Horror on the PSP was a short shelf, but a good one. Sony's handheld could do proper 3D, and Silent Hill came to a screen you could hold under the covers twice. Rockstar Leeds made the PSP version of a game the British ratings board rejected outright.
Japanese horror showed up too, including a school ghost story first made in RPG Maker, now in English. A few odd ones from American studios round out the shelf. Here are the 8 best PSP horror games.
8. Corpse Party: Book of Shadows (2011)
Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is the sequel to the first PSP Corpse Party, but it mostly plays as a prequel. It is a series of nonlinear chapters that add new twists and backgrounds for characters the first game barely touched. Most of it takes place during the same time as the first game, picking up from one of its "wrong ends", where Sachiko sends the Kisaragi Academy students back in time. The epilogue, Blood Drive, sets up the Vita sequel of the same name.
Critics were mixed and generally considered it inferior to the original. One reviewer called it a niche game for a small audience, and that is fair. Players who recommend Corpse Party on the PSP tend to recommend both games as a pair. If the first one gets its hooks in you, you will want to see what happened in those other timelines.
7. ObsCure: The Aftermath (2007)
ObsCure: The Aftermath is the sequel to ObsCure, the horror game where students fight photosensitive monsters that can be weakened with flashlights and killed by direct sunlight. The series reached Windows, the Wii and the PSP. A third entry was announced in 2011. Then, the following year, its developer, Hydravision Entertainment, closed, and that was the end of ObsCure.
The name did it no favours. Plenty of PSP owners never heard of it, which is a shame, because it is a solid, old-fashioned survival horror game on a handheld that did not get many. Players bring it up in the same breath as Silent Hill and Corpse Party whenever horror on the PSP comes up. If you have played the bigger names and want more of the same, this is the next one to find.
6. Corpse Party (2010)
Corpse Party started life as a game for the PC-9801, released on April 22, 1996, and it was made with RPG Maker. The PSP version came out on August 12, 2010, and Xseed Games released it in North America and Europe under the title Corpse Party. A group of friends unknowingly perform an occult ritual that traps them in an otherworldly elementary school. Inside, the vengeful spirits of young children threaten their lives and their sanity.
It looks small and simple, and that is the trick. Most of the horror is in the writing and the sound, and the story goes to some very dark places. Players recommend it as one of the PSP's real horror picks, often alongside Silent Hill and Manhunt 2. One player's advice is worth following: "definitely play with headphones".
5. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (2009)
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories reimagines the first Silent Hill. Harry Mason still searches the town for his missing daughter Cheryl, but the game has a different plot and altered characters. It came out on the Wii first and reached the PSP in January 2010. Climax Studios had just made the Silent Hill prequel, which copied the first game on purpose, and this time the team wanted to try a different approach. The game cuts between Harry's search and a first-person psychotherapy session with Dr. Michael Kaufmann.
The doctor asks personal questions, and the game alters itself based on your answers. There are no weapons. When the town turns into a world of ice and the monsters come out, Harry has to run for his life. Akira Yamaoka composed the soundtrack, the first in the series to lean on dynamic music. Some reviewers found the chase sequences frustrating and the game too short. Players who recommend one PSP Silent Hill usually recommend both.
4. Dead Head Fred (2007)
Dead Head Fred came out in North America on August 28, 2007. You play private detective Fred Neuman, who is murdered and then brought back in a bizarre scientific experiment without his memory or his head. To fight the mutants and gangsters of Hope Falls, you collect heads and swap them on the fly. Vicious Cycle Software built it on its own Vicious Engine. A test group was much more interested in a darker Fred than the cartoonish, playful look the team had first chosen.
Fred is voiced by John C. McGinley, and the script was changed to let him and the other actors curse more. In 2008 it won the Writers Guild of America's first-ever award for video game writing. Critics praised its dark humor and noir style. The controls and the thin combat took the criticism. It is more funny than scary, and the most frightening thing in it may be Fred's face.
3. Manhunt 2 (2007)
Rockstar Leeds made the PSP version of Manhunt 2, the sequel to 2003's Manhunt, and it came out in North America on 29 October 2007. You play Daniel Lamb, a mental patient with amnesia, guided by Leo Kasper, a sociopathic assassin. The twist is the Pickman Bridge, a brain implant meant to create the perfect assassin. It malfunctioned, and Daniel now talks to the personality inside it as if it were a real person.
The controversy began before any footage of the game had been released, and it reached British MP Keith Vaz and activist Jack Thompson. Censors forced changes. The main one is a blur over executions: the screen turns red and flashes black-and-white. Players list it among the PSP's horror games again and again. This is horror of the grim, grubby kind, and it is not for everyone.
2. Silent Hill: Origins (2007)
Silent Hill: Origins is the fifth Silent Hill and a prequel to the first game from 1999. It was released worldwide in late 2007, beginning in early November with the United Kingdom, and a PlayStation 2 port followed in 2008. Climax LA, an American studio in Santa Monica, started work on it. As in the earlier games, you move back and forth between the nightmare and real versions of the town, gathering items to solve puzzles. The monsters are mostly disturbingly twisted versions of humanity.
Melee weapons break after a while, which is new for the series. There is no HUD, and the edge of the screen turns red when you are near death. Reviews were positive, although some said it followed the series formula too closely. On a handheld, that formula was exactly what fans wanted. Players bring it up whenever someone asks for horror on the PSP, and some call it the one to get.
1. The 3rd Birthday (2010)
The 3rd Birthday is the third Parasite Eve game, a spin-off with only a loose connection to the earlier ones. It was released in Japan in 2010 and in North America and Europe in 2011. It was first announced as an episodic game for mobile phones before it became a PSP exclusive. Square Enix called it a "cinematic action RPG", and it plays over the shoulder like Resident Evil 4 or Dead Space. Its big idea is Overdive, which lets Aya switch bodies with a member of her team mid-fight.
Toriyama's first story ideas included a snowy New York and a bloodstained wedding dress. It reached sixth place in the Japanese sales charts and the top five in North America and the UK in its first months. Critics praised the presentation, and many had trouble with the camera. It is the loudest game on this list. Players recommend it more than any other horror game on the PSP.
Which one to play
There you have it, the whole list of the best PSP horror games. It is a short list, and most of it holds up well.
If you are not sure where to start, play The 3rd Birthday. If you want classic survival horror with puzzles, pick Silent Hill: Origins. For something stranger, Shattered Memories takes your weapons away and asks you personal questions. If you like a story you read in the dark, start Corpse Party with the headphones on. And for a hidden pick, try Dead Head Fred, which is a lot funnier than its name.
