300 for PSP, now you can be a Spartan anywhere.

Yes I have been out of the loop. I squeezed in a post late last night between playing rounds of God Of War 2, GRAW 2 (review coming) and my other fixation, "300: March to Glory" for PSP. Now this game has been reviewed poorly by some so I thought I should throw in my two cents.

Now let's start of with some realistic goals and I think it'll set the tone for the game much better;

1) Don't think that the PSP can capture that same kind of lush graphic presentation you get with the film 2) Realize that controls will be lacking since there aren't 2 analog sticks on the PSP (which by the way continues to be the one fault I have with the handheld) and 3) last but not least don't rate the game against what it might look like/play like on its big brothers the PS2 or PS3 (and yes, I would've like to see what those versions might have looked like too). Once you get that in your head I think we're set.

300 for PSP is a graphics-streamlined button masher of a game. It follows the set of graphic novels by penned by Frank Miller pretty closely.

You play in two modes; one as a single player taking over the job of the mighty King Leonidas where you alternate using your sword/spear/shield and the other a group of Spartans who fight off foes with the use of a phalanx. I must say that although the button mashing can become a little repetitive with the ability of upgrading your items and moves and the pretty intricate "death scenes" you stay engaged throughout the game. Yes within the 1st 10 minutes of the game your phalanx will take on an elephant and its difficult to understand how you're surviving its footstomps by just using your shield for protection but such is life in a game.

My favorite parts? Fortitude and Blood Drunk. As you fight and kill you amass Battle Skills (think of them as your kill tally) that can be used for Fortitude which gives you the ability to draw on your "innerstrength" and heal yourself or Blood Drunk where your battle rage increases and you can inflict greater damage to your enemies to kill them faster while doing so increases your health.

The voice acting, soundtrack and game/battle sounds (straight from the movie) and graphic novel–cutscenes brought to life through the game's animation are great. As you play you can also unlock a host of extras (trailers, movies, art) no the least of which are video snippets from 300 creator Frank Miller which I think are worth the price of any hiccups the game might have.