Mini Review: Super Stardust Portable (PSP) - Single-Stick Shooting Falls Short

Housemarque's best known for its twin-stick shooters, with Resogun being a notable recent example. However, its space shooting series, Stardust, shouldn’t be forgotten. Originating back on the Amiga in 1993, it's been a huge inspiration for the modern twin-stick shooters we see today.

Super Stardust Portable deployed following the success of Super Stardust HD on PS3. Launching back in 2008, it was the first time the series ventured onto a handheld device, the PSP. So it’s a somewhat welcome surprise to see it return via PS Plus Premium, enhanced for PS4 and PS5 with up-rendering, rewind, quick save, Trophies (including a Platinum), and custom video filters.

Housemarque gets all the core mechanics right in Portable, providing you a little spaceship equipped with laser guns, bombs, and a boost to navigate five planets swarming with asteroids and aliens alike. Blasting rocks and space fleets with an array of weapons is both enjoyable and addictive with each planet ending in a large-scale boss encounter. There’s a decent selection of modes on offer too, thanks to the inclusion of Arcade, Planet, Survival, Endless, Bomber, and Impact. However this content is short-lived and can be cleared in less than 3 hours, with little incentive to return since the original's online leaderboards are no longer available making several modes relatively redundant.

The game runs smoothly and controls are tight except for the fact you’ll have to use the face buttons to shoot in the eight directions instead of using the second analogue; there is also no remapping available for it. This makes for some cumbersome encounters and the gameplay difficulty has been noticeably toned down due to the restrictions of the original hardware.

Thus, Super Stardust Portable has some solid, addictive twin-stick shooting gameplay that can be a joy for a couple of hours, however it’s held back by the original’s hardware restrictions, the lack of content, and the removal of leaderboards leaving many modes redundant. If you fancy a few hours shooting space rocks and a simple Platinum Trophy then this is worth a quick nostalgic blast, but we'd recommend the superior PS4 port Super Stardust Ultra over this watered-down version.