It’s good to see Sony’s classic franchises being brought back. After the original game’s remake, I knew something was coming along, and I was right! We get a brand new next-gen exclusive Ratchet & Clank game without the baggage of the PS4 holding it down. The franchise returns to its familiar roots, which are both good and bad, and I’ll explain why.
This time around, Ratchet is finally wanting to find other Lombaxes in other dimensions. They get the idea of using the Dimensionator, but it’s taken by Dr. Nefarious. Yeah, I was a little happy to see him return and a little disappointed that we didn’t get an original villain for this game. Nefarious is funny and all, but I wanted to see someone new. We only get a couple of new characters here, but we finally get a new Lombax! Rivet is a fantastic female character with a great voice actress, and she has just as much nuance and personality as Ratchet has. I would love to see her stay and even get her own spin-off. The other main character introduced is Clank’s interdimensional counterpart, Kit, who is a female robot.
Sadly, like all the previous games, the story isn’t all that deep and plays out like a Saturday morning cartoon. There’s no real back story to anyone, and we just get the moment-to-moment action for the present time, and that’s it. It’s a pretty shallow story, with Kit and Rivet’s backgrounds not really being told or talked about. This has always been an issue with the series’ stories, and I wish they would change things up in that regard. The series’ main beat of going from planet to planet and whacking away at the same few enemies hasn’t changed either. There are about 9 planets in total, with some collectibles you can get for trophies, unlockables, and galleries. If you’ve played any single game in the series, this one will be familiar.
There are some puzzle areas thrown in that Clank is usually used for. These meta-dimension puzzles see you trying to get mini-Clanks running on the correct path to unlock a door. There are four different kinds of orbs that can manipulate the clunkers and various platforms. You can speed things up, slow them down, weigh them down, or make them lighter. They aren’t super challenging, but they are still kind of fun and break up the shooting. Another new mini-game is Glitch Sequences. You play as a spiderbot that goes inside a computer and can shoot at things. These play like the regular Ratchet and Rivet segments, but there’s no platforming as you have to stay on the ground. They aren’t super exciting, but they break up the pace. There are new vehicle elements added, such as rocket boots. You can skate around and boost at will, as some planets have large open maps, but they are far from the open world. The exploration is mostly for collecting collectibles.
The main show is the weapons, as that is what Ratchet & Clank was always famous for. Yes, there are over a dozen weapons here that are different and unique from any other game. The DualSense controller is well utilized here for secondary fire. You can soft-press to “ready” a weapon that used to be the primary fire, and the secondary is a full press of the trigger. The haptic triggers are used better here than in any other PS5 game I have played so far. That also includes the new rumble feature. You can “feel” every weapon, and it really adds to the game’s experience. However, I did feel they went a little too heavy on the gloved weapons. Some weapons feel more like gimmicks than others. I wound up sticking to about a half-dozen go-to weapons. I found there wasn’t a good balance this time around, like there usually is. You need to switch weapons based on your needs. Close-quarters weapons such as the Executioner, which is like a shotgun, There are a couple of weapons like this. And then you have area-of-effect splash damage weapons like the Warmonger and Houndrill. There are some passive weapons that do damage over time or stun enemies only and don’t do any damage.
The enemies are pretty repetitive this time around. You get the same six red robots and then the occasional animal type thrown in. They repeat a lot and don’t really have different defenses, so you can usually just blast them all as they come. There are frequent boss fights, but many repeat, so they can get old kind of fast. I felt the enemies weren’t as inventive this time around, and it shows as they bring back some older enemies from the first game. I just feel the weapon and enemy designs were a bit off this time around and not as creative, but far from bad or ruined. I do want to mention that the level layout is also the same as before. Swing from orbs, jumping around, smashing boxes for bolts, and using them to buy weapons and upgrade them. Using it, you can level them up, which unlocks more upgrades, and you can level yourself up, which increases your health. While this formula is tried and true, it can feel old to long-time players, and if you didn’t like the series before, this game won’t change your mind.
There are some great cinematic scripted events, and the pacing is well done. There’s something satisfying about this series that makes it feel like a classic PlayStation game. They did get that magic down pat, but if this is a new trilogy, I hope they have more in store for the sequel. Visually, this is one of the best next-gen games to date. With performance RT at 60FPS, the game looks fantastic. There are the usual VRR options, and you can play in full 4K at 30 fps, but a game like this needs to play at 60 fps. The game just looks amazing, and the team has been able to do what they really want. Comparing this game to the first on the PS2 is like a whole new experience.
Overall, Rift Apart takes the typical Ratchet & Clank formula and brings it to the next generation with little change or fluff. There are a couple of mini-game segments to mix things up, the characters and voice acting are spot on, and the humor is there despite not being fully pushed this time around. I wish we got a new villain, and Rivet and Kit aren’t explored enough. The story itself is also a Saturday morning cartoon with little depth. The weapons are neat but not well-balanced, and overall, the old Ratchet formula feels a bit stale here despite being perfect.
This is probably the most iconic and memorable handheld system for anyone over the age of 25 today. The Game Boy Advance was an unstoppable juggernaut of a system and one of the most anticipated in video game history. It sold like gangbusters, and Nintendo couldn’t keep up in the beginning. The first Nintendo handheld with a horizontal orientation and their first 16-bit handheld system that could create SNES-quality titles, and boy did it The Game Boy Advance has one of the most beloved and expansive handheld libraries out there. It’s also a good middle ground for being playable today without any hardware mods.
So, let’s address the elephant in the room. There’s still no backlight on the screen. This was largely criticized back in the day, and for a 21st-century handheld, it is mostly unacceptable. While the LCD is clear and crisp, you still need a bright light to see anything. Thankfully, many people still held onto their worm lights and got good at hiding under blankets at night by this point. Outside of that, I would say that’s the worst thing about the system.
When it came to power, the GBA delivered. It could recreate SNES-style 2D games and do rudimentary 3D games, which weren’t really seen until later in its life. The added shoulder buttons helped with the ergonomics and allowed deeper gameplay. We still didn’t get much I/O outside of the usual Link Cable, and the infrared was gone with this system. Overall, the system feels good in your hands. The slightly rounded back helps fill out your palms, and reaching around to the shoulder buttons makes the system sit well in your hands. It’s a great-feeling system, and many prefer it to other re-releases of the GBA.
