God of War: Chains of Olympus [PSP]

A big part of CoO's charm lies in its tools of combat. Kratos spends most of the experience engaging in butchery with his trusty Blades of Chaos, which feel immediately familiar and accessible whether you've played a God of War game or not. Kratos also gains the Efreet, a demon genie that creates a wide blast radius, early on. Eventually he'll earn more abilities, though the Efreet's fiery attacks will be a fallback resource throughout the game. The Gauntlet of Zeus, a super-powered punching glove, could rank as one of the best weapons in the series. Although the weapon and magic counts aren't as high as in the console games, every tool CoO does offer works wonderfully.

That's not to say that all is perfect. There's a puzzle that's not particularly intuitive thanks to the fixed camera and lack of cues, and a few more frustrating moments that take some patience to get through. And though there's no problem with CoO's short initial playthrough (seven hours for us on Normal), the storyline, entertaining as it is, isn't as strong as in previous games. Although both issues are worthy of mentioning, neither does much to ruin the overall experience.

As always, there's plenty of bonus content to unlock. After beating the game once, God mode (very hard difficulty) opens up, as well as challenge modes. The challenges can be tough if you're not a GoW vet -- it sounds easy to kill X number of enemies without getting hit, but it's quite another thing to pull it off. Clearing those challenges opens up more costumes for Kratos. The content on the UMD works as an effective tool to encourage replay value in what's otherwise a rather brief title.

God of War: Chains of Olympus is likely one of the year's best handheld titles. The combat is tight enough to attract both long-time fans and gamers who've never played the PS2 games. It's also one of the best-looking PSP titles to date; the fusion of familiar-looking art and prototypical-looking monsters ably captures that prequel feeling. It's worth noting that there can be some frustrating sections, that the story is good but not great, and that it'll be a brief experience for the voraciously hardcore. Despite these complaints, the bonus content should provide strong motivation for another playthrough. Chains of Olympus is more than another console game grafted to PSP; it's a pint-sized triumph for the platform.

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