While Nintendo has dominatꦿed the handheld gaming market for years, that doesn’t mean their crusade was beyond competition. Among a few companies, Sony stood out as the runner-up for the biggest market share in the industry. Their foray into handheld gaming began with the Pla𝓀yStation Portable, otherwise known as the PSP.

Unlike the Nintendo DS (the Big N’s rival console at the time), the PSP was focused on more traditional gaming, just in the palm of the consumer’s hand. Having classic button inputs with a singular screen in the middle, Sony wanted to have th♏e benefit of portable gaming, but have more power involved than their competitors.

The PSP gave rise to a few exclusive franchises that would become cult classics in many people’s eyes. It was also the home of several spin-off titles to beloved franchises like Ratchet and Clank and Jak. Sony had a good idea of what to do with the system, and i𓂃꧒t performed well commercially.

However, Sony could never gain a complete hold over the handheld gaming m♎arket, and that was partially due to the games on the PSP. There were quite a bit that were just awful, not having the good design of games people could find on Sony’s h🤪ome consoles. On the other hand, there were other good titles that simply didn’t catch enough attention to fly off store shelves. As such, they faded into obscurity.

With that in mind, let’s look at 15 of t𒁃he worst PSP games and 15 that deserve a second chance.

30 𝔉 Worst:🐓 Invizimals

While the novelty of a PSP camera was nice, the attached Invizimals left a lot to be desired. Being little more than a knock-off AR version of Pokemon, this game failed to bring the attention of gamers the same way that Game Freak did all those years ago. A lot of the mechanics seemed half-baked as well, foregoing the exploratio🦩n elements of the game that inspired it. It ꦍstill managed to get a sequel, but that was even less understood than the first.

29 🗹 Underrated: P꧂atapon 3

The Patapon franchise was one of the best on the PSP, with the first two games in the series garnering a lot of attention. However, the finale to the series, Patapon 3, was released in a time where it was easily out shadowed by bigger games. As such, it failed to garner as much interest as its predecessors, despite further going into the heavy customization options that were established earlier in the series. It also managed to be a satisfying finale to a charmi🔯ng and well-designed trilogy.

28 🍸 🐻 Worst: Work Time Fun

Work Time Fun is game that took inspiration from WarioWare. Players would be sent to complete a series of mini-games. Instead of being attached to party modes, this game would reward players🎃 with currency that could be spent on arbitrary additions to the experience. It could add some neat functions to the PSP itself, but those were more novel than clever ideas. The mini-games were all bland and weren’t executed with the same level of detail that went into Nintendo’s weirder franchise.

27 Underrated🥃: Lemmings

Who knew that managing a team of creatures moving on their own would be so much fun? The novel idea behind Lemmings was that players had to prevent a group of little critters from meeting their end in harmful ways. Whether it be adding new things to a stage or telling them to perform certain actions, this game stretched the mind as well as player’s reaction time. It was also jam-packed with co🐟ntent,𓆏 having over one hundred levels to enjoy.

26 Worst: Infection 𒁏 𒅌

Infection is a game pღlagued by its own ambition. The idea of infecting oth﷽er players’ PSPs with a zombified version of yourself (the cure to which only coming by performing certain actions) is cool on paper, but the actual game leaves a lot to desire. It’s mostly hurt by the fact that it isn’t very fun. Shooting is wonky, and the mechanics themselves don’t work as well as they should. The idea could’ve been much more popular among PSP owners if it wasn’t so boring to play.

25 Underrated: Star Wars Battlef𓃲ꦅront: Elite Squadron

Where Star Wars Battlefront II marked the end of the franchise on home consoles for a while, it continued on handheld devices after that point. The last one in the series before EA took over was Star Wars: Battlefront: Elite Squadron. While the story was an unfinished mess that tried to make sense of the unreleased details of Battlefront III, the gameplay improved a lot. The controls were more concise, and battles could take p💃lace simultaneouslꦇy on ground and in space.

24 🌊 Worst: Prince Of Persia: Revelations

A hack and slash game at its worst, Prince of Persia: Revelations is a bad port of one of the worst games in the entire franchise. Not only was the life and heart of Sands of Time removed from the equation, but it was replaced with a drab adventure that was trying too much to appeal to angstyꦛ teenagers. That’s all without mentioning how simplistic the combat was, making every encounter feel the same. Then there were the numerous glitches and loading screens that players could never shake.

23 💖 Underrated: Ultimate Ghosts﷽ N Goblins

Ghosts N Goblins became one of the most renowned games on the NES for its clever design and brutal difficulty. In Ultimate Ghosts N Goblins on the P🎃SP, the vision of the original is kept intact. Not only are the character animations identical to the NES counterpart, but so is the difficulty. The PSP version has updated graphics and a new sound design to go along with it that give it a more timeless feel. It hearkens back to 16-bit graphics while adding a few new modern touches of its own.

22 ♍ ♛ Worst: Ape Escape Academy

All of the love behind the Ape Escape franchise has everything to do with players controlling Spike and catching all sorts of mischievous monkeys throughout various settings. Ape Escape Academy on the PSP threw that formula out the window in favor of a mini-game compilation where the apes were ju❀st doing all sorts of crazy things for no apparent reason. The result is a watered-down game that never fully lives up to its premise. It’s also hard not to miss the original games when playing it.

21 🌟 Underrated: Lumines: Puzzle Fusion

Lumines: Puzzle Fusion is the kind of game that doesn’t look like much on first viewing. Most often, it resembles a silly Tetris game with unique colors thrown in for good measure. However, Lumines is much more than meets the eye. Its beautiful music and visuals, combined with its innovative graphical style make it a contender for one of the best puzzle games after made, even when compared to Tetris. It has sin𒉰ce been ported to other consoles solely due to it being that good.