Friday Freebie

It's that time again freebie fiends – your pangs of freebie withdrawal are about to be assuaged by a sweet hit of gratis gaming goodness.

English-speaking demos have been a bit thin of the ground in the usually dependable PSP camp of late, but in the East it is an entirely different story (thank the gods of gaming for region free handhelds).

We have covered the Unofficial PSP Demo Centre before. Two fresh demos have recently been added: the cutesy cel-shaded text adventure Doko: Let's Gakkou! (pictured right) and the surreal puzzler Blokus Club Portable.

The only snag is that they are both in Japanese. That shouldn't be too much of a problem for Blockus Club Portable but could prove to be a bit of a hindrance with Doko: Let's Gakkou! unless you are a fluent in the language. But hey, you get what you pay for.

Interestingly, there is also a demo of Socom Fire Team Bravo 2 listed as coming soon. When it's available, we'll be sure to let you know.

If you own a DS and you're determined to understand Doko: Let's Gakkou!, you could always download the latest DS Japanese language homebrew application, Project JDS.

Coded by a homebrew buccaneer known only as Zoelen, the application teaches you (in English) to recognise and write both hiragana and katakana characters, as well as listen to their pronunciation. The application is surprisingly fully-featured for a home made affair and best of all it is free.

Lastly this week a reminder that there's a free demo of mobile rob-'em-up Stolen in Sixty Seconds available for download from developer HeroCraft's site. If you are contemplating a long and drawn out afternoon at work on the slow approach to the short weekend, this could be just the ticket to brighten your afternoon, provided your boss is doing the same, of course.

That's it for this week, click 'Track It!' to be sure to get some free handheld gaming tasters every week and if you are new to the Friday Freebie, an Aladdin's cave of portable gaming riches awaits you in our archives. Enjoy!