The best PSP games by critic score start with God of War: Chains of Olympus, the only PlayStation Portable title to reach a Metacritic score of 91, and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on 90. No other game on the handheld cracked 90, which makes the PSP’s top tier unusually tight: the next eight games are separated by a single point.
This ranking uses the Metacritic score of the PSP version of each game, read in October. Ties are broken by the Metacritic user score, and a remaining tie goes to the game with more user ratings. The table carries both numbers for all 10 so the order is fully traceable.
Best PSP Games: Metascore and User Score for All 10
| # | Game | Year | Developer | Metascore | User score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | God of War: Chains of Olympus | 2008 | Ready at Dawn | 91 | 8.3 |
| 2 | Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars | 2009 | Rockstar Leeds | 90 | n/a |
| 3 | Persona 3 Portable | 2010 | Atlus | 89 | 8.7 |
| 4 | Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker | 2010 | Kojima Productions | 89 | 8.5 |
| 5 | Lumines | 2005 | Q Entertainment | 89 | 7.5 |
| 6 | Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions | 2007 | Square Enix | 88 | 8.7 |
| 7 | Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection | 2006 | Namco | 88 | 8.4 |
| 8 | Wipeout Pure | 2005 | Studio Liverpool | 88 | 8.0 |
| 9 | Ridge Racer | 2005 | Namco | 88 | 8.0 |
| 10 | Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories | 2005 | Rockstar Leeds | 88 | 7.9 |
How the PSP Top 10 Was Settled
Metacritic scores a game per platform, so Chinatown Wars counts here on its PSP score of 90, not the 93 its Nintendo DS original holds. Persona 3 Portable is scored as its own release rather than as the 2006 PlayStation 2 game it reworks, and Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is scored as the 2007 PSP edition rather than the 1997 original.
The three 89s and five 88s needed the user score to separate them. Persona 3 Portable leads the 89s on 8.7, and Final Fantasy Tactics leads the 88s on the same 8.7. Wipeout Pure and Ridge Racer tie on 8.0, so Wipeout takes eighth on a larger count of ratings, 78 against 70.
Chinatown Wars is the one game without a user score for the PSP version, which Metacritic records only for the DS release. It did not need one: its 90 is unique on the list, so no tie-break applied.
The 10 Best PSP Games, Ranked
Each entry carries its score, the number of critic reviews behind it, its user score and the studio that built it. Release dates are for North America.
1. God of War: Chains of Olympus: A Console Game in Your Hands
Metascore: 91 from 79 reviews · User score: 8.3 · Developer: Ready at Dawn · Released: March 2008
Chains of Olympus is a prequel set before the 2005 PlayStation 2 game, with Kratos still serving the gods of Olympus. Ready at Dawn, the studio behind Daxter, kept the chained blades, the cinematic camera and the button-prompt finishers intact on a handheld with one analogue nub.
Its 79 critic reviews are the most for any game on this list, and its 91 was the highest score on the platform when it shipped. A remastered version later appeared on PlayStation 3 in the God of War: Origins Collection, which is the easiest way to play it on a television.
2. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars: Top-Down Liberty City
Metascore: 90 from 77 reviews · Developer: Rockstar Leeds and Rockstar North · Released: October 2009
Chinatown Wars returned the series to a top-down camera for a story about Huang Lee and the Triads in Liberty City. A drug-trading economy with shifting prices across the city gave it a loop no other GTA had, and the PSP port added fully 3D lighting that the DS could not draw.
The PSP version arrived seven months after the DS game and added extra missions. It is the only game here that leads a second handheld list as well: the DS original tops the Nintendo DS chart on its 93.
3. Persona 3 Portable: Two Protagonists, One Calendar
Metascore: 89 from 40 reviews · User score: 8.7 · Developer: Atlus · Released: July 2010
Persona 3 Portable lets you play the school-year calendar as the original male lead or a new female protagonist with her own Social Links, a choice no other Persona game offered at the time. Dungeon crawling in Tartarus by night and relationships by day run on a shared clock that always feels short.
