So today’s article I wrote is just me plodding along wondering out loud why the Sony PSP has become so popular again all of a sudden.
I mean, clearly “so popular” is an exaggeration in the grand scheme of things, these are no-doubt extremely small numbers compared to other handhelds available. Scrolling social media really has shown a lot of them on feeds for me in 2026.
If you’re interested in why I think they’re showing up more lately, then read on with my article. I go through a reason in each ‘section’, but If you’ve got your own ideas, I’d love to hear them below here. Oh and if you’re thinking:
“hey there’s no in-depth investigative journalism here, it just looks like they wanted an excuse to write about the PSP!!!”
…you’d be right. I’ve been obsessed with them lately. This is my 4th PSP article in a very short time. I do so love them!
Anyway, if you want to see some old PSP TV ads, some nostalgia, and want to chat about PSPs (plz do), then here’s the link:
I felt weird/guilty using mine in public, like staring down at a little rectangle was unsocial or bad for you or something…
Turns out, it’s more like digital detox! It would be cool these days.
Ugh, where is it!? I know I still have mine.
Staring at a little screen that brings you entertainment & joy: 😡
Staring at a little screen that fills you with anger, dread, and despair: 🤩
One is shoving ads in your face and the other isn’t.
weird/guilty using mine in public
Some people would talk shit, but no one ever blinked an eye at reading a book. Now everyone is on their phones if they have to wait in a line for 30 seconds lol
Theytm had the same attitudes against newspapers and books at first. It takes a bit to normalise things(and for the old guard to die off)
They™ were right, we need to connect with each other not isolate in media. Doesn’t matter if it’s cheap newsprint or an oled, problem is all staring up at what’s presented vs over at each other
Do you think people should have to stay in their houses if they want to read/game?
No, just wish they’d go out (or stay in!) and talk to each other more :(
I started taking my 1st gen switch on my bus commute & honestly it rules, especially compared to the doomscreen of sadness. Hope you find your old portable buddy!
The Vita also rips (arguably more) ass, as it does everything the PSP does and more, it’s also the easiest console to hack there has ever been. I picked up a Japanese one for like 90 bucks and it’s one of the best all around devices there is.
Hacking it also let’s you swap O and X for canceling and selecting. To my knowledge, that’s the only downside of getting a Japanese Vita.
O is maru, X is batsu. Maru = circle for yes and X = Batsu for incorrect. Japanese people make the same gestures with their arms to signal if something is right or wrong. It’s funny that they changed it for the west, I wonder what would’ve happened if they didn’t
Yeah, Japan was actually surprised when American game devs started using X for confirm. They never even anticipated that it would happen, because the X/O symbolism is so heavily engrained in their society that it was glaringly obvious to them that O was confirm. Their original intent was always to use the Nintendo layout for confirm/cancel, but then western devs misunderstood the buttons and swapped them.
To them, an O is like a checkmark or thumbs up emoji. Imagine if an American console maker developed a console with a thumbs up button, and Asian devs started using the thumbs up button as Cancel. The American console manufacturer would probably be pretty fucking confused by the decision too.
I get that confusion in Baseball. Crossed arms and “no” gesture means safe, thumbs up means out? I guess it makes sense from the perspective of the pitching side. But I always have to remember which is which.
That’s a two second fix.
Last year I bought a PS Vita and I’d highly recommend that instead if you can find one for cheap! The Vita can natively run PSP games via Adrenaline, and you get the advantage of Vita games and homebrew (and a better screen).
That said, I’m a long time PSP Go lover. It’s basically the PSP in a smaller, pocketable form factor. I would absolutely get that if you can get your hands on one.
Are there decent microSD to their proprietary card format adapters? Because there are plenty of cheap microSD-MSduo for the PSP
Yeah, SD2Vita is the standard and are usually found for ~$6. You put an SD card into it, then slot it into the game card slot to expand your storage.
Yeah, SD2Vita is the goto and works pretty well with micro-SD
I got one from AliExpress like 5 years ago that still works fine
I grabbed a Vita a few years ago to play around with. Never had any of their handhelds growing up so it was all new to me. Not something I regularly use and it kind of just gathers dust next to my analogue pocket and 3DS, but even so, it’s a really neat little thing and can do a lot once hacked open.