In today’s age, the best thing you can do is upgrade the GBA to a modern LCD. It’s a drop-in mod and pretty easy to do, but there are so many mods for this system. Amplifier boards, USB-C upgrades, shells, buttons, silicone pads, lenses—you name it. Many people run shops dedicated to modded GBAs, and they can be quite beautiful. I have a nearly one-of-a-kind mod myself. The person who made mine no longer runs a shop and UV prints his own shells. Some people even add speed hacks via a hardware switch. It’s an amazing system to customize.
We all judge these older systems by their libraries, and the GBA is one of the best—some might say the best handheld library to date. While there was a lot of kiddie shovelware, there is something here from every genre, including first-person shooters. We’ve got Doom ports, many SNES ports, and games from many favorite franchises like Final Fantasy, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Pokemon, Mario, Prince of Persia, Tetris, Lord of the Rings, and many more. This was an era where many console games were better on the GBA because developers were forced to redo the game and think outside the box. Some terrible console games wound up having great GBA ports in the end. There’s something here for everyone. There are hundreds of games to choose from, and many are quite good.
Overall, the GBA is a fantastic and iconic piece of hardware. While the internals aren’t impressive today, having a portable SNES was something everyone dreamed of. The GBA library is what most people remember over the hardware anyway. Many people’s childhoods are wrapped around this system. While I never had the original model growing up (my parents couldn’t afford one), I still saw people with them and envied them for it. I love my GBA today and play it at least once a week.
I played the original game back when it was released, and it really left an impact on the gaming world as a whole. The characters were incredibly memorable, the acting was otherworldly, and the setting Naughty Dog created was just barely scratched. It was one of the last Sony exclusives for the PS3 and was an excellent send-off for the system. It pushed the system to its limits, and sometimes it showed a little too much. The game was later remastered for PS4, and while I own it, I never got past the second chapter. I’m glad I didn’t, as I might not have bothered with this remake.
The largest difference here is the visual. They are clearly made using The Last of Us II engine, and everything looks next-gen. Compared to the PS3, it’s like night and day. Subtle facial expressions, eye movements, and emotions come across the characters like never before. High-res textures, fantastic lighting, HDR and 4K support, and much more. This is a next-gen treat, if there ever was one. There are some quality-of-life improvements, such as controls, animations, loot, weapon balancing, and fantastic use of the DualSense controller. Let me tell you, this was my first experience with the controller, and it felt so good. It’s hard to go back to shooters without this function enabled. Weapons cause the triggers to bounce and recoil, physically affecting the way you shoot. Arrows being drawn have a lot of tension, depending on what character you’re using. It’s incredibly immersive.
Outside of the remake stuff and next-gen touches, the game is exactly the same. We get the Left Behind DLC thrown in as well, which is nice. There are a lot of extras, such as interviews, behind-the-scenes videos, skins, models, concept art, and filters. Most of it is the same. There are a ton of collectibles in the game that can unlock trophies. I used a guide during my playthrough to find them all, as they can be hidden pretty well. They give a lot of insight into what’s going on in the world day-to-day that you don’t see. Similar to the computers in Fallout.
If you haven’t played the game yet, then you are in for a treat, as this is one of the best single-player games ever made. However, some of the flaws of the game still carry over. For starters, the actual world that you’re in isn’t explored enough. Location-wise, we get a lot of different settings: abandoned rural neighborhoods, cities, hospitals, shopping malls, schools, and probably every common setting you can think of. We don’t get our stories within this world that you can see or hear. You don’t come across a lot of people in this game, and when you do, they are part of the main story. Your entire goal is to get Ellie to the Fireflies’ base for a specific reason that I won’t spoil. Sadly, there’s not much in between. There is a seemingly pointless second act in which you are captured by a group of people that only seems to be filler. They don’t impact the overall main story, but they just feel like an unnecessary obstacle to get through.
The combat itself is great in terms of shooting. There are a good number of weapons, and you will have a well-balanced loadout, from a flamethrower to pistols, shotguns, and bolt-action rifles. There are a few different types of enemies in the game, ranging from humans (Hunters) to different levels of cordyceps monsters such as Stalkers, Clickers, and Bloaters. Stealth is a large part of the game, but you don’t have to follow it. It’s best to conserve ammo, as you will always barely have enough and usually run out after every encounter until much later in the game, when you have a lot of weapons to switch from. Clickers can’t be stealthily killed without shivs that can break. You can shoot them with your bow, as that’s the only silent weapon you have, but arrows are scarce. It’s best to just avoid them. You need to lightly push up on the analog stick while crouching, as they are sensitive to sound. Throwing bricks or bottles to distract them is another good strategy.
These Clicker-focused stealth sections are incredibly intense. The Clickers are some of the best video game monsters ever created. They are iconic. Their signature “clicking” sound is where they get their name from. Surprisingly, these encounters aren’t very frequent. You only run into Clickers maybe once per chapter, and most are in the first third of the game. As the game progresses, you are mostly up against humans, and these guys can be killed from behind but come in large numbers. Stealth in this game is not the greatest. Enemies usually start swarming you all at once and spread out slowly. It requires a lot of patience to either pass everyone out or take them all out silently. It’s stupid to just shoot everyone until later in the game, when you can spare the ammo.
There are only a couple of boss fights in the game, and they are pretty good; they take skill and strategy to beat. There are a lot of fun scripted events as well, including quite a few well-placed quick-time events. There really aren’t any puzzles in the game outside of figuring out where a specific item in the area you need is. There is nothing cerebral about this game, however. I found the hardest parts of the game to be the stealth sections. Upgrading your stats and weapons helps a lot, but you have to be thorough in looting and searching around to find parts. You can craft shivs, smoke bombs, grenades, health kits, and molotovs. These can be done on the fly in your bag, but upgrades require the use of workbenches, and there are only about a dozen in the entire game. You also need to find tools to increase your skill level to install better upgrades. Make sure you don’t miss those.
