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Official PSP Minis Thread

C

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
Why isn't there an Age of Zombies thread? I know I'm making one for my Mini when it comes out. You guys need to make one!!

(bought AoZ btw. :D)
 
Agent X

Agent X

Member
DiscoJer said:
From the ESRB listing, could be either one. SNK has a PSP Neo-Geo emulator (used for their various collections), I guess there is no reason they couldn't bundle a rom with that and release it as a mini.
Click to expand...

I vote against releasing emulated Neo-Geo games as Minis. The main reason for this is because (at the moment) Minis have certain restrictions placed upon them, which include no support for multiple simultaneous players.

I'd prefer they treat them similar to PS1 classics, which can be played on both PS3 and PSP (much like Minis), but also have the ability to support multiple players on PS3.
 
M

Mercutio

Member
Holy freaking F.

Age of Zombies is awesome. This game is well worth your $5 folks. Thank god it's playable on the PSP, I can see a developer spending tons of time and love on this as an iPhone game and it being totally unplayable like every iPhone game I've bought.
 
T

Takao

Banned
Has Gameloft abandoned us (no Asphalt 5, Real Soccer, Uno,etc.)? I was kinda interested in Uno if it actually had multiplayer to play with friends. Yeah I know Minis shouldn't have multiplayer, but like Tetris, I'm sure they could make a PSP-Only Uno. Also wanted to hear something about Burn Zombie Burn 2D, and Pac-Man CE by now...
 
T

Takao

Banned
Takao said:
Has Gameloft abandoned us (no Asphalt 5, Real Soccer, Uno,etc.)? I was kinda interested in Uno if it actually had multiplayer to play with friends. Yeah I know Minis shouldn't have multiplayer, but like Tetris, I'm sure they could make a PSP-Only Uno. Also wanted to hear something about Burn Zombie Burn 2D, and Pac-Man CE by now...
Click to expand...

Seems Gameloft isn't exactly trilled with the reception their Minis have recieved if this article is true. The person from Gameloft seems a bit confused, as I think he's blaming the cost of the hardware, which makes no sense, because the PS3 and PSP have a combined userbase of like 90 million. The reason their stuff isn't selling is because they put out trash (Hero Of Sparta, never played Let's Golf) available on other platforms for considerabley less. There's been successful Minis, both Dracula: Undead, and Tetris have been in the PSP's Top 10 download section for weeks (Tetris has been there for months). And obviously Halfbrick has done well, as they're about to publish their fourth Minis next week.
 
G

GothPunk

Member
Something that annoys me about minis is when they're released for $5 in the US and then released for €5 on the EU PSN. Has that become the standard price for some minis on the EU PSN? For the record I did buy Age of Zombies and I really enjoy it but I'm wondering why the difference in price across the regions.

Does anyone know when Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess is due for release? February has come and gone and no M(P)SMP!

chubigans, can you give us a wee hint as to what your mini will be like?
 
G

Gamecocks625

Member
Takao said:
Seems Gameloft isn't exactly trilled with the reception their Minis have recieved if this article is true. The person from Gameloft seems a bit confused, as I think he's blaming the cost of the hardware, which makes no sense, because the PS3 and PSP have a combined userbase of like 90 million. The reason their stuff isn't selling is because they put out trash (Hero Of Sparta, never played Let's Golf) available on other platforms for considerabley less. There's been successful Minis, both Dracula: Undead, and Tetris have been in the PSP's Top 10 download section for weeks (Tetris has been there for months). And obviously Halfbrick has done well, as they're about to publish their fourth Minis next week.
Click to expand...

Gameloft's prices probably hasn't helped. Isn't Let's Golf like $6 or $7? I'd rather pay an additional $10 for Hot Shots Golf. That also brings me to another point, Minis will take off when they differentiate themselves from existing titles. Heroes of Sparta and Let's Golf are copycat versions of God of War and Hot Shots Tennis. They might have worked well on the iPhone, though.

With that said, I'll still buy any music/puzzle game that is similiar to Lumines. Bring on Block Cascade Fusion, Groovin Blocks, and MelodyBloxx! :lol
 
C

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
GothPunk said:
chubigans, can you give us a wee hint as to what your mini will be like?
Click to expand...
Well, it's definitely something a bit different. 30 levels, not in the shooter/racer/puzzle genre (I'd say...arcade/action genre if I had to), classical music. :D

I should have it out on beta internally by Friday, but another company is porting the game so I don't know how long that might take. Shouldn't be too long, I hope.
 
G

GothPunk

Member
chubigans said:
Well, it's definitely something a bit different. 30 levels, not in the shooter/racer/puzzle genre (I'd say...arcade/action genre if I had to), classical music. :D

I should have it out on beta internally by Friday, but another company is porting the game so I don't know how long that might take. Shouldn't be too long, I hope.
Click to expand...
Classical music, eh? Colour me interested. Good luck with it so as you head towards release.
 