It is the only RPG in the top five and the most liked game on this list by players, tied on 8.7. Atlus released a remastered edition in January 2023 for PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC, which Steam still sells.
4. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker: Four-Player Snake
Metascore: 89 from 66 reviews · User score: 8.5 · Developer: Kojima Productions · Released: June 2010
Peace Walker set Big Boss in 1974 Costa Rica, split the game into short missions built for a handheld and added four-player co-op, including crossover hunts against Capcom’s Monster Hunter creatures. The Mother Base management layer it introduced became the backbone of Metal Gear Solid V.
It finishes behind Persona 3 Portable on user score, 8.5 against 8.7, with 835 ratings. An HD version shipped on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection.
5. Lumines: The Launch Puzzle Game
Metascore: 89 from 55 reviews · User score: 7.5 · Developer: Q Entertainment · Released: March 2005
Lumines drops two-colour blocks that clear when a timeline sweeps across matched squares, with the music and visuals changing skin as you progress. It launched alongside the PSP in North America and was the standout of the launch line-up on critic score, two points clear of Ridge Racer and Wipeout Pure.
Its 7.5 user score is the lowest in the top five and the reason it sits behind Peace Walker and Persona 3 Portable despite the equal 89. Lumines Remastered brought the same game to current consoles and PC in 2018.
6. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions: The Definitive Tactics
Metascore: 88 from 41 reviews · User score: 8.7 · Developer: Square Enix · Released: October 2007
The War of the Lions is the 1997 PlayStation strategy game with a new translation, animated cutscenes, two extra job classes and multiplayer. Its story of Ramza and Delita in the kingdom of Ivalice remains the series’ most political script.
It leads the five 88s on an 8.7 user score. Square Enix released Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles on September 30, 2025 for PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC, a remaster that includes the War of the Lions script.
7. Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection: The Arcade Update, Pocket-Sized
Metascore: 88 from 54 reviews · User score: 8.4 · Developer: Namco · Released: July 2006
Dark Resurrection is the arcade revision of Tekken 5 with two new fighters, Lili and Dragunov, and rebalanced moves across the roster. On PSP it ran at a steady frame rate with the full character customisation system, and it remains the highest-scoring fighting game released on the handheld.
It sits seventh on an 8.4 user score. A PlayStation 3 download version followed, and in 2026 the PSP game was added to the PlayStation Plus Premium classics catalogue.
8. Wipeout Pure: Anti-Gravity at Launch
Metascore: 88 from 56 reviews · User score: 8.0 · Developer: Studio Liverpool · Released: March 2005
Wipeout Pure was a PSP launch title that rebuilt the anti-gravity racer around the handheld’s wide screen, with free downloadable packs of tracks and ships released monthly after launch, a first for the series.
It ties Ridge Racer on an 8.0 user score and edges ahead with 78 ratings against 70. The two games launched the same day in North America and are still the pair most associated with the PSP’s first month.
9. Ridge Racer: Namco’s Greatest Hits
Metascore: 88 from 58 reviews · User score: 8.0 · Developer: Namco · Released: March 2005
The PSP Ridge Racer collected tracks from across the series’ PlayStation and arcade history and added a nitrous system that rewarded long drifts. It was the technical showpiece of the launch line-up, the game that showed the handheld could draw a PlayStation 2-class racer.
It and Wipeout Pure are both 88s from 2005, which is why the PSP’s launch year supplies three of the top 10. Only the 2001 PlayStation 2 line-up matched that in our ranking of the best PS2 games.
10. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories: GTA III, Three Years Earlier
Metascore: 88 from 65 reviews · User score: 7.9 · Developer: Rockstar Leeds · Released: October 2005
Liberty City Stories put a full 3D Grand Theft Auto on a handheld for the first time, set in the GTA III city in 1998 with Toni Cipriani as the lead. Motorcycles and a new radio line-up were added, and the map was the same one players already knew from 2001.
Its 7.9 user score is the lowest of the five 88s, which puts it tenth. Vice City Stories, the 2006 follow-up, scored 86 and misses the list.
