PlayStation Portable (PSP) Video Game Reviews

The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is Sony's answer to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS units. The system puts an enormous amount of gaming power in your hands, along with one of the sexiest gaming system designs ever seen. Sporting a huge, bright screen and sleek exterior, the PSP isn't made for games alone. It plays UMD movies, music, surfs the web and much, much more.

The PSP is sleek, shiny and sports a large, crisp screen. The unit itself is just under 7 inches long, 3 inches wide and one inch deep. The 4.3 inch (diagonal measurement) screen takes up most of this space. Situated to the left and right sides of the screen are a d-pad and face buttons respectively. A tiny analog nub is placed just below the d-pad. The PSP weighs just over half a pound, making it portable but a bit bulky in your pocket.

The PSP isn't simply a gaming device. The unit also plays movies using the proprietary UMD disc format. Users must buy the discs (which often cost more than their DVD counterparts) separately, but there's a growing selection of popular films and television shows already available. The PSP supports a variety of music formats that are played using the memory card slot at the top of the system.

Two loudly criticized features of the PlayStation Portable are its poor battery life and big price tag. The core unit costs around $250 USD, nearly twice that of the Nintendo DS. Battery life varies but averages around 5 hours.

With all the features of the PSP, it's a wonder you'll find the time to play any games on it. The collection of PlayStation Portable games has trickled out since its release in late 2004/early 2005. A large number of ports from the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 library are available, as well as a great variety of sports and racing games. The best-selling PSP title is Need for Speed: Underground Rivals.

The PlayStation Portable is also home to a large homebrew development community. Many emulators have been coded to work with the PSP, meaning you can play old home console favorites from your SNES, Sega Genesis, or NES on the go. The emulators also run a host of fan-made games. The legalities of this practice are always under dispute, so don't use copyrighted material unless you have the rights to do so.

With movies, music, the internet, homebrew development and tons more features, playing games on your PSP is almost an afterthought. If you've got a hankering for amazing graphics on a crisp and clear screen between your hands, the PSP is the system to own. Our collection of reviews for the PlayStation portable shows you what's hot and what's not in the games department.

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