While Sony's new PSPgo is something of an overprice lamed duck, its bewildering expensiveness does draw attention to the better deal that is the PSP-3000, or third generation PlayStation Portable (PSP). The go-less PSP, after all, sports a bigger screen, a better controller configuration (though still a tad thumb-vexing), and comes complete with a UMD slot for disc-based games bought new or used at retail - and sold or traded should you tire of them (the PSPgo is all about downloads direct, no trade-in option or used-pricing to be found).

At just $170 by itself or $200 with a game included (Gran Turismo or Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines, currently), the PSP is a heck of a deal. It's the only portable system to offer "console-like" gaming (and movies and music and web and Skype and so on) to go.

Most importantly, of course, there are a great many great games available for PSP. Here are three essentials.


Little Big Planet ($40)
A giant game of wide-eyed wondrousness originally released for the PlayStation3 (and released again just now as a PS3 Game of the Year edition), Little Big Planet for PSP is essentially the same thing, shrunk down and then supplemented with new content. It's typical in that it offers side-scrolling, platform hopping, box-shoving, item-collecting, lever-yanking, puzzle-solving adventure, but atypical in character and environmental design. Little Big Planet looks like an arts & crafts fair come to life. It features hand stitch and stuffed dolls made autonomous blazing trails through worlds of cardboard cutouts and stacked matchboxes - a planet of childhood make-believe made entirely believable. What's more, you not only play through it as a game, you can make your own objective-laden levels limited only by more junk drawer baubles than you can handle and imagination exhausted. Rated Everyone (6+) for Comic Mischief


Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny ($40)
Seeing as you can't legally call yourself a gamer without owning at least one fighting game (or so it seems), you might as well make sure that Namco Bandai's Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny sits in your PSP collection. After all, it's not just any old campy, over-the-top, weaponized martial arts brawler, it's the best yet found for PSP. And there's something universally cathartic about kicking a guy sky high and then juggling him to merciless end with a dozen more kicks and few sword swipes thrown in for good measure. Rated Teen (13+) for Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Suggestive Themes, Violence


Gran Turismo ($40)
Sony's Gran Turismo (GT) series has long been synonymous with racing simulations. Debuting in portable format just recently, this PSP version scales back on some of its console counterparts' superfluities like "career" mode and online multiplayer, delivering instead the best parts of GT games, namely the rip-roaring racing of humble, muscular and exceedingly exotic cars - 800 in all. Wow. Rated Everyone (6+)
 
 

It's true: Quality kids games are hard to find. Sure, there's lots out there, but few that are both good and genuinely kid-friendly. Fortunately, GamersGate online games portal has an entire section dedicated to quality family fare. Go ahead, check it out!