After the news that Sony is closing its older PlayStation Stores, we took a look at the PS3 and PSP / Vita games you don’t want to miss. Players can continue to re-download their existing libraries, but to purchase something new, PS3 owners have until July 2nd. As for PS Vita users, you have a slightly longer timeframe, which lasts until August 27th.
If you’ve seen our previous lists, there may be some notable omissions that made you question it.How can you include Vandal Hearts and not Tokyo Jungle !?‘We hear you cry, but don’t fear. These titles weren’t forgotten, but a good selection had relatively obscure physical releases, meaning they didn’t exactly fit those criteria either.
Between compilations, limited prints, obscure regional editions with English support – or games that just came to Europe and not North America – there are more physical releases than you might have known. Unfortunately, we can’t say these are all easy to buy, so going digital may remain a more practical solution – but if that doesn’t put you off, here are 10 games you might not know have physical copies.
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment Developer: Sony London Studio
London Studio is better known for lately Blood and truth, but between developing EyeToy and SingStar mentions, Beats quietly arrived on PSP in 2007. Bringing us rhythm-based gameplay allowed players to import their own music to play along with, and your goal was to press the corresponding buttons while sliding notes on their landing point to award points for better timing.
Although Beats mostly flew under the radar, it saw positive reviews and was included in it Power Pack for PlayStation Network Collection on a physical UMD, join flow and Siphon Filter: Combat OpsSimilarly, Sony also released one Puzzle package on PSP that can still be found cheaply, and that too To go! Puzzle Lemmings, and To go! Sudoku
Publisher: Electronic art Developer: Visceral games
Just like the Resident Evil Chronicles HD collection, you may remember EA’s critically acclaimed survival horror series Empty space had a rail shooter spin-off in the late 2000s. Extraction served as a precursor to the original game and was first launched on the Nintendo Wii to strong reviews. It was eventually ported to PS3 in 2011, with support for PS Move and improved graphics.
Like many EA games, Dead space 2 had multiple retail editions and in particular the PS3 Collector’s Edition included Extraction. Fair warning, however, that there is still space to install on the hard drive. We thought it was excellent, calling it “one of the definitive titles for PlayStation Move,” and you can still find it at a reasonable price. Failing that, there is always the Nintendo Wii version as a backup.
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Developer: Team 17
When it comes to the most ported titles of games, Lemmings is easy to deal with DOOM and Myst, and in addition to the PSP version, Team 17 and Sony have also made a PS3 remake. Again, our goal was to guide these anthropomorphic lemmings through obstacles and keep them out of harm’s way as you made your way out.
This PS3 remake, which was originally only downloadable, was also part of Sony’s Move Mind Benders compilation, and Lemmings was a unique recording. The standard downloadable version doesn’t actually support PlayStation Move – not surprising when you consider that those controllers arrived four years later – but no update was ever released, making that an exclusive bonus to this compilation.
Publisher: 3909 Developer: 3909
Papers, Please has been around for almost eight years, but Vita owners only received it in 2017. As an immigration officer for Arstotzka, your job is simple: making sure individuals have the correct paperwork to enter, checking their credentials and your actions can lead to 20 possible endings. We gave it high marks and Limited Run Games released a physical printout last July.
Unfortunately, Papers, Please also outlines a common problem with limited print publishers. While these efforts help preserve smaller games, that’s a double-edged sword as only 3,000 copies were made, making this a fairly rare item. We would always choose a limited physical release over none, but if those copies aren’t accessible to most, then it doesn’t make a huge difference.
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Developer: Japan Studio
Japan Studio has created a number of unique titles over the generations. Although better known for The escape of primates Patapon, and LocoRoco at the time, it had several other PS3 gems, including the atmospheric Rain. While controlling an invisible boy, we teamed up with an invisible girl to escape an invisible monster, all of which only becomes visible when it rains.
We gave some clever puzzles, we gave Rain 8/10, but it never got a western physical release. However, throughout Hong Kong and Taiwan, that edition – renamed Lost in the Rain – had English support. Unfortunately, that has become a rarity, so while it’s nice that this option exists, we can’t call it a convenient alternative. Otherwise, Japanese copies can be found for a better price.
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Developer: Queasy Games
Santa Monica Studio’s primary focus remains with God of war, but it has developed some interesting games over the years. In 2012, Sound Shapes was one of them, teaming up with Queasy Games for a musically driven platform game. Released for PS3 and Vita in 2012, a PS4 port followed a year later.
The PS3 version arrived at Sony The Best of PlayStation Network Vol. 1 compilation disc – and before you ask, a Volume 2 never came out – and while we didn’t discuss it then, we gave the PS4 port an impressive 8/10. It’s worth noting that the online aspects stopped in 2018, but you’ll still find a perfectly enjoyable experience inside.
Publisher: Gaijinworks Developer: Felistella
Summon Night has been around for more than two decades now. Released by Bandai Namco, these tactical RPGs most recently appeared with Summon Night 6: Lost Borders on PS4 and Vita in 2017, but its PSP-based predecessor Summon Night 5 was the first entry to receive a Western release. Our job was to protect the peace of the city in Savorle and move us into a more contemporary environment than previous entries.
Working with a limited localization budget, Gaijinworks brought it to North America in 2015, but despite the low sales, they managed to get a UMD release anyway. Apparently this turned into a successful venture and we awarded it 7/10. Following on from this, Gaijinworks also covered Lost Borders, and that also had a physical edition.
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Developer: SCE Japan Studio
Tokyo Jungle is one of those quirky games that probably wouldn’t have been released in the West were it not for the rise of digital storefronts. Now that humanity is extinct, animals roam the streets of Tokyo freely playing as different species. By offering a story campaign with standalone missions and a survival mode, you would build a pack of animals during this primal battle.
We loved Tokyo Jungle in 2012 and said it was “not lacking in bite” and gave it 9/10. Like Sound Shapes, this has also come in as part of Sony The Best of PlayStation Network Vol. 1 compilation, which also includes Fat princess and When Vikings attackSadly, that’s a pretty expensive set to find these days, but there’s still a Japanese physical release you can get.
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Developer: Super tough games
When motion controls took off between the Wii and Xbox Kinect in the late 2000s, Sony took on PlayStation Move in 2010, and Tumble came as a launch title. Players would use physics-based puzzle gameplay to build structures from seemingly incompatible pieces to score points, among other challenges.
We believed Tumble to be of great value and called it a puzzle game that “successfully combines challenge and innovation, constantly asking users to interact with the game in new ways,” giving it 8/10. Like Lemmings, it was part of Sony’s Move Mind Benders compilation set – Echochrome II was the third game – and although a PSVR edition followed in 2016, it remains digital only.
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Developer: SCE Studio Liverpool
WipEout’s has built a strong following since its PS1 debut, but Sony’s futuristic racer hasn’t seen much more than remasters lately. For the PS3, WipEout HD was launched in 2008 with songs from PSP submissions WipEout Pure and WipEout pulse, they upgrade to 1080p images at 60 frames per second. Almost a year later, Studio Liverpool released the Fury expansion, with more songs, a campaign of 80 events and more.
If you received very positive reviews, you may not have realized that WipEout HD Fury also received a retail release, which was exclusive to Europe. Granted, that’s a bit redundant these days, since the PS4s WipEout Omega collection remastered content from HD Fury once again Years 2048 too), but it still makes for a solid racer that will likely interest diehard fans.
And that’s it. We understand that collecting can be a tricky business, especially when physical releases are available in so many variants, but we hope this will help all collectors. It’s likely that some releases have slipped through the cracks, so if there are any other games you can think of – or if you own one of these physical sets – let us know in the comments below.
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