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Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is, hands down, the best game I have played on the PSP. Certainly the best original game. Peace Walker takes everything that makes Metal Gear Solid great, and mixes it with everything that makes Monster Hunter great, and the child that comes out is fantastic. If you own a PSP, you owe it to yourself to play Peace Walker. You really do.

The main problem with most PSP games is how shitty the controls are, thanks to how badly the system is designed. I won’t lie, Peace Walker doesn’t have perfect controls, but the game is designed around them, and works great. After playing for an hour, you no longer notice the little weirdnesses of aiming with the face buttons. You’re just having a good time. There is also a control set for people familiar with Monster Hunter, if that’s your thing. That’s not my thing, but it’s nice to offer the option.

I think that Kojima and company did a great job balancing this game for single player. The entire story is very doable with one person, though someone else can jump in at any time, and that would probably make a few of the final bosses a little less tedious. Still, the game throws a great mixture of missions at you, from the sneaking missions MGS is known for to kamakaze combat “kill everyone” missions for people who play MGS like me. You’re never stuck with one strategy in these missions either. You can murder everyone in the sneaking missions, and you can sneak around, snipe, and stay hidden in the “kill everyone” missions. It’s a harder time going against the grain of what the mission wants you to do, but you’re only penalized with added difficulty. There’s no “you’re spotted, start over” sorts of situations here.
Immediately after you beat the game, and even during, you unlock all sorts of great 4-player Co-Ops, which are really Monster Hunter style and require multiple people. I’ve played some of these over Adhoc Party, and they are a blast. You really have to work together to take down bosses, and there are enough loadout variations that you can play a particular role in combat, if you desire. These missions are hard, and long, like their Monster Hunter counterparts, but are completely enjoyable. I feel like Peace Walker works better than Monster Hunter, too. I couldn’t play Monster Hunter for every long by myself. I got bored. It’s just not a single player experience. Peace Walker manages to be both a great single player game and a fantastic multiplayer game. It’s good times all around.

All of this would be enough, really, but there are so many little distractions as well. All through the game you are recruiting soldiers to build up Outer Heaven, and using them to make new equipment, research new tech, build Metal Gear ZEKE, and even send out on missions. After every mission, you have all these little side quests and systems to deal with, which keep the action broken up. They aren’t full games on their own, but tied into the other, awesome experience, it adds value. It also gives you goals after beating the main game if you’re playing by yourself. “I need some more APCs for Outer Ops… I should go fight some of those boss battles.” Things like that.

I was expecting to enjoy Peace Walker, but not as much as I did. This is a completely worthy successor to the awesomeness that was MGS3. Play this game. Seriously, just play it. You won’t regret it.