Orange Lounge Radio

Frantix (PSP, Killer Games)
Frantix is a puzzle game of pushing boxes and collecting Gems. The game uses 3-D graphics, and adds a little more puzzling to the Soko-Ban genre.

The object of the game is to collect all gems on the level and get to the exit. There are different colored gems, which can open like-colored doors. There are also one-way doors, water, lava, quicksand, switches, bombs, pattern-movement creatures, chasing creatures, and, of course, crates.

The game has little imagination by basically being another Chip's Challenge/Hero's Heart game. Pushing-crate puzzles are really tedious and old. Collecting items is not a very good theme either, because they do nothing other than open doors. The more interesting terrain is the quicksand which only kills you if you stop or try a U-turn.

I'm a puzzle-game fanatic, but I'm not too impressed. The graphics and sound are average. The puzzles go from clever to downright annoying. The unlock system is unnecessarily difficult, forcing you to perfect your time-trial on each level. Worst of all, there is a long load time between levels.

Overall, it'll fix your puzzle habit, but if its a choice between Frantix and another game you're saving for, you may want to go for the other game.

Gripshift (PSP, Sidhe Games) http://www.gripshiftgame.com/index.php
Gripshift is self-described as a "puzzle-driving-platform-action" game. It's primary game seems to be the driving aspect. The puzzle portion is finding the shortest route, collecting all the stars, or collecting the special "GS" icons. The platform aspect involves catching air off of road bumps and combining it with the nitrous to reach some of the items in the puzzle portion.

The Challenge mode is basically a tutorial. It slowly introduces you to the various concepts of the game, getting more advanced as you go. The most unfortunate aspect of this game is the unlock feature. Just like Frantix, you're forced to perfect your speed, steering, and stunt-car driving to earn enough tokens to unlock levels. The challenges have great variety and include races against computer opponents.

The race mode is just that. Race against the clock or opponents, including other PSP owners (and I believe you only need one game UMD). Multiplayer is Adhoc. Unfortunately is the handling of the vehicles that feels odd. Add to it that all tracks are suspended high in the sky and falling off is easy with nitrous and or over/understeering.

The music is wonderful and the graphics are pretty good. There are extra mini-games to unlock (bowling, playground, etc.) for fun. And here's the best part: Track creation! The editor is extremely robust, allowing you to put one loop through the middle of a higher loop. You also can place the stars and the GS icon to make the three main goals for the level. You may trade tracks and the forums section of Sidhe (see link above) has a topic devoted to track creation and trading.

Overall, I would compare this game to Monkey Ball. It's an okay driving game, but the puzzle parts and stunt driving are really the best aspects of the game. The track creation aspect gives the game a lot of replay value.