Best PSP Games and Where to Play Them on PS4 and PS5

PlayStation sells 33 PSP games for PS4 and PS5. Daxter, Killzone: Liberation, Jeanne d’Arc, both Syphon Filter games, Resistance: Retribution, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters and Patapon 3 are all among them, at $9.99 each in the US, and all 33 are on PlayStation’s Classics Catalogue list for PlayStation Plus Premium members.

If you want a single game to keep, buy Daxter, and Jeanne d’Arc is the pick for anything slower than a shooter. For several, take a month of Premium, or Deluxe in India, which covers all 33 and the PlayStation 1 and 2 games around them.

Others came back in a different form. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was remastered, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep sits inside a collection, and LocoRoco and Patapon have PS4 versions. For a few we found no current version at all: the two God of War games, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and Burnout Legends.

How to play each PSP game today

Prices are the regular ones on PlayStation’s US store, and it sets a local price in other countries. Where the publisher gives a North American date, that is the year shown.

Buy one, or take a month of Premium

On the US store 31 of the 33 are $9.99. Disney Pixar Up is $5.99 and LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is $14.99. The ones we saw on the UK store were £7.99, and Rs 832 on the Indian store.

The Classics Catalogue is the other route, and PlayStation says it is for Premium members only. Premium is $19.99 a month in the US and £14.99 in the UK. India has no Premium plan. The top plan there is Deluxe, at Rs 1,109 a month, and it carries the same catalogue.

The sums differ by country. In the US two games bought outright cost $19.98, a cent less than a month of Premium. In the UK two cost £15.98 against £14.99 for the month, and in India Rs 1,664 against Rs 1,109. So buy if you want one game to keep, and take a month’s membership if you want to sample several. PlayStation notes that catalogue games can be given an end date and removed.

What you get in the PS4 and PS5 versions

PlayStation’s listings describe each of the 33 as the PSP version converted for PS4 and PS5, with up-rendering, rewind, quick save and custom video filters added. The same listings warn that a game may behave differently from the PSP original and that PSP accessories are not supported. All 33 are listed as one player.

Sony’s listing has Daxter sneaking around Haven City disguised as an exterminator to break his friend Jak out of prison, rated Everyone 10+. Killzone: Liberation was made for the PSP, and sends one soldier to stop the Helghast general Armin Metrac. PlayStation Store files it under action and shooter, and rates it Teen.

Jeanne d’Arc is a tactical role-playing game set in the Hundred Years’ War, with a fantasy twist: a magic armlet, mythical creatures and 16 characters to command. The listing offers English and Japanese voices.

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and Logan’s Shadow are two action games starring the operative Gabe Logan, sold separately. The three PlayStation 1 Syphon Filter games are in the same catalogue, so a Premium member can play the series in order.

Resistance: Retribution is a shooter set after Resistance: Fall of Man. Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters is described by Sony as an original adventure built for the PSP. Patapon 3 is the rhythm game in which you drum commands to an army, with more than 80 quests.

The rest are Ape Academy, Ape Academy 2, Ape Escape P, Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light, Disney Pixar Up, echochrome, echoshift, Gravity Crash Portable, Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier, Key of Heaven, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, LocoRoco Midnight Carnival, MediEvil Resurrection, No Heroes Allowed!, Pinball Heroes, Pursuit Force, Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice, Secret Agent Clank, Super Stardust Portable, Thrillville and Thrillville: Off the Rails, plus the Bandai Namco four below. The UK and Indian lists have one more, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny, which is not on the US list. Anyone who came for the bricks and owns a Switch has a longer choice of Lego games for Nintendo Switch.

Bandai Namco’s four, and the multiplayer warning

God Eater Burst, Tekken 6, Tekken: Dark Resurrection and Ridge Racer 2 need the small print read. God Eater Burst was built around teams of up to four hunters, and its listing says multiplayer is not supported in this version. Tekken 6 and Ridge Racer 2 carry the same warning. They only make sense if you are content to play alone.

Remade or remastered for newer consoles

Crisis Core Reunion is the way to the Final Fantasy VII story, at $49.99 for PS4 and PS5, five times the price of the others. Square Enix calls it a remaster of the original with an HD graphics overhaul, a remastered soundtrack and an updated combat system.

The Final Mix version of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep is one of the six titles in Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, $49.99 on PS4. PlayStation Store also lists a PS5 edition of that collection at $39.99.

LocoRoco Remastered and LocoRoco 2 Remastered are $14.99 each on PS4, and both are in the Classics Catalogue. So are Patapon Remastered and Patapon 2 Remastered, at the same price. Bandai Namco sells that pair as Patapon 1+2 Replay on PS5 for $29.99.

Konami describes Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles as a 3D remake of Rondo of Blood that also included the original Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night. Castlevania Requiem on PS4 bundles those two originals at a regular price of $19.99. The 3D remake is not part of it.

Two more are back. Persona 3 Portable, remastered, is $19.99 on PS4 from SEGA. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is one of the games in Konami’s Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.2, $49.99 on PS5.

God of War and the games left behind

PlayStation’s own God of War page lists Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta as PSP releases, from 2008 and 2010, and gives neither a buy button. Neither is on the Classics Catalogue list.

The address of the old PSP listing for Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories on PlayStation Store now opens an empty page. Rockstar sells the game for iPhone and Android, where its listings offer a free trial of up to thirty minutes, then the full game as a single in-app purchase. We found no version of Vice City Stories on the Classics Catalogue list, on Google Play or on the App Store. For that kind of game on a phone today, there are games like Grand Theft Auto for Android.

EA’s old page for Burnout Legends now leads to its Burnout page, which lists a single game, Burnout Paradise Remastered. That one is $19.99 on PS4 and is a different game.

If you still own a PSP

PlayStation’s notice on the PSP store says the store on the handheld closed in 2016, and that since July 2021 you can no longer search or make in-game purchases on a PSP. It also says you can still download PSP content you bought before, from the Download List on the device, and that PSP content on the PS3 and PS Vita stores can still be bought.