Overall, The Last of Us Part 1 is one of gaming’s greatest single-player games. Ellie and Joel are amazing characters who go through what it means to be human multiple times over. From the intense opening scene to the cliffhanger ending, there’s so much packed in here, and it’s done so well. The upgraded visuals and quality-of-life improvements are good enough to justify this as a remake. Some of the story pacing issues still exist, and we don’t get to explore or hear more about this post-apocalyptic world. There are plenty of collectibles and extras, and the Left Behind DLC is a nice bonus as well. This is a fantastic remake and should be played by every PlayStation fan.
Mortal Kombat II is considered the best of the 2D games and, according to another group, the best in the entire series. It’s sad how some think the series peaked so early on when it had so much more to offer. Next-generation consoles were here, and the series needed to adapt. This game was strung across three different generations. 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit systems That’s a lot of systems to make a game work. This would be the last in the series for the original Game Boy. Already 6 years old at this point in time. Sadly, Probe didn’t use a larger cart, so we do have some cut content again here.
Thankfully, the gameplay part was fixed. This is by far the best MK game on the Game Boy. It’s fast-paced, fluid, and responsive, and it plays similarly to the console versions. The control scheme is the same as in the first game, which works. Holding down away from and towards a punch or kick can do sweeps and roundhouses. The visuals have also improved, with larger sprites on screen. Fatalities are intact, as are babies; however, Friendships were stripped. We still get a stage fatality on Kombat Tomb, but many stages are still stripped. We get The Pitt II, but there is no stage fatality there, which makes no sense. We also get Goro’s Lair again, but it’s just a solid wall of gray bricks. Horray? Yeah, the stages stink here.
Also gone is Kintaro, but we do get Smoke and Jade as hidden characters, which is kind of cool. Sadly, Johnny Cage is also missing from this game, along with Raiden, Kung Lao, and Baraka. Why did Probe cut Johnny Cage every time? While the gameplay was a serious issue in the first game, the lack of content is the worst offender here. They were acceptable in the first game, but with a larger cart, they could have fit all of them. There is also still no gore or blood, unless you count Candy Bonez bouncing on screen as gore.
Overall, this isn’t the best fighting game on the Game Boy, but it’s the best game in the series on the system. Fighting games just weren’t great in the 8-bit era, and it shows here. I’m glad Probe improved the gameplay and made animations feel much faster, but we are only getting a part of a whole game.
This is my favorite video game of all time. Hands down. While later games in the series are better and have more depth, the first game is just so raw and visceral. It had a weight to the fighting that other games didn’t have while still feeling fluid and well-balanced. This translated well to home consoles on the Genesis, SNES, and even MS-DOS, despite their own flaws. Even the Game Gear version did well. However, I don’t know what I’m seeing on the Game Boy. I don’t think it’s the lack of power in the system, as the Master System and Game Gear versions are 8-bit and still play really well. The Game Boy version is just so bad. I can look past the visuals. They look pretty okay despite being a monochrome color. What isn’t excusable is the cut character. Johnny Cage isn’t present at all. Why bother if you can’t include the already small roster?
That’s not the worst part. The controls are also forgivable, as the Game Gear and Master System also only have two buttons to work with, which they manage. Holding away or towards the punch or kick button will do things like roundhouse kicks or sweeps. The special moves are also intact, including the fatalities. There are also many cut-scene stages. We only get The Pit, The Courtyard, and Goro’s Lair. All of the stages could have been included, I’m sure. This is only a 256-kb game, which is unacceptable when 8-MB cartridges were available. They could have put all of the content here. But, again, that’s not the worst part about the game.
It’s just downright unplayable. The characters feel like they’re fighting in molasses; animations take 2-3 seconds to complete; and there’s just a serious delay in everything. The health bars are terribly done; there’s no blood, no gore, and no Test-Your-Might either. The game is severely butchered and cut back for no reason. The manual is more interesting than the game itself. It’s written in the form of a comic book with great illustrations. That’s pretty sad.
There’s almost no redeeming value in this game other than for collectors. There are much better versions, let alone 8-bit versions, out there. This is by far the worst version of the game ever made, and I feel bad for anyone who paid full price for this game back in the day. Maybe a Game Boy Color version could have come around and done better, but it never happened. While the game looks the part and the character sprites are decent, the sluggish and unresponsive gameplay just doesn’t work. It’s too bad because the control layout works fine and is used on other 8-bit systems as well. I can only recommend this out of pure curiosity and nothing more.
The Game Gear was a system that was revolutionary at the time and really tried to do some brave stuff compared to the Game Boy. First off, it was competing with the Game Boy. Sega really thought they could deliver a different system to appeal to their already hardcore audience, and they kind of did. Sega succeeded in making a good handheld system, but with many flaws, some of which the Game Boy didn’t have to deal with.
First off, the handheld’s orientation is what handhelds will eventually end up becoming. The horizontal length that Atari set as standard with the Lynx, Sega took off with, and it just became the standard. Sega’s ‘tude branding leaked out onto the Game Gear, and their leading IPs pushed the system. Sonic the Hedgehog was great on the handheld, as were other Sega DNA-style games. Sonic Pinball,Streets of Rage, Ax Battler, The Lion King, and many others This felt like a Sega handheld. Sadly, it was 8-bit and not 16-bit like its older brother. Despite coming out two years after the Game Boy, the only leading technology they had was a backlit screen, and barely at that.
The Game Gear screen is notoriously bad. While it is backlit, it’s also blurry and just doesn’t look that great. You still need to be in a dimly lit room, but you can at least see the screen. Props to Sega for beating out Nintendo on that front. Because of this, the system chewed through six AA batteries. Yeah, I’m not joking. The battery life was maybe 4 hours, all because of this screen. The internal hardware was the same as the Sega Master System, so it was competing for that 8-bit handheld crown. It’s nothing technically impressive outside of that screen, and those with bigger hands will appreciate the chonkiness of this beast.
In today’s world, the Game Gear is a much harder system to use and play as it has leaky capacitors, which usually destroy the sound. You will find many Game Gears with low volume issues, and many people will just chuck these. You can also install a McWill LCD mod, but these aren’t drop-ins and are much more expensive than Game Boy drop-in LCDs. There is a new mod by Retrosix that uses a new screen PCB with a drop-in LCD, but it still isn’t a drop solution. However, just like any older handheld, this is a must-have mod at minimum for playing a Game Gear today.
