Five years ago yesterday, the PSP was released in North America.  In honor of this, here are our five favorite PSP games (along with a couple of honorable mentions.)

The PSP isn’t a perfect system, but there are some truly excellent games out there for this little powerhouse.  Here are our five favorite PSP games, presented in no particular order:

1.  Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?

Originating as a spin-off from the popular Disgaea series, Prinny is a brutally difficult but hilariously charming side scroller.  Just how difficult is it?  Well, the fact that you start the game with 1,000 lives (!) should be all the explanation you need.  The Prinny are charged with the task of tracking down ingredients for the Ultra Desert for their Mistress, Etna.    There are ten levels that you have to traverse, anchored with various bosses.  The final boss in this game is especially brutal…I’ll admit to looking up a solution on Youtube, I just couldn’t figure it out on my own.  If you enjoy insanely difficult games and some fun humor, you can’t do much better than Prinny.

2.  Killzone: Liberation

Taking place two months after the first Killzone, Liberation is a top-down shooter reminiscent of the Crusader series.  This is one hell of an intense game; I found that I had to keep a towel near me while playing it, since inevitably I would be gripping my PSP so hard that my hands would sweat (sorry for the image, heh.)  You will find yourself pinned down constantly, you will find yourself outnumbered constantly…and if you are able to keep your cool, you just may survive.  Liberation isn’t too difficult, but you need to be quick on your feet and fast with your noggin; hesitation = death in this one.

3.  GTA: Chinatown Wars

Returning to the top-down gameplay that the series started with, GTA Chinatown Wars easily holds its own against other entries in the franchise.  Although it first appeared on the DS, I much prefer the PSP version of Chinatown Wars…the graphics are much sharper, the larger screen gives you a wider range of vision (rather important in a game with so much driving), and frequently repeated actions like hotwiring cars feel much more intuitive when using buttons rather than a stylus.  The gunplay leaves a bit to be desired, but the excellent story/script, good driving controls, and gorgeous not-quite cel shaded graphics more than make up for it.

4.  Final Fantasy Tactics

A remake of the PSOne original, Tactics introduces not only slightly sharper graphics and excellent CGI cutscenes, but most importantly serves up a vastly improved translation from the original version.  Unfortunately, you will experience some slowdown with the higher-powered spells and summons, but other than that, the performance is more than adequate for a game of this type.  A portable system is a surprisingly great fit for the tactical RPG genre, and Tactics is one of the best out there.

5.  God of War: Chains of Olympus

Chains of Olympus is a quintessential example of how to properly take a console series and shrink it down to portable size.  Much like God of War and God of War 2, Chains of Olympus maximizes the hardware potential of the system it was released on.  With amazing graphics, an intuitive control scheme, and large-scale battles, the intensity and atmosphere of Olympus’ console brethren is perfectly preserved.   In fact, I kind of prefer the control scheme of Olympus over the console entries; you use the right trigger and the analog nub to do a rolling evade move, rather than having to move your hand from the face buttons to the second analog stick on the console versions.  As to be expected in an action game, being able to keep your thumb on the face buttons in the middle of an intense fight shouldn’t be underestimated.

Honorable Mentions

As with any list of this type, there are games that had to be cut…so here are some honorable mentions: FlOw, the Loco Roco series, the Patapon Series, Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony, GTA: Vice City Stories and Liberty City Stories, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Lumines, Wipeout Pure, Space Invaders Evolution, the Monster Hunter series, LittleBigPlanet PSP…the list goes on.  There are a ton of great games available for this powerful portable; if you are a gamer and don’t own a PSP, get off your duff and do it!  You can usually find them on eBay for a little under $100.