Though the GameCube & Xbox eventually both died out in place of their successors, the PS2 remained too hot to ignore, while the PSP's successor (the Vita) wouldn't come out until late 2011. Therefore it made too much sense to continue releasing games on both pieces of hardware, which included games that were also releasing on the newer consoles. For the most part these "HD" games also came out with "SD" versions at around the same time, but there were some examples where the PS2 and/or PSP version wouldn't come out until a fair amount of time after the initial HD version came out; in other words, they were (as some would say) backported from HD to SD. So let's go over some examples of games that were designed for the PS3 or 360 first, only to later get backported to the PS2 and/or PSP; i.e. no simultaneous releases here!
We start off with a batch of titles, mainly because if I had included them individually it would have made up 2/3 of this entire list, and since they're all part of the same overall franchise it's better to just put them together; also, it was these games that inspired me to make this entire list. While the first entry in Koei's iconic Dynasty Warriors/Musou franchise was actually a 3D fighter for the PS1 back in 1997, it wasn't until the second entry in 2000 (which is technically the first in the Shin Sangoku Musou spin-off series, hence why they're always a number higher outside of Japan) that the concept of it being a 3D hack & slash taking place in various open battlefields was truly established. In 2004 developer Omega Force introduced the first true offshoot of the series with Samurai Warriors, which traded in the Chinese Three Kingdoms setting for Japan's Warring States era, and since then the franchise has spun off to include the likes of Fire Emblem, The Legend of Zelda, Fist of the North Star, One Piece, & many other licensed IP. In 2006 the Musou franchise started getting released on HD consoles with Xbox 360 ports of both Samurai Warriors 2 & Dynasty Warriors 5, though the latter was only released in Japan, and in 2007 saw the release of both Dynasty Warriors: Gundam (which was based on Sunrise's iconic mech franchise) & Warriors Orochi (a crossover between Dynasty Warriors & Samurai Warriors), which launched on HD consoles. However, the PS2 & PSP still saw love from this franchise, with Warriors Orochi being released on both Xbox 360 & PS2 at launch worldwide, which in turn made a PSP port natural since it could be based on the PS2 version. The same is more or less true of 2008's Warriors Orochi 2, so neither of those count for this list.
Meanwhile, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam was originally released in Japan as a PS3-exclusive, though a 360 version would see release worldwide, & later in Japan as well. The PS2 was still performing really well, though, so it was decided to backport the game over to the PS3's predecessor, resulting in the release of Gundam Musou Special in early 2008, literally just a few days prior to the PS3 original's one-year anniversary. As you can tell by the title this was only released in Japan, and while the game's ability to render tons of on-screen enemies was reduced for the PS2 this was everything that was in the original HD version (including the ability to install to a hard drive!)... and in fact even had MORE, as the Musha Gundam Mk-II was added to the PS2 version, along with campaigns for both it & the OG Musha Gundam; 2008's Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2, meanwhile, launched for PS360 & PS2 simultaneously. Gundam Musou Special marked the start of a bit of a trend of some HD Musou games getting backported to prior SD hardware over the next few years, though the PS2 would only get one more example. Late 2007's Dynasty Warriors 6 (the first entry to be designed specifically for HD hardware) would get backported to the PS2 a year later in late 2008, as well as to the PSP ("Dynasty Warriors 6 Special") another year after that in late 2009, though the PSP release was Japan-only, which featured exclusive campaigns for six characters & five exclusive stages, though swimming & duels were removed, and there's some extreme slowdown at points. While DW6 would be the only backport to see release outside of Japan, this trend continued on with "Dynasty Warriors 7 Special" for the PSP in mid-2011 (coming out only five months after the OG PS360 versions) that actually required two UMDs to fully contain, one with Shu & Wu's campaigns & the other with Wei & Jin's; the port even allowed you to swap UMDs to go between campaigns without closing the game first! Finally, seven months after the Japanese PS360 release of Warriors Orochi 3 at the tail end of 2011 came "Warriors Orochi 3 Special" for the PSP in July of 2012, which added in Rachel from Ninja Gaiden & a take on Abe no Seimei, as well as an exclusive Battle Royale mode for up to four players.
