Owning a PSP is a bit surreal these days. On one hand, we get to play portable versions of PS2 games, which we would have marveled at back when our PS2s were the hotness. On the other hand, the actual PS2 game we're talking about, The Red Star, is all of three or four years old, which is an eternity in the gaming world. The explanation for this tremendous lag doesn't fit in this review, but the upshot is that The Red Star actually looks decent in its PSP incarnation. This isn't saying a lot for the PSP, considering we've seen many large-console titles ported successfully in the past. The life-span of Sony's portable system must be nearing its end when we're playing recycled games like this, no matter the quality. The Red Star shows well enough as a 3D action/fighting game, similar to many that we've played in the past. There are nice textures that show the aging but futuristic world you are battling through. The character models are simplistic, but effective enough. The bosses are nicely designed, and the thought behind the gameplay helps gloss over any visual shortcomings.

An action game without a compelling soundtrack is... pretty typical, actually. In this respect, The Red Star hangs with a good crowd, presenting forgettable music but showing off bright spots in the sound effects' department. We loved all the unique enemy sounds, and each one has a unique visual design that helps you pick them out from your bird's-eye viewpoint. The weapon animations and sounds are also very visceral, making it fun to deal damage. In a game where brawling is everything, making destruction fun is a winning strategy. Replays with different characters introduce you to all sorts of new carnage possibilities, which overrides any tedium generated from facing off against the same enemies. There's a reasonable amount of variation between levels, and we especially liked the changes in perspective, as in moving from a straight overhead camera to a side-view that makes certain levels in The Red Star appear more like a classic, side-scrolling shooter. In fact, anyone looking on in certain levels will swear that The Red Star is a throwback to the classic arcade shooters we grew up with.

Explaining The Red Star as a throwback isn't entirely wrong. Sure, it does lots of things that shoot it right out of a "retro" category, but there's an aesthetic at work here that smacks of the arcade. It's a good thing. The game's backstory is built on a series of comics by Christian Gossett that depicted an alternate world with overtones of Soviet Russia. The historical resemblances aside, The Red Star was more of a sci fi setting, where lasers and rockets coexisted with magical and mystical forces. Players entering the world of The Red Star won't get all the references, but it's neat that so much attention was paid to getting the fictional world right in the game. The gameplay is actually right in line with what readers enjoyed about the comics, lots of action and mayhem wrapped around storylines that focused on individual characters. The playable characters you'll have to begin the game are a real study in contrasts. A man and woman, they are almost polar opposites in terms of their abilities and attack patterns. The woman, Maya, is a fast but weak fighter. She's capable with a gun, so you'll spend a lot of the game keeping Maya out of the fray and targeting enemies. Her male counterpart, Kyuzo, is all brawn and makes for a great tank when things get heated. A third playable character is unlockable, and there are lots of goodies you can earn and use to level up your characters during battle.

The hallmark of a fighting game is that there aren't any keycards to collect, no puzzles to solve, and no NPC interaction. You just jettison in, kick a lot of butt, and move on to the next level. If you like this style of gameplay, and especially if you didn't get a chance to play The Red Star on PS2, you're going to have a good time. The typical level here keeps you jumping with wave after wave of enemy, each requiring a specific attack strategy. A mini-boss or two keeps things interesting, and then you'll have to wipe out the final boss to clear a stage. You get to customize the abilities of your characters by spending points earned during battle, and the points are awarded through a grading system that rewards your performance, so there's lots of incentive to play hard and fast with The Red Star. Novice players will enjoy the straightforward gameplay of Kyuzo, simply because he doesn't demand nearly as much from the player in terms of control. Getting through with Maya is harder, but that's what continues are for, right? This would be a fun multiplayer experience, but that isn't in the cards. There's good replay value anyway, at least to go through and try new characters, or earn better scores for specific areas.

The enemy A.I. isn't terribly good, but it isn't bad. Especially when multiple enemies are crowding the screen, you'll be sweating it. The best part of The Red Star is the interplay between different types of enemies. Rather than a typical arcade game where you face off against waves of similar enemies, you'll have to battle mixed groups that force you to react quickly and intelligently. These are the kind of enemy pairings you would make up on your own, if you were playing The Red Star as an RTS. Ranged fighters will appear with bulky, shielded fighters, forcing you to dispatch one or the other. Try to tackle both simultaneously, and you'll end up mowed down by guns or battered under the fists and weapons of the hulking enemies. There are enemies that move quickly but have no shields, while others are tanks but can attack with weapons that can't be blocked, only avoided. Maya has some great attacks that move her quickly across the screen, juggle enemies for extra damage, and generally keep her out of harm's way if you have fast reflexes. All characters have some form of shielding you can deploy as needed, but at the expense of energy that you may prefer to use for super attacks. Enemies have an obvious weak spot and patterns you'll quickly latch onto, but that doesn't mean they are easy. The larger bosses can be quite exciting, but this isn't a difficult game overall. The Red Star is all about patience, timing, and only in some cases, fast reflexes. Unlike the hardest of the arcade classics we remember fondly, The Red Star has A.I. that puts up a fight, but doesn't deal any crushing blows. Fans of fast-paced fighting games will polish The Red Star off in a single sitting and be disappointed, but the rest of us will find some good challenge in many places.

There aren't many games we can remember playing that manage to turn the PSP into such an awkward mess of buttons so quickly. Perhaps the problem is using the combination of shoulder buttons, analog stick, and face buttons so often? Doing anything with the shoulder buttons in a context that has to do with rapid motion is a losing proposition, so building shoulder-button controls into a fighting game has its problems. The lack of a "jump" feature will throw off gamers used to leaping about like wild rabbits during battle, but Maya's special moves approximate this style of play quite nicely. Being out of range when triggering melee attacks is a common occurrence, thankfully for your enemies as well as for you. Environmental hazards are many, but you aren't susceptible to them as much as your enemies. Being able to trigger combos that knock an enemy off a high ledge while you prance around without a care is fun at first, but you eventually figure out it's a way to keep you on rails and prevent you from being knocked off yourself too many times. Combos are reasonably easy to pull off, since this really isn't a fighting game that includes 100+ button specials. Instead, you'll just have to get used to switching between melee and shooting attacks, and stab for the shoulder button that locks on an enemy before attacking. Too many times, in the frenzy of battle, we found ourselves stabbing at attack buttons but facing the wrong direction because of a misfire on the targeting system. Games over the years have found many ways to build these controls in, but The Red Star doesn't do an exceptional job at crafting an experience that feels made for the PSP. What was probably intuitive on the PS2 is downright clunky on the handheld.

The last thing we'll do is say that The Red Star isn't worth a look for PSP gamers hungry to play new content. The need for new IP's on this system isn't really addressed by porting The Red Star over years after it appeared on PS2, but then again, like that NBC slogan from days gone by says: If you haven't played it, it's new to you. We found ourselves enjoying the variety of gameplay against new enemies, and each player character is way more than a simple re-skin or template. You can hate playing as Maya, and still get a kick out of Kyuzo, or vice versa. If you like side-scrolling action classics like the Final Fight series, you'll fit right into the retro-future world of The Red Star. Anyone that needs a shot of adrenaline to offset the slew of RPG, strategy, and casual titles available on the PlayStation Network is well advised to give this game a shot.