I have RetroArch on my Vita as well so I can play GBA or other games as well.
Retroarch is a bit bloated for more intensive emulation, though. You can play N64 games on Vita, but they run better in standalone emulators than in Retroarch.
Hacking it us a breeze and you can do so much stuff with it. Pretty active Dev scene also. Has become my favorite handheld, Vita is life.
This inspired me to go dig out my old PSP only to discover that I have no battery… I threw it out when it pillowed years ago and forgot about it. I’ll have to play on Retrodeck for now!
Have an uovote for mentioning my fav Steam Deck software! I love RetroDECK and can’t stop recommending it!
Out of curiosity, how does it compare to EmuDeck? I haven’t personally used RetroDeck, so I was wondering if it had anything that would make me switch from EmuDeck.
I think it is the better of the two. I dislike how EmuDeck organizes itself (it doesn’t). Last time I had it installed, it had 32GB in so many different incomprehensible folders in my Steam Deck. I had three emulators running, with a handful of games. It was also a complete nightmare to uninstall when the time came. But in the end, it just comes down to preference.
RetroDECK can all run from a SD card. ROMs, BIOS, HD texture packs, mods, everything runs perfectly and in a nice little self-contained space. I love it!
You can always test it out, if you have a spare SD card they’ll run side-by-side. And you can read my interviews, chats and articles with the RetroDECK team too, if you’d like to see what they’re all about :)
Same, it’s brilliant, and the devs have created the nicest community around it too.
Same thing just happened to me. I dug up my old psp from my childhood and the battery was crazy thick. I’m glad I caight it before it committed a Note 7.
I picked up a 2 pack with a USB charger from amazon for like 10 bucks last year, then when I dug out my old PSP the battery was fine. I love my old PSP.
Yeah I have a psp. It’s an impressive little console that’s almost like a ps2 on the go. Plus it’s very easy to jailbreak. The funniest thing about the psp is the marketing video with one guy singing about wanting a psp for Christmas.
Even if you’re on the ‘wrong’ firmware, a jailbreak takes a matter of minutes these days! Add in the ability to use expanded batteries (I have a 1400 mAh in mine), adapter cards to use micro SD in the ‘shape’ of the proprietary memory stick duos, all those games and you’ve got a wonderful machine!
Wow. I had a psp way back and I can’t remember what happened to it , gave it away or lost it. Came across a ps vita and jail broke it and it’s awesome. Maybe if I see a psp crop up on eBay or marketplace I’ll have to scoop I had no idea you could expand the battery!
Man, I gotta check how the battery for my PSP3000 is, and the microSD card on it. The internals work perfectly, those two things are the only ones that seem likely to give out anytime soon. My little buddy is 14yo now. I don’t think I ever played any of the 3 UMD games that came with it, I immediately jailbroke it after purchase
It’s not “retro” in the same way a much older console is. It’s closer, more relatable, and maybe more importantly, more usable. It still fits into modern life without needing to be explained.
I think this is something extremely important. Looking at stuff from 20 years ago was much different when the current year was 2006 - we’d be looking at the mid 80s. Computers of the 80s and even the early 90s became obsolete fast, whatever you had in 2006, even if it was 4 years old at the time, felt light years ahead of anything from 1986 and would be internet capable.
Games from the 80s were also comparably “archaic”, as the hardware limitations were much more significant and several then current games could never happen in that old hardware (NES, C64, ZX Spectrum, Amiga 500), and that’s ignoring graphical complexity. Meanwhile, a number of current day games could exist in 2006, so long as the graphics were appropriately scaled down (Total War games being a perfect example).
PSP is such a cool console but had the worst lineup of games.
Whaaaat? The PSP had a great collection of games, you might be thinking of the Vita that had barely anything in it. You got Tekken, God of War spinoffs, Patapon, lots of racing games, metal gear solid, lots of JRPGs, among other things.
Its main issue was the lack of a right stick so many 3D games either didn’t get ported or had horrendous controls (monster hunter…)
Ace Combat! Ratchet and Clank!
Star Wars Battlefront!
Gah, I forgot about that! It was so much fun in singleplayer.