Looking at things today are any of these backports the "ideal" way to play any of these games? No, not at all (it was common for in-engine cutscenes to now be pre-rendered video, since character's faces no longer animated on PS2 & PSP), but there's definitely a level of moxie to respect in being able to see the leap in visuals & style between Dynasty Warriors 2 & 6 on the same console, or the simple fact that DW7 on the PSP is one of the rare multi-UMD games for the handheld (only a few dozen exist, out of the near 2,000-game catalog). Also, it's interesting to consider that early Musou games for the PSP from 2004 to 2006 changed up the formula a bit to accommodate the handheld, being based more around entering small skirmishes while traversing a grid-based map, but by 2011 & 2012 Omega Force was essentially brute forcing straight backports of HD releases to the PSP that aimed for as much parity as the handheld could possibly muster, while still adding in something new to make them "Special".
OK, so let's backtrack a bit & return to proper chronological order, which would bring us to the end of December 2005. The PS3 & Wii were still less than a year away from release, which meant that the Xbox 360 had the Holiday season to make all the money Microsoft wanted unopposed by new hardware (though the PS2 was still admittedly selling like gangbusters). This also applied to Japan, which would see the launch of the 360 on December 10, 2005 with six games at launch, with two being exclusive releases to that region, Every Party (a party game co-developed by Microsoft Japan & Game Republic, making it only the latter's third release) & Tetris: The Grand Master Ace (a console-exclusive variant of Arika's beloved arcade game series). The next two 360 games would both come out in Japan on December 22, with one of them being the console's third ever Japan-exclusive game, Wrestle Kingdom. Developed by Yuke's, at this point best known for its very successful line of wrestling games based on WWE, Wrestle Kingdom was Yuke's self-published version that focused on Japan's three biggest pro wrestling promotions at the time: New Japan Pro Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling, & the relatively recent Pro Wrestling NOAH, which was formed in 2000 by a mass exodus of AJPW talent following the passing of the legendary Giant Baba in 1999; there were also some freelancers included in the roster.
Using the engine that powered the two WWE Day of Reckoning games for the GameCube, Yuke's first 360 game looked to act as a middle ground between the more simulation-focused games that Japanese players preferred & the more arcade-like WWE games, though a lack of specialty matches (only singles, tag, three & four-person multimans, & battle royals) was a bummer. Also, the game actually wound up needing to be recalled early on, due to a glitch that prevented the game from properly saving to the 360's internal hard drive, which in turn also resulted in a post-launch party needing to be cancelled. I have no idea how Wrestle Kingdom sold for the 360, though the console was only a marginally better seller in Japan than the OG Xbox was, but in the end Yuke's would decide to backport it over to the PS2, with that version coming out on July 20, 2006, just over half a year later. While the PS2 version would wind up losing Kazuyuki Fujita from its roster (likely due to him no longer being contracted under NJPW after 2005) it would otherwise have everything that was in the 360 original, and even added Brock Lesnar (who had just been stripped of the IWGP Heavyweight Title mere weeks before the backport's release) & Giant Bernard (a.k.a. Matt "Albert" Bloom, current head trainer of WWE's Performance Center) to the roster; personally, that sounds like an improvement, overall. The sales must have been much better, too, as the following year Yuke's would release Wrestle Kingdom 2: Pro Wrestling Sekai Taisen as a PS2-exclusive, and while NOAH was no longer represented the roster made up for it by including even more freelancers & a bit of a who's who of legends, including Antonio Inoki, Big Van Vader, Stan Hansen, the Funk Brothers (Terry & Dory Jr.), Jumbo Tsuruta, the original Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama), and more.
The idea of an open world racing game had already existed for roughly 20 years come 2006, as the first example was Turbo Esprit for various microcomputers way back in 1986. The concept would see a renewed focus via Angel Studios (now Rockstar San Diego) starting with 1999's Midtown Madness (plus its 2000 sequel) & continuing with the Midnight Club trilogy between 2000 & 2005. Eventually the idea of racing games taking place in an open world that allowed players to freely explore would catch on & become more popular, with the idea of creating larger & larger environments for players to drive & race within. On September 5, 2006 the game Test Drive Unlimited by Eden Games & Atari for the Xbox 360 threw its wheel into the mix by not only offering an open world modeled off of the island of O'ahu n Hawaii (with over 1,000 miles of roads & highways being touted) but also offering an interesting take on online multiplayer. In short, the entire single-player experience can be done online, but at the same time the idea was that everyone playing was technically sharing the same island, as though they were all living in the same environment, complete with the ability to race, trade vehicles, create clans, etc.; this was named by Atari as M.O.O.R., or "Massively Open Online Racing". This resulted in TDU becoming a hit on release, and was eventually followed up with 2011's Test Drive Unlimited 2, which included not just O'ahu again but also Ibiza (an island off the east coast of Spain), as well as now being released on Windows & the PS3; to this day, TDU2 is often cited as one of the greatest open world racing games ever made.
