PSP Mini Review: One Epic Game: Frenetic Fun

“When Harry Met Sally”; a classic romance comedy that pitted Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan against each other in a hysterical adventure.

If Grip Games’ “One Epic Game” was forced to adopt a similar moniker, one could easily come up with “When Metal Slug Met I Must Run.” Successfully combining the frenetic shooting fun of the classic “Metal Slug” series with the fast obstacle aversion of “I Must Run,” “One Epic Game” lives up to its name.

For a few bucks, this game will cause your fingers deeper calluses than most Vita games. The graphics, which look remarkably similar to “Metal Slug,” capture that old-school feel perfectly. The control, albeit simple, doesn’t hide anything. The game is difficult, but not unbeatable and requires practice, lots of it.

This is primarily because the jumps need to be timed perfectly and power-ups, which change weapons, are thrown in places where you need to be to make said jumps. For example, if you have a great weapon, such as the laser, you could lose it by jumping on to another platform, where another unavoidable power-up could be. This power-up could contain a short-range weapon like the shotgun, which works completely different. As a result, you’ll have to change your plan of attack in-game. Through this, it’s easy to see how “One Epic Game” will challenge you much more than a sandbox title where death doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the game.

Speaking of dying, get used to it. It’ll happen a lot. Although there are only three gameplay modes and they all feel similar, the difficulty and pace of the game makes it one that thrives on replay.

The story is a wacky mash-up of video game cliché and although the English translation is sometimes wonky, it holds up well. The hero’s cool costume and Deadpool-esque breaking of the fourth wall adds to the comedic elements of the title. While it’s not the strongest attribute of the game, it’s one of the better selling points.

Will its straight-ahead gameplay, fluid controls and clichéd, but endearing story, “One Epic Game” ends up stealing more attention away from the Vita big boys than they might like. The fact that a game inspired by such old-school gaming traditions and so vested in it can swim with graphical powerhouses alone makes it an undeniable success.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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