FF 7 Crisis Core, DJ max, FF Tactics, GTA, Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus, P3
Whaaaat? The PSP had a great collection of games
I’ve been so enjoying racing games on mine lately! Gran Turismo and WipEout have been such wonderful time-sinks for me :)
Such a huge variety of games on there!
If you’re into racing, also check out Midnight Club 3. Great game.
So is Motorstorm Arctic Edge!
There’s also Race Driver 2006, which is a pretty good and content-rich port of ‘TOCA Race Driver 2’. SBK 09 works as a bike sim, and Colin McRae Rally 2005 is a decent rally sim. Formula One 06 is a port of Psygnosis’ frustratingly demanding PS2 game, made in-house so without particular simplification. The NASCAR game is weird but serviceable.
Vita has a few too, namely F1 2011, MotoGP 14 and the WRC series (notably different between the Milestone and Kylotonn entries). Although the F1 game is straight up too easy if one practices the tracks.
I had a ps2 so every PSP game just felt lile a really bad scam version of the games I liked.
Welcome to the NES/Gameboy experience.
I loved playing Crisis Core on my PSP. Great handheld game
One of my favorite, unexpected gems was Kenka Bancho. You’re a bancho (high school delinquent badass) and you have 7 days during a school trip before graduation to punch other school banchos into submission to prove you’re the best of all banchos. A real shame that only one game got localized, there are several others in the series.
I was also sad that Maverick Hunter X didn’t get sequels, so it became the sole 3D remake of Mega Man X, but it’s really good and you can even play as Vile. Speaking of Capcom, you could also play Monster Hunter 1, 2 or 3 on your PSP. I spent a significant amount of time on 2 and got nowhere near the mid game. I kept getting my ass handed by some bosses. Kushala Daora became my arch nemesis. On the other hand, beating Basarios was a piece of cake with bow and (piercing) arrow
Excellent, thank you for the recommendation! I have to re-learn how to get games on Adrenaline on my vita—Kenka Bancho sounds awesome.
Ugh I do NOT miss all my hours of THE CLAW in MH and MH 3rd… but I do miss getting together with all my friends as teens/young 20ses to smoke the devil’s lettuce and hunt all day.
I have no idea how people put up with it, my hand starts hurting 5 minutes into playing MH on the psp. I played maybe 20 minutes total, said “nope”, and never played it again.
I can doooo it… I just… yah nope you’re totally right, I can’t do it anymore. When they released the N3DSXL I bought one INSTANTLY for Monster Hunter, and bought a Circle Pad Pro for my partner… no way to go back hahaha.
Then realized the circle pad pro was dope and the C-nub on the N3DSXL is complete garbage, so I ripped the C-nub out with a knife and popped a PSP joystick from my spare PSP onto my DS… works incredibly. Snapped in like it was MADE for the N3DS!
I wonder if my Vita’s second stick works in old PSP MH games in Adrenaline? I can’t imagine it does, but I’d kill to play through MH 3RD (Eng patch) again with two sticks…
Remember the touch panel on the back and the games that used it?
That’s the Vita.
Criminally underrated console… especially now, hacked, it can play all PSP games, hold shit tons of games on an (until recently oh god) WAY cheap SD card, and emulate tons of old consoles on its magnificent OLED screen.
Only complaint is the PSP’s D-pad is way better for my favorite PSP/Vita series, DJ Max Portable. Buttons too, but I modded my PSP’s buttons and D-pad to make them hair-trigger sensitive (most terrifying mod I’ve ever done and I’m so proud of it)
Sony has gotten so good at developing excellent gaming devices and then letting them languish. Speaking as a PSVR early adopter.
Good catalogue is a must. I’m excited to see if Steam Frame will do it, and if can afford one.
I wouldn’t say “the worst” but the phrase “squandered potential” looms large.
it had quite a few gems. The WipEout games were some of the best in the series, the God of War games were very good. Battlefield II on it was great. Final Fantasy Tactics and Crisis Core. Jeanne D’Arc was one of the best tactics game ever. Ys Seven, Megaman Powered Up, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, Ape Escape, the Killzone game on it was very good, LocoRocco 1 and 2, Final Fantasy Dissida, Monster Hunter, Daxter, Special Agent Clank, and Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker.
Don’t forget both Death Jr games! Absolute fucking bangers!
