2009 Prespectives for the PSP, 2008 Retrospect

[kyyubidx]

Since the year is almost up I thought it would be a good idea to make a retrospective of 2008 in terms of the PSP Gaming (I am sorry homebrewers but I shall exclude homebrew from this topic since I am not the best person to talk about it).
So we could say that 2008 started pretty well with God of War and Crisis Core making their debuts on PSPs but things turned grim after that. Ready at Dawn handed over their PSP Dev Kits, franchises like Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider didn't come to the Sony handheld this time, and there was an obvious period of drought in game releases during the summer holiday - you might remember me doing a State of Gaming thread in this same forums around that time.
This end of the year brought some new games to PSPs all over the world but still it feels like 2008 was waaaaay to weak in comparison with 2007.
All over the web there are 4 games that make the obvious - or not-so-obvious - choices for best games in 2008:

1. God of War: Chains of Olympus
2. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
3. Patapon
4. WipeOut Pulse

Then you have the hidden cards that came out, game like:

1. Space Invaders Extreme
2. Echochrome
3. Downstream Panic
4. Star Ocean: First Departure

Near the end of the year we were also blessed - though some beg to differ - with Loco Roco 2, and a suprisingly good FIFA 09 and more recently Dungeon Maker II.
On the PSN side on things we also have Everyday Shooter, or the mighty Super Stardust Portable
I guess the more impactful things in terms of non-gaming on the PSP was the 3000 revision and the "scanline" issue.
So yes, 2008 had few games, but GOOD games - and I decided to leave out games like Valhalla Kinghts 2 due to the fact it was over-hyped and did not deliver.
So where does that leave us for 2009? If you look at it in a 2008 point of view, 2009 is going to be the year of the PSP - or so Sony claims, again.
Let's check the 2009 lineup for the PSP as we know it to be right now:

1. Dissidia: Final fantasy - This might be the only game I'll ever import and from the looks of it I don't think I'll regret it. Slated for a 2008 Japan release, WE all know it only going to get US/EU bound more than six months into 2009

2. Final Fantasy Agito XIII - The first numbered series to come to the PSP - or so developers claim - is going to be both single and multiplayer friendly. Will it deliver?

3. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep - A wildcard here... We know the KH series to be quite good - though there are many haters - but the fact that it won't have any FF character in it makes us wonder: can KH succeed without FF presence?

4. Parasite Eve 3 aka The 3rd Birthday - Now this is a franchise - that I personally - longed to see revived by the folks at SE, although not as good as the Resident Evil series, it is still quite solid and may give us some fun with our handheld.

5. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite - AH-HA! The best 2008 game for the PSP in Japan (if not the best 2008 game period) is finally crossing nipponic borders! Thousands of PSP'ers are itching for this one.

6. Phantasy Star Portable - Sega's rival to the Monster Hunter saga on the PSP is also coming US/EU side. We all loved the original games for Game Gear, Master System and Genesis, but can this PSP iteration deliver?

7. Resistance: Retribution - So, Sony decided to turn a FPS into a 3rd Person Shooter? The game seems to promise a lot but will it deliver also? We do have bad experiences with over-hyped games, ain't we?

Also worthy of mention are games like: Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2, Star Ocean: Second Evolution, Prinny: CIRbtH, Mana Khemia. Not bad considering we aren't even in 2009 yet. Things could get even hotter!
As for the rumour mill - we all love it don't we? - Around the net we can hear echoes of a new GTA for PSP, a LittleBigPlanet PSP version, a new Jak and Daxter game, Ready at Dawn's might comeback, the famous vapourware's Oblivion: Travels and GT: Mobile may - or may not - appear, a unnamed and unnannouced CryTek PSP game and a PSP-4000 revision.
Out of my list I left Level-5 Ushiro, for it is yet TBC date in Japan - God knows how long we'll have to wait for that one - But considering Jeanne D'Arc was one of the best RPG's on the PSP, Ushiro promises a LOT.
And I guess that pretty much sums it up, eh? The only question left in my mind is: Where is the hell are the oh-so-promised Ubisoft projects? Oh well...

(The author of this wannabe article encourages criticism, and wants YOUR opinion. If you had the patience to read all that, please leave your comments and opinion, the purpose of this huge chuck of text is also to promote discussion)

[mike_jmg]

Nothing personal but a lot of discussion if you ask me

As I really never liked wipeout and I consider it a pretty bad F-zero clone, also Patapon is one of the worst games I've ever seen, don't know why a lot of people like it, same as Loco Roco which I hated too. I think it's maybe just me

Also didn't like most of the "hidden cards" you posted, maybe I'm kind of picky

Anyway

I don't know how could you overlooked "Star Wars the Force Unleashed" as it was one of the few games that caught my eye this year, and one of the best psp games there's ever been IMO, if you haven't tried it, you really have to.

2008 was a really weak year for the psp, I even got a 360 so I could catch up my gaming (been playing Gears of War, It's really good)

Hope 2009 will bring a lot more games
Then again, I'm really picky and I'm only waiting for:
- Resistance Retribution
- Parasite Eve the Third Birthday
- Final Fantasy Dissidia
- Prinny can i really be the hero?
- Kingdom Hearts, seems worth it
and that's it

I don't like Monster Hunter, FFXIII Agito looked really bad in the trailer I saw the other day, I have no idea what is Phantasy Star Portable and so on

What I would really love to have:

- Devil may cry, temptative name Dance of Sparda, hopefully the story of how he sealed the demonic world and beated mundus (even a damn port would be ok)

- Killzone, in FPS as Liberation was a piece of crap, at least from my point of view, cause I really liked the one for PS2

- Resident Evil game, anything would be ok, but if it plays like RE4, it'll be awesome

- Something from team ICO, wouldn't that be super-extra nice?

- New Tekken with online play or at least the posibility to use the PS3 adhoc party

I know my dreams are a bit impossible, but hey, that's why they are called dreams, you have to go as high as you can

edit: all in all 2009 will be a great year for the psp

[Buddy4point0]

You missed the Star Ocean: Second Story remake, which will be coming out in February 2009 for America.

2009 seams like it will definitely be an amazing year for PSP and I hope that it brings people back to support it.

I'm not too excited for the PSP 4000, it seams like if you've just bought the 3000 you'll be disappointed that you're out of date in only 1 year.
Just like when the 3000 came out if you had just bought the 2000 you wouldn't be too happy.
I'm still on a PSP 1000, so I would think of buying one, but all all this talk about the PSP2 coming out 2010 makes me want to save for that and not buy the 4000.

I guess we'll see what happens, but I don't think that anyone can disagree that 2009 is going to be amazing for the PSP.

[kyyubidx]

@mike_jmg: I didn't forget Star Wars: FU, I excluded it because it was over-hyped and didn't deliever for me... But maybe I should have put it in a list of good games... However I did like the way you could you use the force... But, those are opinions and we are all entitled to them right, mate?

@buddy4point0: I SO agree with you with 2009 being a great year for the PSP. And as for the PSP-4000, if it does indeed come out, I shall sent mine to warranty so they'll upgarde my hardware for free :P

P.S. - I've download Dissidia as my copy is yet to arrive, and I can tell you: THE GAME FREAKING ROCKS!! I've ended story mode with both Cloud and Cecil as they are the easiest... I've also unlocked Garland and Kefka already... :P