Why the PSP Top 10 Clusters So Tightly
Nine of the 10 games sit between 88 and 91, and the five 88s include a launch racer, a fighter, a strategy RPG and an open-world game. That spread is the handheld’s strength: the PlayStation Portable was built to run home-console genres rather than the shorter sessions the Nintendo DS was designed around.
It also explains the Sony and Rockstar presence. Sony published three of the 10 through its own studios and Rockstar two, with Konami, Namco, Atlus, Square Enix and Q Entertainment supplying one each. The console sold around 80 million units, which puts it outside our list of the best-selling consoles, and these were the games its owners cite most.
The scores themselves are lower than on home consoles. The best PS2 games reach 97 and the best DS games 93, while nothing on PSP passed 91, partly because reviewers in 2005 graded handheld ports against their console originals.
Critics Versus Players on PSP
Players disagree with critics most on Lumines, which critics placed at 89 and players at 7.5, and on Final Fantasy Tactics, which critics put at 88 and players at 8.7. Both gaps come down to genre: abstract puzzle games review well and are rarely rated by players years later, while a 60-hour strategy RPG builds a devoted audience.
Persona 3 Portable has the largest user sample here at 853 ratings, ahead of Peace Walker’s 835 and Liberty City Stories’ 588. The two Namco games have the smallest, with 226 for Tekken and 70 for Ridge Racer.
How to Play the Best PSP Games Today
Four of the 10 have a current-platform version. Persona 3 Portable was remastered in 2023, Final Fantasy Tactics returned as The Ivalice Chronicles in 2025, Lumines Remastered covers the puzzle game, and Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection is on PlayStation Plus Premium as a classic.
Chains of Olympus and Peace Walker have PlayStation 3 HD versions but nothing newer. The two Grand Theft Auto games, Wipeout Pure and Ridge Racer need a PSP or a PlayStation Vita that can download PSP titles, which means an original disc or a store purchase made through the console.
- Remastered or re-released: Persona 3 Portable, Final Fantasy Tactics, Lumines, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection
- PlayStation 3 HD versions: Chains of Olympus, Peace Walker
- PSP or Vita only: Chinatown Wars, Wipeout Pure, Ridge Racer, Liberty City Stories
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the highest-rated PSP game on Metacritic?
God of War: Chains of Olympus, with a Metascore of 91 from 79 critic reviews. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is second on 90, and no other PSP game reached 90.
Why is Chinatown Wars ranked lower on PSP than on DS?
Metacritic scores each platform separately. The DS original scored 93 from 85 reviews in March 2009, while the PSP port scored 90 from 77 reviews that October. The PSP version added 3D lighting and extra missions but lost the DS touch-screen minigames.
Which PSP games can I play on PS5?
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles has a native PS5 release, Persona 3 Portable’s 2023 edition is a PlayStation 4 game that runs on PS5, and Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection is in the PlayStation Plus Premium classics catalogue. The rest need older Sony hardware.
Is Lumines really better than Final Fantasy Tactics?
On the critic score, by one point: 89 against 88. Players disagree, rating Tactics 8.7 and Lumines 7.5. This list ranks on the critic score first, so Lumines stays fifth.
Related Articles
Get the Fox Bulletin briefing
The stories that matter, in your inbox. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Newsletter signup will be available soon.
Related stories
Best Retro Games: The Top-Rated Game on 10 Classic Consoles
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time holds the highest Metacritic score of any game, and nine other consoles each have a clear peak. Here are the best retro games console by console, with the score, the year and how to play each one now.
Best SNES Games: Top 10 Ranked and Where to Play Them
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past leads the Super Nintendo library, with Chrono Trigger and Super Metroid behind it. Here are the 10 best SNES games, and which of them you can play on a Switch today.
Best DS Games: Top 10 Ranked by Metacritic Score
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is the highest-rated Nintendo DS game on Metacritic, with Chrono Trigger and Mario Kart DS behind it. Here are the 10 best DS games by critic score, with user ratings breaking every tie.