12 Best PSP Platformers

Arthur went 3D for the first time in Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins, the first game in the main series to use 3D graphics while keeping much of the old 2D gameplay. It also brought back Tokuro Fujiwara, the series' project head. Japan got it on August 3, 2006, and North America on August 29, 2006. The plot is the classic one, a knight against demons, with a large number of changes around it. Japan later got a revised re-release that put a redesigned version on the same disc as the original.

Players say it is very hard but still very fun, which is the whole Ghosts 'n Goblins deal in one line. Lose your armor and Arthur is down to his boxer shorts, where one more hit finishes him. Nobody ever called this series dignified.

Capcom remade the 1993 Super NES game Mega Man X for the PSP and gave it something the original could never have: a voice cast. Keiji Inafune, an artist and writer on the original, produced it, and his team picked a remake over a Mega Man X9 because they wanted to use the new hardware. Japan got it on December 15, 2005, and North America on January 31, 2006. It was a commercial failure, and Capcom cancelled future Mega Man remakes because of it.

Critics praised the updated presentation and story but were mixed on the music. Players call the Mega Man remakes fantastic and tend to name this one right next to Powered Up. It has since been called one of the best handheld games in the franchise.

The big-headed chibi look of Mega Man Powered Up was meant for the original game, but the hardware of the time could not manage it. This remake of the first Mega Man has two ways to play. Old Style is close to the NES version with updated presentation, while New Style fills the PSP's widescreen and adds voiced cutscenes, remixed music and altered stage layouts. The larger heads let the team give the characters visible facial expressions.

It came out in March 2006 to positive reviews, but it sold poorly, especially in North America. Plans for a remake of Mega Man 2 titled Mega Man Powered Up 2 fell through. Players who name it call it pretty good, and it keeps turning up beside Maverick Hunter X.

Rondo of Blood had never been released outside Japan before this remake gave it 2.5D graphics and brought it to the PSP. The original Rondo of Blood is on the disc as unlockable content, translated into English, and so is a remastered Symphony of the Night. That makes three Castlevania games in one box. North America got it on October 23, 2007.

Players call it pretty good, and many of them love that you can unlock Symphony of the Night. Stage 8 is renamed Bloodlines, the same title as the opening level in the English version of Symphony of the Night, so the disc spends a fair amount of time quoting itself.

LocoRoco 2 is the sequel to LocoRoco and the third game in the series, since the spin-off LocoRoco Cocoreccho! came out in between. The evil Moja are back with a terrible song that sucks the life out of living things, and the LocoRoco answer by making music of their own. There are 25 new stages and six new mini games, one of them an ad-hoc game for four players.

Japan and the PAL regions got it in 2008, with North America a year later in 2009. Most of the backgrounds are the first game's, except for the BuiBui Fort and the MuiMui Home. Reviews were generally favorable, and a remastered version reached the PS4 on December 9, 2017.

Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier is the sixth and final game in its series. It was first planned as a PSP exclusive at Naughty Dog, but that version was cancelled, and High Impact Games made the one we got. It was announced on April 1, 2009, and released on November 3, 2009. Jak and Keira travel to the edge of the world to find ancient Precursor machinery that could fix the planet's Eco shortage.

Sky Pirates are in the way, and Jak is still struggling to control his own Eco powers. Critics were mixed overall, but they praised the graphics and the fights in the air. Expect a different flavor from the Naughty Dog games and enjoy the flying.

Clank finally gets the lead role here, in his secret agent persona that the main games only showed in short TV show segments. The theme is a spoof of the James Bond series. Ratchet is framed for a crime he did not commit, and Clank has to clear his name. It came out on the PSP in 2008 from High Impact Games, with more stealth and gadget play than the usual Ratchet formula.

Qwark's levels are based on dubious accounts of his own exploits, which makes him the only narrator in the series you should fact-check. Critics gave it mixed reviews. A PS2 port by Sanzaru Games followed the next year and was the last installment of the series released on that console.

You play an unlucky penguin dude called a Prinny and slash your way through various Netherworlds, with 1000 of them to spend on the mission. You lift and throw objects, and you can even pilot tanks and planes. Bombs only go off when they are thrown, which makes them handy from a distance.

Players love its personality and how wacky it gets, and they warn that it is very hard. Only one scarf keeps a Prinny from exploding, so when the hero dies, the next of the 1000 is tossed in wearing the same one. Collect 100 Lucky Dolls and you unlock a fight with the demon lord Etna. The game returned on the Nintendo Switch in October 2020 as Prinny 1•2: Exploded and Reloaded.

This is not the PS3 game shrunk down. LittleBigPlanet on the PSP is a new entry made exclusively for the handheld, developed by SCE Cambridge Studio together with Media Molecule, and it has a brand new story mode. The story is a sequel to the PS3 game: Sackboy takes a holiday walkabout around the world, and the first stop is Down Under, a theme based on Australia. Like the PS3 game, it lets you build levels from a blank slate and share them online.

The PSP version keeps two thick layers and three thin ones, where the PS3 game had three and four. It also gives you unlimited respawns, where the PS3 game allowed only three to six at each checkpoint. Players say it is simpler than the console versions but still fun, mostly because you can make your own levels.

Tsutomu Kouno wanted to make something different from the other PSP games of the time, and his original sketch, drawn on a PDA, gave him the idea of rotating the landscape. That is the whole trick. You never move the LocoRoco yourself. You tilt the planet with the shoulder buttons and the blobs roll through more than 40 levels of slippery slopes.

Kouno finished the game in a year and a half, which is roughly how long it takes most of us to pick a couch. Its bright colors and bouncy soundtrack won several awards from the gaming press in 2006. Players call it an underrated masterpiece and say it suited the PSP's controls perfectly.

High Impact Games was spawned from Insomniac Games, the studio behind the original Ratchet & Clank. Size Matters is the first Ratchet & Clank game on the PSP, and the first in the series to come out on any handheld. Ratchet and Clank are pulled away from their vacation to find a kidnapped girl, and they run into a forgotten race called the Technomites. Space combat is back, as in the first game and Going Commando.

There are 25 Skill Points to chase, and the only clue to each is its name. Clank is playable again and controls his Gadgebots in one section. The PSP version got generally positive reviews, while the PS2 port got mixed ones. Players say its levels have a real platforming feel, and they usually name it with Secret Agent Clank.

Remember the two years Jak spends locked up at the start of Jak II? Ready at Dawn filled them with a whole game about his sidekick. Daxter works as a pest exterminator in Haven City while he searches for his captured friend, and his tools are a bug swatter and a spray gun. Unlike the other Jak games, this one stays on Daxter the whole way.

It mixes platforming and combat with gadget-based puzzles, and the minigames and the humor the series is known for are along for the ride. Daxter received generally positive reviews and had sold more than 2.3 million copies by June 2008. Players name it again and again when someone asks for a PSP platformer, and they call it a good one.