PSP Game Review: Neopets: The Wand of Wishing

by smrrdn


A lot of people may think that Neopets is a kid's game. It may
be aimed towards children, but adults are like the Neopets games
as well. Neopets: The Wand of Wishing is the first Neopets game
on the PSP.

The Neopets brand used to only be an online site where you could
raise and create fantasy pets called "neopets" or "petpets". In
the website game your pet is able to participate in battles, go
on quests, and play mini-games to get things to upgrade their
stats.

The PSP version of this game is a lot like the online version.
You can choose your clothing and weapons, talk with the
villagers to acquire quests, visit the multiple dungeons around
the game, and upgrade your pet by training him. You can also
fight in the battledome against computer characters or with
wi-fi with other players.

The PSP version of this game is a hack and slash type role
playing game, which is actually my favorite kind. The game is
similar to most other role playing games. The map in the game is
broken up into different sections of settlements, jungles, and
dungeons. In the settlements you will find shops to buy weapons
and clothing/armor, you will also find other petpets that you
can talk to in order to get more of the story. Some of the
petpets will give you a quest when you speak with them. In the
jungles and dungeons is where you do all of your fighting. There
are many fun types of monsters you will be up against. When
fighting you will use the X button for hand to hand attacks and
the triangle button for long rage magic attacks. You can also
use the select button to access any weapons or spells your
petpet is carrying. In this game once you have killed a monster
it stays dead, they don't just come back to life once you leave
the room, I think this is another good feature for this game.

Unfortunately this game has a little bit of a lag. When you push
a button or move the "joystick" it takes a second before the
action is actually performed. Sometimes it gets in the way when
you are trying to fight. This is only really a problem toward
the beginning of the game. Once your character is more developed
and has better weapons the lag doesn't really have much of an
effect on your battles, because you can do more damage and you
take much less damage.

Upgrading your character is a little different in this game then
in other role playing type games. This is not an experience
based leveling system which is popular in role playing games. In
Neopets, when you kill a monster you get neopoints and items.
You use the neopoints to enter the battledome. In order to
upgrade your petpets attributes you must win in these battledome
matches. These can cost anywhere from 250 to 50,000 neopoints.
The sad thing is that you don't get the points back if you lose
the match.

You can also upgrade your your character by catching and
collecting little "petpetpets"...(try to say that 10 times
fast). In order to catch them you have to locate them, and then
decide what kind of food you think it will eat. You lay the food
in front of them, and if it is the right kind of food then your
petpetpet will eat it all and get so full that it can't move.
Then you pick it up and it is yours. Once you have caught your
petpetpet you can equip it just like you would your weapon or
clothing. Each petpetpet will give you certain extra attributes.
The only thing is that you can only have one equipped at a time.

You will notice that there is a lot of upgrading that needs to
be done as you start to explore new areas in this game. When you
enter a new area all of the monsters are going to be stronger
than your petpet. You have to catch up by visiting the shops for
new armor and weapons, visiting the battledome to increase your
attributes, and you will also have to visit the local trainer.

The graphics in this game are very fun, it will be very familiar
to those who have played with Neopets online. The audio isn't
anything to special. I really enjoy the way the enemies interact
when you are fighting them. They don't just stand in one place
while you hit them, when you hit them they fly backwards, it is
actually kind of funny to watch. The only part of the audio that
stuck out in my mind is in the jungle part of the game you hear
crickets and waterfalls that actually sound realistic.

If you are a role-playing game fanatic this game may not be for
you. If you love Neopets then you will love this game. It is
also a good PSP title for the younger players. I really enjoyed
this game because I love the Neopets website. I think you will
enjoy it too. I would give this game 7 out of 10.

About the author:
For more on the psp visit http://psp-game-reviews.blogspot.com

Finding PSP Game Demo Downloads and trying It On Your PSP

by Sandra Stammberger


If you have a PSP, then you probably want to spend some time
with different games because you don't want to keep playing just
one game over and over till you practically know what's going to
happen next. You'll want to go out and buy new games for your
PSP, but of course, you want to know if it's any good, and if
it's going to be fun to play. That way, you can check a game
with a try it and see it reality test. If it's good, then you
can confirm that it's going to be a good game to buy. If not,
then you won't waste money buying a game that you'll regret
later on.Where can you download PSP demo games?