We judge older systems based on their libraries, and the Game Gear has a surprisingly robust library for those who like the Sega DNA from the 90s. Games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Mortal Kombat, Paperboy, The Simpsons, Ax Battler, Gunstar Heroes, Puyo Puyo, Streets of Rage, Wonder Boy, Castle of Illusion, Ristar, and many more may sound familiar to you. If you love the Master System or Genesis, then this handheld is a must-have for you. If you don’t care for those systems, you aren’t going to find much difference here in handheld form. Sega really marketed the Game Gear as a portable console experience rather than a separate handheld experience like Nintendo did. The games sound and play really well, and any fan of Sega couldn’t ask for anything better in portable form.
With that said, the system has a lot of faults, including full-on hardware faults that we suffer from today. Unlike the Game Boys, you can still enjoy those today without any mods, but the Game Gear really needs a screen upgrade. That CFL tube in the system drains batteries, and you actually improve battery life with a modern upgrade. There were various accessories, such as battery packs and TV tuners, for the system, but most of those are obsolete these days and won’t work. There are also two different models of the Game Gear. The original model from Sega and then a budget release from Majesco. These models have rounder front shells and make modding the system more difficult.
The GameBoy Color wasn’t something I had growing up. My parents couldn’t afford one. I had the DMB GameBoy, but that was it until the GBA SP came out. I did play some of my classmates’ GBC in school here and there and did experience Pokemon Blue a few times, but my GBC experience has mostly been as an adult, and mostly in the last few years. See, the GBA SP could play GameBoy games, but I always felt they were “old and dumb” being 8-bit titles. I had very little money growing up, and I didn’t want to waste it on older titles. I only owned a single GBC game, and it was The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX, which I never finished.
Fast forward over a decade later, and I appreciate the system a lot more. While I have a modded GBC with a modern backlit LCD, RGB buttons, and USB-C charging, I still remember what the system was like as stock. One thing that kept me from wanting one was the lack of a backlight. The GameBoy Lite had a backlight; why couldn’t the GBC? I understand it was a budget system as the hardware inside was dirt cheap to produce at this point, but come on, Nintendo! You still needed a flashlight or had to play with a flashlight under the blankets. This makes playing today nearly impossible and unbearable with all of the modern LCD display technologies we have. Some like this and get a more nostalgic feeling from it, but I didn’t play my original DMB Gameboy much because of this when I got it for my 7th birthday back in 1997.
Not much else is improved over the original model. The Gameboy Pocket had already been released at this point, but it did feel lighter and was slimmer than the original model. However, the screen was smaller at 2.3″ compared to the DMG’s 2.6″, but it was in color, so there was a trade-off. It did have more RAM, which was needed for the wider color palette, and the sound was slightly improved, but we still had the same 10-year-old processor. We got square wave channels, which made the system less “bleepy” than the original model, but not by much. The only other I/O was an infrared receiver, which could be used to beam digital data across to other consoles. The battery life was also cut by 1/3 due to the color screen.
Some might say there are more drawbacks and improvements, but just the color alone was incredible. Many later DMB games were released with GBC compatibility, and later, hundreds of GBC-only games were released. The system still feels great to play to this day. It’s clearly the best Gameboy to have, as it can play original games with a slightly better screen. However, if you own both, the slightly larger screen for the original games might be preferred. It’s all down to personal taste, to be honest. We mostly judge these older systems on their libraries, and the Gameboy and GBC libraries are some of the best. Classics like Tetris, Wario Land II, Pokemon, Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario Land, and many more are engrained in millions of people’s minds. As for the original hardware, the only setback is that screen. I wish it had more improvements, and it feels like it could have had more, but at this point, the GBA was probably deep in R&D and only a few years away.
If you get one today, I suggest getting an LCD upgrade at the bare minimum. USB-C and any other mods are optional and not really needed because the system has great battery life already. You can do the mod yourself or buy one custom-built from many shops online. There are so many aftermarket shells, buttons, silicone pads, and even sound mods for these handhelds that have blown up over the last 5 years. It will get to a point where you will have trouble finding someone with an unmodded Gameboy.
Many people use video game reviews to determine how to spend their hard-earned dollars. While as an adult I don’t take this as seriously and I now make my own money, I am more forgiving of games that aren’t perfect. As kids or teens, we have limited money and are usually picked through gaming magazines to determine if that one game was worth the money because we only get a few a year. For me, it was only during Christmas that my parents bought games. I mostly rented mine throughout my childhood and teen years. Even for rentals, I was picky, as I didn’t want to be stuck on my weekend with a dud of a game. Even a 7/10 or 3.5/5 would be considered a waste of time. This was the last generation in which AAA title after AAA title would be considered fantastic, and with so many exclusives, it was hard to keep up with. The HD era of gaming would see budgets balloon to insane heights, and game releases would slow down as a result.
In my eyes, 7/10 or 3.5/5 games are mostly ignored. These aren’t always considered hidden gems, either. Some are, but some are just considered forgettable. Not awful or good, but just passes under everyone’s radar. These aren’t the “so bad it’s good” games either. A few of these games have cult followings; a few I had only heard of while compiling this list, and some I played myself growing up. I compiled this list from Metacritic with games between 74 and 70. I feel that’s the true blue 7 range. 79- and 78-rated games usually only have about 25% of the critics giving them a 7 to bring an otherwise 8 score down some. These games are at least rated by half the critics as 7/10. While I know many people don’t listen to critics, and some might feel this game should be rated higher or lower, this is subjective. Like it or not, critic reviews drive sales, and it may be the reason why you might find a few games on this list you’ve never heard of, thought were talked about worse than you remember, or something along those lines.
Chili Con Carnage – 2007
While not as good as the PS2 entry, playing this frantic shooter was marred by clumsy controls and a poor camera, but it isn’t horrible. It does feel dated and formulaic even at the time of release, however. This would be the final game in the series.
Every Extend Extra – 2006
While visually pretty and fun at first, the game doesn’t have enough content or gameplay elements to keep you busy for very long. If you like Geometry Wars or other bite-sized shooters that don’t do much other than throw challenging enemies at you, then this is for you.
Most Recent Entry: E4: Every Extend Extra Extreme – 2007 (X360)
ClaDun x2 – 2011
You have to really love old-school 16-bit JRPGs to like this game. The story is mostly absent, but the game offers fun RPG elements with cute pixel art. Pretty simple. It also doesn’t do anything new compared to its predecessor.
