Before I get ahead of myself, I’ll just give you the lowdown.  Super Stardust HD was the blockbuster PlayStation Network title of 2007 which attracted plenty of attention in 2008 by being the first game ever on the PS3 to support Trophies by means of a patch.

Super Stardust Portable aims to capture the essence of its bigger brother, and share the magic on the small screen with PSP gamers.  I have to admit that I don’t really see much of what captured my attention with the first game, in this portable version.  Read on, and I’ll tell you why…

To me, the problem is twofold.  First you’ve got the controls which have to compensate for lack of a second analog stick.  In Super Stardust HD, the left stick controls movement, and the right stick controls weapons fire independently, in any direction.  In Portable,  weapons fire is mapped to the face buttons (X, Square, Triangle, Circle) which is the only logical solution, but not a particularly elegant solution.

I’ve found myself not able to execute the same precision weapons fire as in Super Stardust HD which results in needless death, and to further compound things mashing the face buttons with your thumb really hurts after a while.

My second bugbear is you’re no longer cruising in your ship around a complete globe (I already knew this before buying the game).  Sure, you’re still on a planet which resembles a curve but as far as I can tell, the game space us open-ended.  Whereas in Super Stardust HD, if you moved right round the globe, any mines would be where you last saw them and any asteroids would be in roughly the same place.  This leaves such tactical planning as to where you may go next, totally impossible.

Such thoughts are obviously behind the disparity in Metacritic scores, with Super Stardust HD netting a score of 82, and Super Stardust Portbable nabbing a score of 72.  Whilst you may feel that I’m totally slating this game, it is only in the light of Super Stardust HD.  Portable is a great game in it’s own right, but for fans of Super Stardust HD it’s just going to be a total letdown.

Super Stardust HD in action

Just some side notes on the PlayStation Store: the Store works perfectly, giving the user a nice visual treat, like on the PS3.  Pricing at £6.29 I believe is reasonable, but once you start adding the multiplayer pack etc, it starts to get a bit pricey as an overall package.

It’s interesting to see that the PSP now has the PlayStation Store where PSP gamers can now buy and download games directly.  This has been a much needed feature as not everyone’s a fan of games shipping on UMDs all the time.

It’s worth emphasising that Super Stardust Portable as a PlayStation Network game, is a download only.  There’s no case or packshot if you’ve been Googling it, and most certainly no UMD disk of any kind.  This is different to games such as LocoRoco 2 which ARE available both on UMD and as a download on the PlayStation Store.

This post will be updated as and when everything’s alright again.

Finished!

I have finished the entire game, and very surprisingly I feel extremely let down, despite it giving me hours of entertainment intermingled at times with severe frustration, especially as I had big expectations for it. Why, you ask…?  Well read on!

LocoRoco 2 is very much similar to the original LocoRoco, but has been advanced, in many ways… for there is more interaction.  The first noticeable difference being the annoying world map, where you literally, at times, have to go the whole way round the world to find where your next point of adventure lies.  Each level within its own planet section has a theme, whether it be a snowy setting or a jungle.

The second difference is that the LocoRocos can swim.  It’s hard to figure out at first to get the LocoRocos where you want/need them to go.  My top tip though is to beware of the creatures you meet, and remember the saying: never judge a book by its cover!

Next is the fact there are crevices in the worlds where your LocoRocos can go, and obtain either more of the red flowers, or the blue flying star things.  The Moja’s return as your foremost enemy, and annoy you at times when you wish they would go away.  But they can now sing, and they sometimes bring black clouds with them which you need to bounce into, to disperse them.  Is this Sony trying to tell us about our O Zone layer?  I do wonder!

The fundamental parts of the game are still there; eat the red flowers to increase your LocoRoco numbers, while collecting everything you can including the Pickories (orange things) as well as the nuts.  A new big feature of the game is the fact you need to collect musical notes, and sometimes conduct a tune using the O button.  The more you collect the more surprises you will release, but I will come back to the surprises later on.

Many of my favourite little characters return in this game, including MuiMui’s (and a new character BuiBui’s, same as MuiMui’s but are red.)  But the BuiBui’s fly around in their rocket ships, whilst trying to launch bombs at your LocoRocos.

Most levels look similar to those featured in the first game, but I don’t know, maybe that’s just me, what do you think?  A further new feature to this game is the LocoRocos’ ability to climb into various stone bits, and then rolling yourself and the stone into various features to smash your way through.  But not forgetting one new LocoRoco to join your little friends, which is one of the features I like in the LocoRoco games, you can choose which one you play with, who have their own little unique characteristics.

The levels you play can be upgraded (if you get the correct specifications to do so, which vary at each level, on how much you have collected so far) which makes Pickories easier to find.  There are further mini-games to play, but most of all I like the new MuiMui house.  This is where you can tell your MuiMui’s to build specifically placed chambers, and equipment for the chambers, dependant on having the correct equipment needed to build them, where the game wants, and not the other way around.  I almost feel we have gone backwards since the last game, where you were allowed to put stuff where you wanted in the LocoRoco house with the Editor.

I originally bought my Pink PSP for this game, as I enjoyed playing it on my friends PSP, so it’s enjoyable to play such a game which is still simple, but frustrating at times.  It is also one of very few games I own as a girl, there needs to be more like this and Patapon. Overall, despite slight disappointment from the game and its lack of levels, it still brings a big smile to my face playing and singing along.  It is definitely worth a buy, it will suit anyone and everyone, even the younger generation.

