PSP games - not just dull PS2 ports

Exit

Odd games aren’t only the preserve of the Japanese though: we westerners have made our fair share of weird titles, like Lemmings. Exit isn’t quite as odd as that, but it’s a similar blend of puzzle and platform elements, and it’s a title unique to the PSP. Each level puts you in a burning building with several members of the public to rescue.

On the downside, the controls are annoyingly picky – they lack the fluidity of a game like Tomb Raider: Legend and for a simple puzzle game, having ten tutorial levels is ridiculous. Like Beit Hell, Exit is old-school tough: one mistake and you have to restart the level. Fall off a ledge? Restart. Use the fire extinguisher too soon? Restart. It’s a bit like using Windows 98 again - one wrong click and it’s game over.

However, the process of figuring the levels out is fun, especially as the controls don’t turn out to be as complex as the tutorials make out. Even better, the game is quite quick to load, and by having 100 small levels, rather than fewer, bigger ones, Exit is perfect for a quick play on the train. Its art style – 3D characters with 2D, parallax scrolling backgrounds (a bit of jargon you might remember last seeing in Mean Machines) really suits the PSP’s sharp and bright TFT screen.

Like all PSP games, Exit currently sells for a scandalous £35 on the high street. However, you can find new copies on Ebay for £20 including delivery; the same is true for Beit Hell. Both games are unique to the PSP and give some indication of its true capabilities as a portable gaming device.


-- Alex Watson is Reviews Editor of Custom PC Magazine