But what about the first TDU? Well, it'd receive ports to the PS2 & PSP by the now defunct Atari Melbourne House (the former Beam Software, & later Krome Studios Melbourne) that came out in March of 2007, six months after the 360 original; a Windows port of TDU also came out around the same time. Understandably certain things were either reduced in quality (like the visuals) or removed completely (certain vehicles & the like), but otherwise Melbourne House seemingly managed to bring over the proper TDU experience to SD hardware, with the PS2 version even including the same exact M.O.O.R experience as was seen on the 360 (or at least as close as it could be for the hardware), which for the PS2 was undoubtedly an accomplishment. In fact, looking up opinions online shows that some even prefer the SD versions over the HD, if only due to the change in driving physics, with the PS2 & PSP ports having more arcade-style physics. The PS2 version even featured a neat bit of bonus content in the form of 30 special NPCs who were based on the 30 most active testers during Atari's closed beta test for the port, which is cool. The whole M.O.O.R. experience was even attempted for the PSP via its WiFi support, but with a restriction of only four players being able to communicate with each other at any time (with randomly placed AI vehicles placed around the island for effect) it was understandably limited; still, got to admire the fact that it was even attempted.
We leave behind the PS2 for the next couple of entries, as while the system continued to see releases during this time it tended to get either wholly unique versions of games that also came out on HD consoles... or simply received the same alternate version that came out on Wii, only without motion controls. Meanwhile, the Vita was still a few years away so there was still a place for games designed for HD hardware to be backported to something like the PSP that was at least comparable to the PS2 in terms of raw power. This also included arcade games, which by the late 00s had now fully moved over to tech that was designed to be played on HD screens, and one such piece of tech was Taito's Type X2, which powered the likes of Street Fighter IV, The King of Fighters XII & XIII, Persona 4 Arena, & the subject of this entry: BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. Originally released in November of 2008 in arcades, BlazBlue would go on to be Arc System Works' major original IP for a number of years, due to Guilty Gear being stuck in a bit of legal limbo for a while, and though ArcSys had continued making sprite-based 2D fighters up to this point (Sengoku Basara X came out in arcades earlier that same year) this was their first one to be designed around HD resolutions, as their prior HD fighter (2007's Battle Fantasia) was a 2.5D game that utilized polygons (& would help inspire the direction SFIV would take with its own visuals).
While the Type X2 could certainly support 640x480 via VGA there's no doubt that BlazBlue was designed around widescreen, so it made sense that a PS2 backport would be out of contention, as the change in aspect ratio would wildly mess with balance (see: Tatsunoko vs. Capcom's original version supporting both 4:3 & 16:9), and there's no way they were going to potentially force some people to play the game in letterboxed widescreen. The PSP had a widescreen display, however, so over half a year after the PS360 ports first came out in mid-2009 a backport to Sony's handheld came out in early 2010 (late 2010 for Europe), simply titled BlazBlue Portable. The main appeal of this port, aside from its portability, was that it offered boss-like "Unlimited" variants of the entire cast, whereas only a handful initially had them, though eventually this was added to the HD console versions via DLC. To no surprise, the 2D sprites became a bit more "crunchy" on PSP, but the overall experience of BlazBlue was still there. In proper ArcSys fashion a sequel/update would be released in late 2009, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, which saw HD console release in mid-2010 but saw no SD backport. Then in late 2010 came BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II (which, despite the number, was just an update, not an actual storyline sequel), and while the HD consoles would simply get patches to update them accordingly the PSP & 3DS would actually see proper ports of CSII in early-to-mid 2011; these ports would see international release, as well. A second update to this second entry, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend, would then come out in arcades in late 2011, and while proper ports to the PS3, 360, & even Vita would all see release around the world through 2012 only Japan would receive a PSP version of CS Extend, which actually had exclusive content in the form of a "BlazBlue Quiz" mode, though that came in place of any online play, as it only supported local ah-hoc multiplayer. However, ArcSys did release a Double Pack for the PSP backport of CS Extend to allow friends who both owned a PSP to start fighting right away, similar to how D3 Publisher released a Double Pack for the Japan-only PSP version of Earth Defense Force 2 in 2011.
