The PSP may have launched in 2004, but many of its games feel like they could have been released today. Some titles were so innovative in design, structure, or gameplay mechanics that they seemed to predict trends that wouldn’t slot gacor become mainstream for years. These forward-thinking PSP games helped shape what players now expect from modern handheld and mobile gaming.

Metal Gear Acid, for example, fused tactical card-based combat with stealth mechanics—a combination that seemed niche at the time but would later be mirrored in modern mobile strategy games. Meanwhile, Jeanne d’Arc, a turn-based RPG with a rich historical fantasy setting, set the bar for accessibility and polish in handheld strategy games. It remains one of the best examples of the genre on any portable platform.

Killzone: Liberation was another title that felt ahead of its time. Instead of mimicking the FPS style of its console counterparts, it reimagined the formula for the PSP with an isometric camera and cover-based gameplay—concepts that are now widely used in indie and mobile shooters. Even Echochrome, a minimalist puzzle game based on visual perception, tapped into the kind of cerebral, stylized gameplay that would later thrive on platforms like iOS and Steam.

These PSP games demonstrated how limited hardware didn’t have to mean limited imagination. The best games on the PSP were those that embraced the system’s capabilities in smart ways, setting a foundation for trends that only became fully realized in later years. Revisiting them now is like seeing the blueprint for the future of portable play—years before it became the norm.