The Sony PlayStation Portable holds a special place in many gamers’ hearts, mine included.

Commonly referred to as the PSP, the handheld device was Sony’s first big step into mobile gaming. The PSP was unveiled at E3 2004, and was released in Japan in December that year. On 6 September 2007 Sony released the PSP-2000, which was 33% lighter and 19% slimmer than its predecessor.

Besides the unit being sold with a Sony stamp on it, the PSP also introduced the Universal Media Disc (UMD) – a storage device which could hold 1.8GB of data.

The UMD was paired with a Memory Stick Pro Duo, which was used to store files and games downloaded from the PlayStation Store.

Despite the UMD’s failure to gain traction as a format – and the ill-conceived PSP variants such as the PSP Go – the PlayStation Portable brought the technological edge and higher-def graphics that were lacking from Nintendo’s offerings at the time.

After selling roughly 80 million units, Sony announced that it would be discontinuing the PSP by the end of 2014.

Cue the nostalgia

The handheld console had some great games – these are the ones which sold the most copies and scored the highest among critics.

Bestselling PSP Games

1. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories – 7.6 million copies
2. Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite – 5.4 million copies
3. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories – 4.9 million copies
4. Monster Hunter: Freedom 3 – 4.8 million copies
5. Daxter – 4.4 million copies
6. Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters – 3.7 million copies
7. Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition – 3.6 million copies
8. God of War: Chains of Olympus – 3.1 million copies
9. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII – 3.1 million copies
10. Medal of Honor: Heroes – 2.62 million copies

Highest Rated Games according to Metacritic.com

1. God of War: Chains of Olympus – 91
2. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars – 90
3. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable – 89
4. Lumines – 89
5. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – 89
6. Wipeout Pure – 88
7. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lion – 88
8. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories – 88
9. OMG-Z – 88
10. Tekken: Dark Resurrection – 88

A look back at the PSP classics

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Daxter

Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters

MediEvil

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

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