MGS Portable Ops and… how Monster Rancher can save the PSP?!

 

Have developers exhausted every single feature or option built on the PSP? Is there no more room for novelty that would WOW handheld gamers? Have our games reached critical point where further development would not exceed what we currently think is the maximum power of our PSP? Not necessarily, bub.

There are still a couple of unexplored areas that game developers might want to take advantage of for future game development for the PSP. And sometimes, the best solutions are the simplest answers. Look at Kojima Productions‘ Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. It’s quite a bit of hit, for sure, as it takes advantage of the GPS peripheral device to help you recruit units as you scour around town for a hotspot.

With each hotspot, you find a different recruit. Is this a novel idea? Well, technically speaking, the way it’s presented is most definitely new. But when you think about it, maybe Kojima didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. He could have just revisited an almost-forgotten idea that revolutionized videogame-to-player interaction a couple of years back. Back at the time when the PSOne was riddled with gems and fantabulastic games.

Remember when we did just that a couple of weeks ago? We had revisited a couple of the “diamonds in the rough” of the PlayStation (PS1). We had gotten the following comment from X (Unregistered): “» Uhh… // How exactly is one supposed to play monster rancher on the PSP? // It would be sweet if you could use UMDs in place of CDs to generate the monsters, but somehow I don’t think that would work.”

Yeah, Monster Rancher was indeed one of those unique games back then. The reason why it was a hit for a lot of people was that it introduced a novel idea of your in-game interacting with your environment – your CD library, to be more specific. Your in-game content changes because of the resources around you. Monsters apparently live in your CDs. Ingenious idea. Now, it’s pretty much lost in the dust and somewhat forgotten. Or was it?

So, how exactly can Monster Rancher help your PSP? Click the Full Article link below to read on…

 

Have developers exhausted every single feature or option built on the PSP? Is there no more room for novelty that would WOW handheld gamers? Have our games reached critical point where further development would not exceed what we currently think is the maximum power of our PSP? Not necessarily, bub.

There are still a couple of unexplored areas that game developers might want to take advantage of for future game development for the PSP. And sometimes, the best solutions are the simplest answers. Look at Kojima Productions‘ Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. It’s quite a bit of hit, for sure, as it takes advantage of the GPS peripheral device to help you recruit units as you scour around town for a hotspot.

With each hotspot, you find a different recruit. Is this a novel idea? Well, technically speaking, the way it’s presented is most definitely new. But when you think about it, maybe Kojima didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. He could have just revisited an almost-forgotten idea that revolutionized videogame-to-player interaction a couple of years back. Back at the time when the PSOne was riddled with gems and fantabulastic games.

Remember when we did just that a couple of weeks ago? We had revisited a couple of the “diamonds in the rough” of the PlayStation (PS1). We had gotten the following comment from X (Unregistered): “» Uhh… // How exactly is one supposed to play monster rancher on the PSP? // It would be sweet if you could use UMDs in place of CDs to generate the monsters, but somehow I don’t think that would work.”

Yeah, Monster Rancher was indeed one of those unique games back then. The reason why it was a hit for a lot of people was that it introduced a novel idea of your in-game interacting with your environment – your CD library, to be more specific. Your in-game content changes because of the resources around you. Monsters apparently live in your CDs. Ingenious idea. Now, it’s pretty much lost in the dust and somewhat forgotten. Or was it?

Are we saying that a Monster Rancher title for the PSP exists? And if it does, how novel could it possibly be? If it’s not UMDs (the idea of using discs was already done – so that’s not too novel anymore), then what other thing can they use? Maybe a certain specific feature – a NEW feature – of the PSP that the PSOne (or PS2 for that matter) didn’t have. Two words pop up: WiFi and GPS.

Starting to see the bigger picture now? This idea has already been applied to MGS Portable Ops – the same Monster Rancher concept still lives in it. Instead of monsters hiding in your accessible CDs, soldier recruits are “hiding” in your accessible hotspots.

No, we’re not saying that Kojima stole the idea of Tecmo. And we’re not even saying that he “borrowed” it. Our point here is that developers still have a lot to work with and maximize on the PSP platform. All it takes is to look at things from a different perspective and apply solutions – simple but profound solutions – to grab gamers hook, link, and sinker.

The PSP is such a powerful device and there are still other aspects of it that haven’t been tapped to their full potential – their profound potential – yet. Only a few games as of now are making use of the GPS peripheral device, aside from MGS Portable Ops, that’d be Homestar and Hot Shots Golf. What other features can the PSP make the most out of? Well, since the PS3 came out, maybe we can see more than just game downloads from the PlayStation Network and hope for PS3-PSP in-game interactivity.

Yeah, the PSP might not have a second analog stick or whatnot. But those limitations are what make development that much more challenging. And when you do get to pull it off, you’ve got yourself a winner. MGS Portable Ops is just the start. Let’s keep it going!