The PS Vita would like a word
It was maybe better but by the time it came out I’d completely soured on Sony handhelds.
There were some decent games. What killed it for me was the layout. Constantly bumping the power switch mid game. It happened so often.
This but PS Vita*
Vita means life
Yeah, I’m confused most nostalgia veers towards the PSP, when the follow-on was fully backwards compatible. Weirdly enough, some of the best AAA blockbusters I played on the Vita were first written for the PSP.
I’m an oddity in that I never jailbroke mine. I just really enjoyed playing indie PSN games on it, since most teams releasing on PS3 and not driving a graphical powerhouse could just do a side release there.
Yes Vita with custom Rom is a beast.
Whoa whoa whoa, there’s custom ROMs for Vita???
And it’s super easy to exploit, barely an inconvenience
Even the “back ups” can be downloaded from the official servers
You can play most of the old consoles on it.
Vita is nice, but expensive as well
Tbh, like the 3DS, will definitely get more expensive as well.
I’m hoping there will be a renaissance of smaller, low-stakes, offline capable dedicated handheld gaming/media on the go by the big boys but it’s wishful thinking at this point. I was speaking to a younger colleague the other day and one of my favourite things about the PSP/DS era of gaming was Game sharing where some games enabled you to send over a limited version of a game to a second device to play ad-hoc local wrireless multiplayer even if only one of you had the game.
This is a missing recipe in today’s gaming landscape IMO.
PPSSPP because I can’t trust second hand dealers anymore.
Why not? Are they selling broken stuff now or something?
Or something.
???
Designers Republic art detected.
Neat. Took me a while to make out the title, though.
I should really get replacement batteries for my two PSPs.
I had a 3000 with a cracked screen. I could use it to display on the TV. But I went ahead and changed the screen out. I must have messed up the wiring though, because now it only works when plugged in.
Oh man I loved my PSP back in the day, I played a ton in it. I had a modded one and I also installed PSX and GBA emulators.
I remember that when I bought it, it came already modded but it wasn’t a permanent mod. To activate the mod after rebooting I had to navigate to the images folder and load up a PNG (I think?) image that was called Chicken or something like that. The most annoying part was that it didn’t work consistently, so often times it would cause the console to hang and I had to try again. It always blew my mind how an image could trigger the hack like that, looking back I guess it was a malicious payload or something and some race condition somewhere idk.
If I remember correctly, after a couple years I was able to change the mod to a permanent one. I sold it like 10 years ago
I went down this rabbit hole last year. Modded PSP is/was great, but modded PS Vita is SO much better…and easier.
That is just… gorgeous 😍
So beautiful!
The new Anbernic RG Vita Pro! They sent me one to review, and I’ve been having such a wonderful time with it :)
I love my old psp! I still enjoy playing it. I feel like, in a time where things aren’t made to last, things that do hold up, really deserve reverence. So even though I’ve never stopped loving my psp, I gain more respect for it over time.
EVERYONE is getting one? Bruh, that is simply not the case, don’t make stuff up just to sensationalize for clicks and engagement just because your TikTok algorithm started showing you more PSP stuff. You’re literally just spreading your TikTok garbage over to here now trying to “make fetch happen.” Be better man, you’re doing their work for nothing. For real.
Everybody was not, in fact, kung-fu fighting.
I don’t think people who say “everyone” ever literally means “everyone”. It’s a niche and the hype around old devices is real so the author is just commenting on it. I get hating sensationalized titles but this really isn’t as terrible as you are making it out to be.
I really didn’t think that:
a) my article was click-bait (we’re a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally small site, there’s no need to even try click-bait!), and
b) I needed to explain that I didn’t mean ‘everyone’
Glad you can see that, this seems weirdly attack-y.
If Dash says “everyone’s getting one,” who are you to determine who belongs in that set or if Dash’s lived experience and perceived uptick in PSP purchases is invalid? It’s Dash’s observation that many people are suddenly picking up used PSPs. Chill the heck out, my dawg. Comments like this make the world a genuinely worse place to be.
EVERYONE is getting one? Bruh, that is simply not the case, don’t make stuff up
Hyperbole is a rhetorical device
before making stupid comments like this, read my article “why everyone is stocking up on sand”: https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
