PSP Aesthetic Appreciation Thread

rootfifthoctave

i like PO and PW both an awful lot but i see Porta blOps go unloved so often (and aspects of its story are far better than similar stuff in PW) that i had to take a moment to celebrate it.

Syzygy if you have read these two posts and have not played Portable Ops Plus: did you know there’s like 300 levels of MGS ⅔ goodness in there?

i only had PO unplus, so did NOT know this!

Kimimi

Syzygy @rootfifthoctave Thank you both for the POps+ posts - I’ve just ordered myself a copy! It was one of those "Always meant to buy but never did"s :)

andrewelmore

Syzygy this is actually EXACTLY what I was hoping for!! There was so much beautiful work being done on that system. Crisis Core, 3rd Birthday, Metal Gear Ac!d 2, Valkyria Chronicles 2, Lord of Arcana, Ace Combat X, etc. etc.

exodus PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT that’s incredible

whatsarobot seconding Cameron Sino, Ostent is also good. Do not get ANYTHING else.

Kimimi you are truly the best to ever do it

rootfifthoctave Agreed! I really love Portable Ops and despite being a massive MGS superdork I don’t care for Peacewalker at all.

Kimimi congrats! it’s really quite good imo

andrewelmore

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the extremely strange visual design of the Rengoku games.
They remind me of third person action versions of Genki’s first person mech based dungeon crawlers
AKA DungMechs AKA Speklunkers.

sabertoothalex

Some will tell you she is ugly but to me she is beautiful.

I really like playing sports games on the PSP and they all have this Dreamcast-adjacent look to them that I love. Dead eyed real people telling you how much they like playing tennis with you. It rules and is true across sports games across the console.

There’s another aesthetic I always associate with PSP games which is the texture seams in 3D games. It’s hard to capture in screenshots or videos but I see it all the time on the console itself. It’s sort of like they don’t actually wrap, each texture is applied to only one surface and in motion you can see the seam between them. Anyone else notice this? It feels very distinctly PSP to me.

treefroggy

sabertoothalex this reminds me, something that just doesn’t happen anymore, since the psp generation of japanese sports games,
sports games that have on screen dialogue, in the video gamey way

or really, anything besides rpgs having that type of on screen dialogue, periodt

whatsarobot

thanks all for the battery advice!

tomjonjon

I credit the PSP for bringing back Wipeout in a big way. After the bungled PS2 Wipeout Fusion, Pure and Pulse got the series back to fighting form and paved the way for Wipeout HD.

andrewelmore

tomjonjon I realize this is an extremely hot take but as someone who’s studied the series intently and spoken with many of the different designers/studios from the different entries over the years . . . I think Pure is probably still my favorite, and I might go as far as calling it the best WipEout game. It’s no exaggeration to say that WipEout Pure is the reason I became a graphic designer, and one of the main reasons I’m in gamedev now. Hell, half the reason I’m at Bungie is because the people that are now my teammates were once people I geeked out about WipEout on twitter with lmao.

At the end of the day, while the phrase “PSP Aesthetic” conjures very different images in my mind, WipEout Pure might be the actual like, pinnacle of PSP Aesthetic in my heart lol.

sabertoothalex

I guess this is the best place to post this…I feel like my gaming enthusiasm has been reignited since getting a PSP again!!! For awhile now I’ve only been enthusiastic about playing FFXIV and pretty indifferent toward other games. But having this PSP in my hands, feeling the UMD spinning, idk it has just really been making me excited. I’m playing so many different genres on here, it feels like I have an endless library in front of me. It’s amazing. PSP 4ever.

andrewelmore

sabertoothalex heck yeah, what have you been playing?

JCP I didn’t know that translation was completed! I’ll have to track that down!

exodus ooh I started this recently, I should go back to it.

tomjonjon SHININ SHININ SHININ SHININ

JCP

The PSP is the only portable system that has Yakuza games! Yakuza Black Panther 1 and 2. The sequel has been localized by a team earlier this year with plans for the first game in the latter half. What’s great is that these can be played on both a modified PSP and Vita.

exodus

braveeee story

treefroggy

exodus it has my favorite font!

tomjonjon

sabertoothalex

andrewelmore I’ve been playing Virtua Tennis 3, Outrun 2006(333hz CFW CPU speed baby!!!), Jeanne D’Arc, and most recently I started an NHL 07 season and wow that is a really good hockey game!!! Not the epitome of realism or anything but it’s fast and controls really well. Finally making my dream of Paul Kariya on the Sharks a reality.

connrrr

whatsarobot I keep thinking about this too…

rejj

andrewelmore and I thought I was going against the grain by claiming W3SE was the best entry! Most wipeout fans I know claim 2097/XL as “the best”, but I’ve never really agreed with that. I much prefer the feel of the handling in 3, and I love the risk/reward mechanic of consuming shield for extra boost.

I bought Pure immediately upon launch and loved it, and spent countless hours in the Wipeout HD packaging together of Pure and Pulse. Mechanically, I dislike the addition of the barrel roll - it turned the whole game in to a hunt for the smallest bump or angle to get just enough air to sneak another roll in. Sideshift was interesting at least, but I still think my ideal would be the w3 handling model with the full set of newer tracks.

I adore Zone mode, however.

billy

rootfifthoctave I like PACER a lot! It’s best played after a break from Wipeout as some of the differences are more stark than one would initially think, especially with items and weapons, but I put a whole load of hours in and still play it occasionally.

rejj I believe it transpired that the only ex-Wipeout person involved was like an accounting guy or something, possibly hired to add false pedigree to the team.

robinhoodie andrewelmore Pulse and Pure are my two favourites too, closely followed by 3.

tomjonjon

andrewelmore I’m not sure if I could pick a definitive personal favorite, but Wipeout 3 is in the running because Xpander is one of the greatest bits of trance I’ve ever heard. Omega collection is also up there because its such a great collection and the VR is fantastic.

I agree that Pure is peak PSP and would add the original games are peak PSX style. Pretty much set the tone for the entire playstation brand going forward. As a graphic designer myself I have to say the Designers Republic is a huge influence. Starting my design education in late ’99 it was Designers Republic, Emigre and David Carson that set the tone and demonstrated what was possible.

robinhoodie

I will stake my flag down and say that Wipeout Pulse is my favorite of the series. I like 3SE a lot and played it mostly on PSP due to it being a PAL only release, but the game quickly breaks down on the harder difficulties when you realize the computer is playing a completely different game than you are. Pulse offers a wide variety of things to do, controls very tightly. Looks amazing. And in terms of being revolutionary for me at the time, allows you to use a custom soundtrack that is fully integrated into the game.

rootfifthoctave

did any of you wipeout fans persevere with PACER? i just could not get into it at all.

rejj

I tried it when it was known as Formula Fusion, and bounced right off. I was excited, the news that ex-psygnosis people were working on it had me thinking that finally a “new wipeout” might appear. Alas, it just didn’t really hit the mark. I can’t even recall why any more, I don’t recall thinking it was bad, more that it wasn’t great.

I also tried Redout, to much the same effect.
Looking now, I see that Redout 2 was released last week. I may need to give it a look.

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