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Twisty
By Ahchay
There is something about vertically oriented games that appeals directly to my inner gamer - show me Scramble, Phoenix, Space Invaders or what-have-you on my TV and I'll play it in a listless sort of way for a bit and then get bored and wander off to do something else. Show me the same game in a vertical cab, or on a rotated monitor and I'll play it for hours. Same game, same mechanic, same graphics, same faults - only the delivery medium changes and yet...
...And yet, there is something about the act of rotating a monitor onto it's side that affects me in a gutteral, almost visceral, way. Something alien, something out of the ordinary. That simple action stops the screen being used for watching Eastenders or writing a letter or, well, or anything else really - a portrait screen can only and is only used for playing videogames. Or showing train times, but I'm choosing to ignore that.
Definition of 'Legend' may vary
It's for this reason, more-or-less, why most of the arcade games I love are vertical rather than horizontal, and why I've never really been sure about home conversions of the same on any machine from the Spectrum to the 360 and most points in between. The compromises are just too great for me to ignore, and the connections you don't realise you're making are the strongest - I look at a vertical game squashed down and stretched out or squeezed in and it's just wrong.
Which is where the PSP comes in. I'm not even going to mention the games themselves - after all, you have to make that call yourself and you're as capable of reading the back of the box as I am - and concentrate instead on the only thing that really matters with compilations like this. Does it work? Does it play well? Does it look right? Does it feel right?
And the answers? Yes. Yes. Yes and maybe.
Thats better!
The PSP, as those of us who have resisted the temptation to upgrade their firmware will know, is more than capable of emulating most arcade games perfectly. And, for the most part, the games herein make the transition with aplomb. Presentation too is great (odd button configuration aside, but that can be changed) and once you press the triangle button a few times the games present themselves in glorious full-screen vertical mode. Hoorah.
And then 'maybe' rears it's ugly little head. For playing the games in vertical mode necessitates holding the PSP in a curious two-handed vice like grip not seen since the Lynx version of Klax.
And it's the connections you don't realise you're making that are the strongest...
November 2006
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