Early year offerings run the gamut of genres.
Craving more titles for your PSP this year? Then Sony’s resolution to deliver six new titles in Q1 should fill you up right. A mix of new IPs and some familiar franchises and faces make up this diverse lineup.
Ape Escape Academy is the first of these titles available on shelves, coming next week on January 17. Putting players in the primate’s shoes this go around, they’ll have to work their way through Specter’s school for ape education. Featuring 40 mini-games that make up six years of schooling, you’ll have to earn top marks to ensure victory. The game will also feature multiplayer action via the ad hoc wireless functionality of the PSP.
After that, Neopets: Petpet Adventures – The Wand of Wishing is the next course offered up by Sony. The hidden Petpet world of Petaria is brought to life for the first time in 3D on the PSP, wherein players create their own character from one of the four popular NeoPet species to discover the mystery surrounding the missing Wand of Wishing. With the ability to compete head to head and discover over 100 different characters and 800 items, February 28 can’t come too soon for the NeoPet faithful.
Baseball fans are the next on the list to receive a back scratching from Sony, with MLB 06 The Show coming out on March 1. They’re offering gamers many new features this year, like the ability to create your own player and (hopefully) turn them into a star player on your favorite team in the Career Mode. Players will also be able to track multiple seasons in Season Mode now, as well as set up rivalries with stats tracked for the life of the major league feud (Yankees-Red Sox hatred digital-style!). But let’s not forget the ability to pit present versus past in the new Historical Greats mode. As an added bonus, gamers will be updated in game (as long as they’re online) about the latest news on their favorite team or the league as a whole with he new in-game news service.
Pursuit Force is making its way to the PSP in March as well, allowing gamers to assume the role of a rookie police officer tasked with putting a stop to gang violence in Capital City. There’s high speed chases, suspects fleeing on foot, the need to aerial assaults, and many other death defying stunts to be performed. One of the main features highlighted by Sony is the ability of this rookie copy to jump from vehicle to vehicle at speeds greater than 150MPH. Battling with gangs never seemed so exciting.
If tackling the problem head-on isn’t your idea of a good time, there’s always the ability to get the job done a tad quieter (if you’re not spotted) as Gabe Logan, Precision Strike Operative in Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror. The head of a government agency that doesn’t exist, Gabe has to think fast or he’ll end up dead, and who wants the Secretary to disavow any knowledge of their existence. Having both a single player campaign and an online mode filled with “melee attacks, target lock, precision aiming, target and vision enhancements, enhanced artificial intelligence (AI), and high-tech weaponry,” plenty is promised to keep gamers busy with this March release.
The last of Sony’s Q1 2006 releases, and only one self-titled, features a familiar ottsel named Daxter. The game takes place before Jak II, where Daxter is working as a pest exterminator to help discover clues that will lead him to his partner Jak. Daxter is also receiving a March release.
Is that enough to tide gamers over for the next wave?
Note: Source: http://www.gametab.com/news/