TGS 09: Dante's Inferno PSP Hands-On Preview

What We Know: Dante's Inferno is loosely based on the renowned literary poem The Divine Comedy. Of course, The Divine Comedy doesn't exactly provide direct framework for an action game, requiring some controversial changes, but Dante's trip through Hell does provide a unique setting. Electronic Arts has been slowly but surely pulling back the layers of Dante's Inferno to mixed response from gamers and the media and while the publisher has been promising a PSP version of Dante's Inferno all along, EA's Tokyo Showcase was the first time we were given a chance to check out the handheld edition. EA has been promising Dante's Inferno would look and play similarly on the PSP -- this isn't a spin-off or a prequel -- and the single PSP running the game, tucked away in a corner (not a a good sign), provided my first glimpse at whether EA pulled it off.

What's New For TGS: Everything and nothing, depending on how you look at it. Tokyo Game Show is providing the first look at the PSP version but the driving question about the PSP version actually has less to do with the game's content, which we've already seen on other platforms many times, and more about EA's ability to bring that to the PSP itself. In 10 minutes of running around, I botched a puzzle (I had to ask the nearby representative), batted away some enemies, crossed a lake of fire with air creatures and dodged first swipes from a monster that filled the entire screen. Sounds like Dante's Inferno, right? That's because the PSP version looks and plays like you'd expect. Whether Dante's Inferno is something you're interested in is a completely different story, but EA appears to have successfully translated it to the smaller screen.

What I Want To See: I'll be interested to see how the PSP version scales the boss battles, which is something EA has been heavily focused on when showing the console versions. Those sections game feature screen-dominating demons that might prove taxing to the PSP. There are also appeared to be less enemies on the screen at once in the PSP version, but it could have been the section I was playing. I'll need to see them side-by-side in the future for a better comparison of the translation.