The Warriors

Although Rockstar is well known for completely redefining the videogame industry with the release of the classic Grand Theft Auto III, the company is not a one trick pony. Even though they could continue to be a mass market success with only releasing titles in the GTA series, Rockstar has branched out and developed several other titles since the infamous PlayStation 2 title released. One of these games was The Warriors. This title originally came out in 2005 on both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox platforms. Now PSP owners can relive all the fun and excitement with a bargain price of $19.99.

Lets get one thing out of the way before we dig much deeper into this review. The Warriors is, like many other PSP games before it, a port of a PlayStation 2 title. As with other ports this is a blessing and a curse. It is amazing that so many PS2 games can look and feel like their big-screen counterparts. However, the downside to this is that Developers and Publishers usually stick a big sticker price for a game that came out years ago. Thankfully this is not an issue with The Warriors because the retail price is already a bargain at $19.99. (We mentioned this above too.)

Based on the film of the same name, Rockstar did a marvelous job with making the game have the same feel as the film--continuing the well-written dialogue and gritty visuals. Gameplay in The Warriors is an action Beat 'em up that will have you mashing your PSP buttons until your fingers go raw. You are equipped with a basic array of strong/weak attacks, basic grab moves and throws, and you can string together combos depending on how you attack your foes. This is mindless action at its finest and while it can be a bit repetitive, there aren't enough brawlers out there so it is easy to overlook any negatives. Another reason why it can be a bit easy to forgive the brawling gameplay mechanics is due to other tasks you are given between fights.

Rockstar did a great job in their initial release of getting together as many of the original cast members as possible to give their voices to the game. Although their voices may be slightly different due to aging, this adds a great deal of atmosphere and helps bridge the Game and Movie together. The other voices played by those who were unable to reprise their roles are as close to the original voices as you could hope for.

Continuing their trend at recreating the movie, Rockstar also used the original score from Barry De Vorzon and this also helps ensure the atmosphere of the game mirrors the movie as much as possible.

While I normally complain about straight ports of past PlayStation 2 games, The Warriors is a different story. It is true that those of you who have already played through the original may not find a reason to relive the experience. However, with a $19.99 price tag, it is certainly cheap enough to warrant a second look. This is one port that definitely will find a nice home in the PSP library. Now how about a a port of the Grand Theft Auto III Trilogy? Oh well, we can dream!