Better on PSP
Sony requires any game ported to the PSP to have extra content not found in other versions of that same title, but that's not what this post is about. A strange thing has happened to game franchises on the PSP, sometimes their best showing is on the portable. Can a franchise that you loathe be loved on the PSP? Well it has happened to me ...twice already.
Syphon Filter is a gaming series that I just couldn't stand on the Playstation or Playstation 2. I disliked the graphics, animation and gameplay of every version I tried. Even fams of Syphon Filter seemed to hate the last one that came out on PS2. So when a Syphon Filter game was announced on PSP, I was as interested in it as I was about castration. When reviews started to pour out that stating the game was incredible I lost respect for every reviewer that enjoyed it. Then one day while adding games to my Gamefly Q I decided to put Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror on the list. I didn't do it because I expected to enjoy the game, but rather so I could validate my hatred for the franchise.
Continued after the jump...
When the game first arrived I put it into my PSP and tried my hardest to look past the sexy graphics. I was convinced that in just a few moments of play I would throw the UMD in disgust. Strangely, words started flowing out of my mouth like "cool" and "wow". Was it possible? Was I really enjoying a Syphon Filter game? Those questions were easily answered when no other game entered my PSP until I had beat Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror. I not only enjoyed this game from a franchise I hated prior to its PSP incarnation, I finished the entire game and hoped for a sequel. I surely thought this was a once in a lifetime occurrence.... until it happened again.
This time it was with Killzone:Liberation. Now I don't want to enrage Killzone fans, but the PS2 incarnation was billed as a Halo killer and it was far from it. I just couldn't seem to get past the Silent Hill like fog and the controls to even know if the game was fun. I chalked up the Killzone franchise as PR hot air and nothing more. When the demo for the PSP game arrived in my mailbox I gave it a shot in hopes that its 3rd person gameplay would succeed where its first person gameplay failed on the PS2.
Not only was the needless fog missing in Killzone: Liberation, but the controls were well thought out and worked well on the PSP. The game had great graphics, good voice acting and well designed levels. I liked the game so much that I went online to find out more of the story behind the Killzone universe and hoped the upcoming PS3 sequel was even half as good as the PSP outing.
When handheld games are so often treated as shovelware or just toys for children it is even more shocking when you play a portable experience that surpasses that of its console equivalent. It makes me wonder if there are other game franchises out there that I've shunned before that may be a great experience on Sony's handheld.
So what about it readers, any game franchises you disliked before but love the PSP edition?
