeap and yeap.

Good linking, well done that man!

Beats works! excellent, I'll throw that on with a massive slice of Daft Punk!

Beats installed to the Vita, works perfectly.

Looks-wise, the simple presentation of the game shows off the very different resolution of the screen more than either Metal Slug XX or Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max. It's a very soft image with bilinear filtering on, it looks similar to how the XMB looks over Remote Play and a little too pixelated with it off. - but as I say, it plays just fine and picks up all of the music on the Vita with no issues.

I recently bought Ys Seven and have been playing the crap out of it. I honestly wasn't sure if I'd like it, but the reviews were great so I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm really glad I did.

The visuals are fantastic and the gameplay is even better. I've never been a big fan of turn-based RPGs, so the fast-paced hack-'n'-slash battles are perfect for me. Seriously, battles last mere seconds (except for the gargantuan bosses; more on those in a bit) and grinding for XP has never felt better. I sometimes find myself staying in one area and re-battling the same monsters again and again not because I need to level up, but because the combat is just so fun!

The story is your standard RPG fare. You're the chosen one who has to stop some great evil, yadda yadda. But the characters are interesting enough that the cliche plot is a non-issue. The scope of this game is incredible. Environments are varied and highly-detailed, with amazing landmarks far off in the background. The boss battles can get extremely challenging, and prove just how deep the combat system actually is.

The soundtrack is another thing that sets this apart from your average RPG. I wish I had gotten the retail copy back when I owned a PSP, as it came with a soundtrack CD and some other goodies. The melodies are catchy and fit the epic tone perfectly. Heck, I might just be tempted to hunt down a retail copy regardless of whether or not I own a PSP.

Ys Seven is a masterpiece, one that rekindled my love for RPGs and makes me want to play not only the other PSP Ys titles, but an entire slew of PSP RPGs. I can only hope that XSEED supports the Vita as wonderfully as it supported the PSP. I'd love to see another original Ys title (perhaps "Ys Eight"?) on the Vita.

Yeah, Falcom's been doing a great job for a long time. I wouldn't even say Ys Seven is their best game.

I really need an RPG on Vita, and I don't have the vast majority of PSP RPGs that are available on the store. Any recommendations? I'm quite torn between Persona 3 Portable (one of my favorite games on PS2) and Trails in the Sky (heard very good things).

Trails of the Sky is what I'd go for if you've already played Persona 3, which might gow down in price again soon enough, what with two Persona games coming out in the fall.