PSP Mini Games
This review has taken far longer than I thought (college work etc) but here it is. I have had the chance to play some of the PSP Minis games that are available through the PSN on your PSP. So lets just jump right into the first one…Fieldrunners!
Fieldrunners:
Fieldrunners is a game that can fit into the tower defense genre. You have a field (hence the name) and a number of entrances. Armies will then start flowing from one entrance in an attempt to make it to the other door, you have to build towers to stop them. The armies vary from little soldiers to tanks and robots! You are presented with different towers that have different abilities. You can get the a gun for killing, a gunk gun for slowing them down, rockets to blow them to pieces and electric towers for frying them alive!
You earn money for each kill you get and you can use that money to buy more towers. You also have the ability to upgrade the towers you already have for a price.
What makes this game different to other tower defense games is that you control the enemies flow. Using the towers you can construct the track the enemies run through. The only rule is that you cannot block them altogether, they need at least one track to the other doorway.
I picked this game up with low expectations and ended up forgetting the other games and playing this one all night! And for that I will give it a max of 5/5! I love tower defense games and this one is one of the best.
Bloons:
For those of you that dont know, Bloons is a very popular browser game make by NinjaKiwi.com. I have played their games through many lectures in the last couple of years so I was really excited to see one come to the PSP. You are a monkey and you are presented with a number of balloons. Using the controls, you have to throw darts and pop as many of the balloons as possible. Sometimes its not straight forward. You may have to get around obsticles or some of the balloons may not be breakable at first (you get to use explosions to solve that problem!).
However, the games lacks the excitement and usability of the web version. The graphics don’t look as nice and the controls are difficult to get used to. It didn’t emulate the online version to the degree I was hoping for but still is a nice game to play to pass the time in lectures. 3/5!
Brainpipe: 
This is one of the most bizarre games I have ever played. You navigate through the three dimensional tunnels of your mind. You have to collect little objects as you go along and avoid the hazards. It is supposed to help increase your hand eye coordination but I’m not sure about that. The strange thing is that for the first couple of minutes I was thinking to myself “I don’t understand this game” yet I couldn’t put it down. I played it for ages and had no idea why! I’m pretty sure I was hypnotized. You fly through the tunnels faster and faster and it really keeps you on the edge of your seat.
The game is relatively simple to get used to and is a lot of fun if you intend to play a game and zone out for a while. 3.5/5!
Breakquest:
Remember Breakout on the Atari? Well Breakquest takes this to a whole different level. There are a few ways to play. One is you have the same setup as Breakout but the aim isn’t quite the same. By hitting the blocks above you, you change their color. You have to match an entire row to get them to disappear. Some blocks will also drop power-ups which is always handy.There is also a more classic mode where the aim is just to hit and remove the blocks with the ball. Simple as it seems sometime obstacles are thrown in the way to add some difficulty to it.
This falls right into my fave games list as it follows my rules for portable games: Easy to pick up, simple and addictive. 4/5!
fieldrunners is fantastic on iphone, and cheaper. get it there if youve an iphone or ipod touch
[...] Shoryuken.ie – 4/5 [...]
[...] This is a solid tower defense game too, though arguably the creative fun and graphical style of Field Runners is more suited to a platform like the [...]