Most Recent Entry: ClaDun Returns: This is Sengoku! – 2017 (PS4, VITA, PC)
FlatOut: Head On – 2008
Compared to being too close to Burnout, FlatOut does offer a smattering of content and a great sense of speed. It may be simple and might get boring for some, but it’s one of the better racers on the system.
Most Recent Entry: Fl4tOut: Total Insanity – 2017 (PC, PS4, XONE)
Patapon 3 – 2011
The third and final game in the series was met with less fanfare than before. The game focused less on what made Pataponspecial and more on new features. It was starting to stray from what people liked so much. It’s still not a bad game, and if you’ve never played the series, you will be in for tons of charm and beautiful graphics.
Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower – 2004
A fantastic launch title marred by the PSP D-Pad. Many felt the classic game was hindered by this and required third-party solutions to go over the D-Pad. If you play this on the Vita, it’s a bit better. It’s still a good-looking and solid fighter in the system. Especially for being the first-ever PSP fighter available.
Most Recent Entry: Darkstalkers: Resurrection – 2013 (PS3, X360)
Need for Speed Underground Rivals – 2005 Need for Speed: Most Wanted 5-1-0 – 2005
If you’re okay with an uneven framerate, awkward controls, and rubberband AI, then Rivals is for you. Bringing the franchise to the PSP was expected, but it was only the first outing on the system. Most Wanted looked great and had a good sense of speed, but lacked variety in race types and overall content.
Most Recent Entry: Need for Speed Unbound – 2022 (PC, PS5, XSX)
Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake – 2010
A great addition to the PS3 version with great multiplayer. Sadly, the levels weren’t as big, and the single-player AI wasn’t that fun. I remember playing this and losing a lot because of how bad the AI was. It’s still a fun title on the system.
Most Recent Entry: Fat Princess Adventures – 2015 (PS4)
Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony – 2006
The best dungeon crawler on the system at the time, and sadly, none of them ever achieved greatness. This one was fun and did everything you’d like, albeit in the simplest form. Dungeon-crawling fans would still find over a dozen hours of fun content here.
Most Recent Entry: Dungeon Siege III – 2011 (PC, PS3, X360)
Power Stone Collection – 2006
A serviceable port of the Dreamcast games. Sadly, there was no online play, which really irked gamers, and it was a straight-up port. No extras, no new visuals, nothing. If you loved the originals, this is all you’ve got. Sadly, it was the last entry in the series.
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 – 2010
This is the best game in the PSP trilogy, and if you only play one game, play this one. While the series didn’t evolve much from the PS2 games, it was still the best online shooter for the system. Improved controls, visuals, and overall design. It’s one of the best shooters in the system, period.
Most Recent Entry: SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs – 2011 (PS3)
One of the most anticipated games on the system, and many gave up after a few years. This was one of the most exciting games I could imagine on the system. It was rumored to be a launch title and then kept getting pushed back more and more due to the focus of Gran Turismo 5. It was finally released, but it felt like, “Here, take what we have so far. That’s all you’re getting,” she said, and she gave up. The game looks phenomenal and runs well, but it lacks a career mode. The biggest disappointment of the game was a huge blow. Many didn’t even bother picking it up because of that. It had arcade-style modes with a racing sim.
Most Recent Entry: Gran Turismo 7 – 2022 (PS4, PS5)
Star Ocean: First Departure – 2008
Westerners didn’t get the first SNES outing, so it was brought back on the PSP. Sadly, it feels dated and may only appeal to diehard fans or those who love 16-bit JRPGs. There weren’t any extras or improvements outside of some 3D-generated backdrops.
Most Recent Entry: Star Ocean: The Divine Force – 2022 (PC, NS, PS4, PS5, XONE, XSX)
Infected – 2005
Despite the interesting concept of infecting other players online, it was incredibly repetitive and not worth the $40 asking price. This was among the first generation of PSP titles to be released, so it also didn’t look that good either. It’s fast-paced arcade fun for a couple of hours, and that’s about it.
PQ2: Practical Intelligence Quotient – 2007
Part of the Intelligent Cube line of games by Professor Koyasu and the final game in the series, test your IQ with hundreds of puzzles. The game feels nostalgic, especially to those who are fans of his games, but the presentation is really lacking and makes no excuse for a more modern system.
Summon Night 5 – 2015
This was released for the PSP in 2015, if you can believe it. It’s one of the last games to ever be released in the West on the system. The story is great, so that’s good for those who want that in their SRPGs, but the combat is tedious and there’s no exploration. It’s just one battle after another, with a story in between.
Most Recent Entry: Summon Night 6: Lost Borders – 2016 (PS4, VITA)
Bomberman – 2006
Despite playing like your typical Bomberman, there’s not much here. It’s a port of an older arcade game with no extras and only local wireless play. Online functionality could have gone a long way, and maybe some updated visuals If you like classic Bomberman, look no further.
Most Recent Entry: Amazing Bomberman – 2022 (MAC, iOS)
What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord?! 2 – 2010
A great sequel with a fun sense of dark humor, but the steep learning curve wasn’t dialed back from the first game. If you love 16-bit-looking arcade titles that require a lot of dedication to master, then this is for you.
Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice – 2008
A bombastic scripted arcade title full of high-speed chases and explosions This is a solid series on the PSP, but it never got a lot of love, and this would be it. There’s improvement here; the visuals are better, and the story is entertaining if simple, but it’s over before you know it with no real replay value.
Namco Museum Battle Collection – 2005
A great collection of games for a decent price. Taking these on the go without being dumbed down was a first, and the PSP was a great handheld to have these on. There weren’t many extras, and the staying power would depend on how much you loved 8-bit games.
Most Recent Entry: Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2 – 2020 (PC, NS, PS4, XONE)
Yggdra Union: We’ll Never Fight Alone – 2008
A port of the GBA game and part of the loosely connected Dept. Heaven series from Atlus. This was, sadly, just a straight-up port. There were no enhancements or features added. While it is the best way to play thanks to the voice acting that was added, the strategy is simple, so this isn’t for hardcore SRPG fans.
