Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 [PSP]
You’ve had two choices up until this point if you’re a golf fan with a Sony PSP. Tiger Woods PGA Tour with its beautifully realistic courses and dreadfully horrendous load times, or Hot Shots Golf and its cutesier-than-should-be-considered-healthy graphical style. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006, released far less than a year after the original, fixes all of the loading complaints of the previous title, and is actually a playable game of golf. The choice in golf games just got a little more difficult.
Hotshots may have some awfully cutesy graphics that are very much a hit-or-miss affair, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s the less serious game of golf. Though Tiger has both his realistic golfers and the real world courses, he also has a seriously bad bout of telekinesis. Not bothered with obeying those pesky laws of physics, Tiger has the ability to alter the spin of his ball while in flight, allowing last second decisions on spin direction and speed. Miss-hit your ball? Don’t worry! Just use your magical wand to cast a spell and spin it in the opposite direction! Need forward spin to increase your shot distance but back-spin to plant the landing? No Problem!
Don’t get me wrong, both are excellent games that can steal hours of your life away if you aren’t careful, but only one offers a true game of golf, despite its giant heads, fox tails and nurse outfits. However if it’s realistic graphics, courses, sponsors and players that are important to you, then Tiger is the only choice, with its fixed loading problems, wide selection of playable modes and the literally hundreds of unlockables (including some sweet Nike socks), it is definitely still an impressive package for any golf fan.
X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse [PSP]
A great game for a different player. For fans of either the first Legends game, or of the X-Men series in general, Legends II provides an engaging and interesting revisitation of the action/rpg theme. Those who didn’t enjoy the original, or can’t tell their Wolverines from their Nightcrawlers, will likely get little out of it.
Using a team of four of 20 playable mutants, including traditional evil doers such as Magneto, you must fight your way through waves of enemies, traps and puzzles and put a stop to the plans of the really-super-incredibly-evil Apocalypse. You must button-mash your way through the abundance of levels, using the multitude of marvel characters with all their skills and superpowers. Its simple game with an easy difficulty, that appeals to me only because of a single feature, co-op multiplayer. Playing through the game with a friend or two is much more fun than repetitively mashing your way through each level solo.
It’s a high quality, well-made title that just didn’t do it for me. If you’re an X-Men fan that doesn’t already own one of the other console versions, then this game is for you.
Kingdom of Paradise [PSP]
Kingdom of Paradise is another action oriented RPG, though for once it’s not a sequel, remake or port of an existing game. (Shocking! Who would have thought the PSP was allowed unique titles?) In a setting reminiscent of feudal Japan, your quest follows the warrior Shinbu as he tries to rebuild his shattered Eastern Seiryu tribe, which has almost been destroyed by the uncharacteristically warlike Central Kirin. On your journey to discover the cause or their destructive behavior, you must seek to enlist the help of the other three tribes, fighting your way through hordes of murderous tribesman from each faction.
The combat system in Kingdom of Paradise is similar to a Rock-Paper-Scissors system, although with 5 elements instead of 3. Each tribe has a force associated with it, such as fire, earth or metal, and each force is strong against one tribe and weak against another. Shinbu collects and learns attacks techniques from defeated enemies of each tribe. The attacks cannot be used individually, but are instead combined intro combo strings using scrolls you find throughout the game. Most scrolls contain attacks from a single tribe, though some mix and match multiple tribes, and there are even a few “freestyle scrolls” which allow you to mix and match any attacks you choose to create the ultimate combination.
With a great combat system, beautiful graphics and lengthy and involving story, Kingdom of Paradise is a highly recommended title if you’re looking for something a little different.
