Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play may have lacked a strong gaming line-up at launch, and though the selection still needs work, there’s now a good bunch of games that make the most of those controller buttons. Here’s the best of the latest releases for Sony Ericsson’s PlayStation Phone.
PlayStation Pocket
The back-catalogue taken from the original PlayStation has started to bare fruit, including one of Sony’s definitive games, WipeOut.
It plays just like you remember. Though Wipeout 2097 may have sold more, the original was the first to marry dance music from well-known artists and high-speed space-car…things. We’re not massive fans of racers you steer on a touch-screen. We’d even take a tilt-steer control over laborious left-right tappery.
Cool Boarders 2 is a personal favourite, and the game is lovingly recreated here- almost perfectly- were it not for the lack of two collar buttons. These are core to pulling off your tricks, and are thus core to the game.
Whilst you can use the track-pads in the middle of the Xperia Play’s controls, it’s not remotely instinctive. It goes to show what a great game this is that it doesn’t completely ruin the game. Racing down-hill is as addictive as ever.
Kula World was one of our must-have games from the PlayStation’s back catalogue, a cheery puzzler where you guide a beach-ball around 3D mazes gathering together tokens, keys, jumping and doging spike. Deceptively simple at the start, levels get increasingly harder, the pause-save function of the Xperia Play makes this an ideal game for brief breaks and commutes.
Everybody’s Golf 2 is also out on Gameloft, but this is the original (sequel?) from back in 2000. A dangerous time-sink – beware!
Xperia Play Games
Perhaps surprisingly, aside from the PlayStation classics released so far, they have been matched by a great selection of new games from the likes of Gameloft.
This includes Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard HD, which is free for Xperia Play owners. If you’re used to the technical playing-style of Rainbow Six, you’ll find this game easy to get to grips with. First person shooting games like this are a revelation on the Xperia Play controls. We never understood why anyone would play a touchscreen shooter when your fingers would get in the way of the action.
Another shooter now available is the ever-so-slightly Halo-esque Nova 2. A great improvement on the original, animation is smoother, and the thing looks a whole lot classier. Perhaps more accessible than Rainbow Six, it costs £3 and like all Gameloft titles, you need to download it directly from Gameloft’s site.
Backstab is Gameloft’s most recent gem, a streamlined mix of Prince of Persia and Uncharted, the story is the well-trodden path of revenge, mixed in with exploration, Assassins Creed-style secrets- and all navigable with the control pad. If there’s one niggle, the core of the game is all over too quickly.
Cordy is an initially free game that’s also been brought across to the Xperia Play is a cute platform puzzler. We were astounded that the first few levels were available for free, though there is an in-app billing function to buy the whole game for £1.99.
A blast from the past, EA has brought Worms to Android, and it’s been optimised for the Xperia Play. A game frustrating to play on touch-screen, expect the typically silly weapons roster, including the holy hand-grenade, sheep and classics like the dragon-ball. The game has a free trial, so you don’t have to immediately sink money to try Worms HD out.
Any other games you’ve loved on the Xperia Play? Let us know on Twitter or in the comments below.
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