The Gamer's Quarter

[SuperWes]

And its handled in a very strange way, but it's actually surprisingly decent! Strangely, it's actually more in line with actual PSP games than the arcade-style stuff on the bigger systems.

Up until last week you had to buy downloadable PSP games on your computer at the PSP store and then transfer them via USB cable, but now they've made it so that you can buy stuff directly from the PS3 and transfer them from there. Either way shares the same account, which is good, but they haven't worked out all of the kinks for the PS3 downloads yet. On the PS3, every game you download gets installed like a PS3 downloadable game/demo would, then when you try to launch it, a prompt appears asking you to plug your PSP in through the USB Port. For some reason they don't give you this prompt directly after you download it, forcing you to go back to the games menu before you can actually get the game.

Not sure if I've lost you yet, but it gets even more strange from here out. One of the games I bought is "Ape Quest." The first download is a free 250ish meg demo that can then be expanded on through one of three $10 downloadable content packs (or a bundle with all 3 for $20). Here's where things get strange. The content packs all have the same name and any time you download one it installs over the one you've currently got installed. This means you can only install one of these content packs at a time onto your PSP before you have to go back into the store and overwrite your PS3 install of the game so that you can push the second one on to your PSP. So all in all, it takes three separate downloads and installs before you can get the whole thing onto your system. 4 if you count the demo.

Did you follow all that? If not, that's ok because the whole point was that it's more complicated than it needs to be. Luckily, the game is actually pretty decent!

Ape Quest is a very unique RPG that takes place in the Ape Escape universe, only instead of playing as generic hero dude you play as an actual monkey. Nice! The usual Ape Escape monkey parodies of movies are replaced by monkey parodies of RPGs. In the beginning your father the king gives you a task and you screw it up, unleashing three trapped fiends, one for each piece of downloadable content. Convenient!

Depite parodying RPGs, the game itself does away with many RPG conventions, the most jarring being the lack of exploration. You move around a 3D world map via dots and paths, almost like the Super Mario 3 overworld. As you go from destination to destination, fulfilling quests you always know where you're going and you're not really rewarded for straying from your destination. Random events pop up every 10 or so steps, and occasionally these are RPG battles (which you can speed up to a speed so fast that you can't even tell what's going on), but just as often they're mini-games that are pretty well-put-together and usually pretty silly. Either way you gain experience and money, both of which can quicly deck you out into a way-too-powerful supermonkey. For this reason (and because the game has to keep friendly for people who buy just one piece of downloadable content) it's not very difficult, but it keeps me playing because it's got the whole "just one more quest" feeling that good RPGs give you. I've already finished the "Blue" piece of downloadable content and I'm about half-way through the "Gold" one now.

The big question on my mind is why this isn't just a $30 standalone release. It's definately good enough to be on a UMD, and lesser Ape Escape games have gotten retail releases, so why not this one? I have a theory, but it's sort of drawn out and I don't have time to explain it now. I'll drop it in here if this post generates any sort of discussion.

-Wes
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[Ketch]

could it be so that there are some exclusive titles?

[simplicio]

request thread title change: "The PSP now has downloadable content via the PS3 you don't have, in addition to the PC you probably do have"
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"Worlds turn the new machine to thee. To thee. Though, thine the new machine space."
-Kurt Schwitters, 1919

[SuperWes]

[simplicio]

Call me a Luddite, but I won't really ever use any of the PC stuff either. It's a hassle (haven't even bothered hacking the thing yet, let alone using it for video and whatnot), and hell if I want Sony DRM on my computer.

Wake me up when I can download something to my PSP, from my PSP.
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"Worlds turn the new machine to thee. To thee. Though, thine the new machine space."
-Kurt Schwitters, 1919

[ryan]

You can do that now. There's a PSP website that loads up with movie trailers and demos, along with RSS stuff and news, for download. If you have enough memory on your stick, then you're good to go.
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Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

[SuperWes]