These are the top 5 PSP games that Sony needs to bring back

Ever since there’s been talk of Sony reviving the PSP brand, I’ve been very excited at the idea of the PlayStation Portable returning. It seemed impossible 10 years ago but ever since the success of the Switch, everyone’s been trying to make their own handheld – even Xbox, if Phil Spencer’s hints are anything to go by.

I don’t know how much it would really resemble the original PSP, or PS Vita, but the rumour is that it will be able to run PlayStation 4 games, which sounds pretty powerful. The big question for me is whether Sony would start to make their own games aimed specifically at the portable. That’s what I hope since, as other readers have pointed out, portable games used to be quite different to home ones.

The following are not just a list of some of my favourite games on the PSP but franchises I hope are purposefully brought back for the new hardware, both because they work well as a handheld game and because that may lead to PlayStation 5 sequels as well. Let me know what you think.

Resistance: Retribution

This is my first pick but it’s also a bit of a fudge, because what I really want to come back is Resistance in general, even though the PSP and PS Vita versions weren’t great. In fact, the first two home versions weren’t amazing either, but Resistance 3 was and just as the series had found its footing it was cancelled. I would’ve loved to see a PlayStation 4 sequel but now, if the PSP 2 is capable of the same power, we could see it happen. It’d be a new first person shooter with open world elements that could even be the Halo killer that Sony has so long since searched for.

Patapon 3

The problem here is that a lot of the PSP’s best games were made by Japan Studio, which Sony shut down a few years ago. This could be just the excuse to put the band back together though, if they were to make a new Patapon – that strange mix of rhythm action and strategy game that could only exist on a portable console. Unfortunately, it never got onto the PS Vita, let alone anywhere else, so I’d love to see it come back, so that Sony can experiment with better graphics and more in-depth controls.

LocoRoco 2

Another Japan Studio classic, for me this was the killer app of the PSP or at least the game I thought of first when talking about the console. It’s kind of a platform game but with a very clever control system (that would work great with motion controls) that saw you tilting the landscape to move the characters, instead of controlling them directly. With great sound and graphics, it was a breath of fresh air at the time and would be even more so now, if there was a new one.

Killzone: Liberation

This is very much like Resistance, in that it’s an excuse to revive a franchise I used to love, but in this case the PSP version was very good – arguably it was even the best. Developer Guerilla Games are busy with Horizon nowadays, but I wish they or someone else would try and revive Killzone, as it’s even closer to Halo than Resistance and I think could really make up for Xbox’s poor handling of that series. I think the PSP 2 in general could be used for all sorts of lower budget experiments and revivals, like Jak And Daxter, since there’s probably no way they would get a big budget PlayStation 5 reboot.

Ape Escape: On the Loose

This is my number one choice. Ape Escape isn’t necessarily the first thing you think of with the PSP, and this was basically just a remake of the PS1 original, but the PSP 2 is the perfect way to bring back the franchise and make something new and fun. Sony first party games tend to be so long and serious, but this would be a way to expand out with colourful family fare. The original Ape Escape was a really good early 3D platformer but Sony squandered its innovations on sequels it seemed to be increasingly embarrassed by. My hope is that the PSP 2 can bring it back, and many other games from the golden era of the PSP and PlayStation 2.

By reader Calor