The decade old Parappa the Rapper, which heralded the start of the rhythm game genre according to some accounts, will be ported to the PSP this July. This is good news for PSP owners because the beats are fly, the rhymes fresh, and the gameplay ill.
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The downside is it’s still just a port, not a sequel. Particularly clever netizens have noticed the trend of publishers porting their old titles to the PSP and reworked the spelling of the handheld — Playstation PORTable. Get it? When you capitalize certain letters and not others, hilarity ensues.
After researching the catalogues of the PSP and the DS I’ve come to the conclusion that the DS has a decent number of ports on it as well (which reminds me, I want Theme Park). So why does the common wisdom that the PSP is flooded with PS1 games persist? Well, because it is. But perhaps just as importantly, the PSPs top games are frequently ports — the DS’s best games are universally designed for the DS.
Using Metacritic, here are most but not all of the ports found in the PSPs 50 best reviewed games (each of these were called a port by a reputable journalist, ie not me):
Pirates!
The Warriors
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
X Men Legends 2
Def Jam Fight for NY
NBA Live 06
Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX
WWE Smackdown versus RAW 2006
Pro Evolution Soccer 6
Valkyrie Profile
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo
Now in the DSs top 50:
FIFA Soccer 06
Over a fifth of the PSPs top 50 are ports. Playstation PORTable indeed.
Wasn’t Gitaroo Man also (mostly) a port? As nice as it would be to have some of those games that were remade, I find it isn’t worth the cost of a PSP right now – especially when there aren’t a whole lot of original games.
I think it was an enhanced port. I actually thought a lot about including it on the list but decided I’d give it to the PSP as a non-port.
I’ve never played a Parappa game, so when they bring it to the PSP, I’ll be all over it. I loves me some rhythm gaming on the go.