Imagine for a moment, if you will, that you are an entrepreneur who has decided to open your own videogame studio. You have calculated the risk of opening such a business and have already assembled a team of very talented designers and programmers.

Now imagine that business is good. Business is so good that your studio has moved from minor projects like children's PC games and GameBoy Advance titles to much more costly projects, such as games for the Nintendo Wii and the Xbox 360.

You now have the opportunity to start making original games for Sony's portable system, the PSP. However, if you decided to go for it there would really be no guarantee that you would make any real money. In fact, in the short-run you can pretty much expect to lose money.

So what do you do? You play it safe. Instead of developing new games exclusively for the PSP, you begin to re-release games that you have already published for other game systems (after dumbing down the graphics just a little) onto the PSP.

I mean why not? The PSP is a powerful system and can handle pretty hardcore graphics, it costs way less money than creating a new game from scratch and it's good for people who don't own the more expensive home systems and would like to play the same games on-the-go. Sure the games really weren't made for the PSP and as a result they have some technical problems, but the games are still playable and almost as enjoyable the second time around.

I wish I could say that this is not happening in the game industry, but it is. Many well-known game studios are practicing this very same cost-effective approach and, as a result, an incredible system like the PSP is not realizing its full potential.

But wait! There is a silver lining to this story. Fortunately there are a few brave, strong companies that have decided to take the risk and actually create some exclusive titles for the PSP and we're gonna take a look at a few of them in this month's edition of Press Start!

The PSP can handle the full on 3D characters, environments and hi-res texture mapping that Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror offers. Thoroughly impressive are the gorgeous models and clean texture maps. All SF:DM images © SCEA.

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror for the Sony PlayStation Portable; Publisher: SCEA; Developer: Sony Bend; Release Date: March 14, 2006; ESRB Rating: M for mature; Genre: Shooter; Players: 1-8 players online; Support: online voice chat; Online: various objective modes and deathmatch modes

Running and Gunning
Syphon Filter has always been a very creative, as well as a very entertaining videogame franchise. SF was first introduced in 1999 on the original PlayStation and featured some of the most intuitive and difficult gameplay of that time. The first SF inspired two sequels on the PS1 and an online, multiplayer based title on the PS2, Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain.

It seems surprising that Sony would release a full-fledged addition to the series on its portable system, but, sure enough, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror has graced us with its exclusive goodness on the PSP.