Hammerin’ Hero – 2009
A fun rhythm-style platformer that wasn’t too difficult Sadly, control issues marred the game, and it would be the last one in the series. It’s still really cute and has a lot of charm.
Gun: Showdown – 2006
A surprising reworking of the game specifically for the PSP. The open world is cut for large areas, bite-sized missions, and fun multiplayer offerings. It’s not perfect, as it looks rather ugly and has some control issues, but overall, it’s the closest to a portable Red Dead Redemption we’ll ever get.
LocoRoco: Midnight Carnival – 2009
Being the third outing on the PSP, everyone was kind of done with this series. It was still charming, but that had fully worn off on most people by now. It was also a download-only title, so it went under a lot of people’s radar.
Most Recent Entry: LocoRoco: Remastered – 2017 (PS4)
Being the last and final game in the series, it’s surprising how little has changed. It has the classic sense of speed and gameplay, but the boring missions and plain visuals don’t help. This is mostly for diehard fans.
Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron – 2007
It’s awesome that this series came to the PSP at all. Sadly, the game looks pretty ugly and has a short single-player campaign. These games are best played online, and the servers are long dead. If you can get some friends together, it’s a blast.
Most Recent Entry: Star Wars Battlefront II – 2017 (PC, PS4, XONE)
Capcom Classic Collection Remixed – 2006
Many complained about the D-Pad not working well for this game, and the blue screen (the original PSP-1000 model had it pretty bad) made the game unenjoyable for some. If you can play it on a newer PSP model or even the Vita, then you will have a better time.
Mostly an irrelevant entry today, the game had repetitive missions and hadn’t advanced the series at all. It was great for diehard fans, but the barrier to entry was still really high. Still, multiplayer was where it was at. The game did suffer from long load times as well.
A fun and charming puzzle game void of personality The puzzles are really challenging, and the game is easy to learn, but some puzzles may cause you to throw your PSP. This was an early puzzle offering that, sadly, only got one sequel.
Most Recent Entry: Tokobot Plus: Mysteries of the Karakuri – 2006 (PS2)
Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? – 2009
You couldn’t be a PSP owner without hearing about this game. This was considered one of the hardest platformers ever made at the time. Everyone also ate up the humor, which is still great today. While the series has improved and still lives on today, this first entry was either loved or hated, just like Dark Souls. You loved masochist games or just didn’t.
Most Recent Entry: Prinny 2: Dawn of the Operation Panties, Dood! – 2020 (NS)
Kingdom of Paradise – 2005
Don’t come for the story. The game also looks pretty generic, but the combat is fun, and it was an early title for the system. One of the only RPGs at the time. It’s not the best on the system, but it’s unique, and sadly, it never got a sequel.
Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins – 2006
Fans of the series will love to know that this is still hard as balls, but there were difficulty settings added for newcomers as well. It’s great to go through this on easier difficulties to learn the levels and then ramp it up. It didn’t advance the series at all, but it’s still a lot of fun.
Most Recent Entry: Ghosts ‘n Goblins: Resurrection – 2021 (PC, NS, PS4, XONE)
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike – 2007
The black sheep of the series A slower, more strategic approach makes sense in handheld form with limited controls. This plays kind of like Full Spectrum Warrior. Strategy fans had another series to get into, while long-term fans loathed the slower approach and lack of direct control. It’s a great game that could have been better with refinement in further sequels. Sadly, it didn’t sell very well.
Most Recent Entry: SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs – 2011 (PS3)
Medal of Honor Heroes – 2006
At this point in time, everyone was tired of the WWII FPS craze. Heroes didn’t advance the series at all and, in fact, dialed it back by giving us linear and short missions to complete. It was a very short game but had awesome online multiplayer, which was quite popular at the time. It also looked really good. Just don’t expect anything ground-breaking for the genre or series.
Most Recent Entry: Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond – 2020 (PC)
Ace Combat: Joint Assault – 2010
It’s Ace Combat, all right, and it’s mostly safe and sometimes boring for the wrong type of person. If you want your plane sim on the go, then look no further. Just don’t expect it to innovate or excite.
Believe it or not, the entire series started here. This Monster Hunter clone is best played with others, but it doesn’t offer much new in the genre. If the anime or manga appeals to you, then go for it. Fans of Monster Hunter might not find enough freshness here.
Most Recent Entry: God Eater 3 – 2018 (PC, PS4, NS)
One of the most anticipated games on the system and the last big AAA title ever released for it. It was also one of the biggest disappointments. Long-time Parasite Eve fans were expecting an atmospheric horror title, but what we got was a frantic, repetitive, and chaotic shooter. It’s pretty to look at, but the story is confusing and the gameplay requires patience. It’s not for everyone.
Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble – 2009
This weird and zany Japanese beat ’em up had lots of humor and looked decent, but the combat was slow and it was really short. If you liked God Hand, you will like this game. Just expect some clunking in all its systems.
Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground – 2007
Don’t come into this expecting excitement. You create your own loot dungeon, pick your mobs, and go in and smash everything down. It’s plain and dry, and it might be dull for anyone who isn’t heavily into JRPGs. Also, don’t expect any kind of interesting story. It’s a unique game, but it won’t be for everyone.
Most Recent Entry: Master of the Monster Lair – 2008 (DS)
GripShift – 2005
A unique twist of Super Monkey Ballmeets stunt cars The insane trial and error needed is a love-or-hate-it situation. If you hate those kinds of puzzles, you will detest this game. It’s fast-paced, looks good, and has been ported to newer systems over time.
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes – 2007
A fun fighter on the PSP without needing to be a Naruto fan You also only need one copy of the game to play with others. It’s not very deep, and it may not hold your attention for long, but it’s fine.
Most Recent Entry: Naruto X Boruto Ninja Tribes – 2020 (AND, iOS)
Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai – 2006
Not very deep or as flashy, but with a large roster and a friend, you were sure to have a good time. Non-DBZfans may not find much here, but it at least got the feeling right.
Most Recent Entry: Dragon Ball: The Breakers – 2022 (PC, NS, PS4, XONE)
Mortal Kombat: Unchained – 2006
The port of Deception had a lot of hype around it. It included all of the content, and nothing was cut except a single fight style for every character. What we did get was a lazy port. Compressed audio, muddy visuals, and no online play. Yeah, the biggest blow to this game was the lack of online play that the PS2 version had. It’s still a solid 3D fighter, but if you didn’t like this era of MK games, it won’t change your mind.