J

jvm

Gamasutra.
Blu_LED said:
Hmm, first party Minis. Does anyone have any media on them?
Click to expand...
Some folks (DMPrince, maybe?) bought a couple of the Sony-branded minis. Verdict was they all sucked. Check the store thread for this week.

Vector TD was pretty sweet up until the time I had to go change a diaper and made a bottle. But unless you're living in my house, you probably won't have that issue.
 
CamHostage

CamHostage

Member
Agent X said:
I vote against releasing emulated Neo-Geo games as Minis. The main reason for this is because (at the moment) Minis have certain restrictions placed upon them, which include no support for multiple simultaneous players.
Click to expand...

PC Engine games are released as part of yet another download initiative run by Sony called I think Game Archive? They're not Minis, the interface and run engine is a little closer to PS1 games (including customized home menus and such.) Also, like PS1 games, they run on both PSP and PS3.

I would think the NeoGeo games would come out the same way.
 
T

Trailblaster

Banned
Mercutio said:
Holy freaking F.

Age of Zombies is awesome. This game is well worth your $5 folks. Thank god it's playable on the PSP, I can see a developer spending tons of time and love on this as an iPhone game and it being totally unplayable like every iPhone game I've bought.
Click to expand...

Yeah i bought it today. I actually laughed out load at the
One liner then, "Yeeeeahh!" part

So awesome.
 
Agent X

Agent X

Member
jvm said:
Some folks (DMPrince, maybe?) bought a couple of the Sony-branded minis. Verdict was they all sucked. Check the store thread for this week.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was DMPrince who apparently got all of them.

It's kind of deplorable that first-party Minis were launched with no fanfare, and that (at least according to DMPrince's comments) didn't turn out very good. Japan Studio has churned out some great PSP games like the LocoRoco and Patapon series, so the low quality of their Minis is kind of surprising. (Maybe that's why Sony didn't hype them?)

Again, I have to wonder if SCEI (and even SCEA, to an extent) doesn't "understand" Minis like SCEE does. Perhaps it's not so much that SCEI's Minis are "bad", but perhaps "overpriced" It seems like it's hard to go wrong at $2.99, but for some very simplistic game concepts, even that's too high of a price. Perhaps if they were a dollar or two cheaper, they might be somewhat acceptable as cute little diversions, even if they're only played once or twice.

Stewart Gilray of Just Add Water was interviewed on episode 152 the PS Nation podcast a few weeks ago. From about 38:00 to about 48:00, Mr. Gilray and the podcast hosts had some very interesting things to say about the pricing scheme of Minis (also see posts 445-448 in this thread). One stunning revelation is that Minis don't have to be priced so much higher than their equivalent counterparts on iPhone/iPod Touch. Developers have freedom to specify their own prices for Minis, and most of them choose to price significantly higher than iPhone/iPod Touch simply "because they can".

I think the implication is that this might be the byproduct of Minis still being "nascent" and low-scale relative to the rapidly maturing iPhone/iPod Touch software store, and with the relative lack of competition on Minis, developers feel they can get away with things that wouldn't pass muster on iPhone/iPod Touch where they'd have to compete with literally thousands of other applications.

CamHostage said:
PC Engine games are released as part of yet another download initiative run by Sony called I think Game Archive? They're not Minis, the interface and run engine is a little closer to PS1 games (including customized home menus and such.) Also, like PS1 games, they run on both PSP and PS3.

I would think the NeoGeo games would come out the same way.
Click to expand...

That's what I think they'll do. I just hope they come out soon--the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 games have been out in Japan for several months, and I thought they were originally supposed to start releasing them here by the end of 2009.
 
T

Takao

Banned
I listened to that PlayStation Nation podcast episode, and yeah, it is pretty sad the way the developers themselves treat the Minis. I'm buying Just Add Water's $1 Minis title on the sole basis that that's how things ought to be. I'm not saying every game should be $1, I'm just saying we should see things less than $5.

And hopefully now that we've seen that SCEJ has developed Minis, that means that Japan will finally be getting them, as that'll likely open the flood gates to a lot of indie Japanese games. And hopefully PAC-MAN CE!
 
DiscoJer

DiscoJer

Member
The thing is, while minis might not be competing with each other as much on the PSP, like they are on the iPhone, they are competing with the PSP's back catalog.

A lot of pretty good (or at least decent) games are $15 or less. So if it's a choice between 3 minis at $5 (pretty much the average price these days) or one old title, I'm going to buy the old title. On the other hand, I do mostly bite if it's $3 or less.

Gameloft is a good example. Why would anyone buy their Golf Game for $7 (the launch price), when you could get HSG for $15 (on PSN or about that price on UMD for the sequel) or Pangya Golf for $9.99 (on UMD) which are both better games and have more content.

Their other mini is Hero of Sparta, a God War clone (loosely). Why pay $7 for that when GoW is what, $20? (Much less on UMD).

They should have focused on stuff that the PSP doesn't have. Uno, for instance. Maybe that Dungeon Hunter game (as the PSP doesn't have a lot of western RPGs).


