PlayStation Network Collection Power Pack

Dom Robinson reviews

PlayStation Network Collection Power Packfor Sony PSPDistributed by
Sony

• Price: £14.99
• Players: 1-online
• Widescreen: Yes
• Vote and comment on this game:View Comments

PlayStation Network Collection Power Pack is one of two titles, each featuring a collection of threegames, released in time for Xmas which also features online play and, in this case, two of the three games have a single-player offlinemode too.

First up, Flow (below-right) features you playing as some kind of microorganism floating round and building yourself up by eatingothers – and often avoiding other eating you, while some gorgeous, ethereal classical-style music plays in the background.It’s bizarre stuff and good entertainment, but only for a while. The lack of any real definition to the game is what hampersits longevity. Maybe there’s some hidden meaning to the game, but… I didn’t find it.

Then comes Syphon Filter: Combat Ops and unlike the previous games in the series, such as the last-released title,Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow, this one is online-only which is notthe kind of thing I’m normally a fan of, but if it’s your bag then rest assured you can indulge to your heart’s content addingweapons, spawn points, objects, etc, customising all elements of the map to play with online or locally with friends.

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The main game, for me at least, was Beats, which goes along the lines of Dance Dance Revolution, except by pressingbuttons. It gets more complex as time presses on and the best bit is that it uses your own music on the PSP memory stick whichis so cool as it works out where to place the beats of each track when delivering the icons you need to match with buttonpresses of all four Playstation symbols.

I can play the game to all those tracks I’d never admit to listening to 🙂

And, as such, that makes this particular game a 10/10 for enjoyment! Whether it’s Incantation’s Catchapaya, Teach In’sDing-a-Dong or even Terry Wogan’s Floral Dance.. oh, I’ve said too much already.

There’s also a ‘jammin’ option which has you messing about with various instruments but it was nowhere near as good asthe main game for me.

What I am worried about though, overall, is that even though the PSP is only just over three years old and that there’s beenrumours about it being discontinued and the games support decreasing, this is starting to feel like a self-fulfilling policy.It’s the first pair of titles I’ve had through review since God of War, six months ago, and that if there were an abundanceof titles due then we’re well into the Xmas build-up – as it’s late November as I type this – and we would’ve seen them by now.

It would be a great shame for the PSP to come to an end as it has featured some incredible games such asGrand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, the aforementionedGod of War,Killzone: Liberation andSOCOM: US Tactical Strike. I’d rather have more action-based gameslike those than the shout-into-the-thing childish nonsense of most of the Nintendo DS games.

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GRAPHICS
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ENJOYMENT


OVERALLReview copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2008.View the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>

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