The PSP will soon boast more compilations than a serial seducer's record collection, with
Activision Hits Remixed the latest to be announced.
Cramming over 40 Atari 2600 games on to one UMD,
Activision Hits Remixed will give gamers who weren't even born when that creaky old console first went on sale a chance to play 20 year-old games such as
Pitfall and
Chopper Command.
Okay, so the experience has been spruced up little for 2006. The compilation will feature a game sharing mode so that you and your PSP-owning mates can join in a frenzy of nostalgia with just the one copy of the game, as well as overhauled front-end menus, various retro goodies to unlock and multiplayer support via wi-fi and hotseat PSP-swapping. There's even a 1980s themed soundtrack.
Activision Hits Remixed sounds pleasant enough, particularly to older gamers (like, erm, me) but the question remains – does the PSP really need all these compilations?
Here are six on their way or out already:
Name of collection
| Games | Due out |
| EA Replay | 14 | November |
| Sega Genesis Collection | 30 | Late 2006 |
| Activision Hits Remixed | 40+ | TBC |
| Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play | 21 | Now |
Namco's Museum Battle Collection (Review)
| 17 | Now |
Capcom Classics Collection Remixed (Review)
| 20 | Now |
In total, that makes over 140 retro games you could be playing on your PSP by Christmas if you wanted to. Of course you wouldn't want to, because more than half of each collection's 'classics' are nothing of the kind, but that won't stop publishers trying to sell them to you.
All this before the PSP's much-vaunted download service has even arrived to make a potential 7,000 old PlayStation titles available too.
There's a certain irony to all these ancient games appearing on PSP. When the machine was first revealed, it was dubbed a technological marvel, a Game Boy killer. Yet more than 18 months on from its December 2004 release in Japan, the system is arguably yet to find its feet, and publishers seem increasingly content to hurl decades old games at it. Often much-loved games, sure, but in some cases games you can equally well play in Shockwave rip-offs in your web browser these days.
We love old shows like
Cheers and
Hill Street Blues, but we'd not be without
Curb Your Enthusiasm and
Lost. Same goes for games.
And we still love the PSP here at
Pocket Gamer. While we'll doubtless have a quick blast on these retro games, we're more hoping that upcoming titles such as
Killzone: Liberation and
Gangs of London can build on the sterling work of recent games such as
LocoRoco and
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror in utilising the full power of Sony's handheld.
See today's
Pocket Gamer blog for more discussion on whether this craze for compilations bodes badly for the PSP.
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