PSP Weekend Warrior: of new brawlers, old guncons, and Adhoc Party thoughts

The PSP faithful are finally seeing what they have hoped for for years: more heavyweight games coming to the Sony PlayStation Portable. For the whole month of April, it seemed as if every week we saw the announcement of another new game coming to the Sony handheld. This week closed April out with a bang, carried mainly by Namco Bandai’s powerful one-two punch: PSP versions for popular brawlers Soul Calibur and Tekken 6. Capcom also pitched in, revealing more about Fate/unlimited codes and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The PSP faithful are finally seeing what they have hoped for for years: more heavyweight games coming to the Sony PlayStation Portable. For the whole month of April, it seemed as if every week we saw the announcement of another new game coming to the Sony handheld.

This week closed April out with a bang, carried mainly by Namco Bandai‘s powerful one-two punch: PSP versions for popular brawlers Soul Calibur and Tekken 6. Capcom also pitched in, revealing more about Fate/unlimited codes and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

In hardware news, we saw Capcom claiming continued support for UMD. They’re certainly not above testing the digital waters, though, as the North American release of Fate/unlimited codes was also confirmed to be download-only this week. We also had a glimpse at what might have been through an unearthed patent for a gun controller accessory for the good ol’ PSP-1000.

Read on for this week’s edition of the PSP Weekend Warrior!

Hardware News and Rumors:

• What could have been: unreleased gun controller patent for PSP. Link.
• More PSP2 rumors: new PSP will have two SKUs to be unveiled at E3, won’t be called PSP2. Link.
• Capcom: “We certainly do not intend to stop supporting UMD”. Link.

The Tasty, Tasty Games:

• Tekken 6
• Tekken 6 PSP is official, first screenshots. Link.
• A literally groundbreaking trailer. Link.
• Tekken 6 will have console-specific features. Link.
• A montage of matchups. Link.
• Soul Calibur 2: Broken Destiny
• Soul Calibur not getting left behind, getting PSP game as well. Link.
• Interview video. Link.
• First screenshots. Link.
• Fate/unlimited codes
• Fate/unlimited codes is download-only, coming to US this summer. Link.
• Gameplay footage and features. Link.
• Monster Hunter Freedom Unite
• Screenshots from Captivate09. Link.
• Sony: Monster Hunter Freedom Unite to spearhead PSP resurgence, Europe getting new PSP bundle. Link.
• Speaking of Monster Hunter, here are the series’ lifetime sales figures in Japan. Link.
• Ys games dated; new Legend of Heroes VII revealed in Ys pre-order. Link.
• Europe getting Prinny, other NIS America games thanks to Koei. Link.
• More gameplay modes added to Bleach: Heat The Soul 6. Link.
• PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe gets new island, new boss, more. Link.
• New Naruto PSP game coming to US this fall. Link.
• New screenshots from SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs: Fireteam Bravo 3. Link.
• Patapon 2’s new evolution system detailed. Link.

Looking at the games mentioned above, I’m noticing that quite a few of them are adhoc-only. Three games stand out in particular: Tekken 6, Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny, and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Yeah, Tekken 6 has an infrastructure mode, but that’s only for uploading and downloading Ghost data. When it comes to actual multiplayer fighting, all it’s got is an adhoc mode.

This makes me think that maybe, just maybe, Sony might finally have some news for us regarding the Adhoc Party service during E3 2009. Of course, this is a rather massive stretch I’m making here considering the Japanese version is still only in beta, but think about it. What better way to further bolster 2009 as “the Year of the PSP” than to finally get an Adhoc Party service running outside Japan?

It’s probably also worth noting that SCEE has recently claimed that a lot of Europeans don’t really play adhoc multiplayer that much, so it would definitely help with their Monster Hunter Freedom Unite campaign over there. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G was also the first game to support the Adhoc Party feature in Japan, so you know, it’d make sense if its international also kicked the party off internationally. Of course, not every PSP owner has a PS3, but it’s definitely a good idea. What do you think guys? I for one would love it.

See you all again next week for the next PSP Weekend Warrior!