E3 2006 portable gaming - PSP

The console versions of Tomb Raider: Legend have been out for a little more than a month now, and the surprising success of those titles has set a high standard for the portable set. With all three of the major portables represented, Lara's reign may just last through the summer. The PlayStation Portable version will be the most familiar to fans o ... Read more
Activision secured its reputation with comic book fans by bringing everyone's favorite mutants to life in the action RPG titles X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends 2. If a dozen or so superheroes was good, the thinking goes, then 50-plus comic book characters must be great--and the upcoming Marvel: Ultimate Alliance brings together a huge roster of her ... Read more
The biggest news from Square Enix at E3 is that Final Fantasy XIII is being developed. The role-playing game will have three different versions: two for the PS3 and one for cell phones. Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3 will be a traditional FF-series role-playing game, while Final Fantasy Versus XIII will be a more action-oriented adventure. Final Fa ... Read more
The PSP is often derided for housing way too many PS2 ports. Namcobandai's portable lineup is completely guilty of the aforementioned assessment. Who cares, though, when they're all so awesome?! Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception is actually an all-new game, but it feels as though the code for one of the PS2 titles has been ripped violently from a D ... Read more
The past is the future for Capcom, especially in handheld gaming. The developer is working on several different sequels, anthologies, and graphical overhauls of its various game series. Mega Man ZX brings the robot-blasting game series to the Nintendo DS, taking the Mega Man saga even further into the future. Mega Man ZX takes place several centur ... Read more
At first glance, the two biggest console titles at EA's booth seem to be par for the course for a company that's often derided for unoriginality. One could argue that Army of Two is just another of the countless futuristic war shooters--as an aside, where's my Revolutionary War FPS?--while Superman is yet another licensed game set to suck alongside ... Read more
Metal Gear Solid 4 is the biggest game on the way from Konami, but that just means the company's making its games a lot tinier. Here are the big names Konami is bringing to the handheld scene. Naked Snake is coming to the PSP in the first true Metal Gear Solid portable game, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. This title has the soon-to-be-Big Boss fo ... Read more
Snake has a lot of work ahead of him. Not only does he have to deal with Metal Gears on the PlayStation 3, but everyone's favorite commando-spy also has to recruit an elite commando unit to foment an uprising and beat the stuffing out of Nintendo's most beloved mascot! Besides a new trailer and some behind-the-scenes information, Konami is keeping ... Read more
A snap-on camera and a GPS device are coming soon for the PSP--but other than that, there's little more that Sony's willing to disclose at this time. While mentioned in passing at the company's E3 pre-show briefing, we know little more now than we did when the company first mentioned the planned accessories at a March press conference in Japan. ... Read more
The PS3 is the star of Sony's booth at E3, but the PSP was here in force as well. Sony was keen to highlight three of its premiere first-party (that is, published by Sony) titles for the forthcoming year: LocoRoco, Killzone: Liberation, and Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters. LocoRoco is a unique 2D scroller in which you control an amorphous blob by ... Read more
The quirky, left-field hit Lego Star Wars has spawned a sequel, and the imaginatively titled Lego Star Wars II offers more of the same third-person action/puzzle-solving fun as the original. Concentrating on the first three Stars Wars films--which actually take place after the second three, if you're keeping count--the game offers Lego versions of ... Read more
Midway was highlighting three forthcoming PSP titles at its booth: NBA Ballers Rebound, Mortal Kombat Unchained, and Rush. All three are PSP-ified versions of existing Midway properties, but Rush's origins may not be as explicitly clear: It features much of the arcade-style racing action of the original game--it's a portable version of L.A. Rush- ... Read more
All eyes will be on the PlayStation 3 at Sony's booth, but that doesn't mean the company's handheld will get left in the dust. Lots of PlayStation Portable games are on the way, in all sorts of genres and from all sorts of developers. The PSP is getting a ton of action games, ranging from the shoot-'em-up to the beat-'em-up. Sony will be unveilin ... Read more