Wild West games blew up in the mid-2000s. Games like Read Dead Revolver and Call of Juarez really pushed the genre forward. Gun was a highly anticipated open-world game that was being watched by Grand Theft Auto fans. I remember reading about this game in magazines leading up to its release and being disappointed with how linear and simple it was. You play Colt White, who is just living day-to-day life with his father, Ned White, when he dies, and you get sent on a mission to avenge him, which leads to a road of greed and death. The story is really simple and short. It’s honestly very one-dimensional, but the voice acting is solid, with major actors like Tom Skerret and Ron Perlman.
The majority of the game is made up of shooting. As the title implies, guns are the main focus of the game. You have an array of weapon types, such as six-shooters, lever-action rifles, sniper rifles (bolt-action), melee, throwables, and bows. You slowly unlock these weapons as you play the story, and you can also upgrade them at the shopkeep. You can acquire more gold by finding it in the wild or completing side missions. Side missions are the second bulk of the game, ranging from bounties to poker games and, overall, just shooting up more bad guys. There’s no variation in mission type outside of the names. In the end, you’re either killing someone or rescuing a horse.
Horseback riding is a major gameplay element here, and it’s done surprisingly well for the time. They’re treated kind of like cars in the GTA. They have health meters, which are also tied to stamina. Overwork your horse, and it will die. You can trample enemies with the horse, which is great for clearing out large groups, and they are needed to travel between the two towns. This is one disappointment I have with the game. It’s surprisingly linear, and the open-endedness is an illusion. This is just one large map full of brown dust, canyons, a couple of rivers, and a meadow. The game is very dull and void of any life, unlike GTA, which feels vibrant and constantly moving. There’s just the wind and twanging background music playing. The towns may have three or four people walking around, and there are no interiors to speak of. It’s indeed a very empty world.
I highly recommend just blowing through the story mode in the 4-5 hours it takes and forgoing most upgrades. Despite having this shop system, it is pretty much pointless. Sure, it helps to have more damage or quicker reloads, but the quickdraw allows you to kind of cheat and constantly use it as long as you’re killing enemies to refill it. Empty the meter. Shoot about five enemies and empty it again. I never really saw the need for most of the upgrades. This will alleviate the pain of completing these dull side missions.
The shooting in Gun is mostly stiff and awkward. It’s not amazing. There is a sticky auto-aim, and you can aim down your sights with rifles, but the camera zooms too far in, and you can’t follow anyone up close. Stealth is pretty much pointless outside of a single-story mission because enemies can somehow see and hear you from a mile away. The explosives were surprisingly useless as well. Enemies can stand just in front of or behind an explosion, and they aren’t affected. This is really terrible. There are some missions that have you mount a cannon and hit everything dead on. There is no splash damage for explosions in this game. It makes no sense.
Overall, the game is very linear, ugly, and pretty repetitive. The side missions don’t add any variation, the upgrade system can be skipped entirely, and the open world is void of life. The only redeeming value of this game is its great voice acting, many cut-scenes, and short length. The story isn’t even anything noteworthy either, and the same goes for the characters. With their short length, they have no time to expand or grow on us. We get no backstory. Just the here-and-now, and that means nothing when characters die. I would only recommend this game if you’re itching for a Western game and need to go back in time, but this game really did not live up to the hype upon release.
My one and only experience with AtGames products wasn’t good. I have the Sega Ultimate Arcade Portable, and it isn’t a very good product. I was very hesitant about anything else from this company, but they recently expanded into large cabinet-style products and seem to have a good reputation for those. I have always wanted at least one pinball table in my house. However, older electro-mechanical tables cost thousands, sometimes over $10,000, and can cost hundreds of dollars to fix if they break. Later digital tables are cheaper, but they are still not cheap to fix. AtGames has given us two solutions. There is this table plus a larger, full-size table for about double the price. Digital pinball tables exist in arcades. They are cheaper to fix and mostly consist of a large display, a single board, and mostly empty housing. The cost of these has come down enough to bring them into the home, and AtGames is one of the best at doing that.
I do want to note that I bought my table on sale for $100 off, but I will be judging the entire experience based on the full $449.99 retail price. I also want to note that these tables don’t ship quickly. It took nearly two weeks for mine to ship, so keep that in mind when ordering these as well. Don’t expect them on a deadline or order them early if this is a gift idea. The unboxing experience was pretty straightforward. These systems were, of course, built and manufactured during a global chip shortage and a pandemic, so the packaging is minimalistic and there’s not much to it. The Pinball Micro does have a back display board as well as the main display, just like its bigger brother. These come separately in the box, but it’s just these two pieces. You unscrew the back panel of the back display and plug it into the main display, as well as insert two wooden pegs (the kind used when building furniture) and two large bolts that attach it to the main display. There are cutouts for a VIBS board, which I will explain later.
You get a full AC adapter with a barrel jack, and once you plug that in, you flip the switch. I do want to give AtGames credit for creating a physical switch in the back rather than a soft power-on. This allows you to keep the table tucked away somewhere without having to disconnect the system from the wall every time you want to shut it off, like with a Raspberry Pi system. Surprisingly, there is a full OS here with an interface and everything you would see on a game console. You have settings, a library, online tabs, and a store. I do want to talk about the software experience first before getting into the hardware. I have quite a few issues with the software side.
The Software/OS
Upon start-up, you are presented with a blank Legends Pinball logo. The startup time is quite long. Maybe a good 30 seconds. Before that, you actually get a black screen for about 10–15 seconds, and at first, I thought something was wrong with my unit. The logo should come up immediately, so don’t think this But after turning it on and off a few times, I decided to wait a bit, and it was fine. The first thing you need to do is create a Pinball Legends account, which is separate from the account you made on the store (if you ordered it from their site), which was really confusing. My login info for the store wasn’t working. Once you do that, you can save and upload high scores to the leaderboards, redeem codes, and play the Arcade games. We will get to those later. Once I had everything logged in, the system software was updated, and I was able to fiddle with settings.
