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Handheld Game of the Year

Posted Jan 6, 2009 at 8:21AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: PSP, Nintendo DS Tags: Hex, Kratos, Olympus, PS2, Ready At Dawn

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Gino D:

Best Handheld Game: God of War: Chains of Olympus

Runner's Up: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Comments: If only they released the North American version this year, "Best Handheld Game" would have easily gone to Dissidia (which probably won't be surprising to most of you QJ regular readers). GoW Chains is my vote for 2008 though, with Crisis Core and a very "opposite end of the spectrum" Professor Layton following right behind.

Isaac C:

Best Handheld Game: Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift

Runner's Up: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Comments: A DS game over Crisis Core?! Do I want to lose all my credibility as a gamer? Well I'm still playing Grimoire, and Crisis is gathering dust, so I'd say my money was better spent there. They're both Squeenix anyway.

Mabie A:

Best Handheld Game: God of War: Chains of Olympus

Runner's Up: Loco Roco 2

Comments: Ancient body paint's never been this hot, thanks to the unbelievable graphics Ready at Dawn managed with God of War. Definitely a shining light in a year where PSP software's struggling in quality population. Loco Roco 2 because a) they're cute, b) it's not just stupid, mindless fun, c) it makes time fly by so fast I quickly find myself having only two hours left for sleep before I drag myself back to the office. That's when you know a game really is effective at dishing out the fun factor.

Karl B:

Best Handheld Game: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Runner's Up: God of War: Chains of Olympus, Wild Arms XF

Comments: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Beautiful graphics, tight gameplay, and a story that still manages to elicit emotions even when you know damn well how it's gonna end.

Seriously, the last battle (not the last boss fight) brought tears to my eyes.

God of War: Chains of Olympus - Graphically speaking, it's kind of hard to believe that this is a PSP game. The tight control scheme adds to the enjoyment even though the enemies do get a bit repetitive at times. Hey Ready At Dawn, come back to PSP development please!
Wild Arms XF - This game got a lot of flak for a lot of things (story, sound, the way all your equips get wiped once you change job classes or when a party member leaves and then comes back), but for me, this game defined PSP strategy gaming in 2008. The hex-based system is a welcome addition and the different objectives instead of the usual "kill all enemies" is a godsend.

Glenn M:

Best Handheld Game: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Runner's Up: God of War: Chains of Olympus

Comments: - The pieces of the story come together, and Crisis Core turns a tiny optional story scene in FF7 into a PSP classic.. people just had to get a PSP for this, if they were expecting it to come out on consoles.. it'd be worth buying a PSP just for this game..
- who can say no to kratos? He tops the 3rd person adventure game genre with his brutal hack-and-slash and bloodbaths.. this is the kind of game that you turn on in the day, then look up from your PSP utterly surprised that the sun has set..

Chris C:

Best Handheld Game: God of War: Chains of Olympus

Runner's Up: Super Stardust HD, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Comments: Confession time, I never really liked the original God of War... it was alright. And then God of War II hooked me, easily one of the best games on the PS2. Would Chains of Olympus live up to it? Easily, Ready at Dawn pulled it off and made it look like an effortless task. It's a shame their PSP development games are behind them, because they were the best in the biz.

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I somewhat agree. I played Grimoire much longer than Crisis Core, however, I found that the short amount of time spent on Crisis was much more satisfying then the large amount spent on Grimoire. Of course, there's much more of a grind aspect to Grimoire that added lots of hours of extra fun that wasn't present in Crisis Core.

# lol DS games bites the dust — houaruto 2009-01-06 13:58

a crappy handheld that sell infinite garbage 2 eary stages of developing gamer mind kids

# ... — TheLastGuitarHero 2009-01-06 19:44

So damn true. I hope they come back. God of War ftw, I couldn't tell you how many times I beat that game. I'll tell you what, first running through God of War you have no choice but to play it on Hard (or lower), but God mode is how that game was meant to be played, you get more time out of it, requires more skill, and it is the full package for the PSP. RAD is amazing. Come back!

# Yeah — blackthorn 2009-01-20 11:28

I don't know what the big fuss with Crisis Core was really, I wasn't all that impressed with it as a game unto itself. The kwirky levelling system frustated me more than anything and was one defining factor that made Crisis Core either a love it or hate it kind of game.

GoW was certainly a top contender in terms of gameplay and graphical content, but the story was short and the replay value minimal. For the fans of the series and game you'd get more out of it, but for the casual gamer it seems to lack a fair bit of variety to be honest. Kill bad guy(s), collect power ups, kill end level boss/solve puzzle, rinse and repeat.

FF tactics was a solid venture, but there's no doubt that it was Dissidia who stole the show this year in the tactical market and was a strong contender for GOTY simply because of it's stunning presentation and near endless tactial play and amusing, whilst engaging plot.

Still, it would have been nice to see a decent sandbox style game on the market this year, but as yet, no one has stepped up to the plate. All in all, 2008 was a very lean year for the PSP with only a small handful of quality releases and a whole bunch of ***** in between.

I think far too many Dev companies expected instant success on the PSP and as such didn't pay close attention to the detail or quality.

Sadly, I feel the PSP is a dead system now and whilst we might see one or two future releases, I highly doubt the platform is going to be looked back upon in future years hosting much in the way of real classics like the N64 or SNES did.

+1 # - — APerson 2009-02-02 00:12

I don't know who Isaac C is but he's lost all credibility. And not for his choice but for him trying to make out that the DS should for any reason have worse games than the PSP, given the sales and ratings of DS games one must be a fanboy of the highest calibre to say something as immature as that.

My handheld GOTY goes right to Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. It was one of only 2 DS games I played this year but it puts everything else down, especially on PSP (since Ecclesia is an original title, not a port or anything and not watered down in the slightest). Amazing visual and art design, catchy music, fantastic atmosphere and long gameplay (at 15 hours and still trying to 100% it). Perfect game in every respect.

A2 was the best strategy RPG. Crisis Core was absolute pants and I'm gutted that I put £20 for this preorder, it's now worthless second hand.

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