The Basics

Publisher: Sony

Release Date: March 2005

Price: Expected to be $199.99

Media: UMD (Universal Media Disc), a new 1.8 gigabit optical format for games, movies, and music

Online: Wireless functionality allows one PSP to connect with up to 15 others over Wi-Fi hotspots

The clear favorite in the brewing portable brouhaha, Sony’s PSP combines slick physical design, amazing 3D visuals, wireless connectivity, and multimedia playback into a pint-sized behemoth. Aimed at the older, savvy PS2-owning crowd, the PSP isn’t positioned as a direct competitor for Nintendo’s kid-friendly Game Boy brand. “We’re not really concerned with what Nintendo or any other company is doing,” says Sony CEA President Kaz Hirai. “We will create our own new market.” Even so, the PSP is a gamble: Sony’s reportedly taking a bath on the high-end hardware by pricing it below $200, and it hopes to make it back on the software.

Infected

Majesco • Summer 2005

The Basics: Nothing can curtail a promising career in law enforcement quite like a zombie bite to the leg. That’s your unfortunate predicament at the outset of Infected, Majesco’s upcoming PSP horror-action romp. But it’s not quite as dire as it sounds—rather than succumbing to undead fever and triggering a flesh feast, this cop’s blood miraculously kills the infection. So you do what any hero would do: Soak mutated monsters with streams of your death-dealing lifeblood via a vein-tapping gun. The Red Cross would be proud.

You’ll prep zombie freaks for their transfusion by riddling them with bullets from the standard gun, at which point you’ll administer a shot from the blood-powered viral gun. Doing so induces an irreversible occurrence of “exploding in a shower of meaty chunks” syndrome, and other zombies splattered with that blood will explode in a gory chain reaction.

You’re also looking to save as many innocent people as possible. If every citizen on the map gets infected, you’ll face a “viral overload” and a desperate zombie charge. Preserving life and racking up explosion combos earns you points that you can use to mod your character’s appearance or cash in for new weapons.

Although it might seem horrific, the game’s actually played for laughs—it’s from perpetually jokey developer Planet Moon, the guys behind Xbox sleeper Armed and Dangerous. Pumping a bloodthirsty Santa full of lead has never been funnier.

Positively PSP: The PSP’s wireless-networking capabilities let you wage germ warfare in deathmatch and team deathmatch modes. The mechanics are similar to the single-player game’s, but with some nasty twists: Defeating someone infects that player with your own strain of virus, turning their character into a carbon copy of you. Unless they flush your virus out in special single-player missions, they’ll become a carrier and pass on your infection to someone else, who in turn passes it along to other unsuspecting saps. “It’s another chain reaction...kind of like a chain letter of evil,” explains Producer Aaron Loeb. Sounds pretty sick to us.

Coded Arms

Konami • Summer 2005

The Basics: Since the Game Boy was never much for impressive 3D visuals, first-person shooters rarely made the leap from home consoles to the handheld arena. Luckily, the new generation of portables is finally up to the task—scope the detailed, flashy graphics of Konami’s Coded Arms, an original FPS set in a twisted virtual-reality world. You play the role of a hacker tasked with cleaning out a combat training simulator gone haywire, hunting down bugs that have taken over the system.

Positively PSP: Since the PSP doesn’t have dual analog sticks, Coded Arms allows you to customize the controls in any way you choose—using the analog nub for movement and the buttons for aiming and strafing might be the best bet for players weaned on Halo. And you’ll need to learn your way around the controls and play through some single-player levels before you challenge live opponents in Arms’ wireless multiplayer deathmatches, since you bring your weaponry and items from the story mode into the fray.

Metal Gear Ac!D

Konami • March 2005

PLAYSTATION PORTABLE (cont.)

The Basics: The world’s most popular stealth franchise antes up for a new kind of adventure—tactical card-based roleplaying. Although it seems like a strange devolution for Solid Snake, this turn-based card-RPG doesn’t require a prerequisite in Magic: The Gathering to enjoy. Set two years after the end of MGS2, Ac!d pulls Solid Snake out of retirement to combat a new national security threat. Along the way, you’ll team up with Teriko, a sultry female agent, for some doubly strategic missions in which you control both characters.

Positively PSP: Sadly, a planned wireless multiplayer mode had to be scrapped so that the game could make the PSP launch. Hopefully, the nearly PS2-quality visuals will wow us so much that we don’t notice the absence of two-player card combat.

Advent Shadow

Majesco • Summer 2005

The Basics: Shadow works as a companion piece to Advent Rising, Majesco’s upcoming Xbox shooter (and the first in a planned trilogy penned by noted sci-fi scribe Orson Scott Card). Although not part of the central narrative, this action-adventure will flesh out the backstory of Rising costar Marin Steel. You take control of this midriff-baring female mercenary as she attempts to escape a dying planet under siege by alien forces.

Positively PSP: Shadow ranks among the more ambitious PSP projects: Its lush 3D visuals, multiple modes of gameplay (third-person shooting, vehicular combat, and aerial dogfighting), and epic soundtrack (featuring a full orchestra and choir) prove that portable games are inching closer to their console counterparts.

Mercury

Ignition • Summer 2005

The Basics: The moving-a-ball-through-a-maze videogame genre dates back to ’80s arcade standby Marble Madness, but the concept goes back even further, to the wooden marble maze toys of yesteryear. This game hearkens back to that low-tech toy: You guide a slippery blob of mercury through various mazes by tilting the entire level.

Positively PSP: Aside from the whiz-bang graphical effects at play, Mercury also taps into the PSP’s power by utilizing the system’s USB port—attach the game’s tilt-sensor module and you’ll control your metallic blob by actually moving your console to and fro. Yes, you’ll look a bit insane...but it’s a wickedly fun exercise in creative gameplay.

Frogger

Konami • Summer 2005

The Basics: If you last braved the freeway with Frogger in the decadent ’80s, you’ve missed a lot of amphibious evolution. These days, Frogger leaps across imaginative landscapes while collecting items and mastering moves like the “swing and stomp.” Hell, you’re not just some random frog anymore (or even a frog at all)—you can choose from a cadre of leaping fauna, including newcomers Berry, an acrobatic Amazonian tree frog, or Lumpy, a carefree, capricious toad.

Positively PSP: The console’s widescreen format actually benefits Frogger’s hop-happy gameplay, as it offers a broader view of the action. The PSP also allows for four-player wireless minigames.

Need for Speed Underground: Rivals

EA Games • March 2005

The Basics: All the slick city streets, tricked-out imports, and sultry ladies draped across hoods from EA’s massively successful racing series drift onto Sony’s new handheld, losing little gloss in the transition. Expect the focus to be on high-speed one-on-one duel races.

Positively PSP: Stunning visual effects like realistic lighting and motion trails transform the action into a breakneck blur of neon insanity when you hit the nitro. It’s even more satisfying when you rocket past your friends in a wireless multiplayer game....

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Electronic Gaming Monthly.