There are quite a few settings here, and the amount surprised me. I expected a basic set of options for just a few things. You can do things like change the background wallpaper and music, which is really awesome. You can load them off of a USB drive in the back, and they save to the internal 8GB storage, but it’s just one at a time. You can use various arcade OSes, such as CoinOpsX, that allow you to play MAME roms that use a vertical display. There is a network test kit built in as well. This is great for linking up pinball machines for multiplayer or for using arcade mode. You can pair wireless Bluetooth controllers, such as the PS5 or Xbox One. If you are having hardware issues, there is a health check screen, and you can upload a system log to a USB device, Enable an attract mode, and even live stream straight from the machine itself. The options are very robust for a device like this.
I do not like how slow the software is to navigate. After start-up, the controls won’t respond for a few seconds, and it takes a few seconds to load every screen. A few times, the entire system just froze on me, and I had to reboot it. Thankfully, these are fixes that can be made with software updates. As of this writing, the OS is not very well optimized.
The Tables
So, how do the tables actually play? amazing well, and the effect is very convincing. With games running at 60 fps and the screen tilted inside, you get the effect of this being very real. The graphics are good enough to be convincing as well, especially with the deluxe tables. The 80 built-in tables include a lot of duplicate variations, but they are very unique tables. There are three different types of tables you can come across. A classic table brings you back to the 1960s with pure electromechanical play. Bells, bumpers, and very few crazy obstacles with no music or sound effects. You also only get two flippers. The retro-style tables are reimagined using 90s technology. You get your rails, different play fields, flashing lights, and the classic pinball experience that most of us grew up with. Then you have deluxe tables, which are reimagined for digital pinball. These will be familiar to those who have played PinballFX or other digital pinball games for the last 15 years. Moving characters, music, clouds, rain effects, etc. These are the most impressive and look the best.
I like the various times of day you can select as well. Morning, afternoon, and nighttime. This simulates the outside ambiance of being in a pinball arcade room at different times of the day. The backboard display is sadly only really impressed with the remastered and updated tables. The retro and classic tables have the images stretched to a 16:9 aspect ratio, and it looks pretty bad, but those displays on the real tables were vertical. You can adjust the screen to display the image correctly, which is a nice option. The speakers are just below this display, and this thing gets incredibly loud but not distorted. The sound is deep, with some great bass, and quite booming. I had to keep the volume below 50 to have a normal sound experience. Anything above that, and you might disturb everyone in the house. Which can be a good thing!
You can buy table packs for $25 apiece. You might think that’s outrageous, but these are tables built for this machine, so it justifies the price somewhat. Packs are usually themed, such as the Natural History, Dr. Suess, and Taito packs. I do hate the way you have to buy these. The included AppstoreX is completely useless as you can’t buy tables on the actual table itself. You need to buy them on the website and then enter a redemption code on the table itself. There isn’t even a QR code you can scan! You also have to buy a connection online to play any of these tables. Yes, there is DRM on this machine, which really stinks. The built-in tables can be played offline, but not your purchased packs. These are stored on the internal storage and are usually a few hundred megabytes a piece, so I don’t understand why there isn’t some sort of DRM token installed on the machine.
The Controls
Like most pre-built arcade games, the buttons are pretty bad. They bind, squeak, and are inconsistent during rapid presses. I had to replace mine with Ultimarc GoldLeaf buttons, and that improved my experience quite a bit, but most people won’t want to take apart their machine and risk ripping off connectors on the buttons. It is worth the upgrade. I didn’t bother replacing the forward tilt and rewind buttons, as you don’t use those to play the actual game. The home and menu buttons are also different and work just fine for what they are. You get two flipper buttons, two side tilt buttons, and a front tilt button. The game does have force feedback, and it works great here. You feel the ball rolling down the table, and it shudders and jumps, which really adds to the experience. I didn’t feel there was feedback lag compared to what was happening on-screen.
There is also a D-pad at the bottom of the display, and my God, is this an awful D-pad? It’s mushy and skips and jumps around on the menu, and there’s no way to replace it at the moment. Sadly, it’s needed for navigation and entering text on the keyboard. You might want to rig up a wired USB controller with a mount on the back to avoid using this awful thing.
The Arcade
Okay, I will never understand why this is included. You can’t even argue that it increases the value of the system. The arcade games are mostly horizontal, so they are very small on the display, and they are streamed onto the device. That’s right. This is basically cloud gaming on this thing, and you need a controller to play these The pinball micro has no option for a separate control panel like the larger version does. The streaming is awful and sluggish, and there’s serious lag. Even being right next to my router and having a gigabit connection, even with Ethernet, it just didn’t work right. The visuals degrade rapidly, like a video stream buffering on a slow connection. You also have to pay a subscription fee for this lousy experience, and the games are so limited. You mostly get Taito, Activision, and Data East games on here. They aren’t updated very often, and you will most likely get bored with them after an afternoon. I can’t fathom paying a monthly fee for a service that rarely adds any games. You can also play these online with other people, but it’s not like these machines are PlayStations with millions in the home. You’re most likely stuck with local multiplayer. This is where the CoinOpsX OS comes in, so you can play your own games from the USB drive, and that’s the way to go.
Conclusion
Overall, the AtGames Legends Pinball Micro is a fantastic and versatile machine. The digital pinball is really good, with 60FPS gameplay and virtually no lag. This makes the games look real if you’re standing up and looking down at the machine correctly. The option to use a VIBS board and connect to a PC to play other digital pinball games on the machine is a great option as well. There are a lot of multiplayer, diagnostic, and optional OS features. You really get your money’s worth, and I praise AtGames for not locking this machine out. The system does have its issues, such as the horrible arcade game streaming, the rarely updated service, downloadable tables having always-online DRM, and the OS being a bit slow and unresponsive, but these are things that can be fixed.
I don’t like how low-quality the buttons are, as these are really important things, and the D-pad is horrendous and can’t be changed out. Thankfully, the machine has great build quality and is rock solid, with a beautiful display. I wish the back display screen was a bit larger, but it works for what it is. The speakers and audio quality are amazing, with loud volumes and no distortion. The force feedback works well, and the main display just looks so good. I also want to mention that you can optionally put legs on this thing, so it can be a stand-up machine too.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Yeah, it's pretty damn awful. Notoriously one of the worst games on the PSP. A 4 was actually being generous.…