101 in 1 Megamix Review - PSP

I don’t know about you but I always worry when game compilations come along. In my experience they usually tend to over promise and under deliver. It’s all very well trying to jam as many games into a single unit as you can but is there a point if none of them are any good?

So with all that pessimism out of the way, you’re probably keen to find out if 101 in 1 Megamix from Nordcurrent manages to strike a winning formula or not. The short answer is yes. The long answer comes in the form of the following review.

As I mentioned just a few moments ago, I’m pretty nervous when it comes to video game compilations. I think this pathological fear dates back to the days when I was a young child and was given a board game that supposedly contained fifty fantastic games in one. You can probably understand my disappointment that the box just contained a selection of items only a Blue Peter presenter would be keen to play with. I distinctly remember the box contained just a small piece of green felt and a few drinking straws, oh and a small brown plastic football that would be considered a choking hazard nowadays.

With 101 minigames it can be very daunting to know where to start; thankfully a good majority of the games are actually locked away to begin with. Unlocking the rest of the games is achieved by successfully getting a high score in those that aren’t already locked, simple.

After creating your profile (which only consists of typing your name) you are given the very simple choice between Single or Multiplayer. I’d say it’s pretty obvious what the distinction between the two is so let’s just look at what they offer us.

Single Player mode features two options; first up is TV Guide Tour. This game mode separates all of the minigames into eight themed categories (or TV channels). Example; the Soaked Adventures channel features 12 or so games that involve water. Each Channel also has a short but rather funny Full Motion Video that plays when you’ve unlocked each game in that channel, not really necessary but it’s a nice bonus I suppose.  Secondly you have the Zapping mode, this is a quick access channel to all of the games you have unlocked in TV Guide Tour mode – there’s no faffing about you simply choose the game you want to play from the list and press Go.

Multiplayer Mode is very similar to single player, you have the option of diving into a Quick Play session that lets you choose any single game that you’ve previously unlocked. Marathon on the other hand takes you through many more in one sitting; this is the best choice if you want to avoid extra loading screens. Both modes are for just 2 players and are only possible via local Wi-Fi, you cannot play online or take turns on a single PSP which I think is a bit of a shame.

Okay, okay – enough of that faff! What about the bloody games?

With so many to mention I can’t really go into them all specifically but I can mention my favourites.

As you can probably tell, these minigames are not award winners but they’re almost all good fun and trickier than you’d initially think. Getting the top score award on each game is actually a good challenge, and one that I’ve not managed after nearly 2 weeks of solid playtime! If you’ve previously played a Mario Party or Raving Rabbids game collection you’ll have a good idea of what to expect. So whilst the level of polish across the games doesn’t always remain constant, at around £12 on the PSN store – you can’t deny there is value for money here. After all my trusty calculator suggests to me that the minigames cost under 9p each – now that is a bargain.

Overall I was very impressed with 101 in 1 Megamix for PSP. Considering how many games there are in the bundle, I didn’t find any that I would never play again in order to beat my highscore and get those Ace Awards.

Graphically the game will not melt the PSP’s graphic chip, but there has certainly been some effort put into making a constantly themed design. Almost everything is polygonal, and thankfully lazy 2D sprites are very rare in appearance. The audio isn’t too inspiring, you’ll hear some catchy tunes and what most likely are stock sound effects; but hey – they do the job.

101 in 1 Megamix for PSP scores a rather good 8 out of 10 - for being almost too good in value to refuse, and almost (but not quite) as much fun as poking Chris Moyles with a very sharp stick.