I rate it: 8/10

PS3 vs 360 In 2009- TheSixthAxis
A much-needed evaluation of the current state of play between the two gaming industry juggernaughts.

Nielsen: People prefer playing original Xbox over PS3 in 08′- PS3 Fanboy
Eugh, the original Xbox was horrible.  I know, I owned one and it’s nowhere near as good as the Xbox 360.

Research Group: PS2 is the Most-Played Console- Edge Online
This doesn’t surprise me.  It could possibly be said that the days of the PS2 were the golden age of gaming.

PS3’s Web Browser Usage Ahead of Wii- Edge Online
Well, the Wii’s merely a cheap toy, isn’t it?  I don’t feel I need to say anymore.

LittleBigPlanet glitch may erase parts of your save data- PS3 Fanboy
Again, this doesn’t surprise me.  Are developers making enough allowances for the amount of content a user profile may contain?  I think not.

MGS LittleBigPlanet Review- TheSixthAxis
They come to the same conclusion as I do: great content, but the five Acts are way too short.  Fantastic for Metal Gear Solid nuts.

That’s all for now.

‘tips for race driver:grid’
I’ll only answer with regards to what I’m most experienced at, and that is muscle cars.  I’ve found that aggressive driving is the key, and if you time your braking right when going round even the trickiest corners, you can do some insane drifting whilst keeping your speed relatively high.  When it comes to some of the faster classes of cars, I find them to be uncontrollable!  Hope this helps.

‘eu.playstation.com/manuals’
This is quite weird- this URL search directing people here.  Actually entering this address redirects to http://uk.playstation.com/help-support/manuals/

However, if that page bamboozles you I have a number of short, useful links headed under ‘resources’ at the bottom-right of the page.

‘ps3 disk warranty’
I’ve found out what the deal is from the horse’s mouth- PLAYSTATION 3 Warranty Guidelines.  This is from the Australian/New Zealand site, but it mentions the UK and Ireland.  I’d say the general principles listed apply, but as always it is probably a good idea to contact the Sony care line.

That’s all folks- That’s all I want to cover for now, as most searches will take people to what they want to know.  I’ll add new posts to this series as and when such questions arise.  However if there’s something you want to know and it isn’t here, then you can reply to this post.  I’m usually very quick in replying (varies between a few minutes and a few hours).

My story

As I knew my PS3 would probably be replaced, I took the wise step of backing up all of my data using the ‘backup and restore’ feature to safeguard my settings and game saves etc.  When I got my replacement PS3, I attempted to restore all of the data using the same method, but I’m told that there is ‘no backup data present’.

I have subsequently found out that whilst the backup and restore feature works really well if your PS3’s hard drive has become corrupted or you’re upgrading to a bigger hard drive, but it doesn’t work transferring data across two PS3s.  I assume this is to prevent piracy etc.

Apparently, if you want to transfer game saves etc from an old PS3 to a new one, you need to manually copy each file by selecting each one individually, and copying it to an external storage device.  This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.

Any reasonable person would assume that if you make a backup, you can restore it.  No mention was made during this process that the backup couldn’t be restored on a new PS3.  Forget videos, music, or games downloaded from the PlayStation Store- game saves are your most valuable files on the system.  So I’m wondering:

1. Why doesn’t the PS3 system throw up a warning that the backup file will only work on the same PS3, and will not transfer to a new system?
2. Why is there not a universal backup system for backing up game saves to any PS3 system that is straightforward and automated?  Selecting and copying each individual file is farcical.

A 360 solution

As far as I’m concerned, Microsoft seems to have it right.  As the Xbox 360’s hard disk is an attachment that clips onto the outside of the console, you can simply keep the hard drive and slot it onto the replacement.  You can’t get much simpler than that!

Also, Microsoft offer a Data Transfer Kit for free if you upgrade a core/premium 360 to an elite.  I won’t go into the details, but it shows that Microsoft have some sort of system in place.  So why have Sony made it so hard to quickly and easily backup game saves?

Note: Xbox 360 guidance and explanation kindly provided by Rockers Delight

The big issue

Why is this such a problem?  The backup and restore feature forces you to back everything up.  You can pick and choose what you want to backup, it has to be absolutely everything.  Not exactly a piece of cake if you’ve got a 40GB PS3 or higher that’s full as not everyone has an external hard disk.

Also, for any external storage that is big enough for the task and you want the PS3 to recognise it, the file system has to be FAT32.  This is the file system that the PS3’s OS runs on.  Even if you’ve made it this far,  if you’re transferring data from one PS3 to another using this method, you will be shafted (as explained above).

If however, you want to use the totally convoluted method for just backing up game saves, you’ve got to select each file individually and copy it to an external storage medium.  Fair enough if you’ve just got a few files, but what if you’ve got a year or two’s worth of game saves?

Personally, I’ve lost about a year’s worth of game saves and to be honest with you here, I’m devastated.  The backup system that I chose betrayed me.  I’ve emailed the Sony care team to see if there’s anything they can do for me, but I doubt it.  My only other option is to see if I can get PS3 save files off the internet, but it just doesn’t feel right.

A ticking time bomb

Ok, maybe just a touch melodramatic, but think of all the PS3s out there, all with their many GBs of data.  If something were to go wrong with their PS3s like mine, and they use the backup feature their game saves won’t be recoverable.

That’s why I believe Sony need to overhaul the backup and restore system with more options for flexibility, and clearer guidance.