It's also amazing at how much confusion there is among developers about minis. Many seem to think they only work on the PSPGo (the Gameloft guy seems to allude to this in the article, citing the high hardware price, also Slitherine seems to made that mistake on their upcoming Ice Trucker mini), not on all PSPs and the PS3 as well (mostly and that seems to be by developer choice).

Consumers, too. This is really more Sony's fault. They need to push the program a lot better (SCEE does a pretty good job on their blog, but they need a bigger PR push).
 
D

Diablohead

Member
How much is Let's Golf on minis? I bought the game on my touch when it first came out for something like £3.99 and had a good time with it as a portable golf game, since then it's been cheaper.

Are they charging £5+ for it? :lol
 
J

jvm

Gamasutra.
Finished one of Vector TD's beginner levels. Quite good. Recommended.

Someone said a while back in one of the PS Store threads (or was it here?) that Vector TD was hard as nails. I'd agree with that sentiment.
 
yurinka

yurinka

Member
This thread deserves to be bumped. Guys, yesterday I bought a masterpiece called Rocket Racing.
Run guys to pick it up! Halfbrick is building my respect as the best Minis developer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1-oqVKIxBc&feature=player_embedded

It's a great and really fun futuristic racer, something like a top / down (think Micro Machines) Wipeout.
The ships hover a lot, you get boost when "grinding" (drifting near the walls) and there is additional boost (green) and braking (purple) panels in the road.
Good music, great track design, cool visuals and a lot of challenges that are unlocked in a Wipeout HD map way.
It also features "hot seat" multiplayer modes.
It's really awesome, and my favorite Minis in addition with Tetris right now.
 
DiscoJer

DiscoJer

Member
Yeah, Rocket Racing is pretty fun, but it's a little frill free. It would have been nice if you could change your name (get tired of being called Green Player - though at least you can choose ships) or if it had some sort of leaderboards for lap times.

The gameplay is really interesting too, how you have to hover near the wall (or grind as it calls it) to get the ground effect which moves you faster, which seems to be the key to doing well.

I guess it would be easier with an analog thrust, so you can feather it when you get too far away from the wall, instead you have to change your angle which is tricky because you can overcompensate.

Anyway, certainly one of the most original titles in the mini line (albeit a port of a Xbox Live indie game, but I mean in concept)
 
R

Rlan

Member
yurinka said:
This thread deserves to be bumped. Guys, yesterday I bought a masterpiece called Rocket Racing.
Run guys to pick it up! Halfbrick is building my respect as the best Minis developer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1-oqVKIxBc&feature=player_embedded

It's a great and really fun futuristic racer, something like a top / down (think Micro Machines) Wipeout.
The ships hover a lot, you get boost when "grinding" (drifting near the walls) and there is additional boost (green) and braking (purple) panels in the road.
Good music, great track design, cool visuals and a lot of challenges that are unlocked in a Wipeout HD map way.
It also features "hot seat" multiplayer modes.
It's really awesome, and my favorite Minis in addition with Tetris right now.
Click to expand...

I like you!

Poor Phil is all the way out at GDC at the moment, so I'll see if I can can help out with the promotion for now.

Halfbrick's Rocket Racing is now available on the Minis program, completely playable (and awesome looking) on both the PSP and PS3!

image005.jpg


RocketRacing6.jpg


RocketRacing4.jpg


Despite my "work for the company" bias, I can wholeheartedly say that it's one of the most awesome titles on the minis program right now.

Pick up it and Age Of Zombies (and Echoes and Blast Off) today for a selection of quality PSP gaming! :D
 
G

Gamecocks625

Member
I have all of Halfbrick's other games (Echoes, Blast Off, Age of Zombies) so I might as well get Rocket Racing :) Thanks for the impressions.

What's next for Halfbrick?

A Lumines/music/puzzle game? right? ;)
 
C

Carl

Member
Takao said:
Really hoping to see Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess this month.
Click to expand...

Same, that looks like a genuinely awesome Mini.

Loving HalfBrick's Minis by the way. Put on Age of Zombies for "10 minutes" and ended up playing it for several hours. Great fun, and a bargain too - this is how Minis should be! Picked up Rocket Racing too, that's also an awesome one. Looking forward to more HalfBrick Minis :D
 
DiscoJer

DiscoJer

Member
Freekscape, which to me is probably the best original looking Mini I've seen, is now due out April 8th (in Europe, maybe elsewhere) according to the developer's twitter.

http://www.freekscape.com/

It's a platformer. Not exactly 3D (no depth), but the screen rotates 90 degrees every so often, which is kinda cool.

It probably looks more like a PS1 game than PSP, but considering most minis look like flash games, it's pretty impressive. Also one of the few original, not-ported from something else titles. For $5 it looks good.
 
T

Takao

Banned
Freakscape looks nice. Kind of reminds me of my beloved Klonoa, so I'll try it out when it hits North America.

Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess is also set for release this month in Europe. Another highly anticipated Minis title of mine.
 
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