some other questions:
- is maverick hunter x worth playing? I never played the original so I'm not sure if I should just play that one first (my roommate actually has it on snes so it would be a crying shame if I didn't try it in an authentic environment)
- any psn minis worth it? all of the ones I ever tried on ps3 weren't particularly amazing
- silent hill: should I play origins/shattered memories on psp or on other consoles? not super concerned with playing those soon anyway but just curious

Growlanser IV: Wayfarer of Time (It's called Wayfarer of the Time on backloggd for some reason)

Maverick Hunter X is also definitely worth playing. I would recommend playing the original first if you have access to it though.

play MMX1 first. Maverick Hunter is a lot like a Switch generation remake in the sense that it's good, it has some more things and a small handful of polish changes, but misses the 'spice' of the original.

noted, I'll definitely wait until after I beat the original mmx (which I should really play sooner rather than later)

happy (belated?) birthday mate ;). iirc there's a mostly completed english interface patch for gundam vs gundam next plus out there--its an arena combat mech game based off the gundam franchise but its rather remarkable in how the boost dash cancel mechanics captures the contemporary choreography of action in mech shows. you can have the og rx-78 gundam dash around like it was in eureka seven or smthn lol. its definitely slower paced than something like ZoEII but since you enjoyed the urgency & cancel system in that game you might find some worth in it. lots of other mech titles on the psp worth checking out if you're into the aesthetic--idk how you feel about SRPGs but SRW A portable is a notable standout for being fully english patched, sorta infamous for having fucked miss/hit rates but its not like unbeatable. Gladiator Begins is also a weird title i remember playin for a lil bit, its like rough from what I remember but there's some depth in that one on account of different fighting styles, equipment/limb targeting, lite RPG stuff. less assured of its quality but its prolly worth a curious download.

@SimonDedalus thanks for the recs! I've been meaning to dip my toe into some proper mecha anime games so those would be a great way to do so. also my birthday is actually next week but we're both working that day unfortunately... so we ended up just celebrating it today instead :)

jeanne d’arc, peace walker (its best played on a PSP imo), tactics ogre and outrun 2 are my recs

Not sure if you're a big scrolling shooter guy but there are a bunch of awesome series compilations for PSP - Gradius Collection, Twinbee Portable, (Star) Soldier Collection, and Parodius Portable are the ones I have

And oh yeah Tactics Ogre PSP is my second favorite game ever

Darkstalkers Chronicle and Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max are good if you're into solid versions of Capcom fighting games

@letshugbro it only just occurred to me that I can move my save data from peace walker hd over to psp, so I'll definitely give that a whirl, since I wanted to buy a copy eventually anyway. also outrun 2006 was the game that convinced me to pick one up lol I didn't realize how well the experience translated over until I got to play it in person. I need to add that sooner rather than later for sure

@DJSCheddar I'll definitely take some shooter recs! it's a genre I'd still like to break into, and the psp layout would be very comfy for side-scrolling shooters I think

@Reddish I've played both of those on dreamcast a fair bit (vampire chronicle for matching service/sfa3) but I'll definitely need to give them a spin on here to see how comfortable they feel

Defo play some Wipeout on that bad boy

And yeah happy birthday

Since no one else is weighing in on your Silent Hill question I would go with console for those. For me at least the immersion is the thing and that's always tougher on handheld. Also Shattered Memories gets a lot of use out of Wii gimmicks, definitely made for it specifically. So depends on how much you care about any of that honestly, especially for lower-tier SH

@unaderon thanks!

@DJSCheddar yea that tracks, I'll go ahead and delete them off here in favor of better games

Trying to remember other games I had on the system really made me realize this was just a Ridge Racer and Monster Hunter player to me....