If you want to try out the latest and greatest offerings from
game developers, you can download a demo version for your PSP on
the game developer site. They typically have these ready for
players to try out so that they can see if they'd like to buy
it. As well as that, the Sony PSP website can clue you in on the
latest games that are coming out from different developers. The
best part about downloading games straight from the developer or
Sony's site is that you can be sure that the game you're
downloading will be free from viruses or Trojans, which can be
embedded in the game files. It won't necessarily crash your PSP
if ever you download from somewhere else, but your PC will be
put in danger of being infected by a virus of some sorts.
Compatibility with PSP units

Not all PSPs are created equal. There are PSP units out that are
running on the early 1.5 version of Sony's operating system.
However, if you have a PSP that is running on later versions of
the Sony Operating system software, you can't run PSP game demo
downloads by downloading them straight from the net and copying
the files onto your memory stick.

This is because only the 1.5 version has the ability to run
games from the memory stick. To get around this, you'll have to
downgrade your PSP's software to the 1.5 version from the later
version that you have so that you can run game demo downloads.
You can find out how you can go about this process on your own
through PSP owner forums, where they can teach you how to hack
your PSP and downgrade it to lower firmware.

After you downgrade your PSP unit so that you can run games from
the memory stick, you can just upload your newly downloaded game
demos onto the memory so you can run them. If you're not sure of
the steps on how to do this, you can also find out the process
of uploading a game through PSP owner forums. Game demo
downloads for the PSP are a great way of finding out if a newly
released game really has the goods to back up whatever hype is
surrounding it. And that way as well you can make sure that
you'll be enjoying every bit of your money when you go out to
buy a new game. With UMD games being so expensive and all,
you'll be pleased to know ahead of time that you won't regret
your new game purchase.

About the author:
Sandra Stammberger provides tons of tips and tricks to get the
most out of your PSP on her
Free PSP Downloads Blog. Visit her blog and learn where to
find the latest PSP games, themses, tubes, movies, and videos.

Top PSP game review: Prince of Persia Rival Swords

by James Trent


One of the to PSP games around right now is an
action-packed hack and slash RPG--Prince of Persia: Rival
Swords. This is the conclusion to the Sand of Time trilogy. Here
the return home of our hero doesn't go as planned. Instead of
kicking back and romancing the Empress of Time, he blinks to
find the whole of Babylon on fire, an enemy he had already
defeated returned (and immortal at that), and a madman putting
up bizarre elevators all over his city. If it doesn't have a
weird source of conflict that translates into engaging action,
it can't be one of the top PSP games.



Anyway, it turns out that the use of magic to interfere with
time and space translates into plain interference, which means
future events get screwed. Rescuing the Empress from her destiny
in Warriors Within, our hero has managed to screw up the
consequences of what he did in the trilogy first game. Nice,
right? Gives you more of the same formula to work on. The
solution of course is team up with an old buddy and be a nimble
webless wall jumper, while wielding a whoa double
sword--something our Prince just happens to be good at. Hey,
it's a top PSP game. Don't argue.



Right. The review. The good stuff is that the action and
adventure maintains its hold on the player. Nice and engaging.
There's a lot of very smooth and intuitive transition between
platforms, fights, and narration. Graphics are impressive if you
consider that this is the portable format. Oh yeah, there are
some bonus material that jives things up. You'll see. Top PSP
game, like I said.



The bad stuff is nothing compared to the good, but we mention
them just the same. Sound hiccups happen all the time. You get
used to it though, so that Prince of Persia: Rival Swords, keeps
you glued to your handheld, making it a top PSP
game among the current releases.



More information on this available, just go to PSP
GAMES

About the author:
Hi! James Trent here. I know there are many PSP gamers out
there. I have articles here to download games for our favorite
console. I hope they help!