There are always games that will, for one reason or another, get lost in the shuffle regardless of the actual quality of the game itself. A perfect example would be Split/Second (which had the subtitle of "Velocity" outside of North America), which was developed by Black Rock Studio (formerly Climax Brighton/Racing) & published by Disney Interactive Studios, a rare original IP to be published by DIS (rather than the usual stuff based on Disney IPs). Under the veneer of a fictional reality TV program, Split/Second was a racing game with a heavy focus on "power plays", which allow racers to activate certain environmental hazards after earning meter via things like jumps, drifting, drafting, etc., resulting in races where you sometimes have to make last-second adjustments to avoid power plays from other racers, which can range from simple explosions to nigh course alterations. When the game initially came out in May of 2010 for the PS360 & Windows it quickly found itself a cult following & very positive reviews that absolutely adored the game & its wild environmental action, but sadly the sales just weren't there, selling only around 86,000 copies in North America within the first 12 days. A sequel was planned, with the game even ending with a "To Be Continued...", but a change in management at Disney resulted in it being cancelled at the end of 2010, & by mid-2011 Black Rock Studio was shut down completely.
Possibly with hopes of maybe encouraging the development of a sequel, a backport of Split/Second to the PSP was made & released in November of 2010, half a year later (& just a month prior to the sequel being cancelled), with the porting work being done by the talented folks at Sumo Digital; there was also an iOS version released alongside the HD version, but was a completely different project from the PSP version. Without a doubt, the game's concept of environmental damage was designed around HD consoles, but Sumo was able to make the game work on PSP, though with understandable accommodations. Subtle changes to track designs, event rules, car stats, & even the physics were made to make it all work better on the PSP, though I imagine they'd only be something either the most hardcore would notice (or those who played the game on both HD & PSP in short order), but Sumo also added in an extra track that combined portions of three courses taking place in the "Docks" area; not a major inclusion, but extra content it still nice. The PSP backport wasn't quite as nicely received as the HD original, with complaints about frame rate drops, the changed physics, & reduced destruction effects, but it is impressive that Sumo Digital was able to make a game like this work on, what's essentially, around the strength of a PS2 (more or less), so the effort is to be commended. Unfortunately, the PSP backport did nothing to change Disney's mind about making a sequel, and in the end Split/Second would be the last original IP to ever come from Disney Interactive Studios, with the publisher only releasing games based on existing Disney IP until it itself got closed in 2016, once Disney decided it no longer wanted to release video games on its own, instead relying on licensing deals with other game companies.
OK, for the last entry this one is kind of a loose representative of a backport, only coming out barely two months after the initial HD release, but this is included more for what it represents when it comes to the PS2's sheer longevity, because it's kind of insane. To be perfectly honest, actually describing the origin of Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series looks to be absolute mayhem, mainly because Konami has had multiple different soccer game series... that sometimes came out at the same as each other... and they all wind up tying into each other, in some way. First there's Jikkyou/International Superstar Soccer, which ran from 1994 to 2003, but the name was also used internationally from 1996 to 2001 for the PS1 entries of what was otherwise known as the World Soccer: (Jikkyou) Winning Eleven series in Japan. However, that's not to be confused with the J-League (Jikkyou) Winning Eleven series, which was a separate series that came out intermittently between 1995 & 2010, the last entry of which was actually a Japan-only PS2-exclusive & utilized the engine used for PES 2010. Then there's the fact that the "Pro Evolution Soccer" name itself was actually a European concoction, as the first ever PES game was in fact World Soccer: Winning Eleven 5 in Japan (& in North America was actually an ESPN-branded game that had an MLS license, though not to be confused with a prior PS1 game that did the same thing), and even North America would keep the Japanese series' name until 2008, when only Japan continued to use the Winning Eleven branding... until 2021, when Konami dropped both the PES & Winning Eleven brands entirely in place of the generic eFootball branding worldwide. Like I said, it's a bit of a mess.
Thankfully, this means little to the final game to cover for this B-List, because by this point there was only PES/Winning Eleven. Anyway, as mentioned the PES franchise got its start with as the fifth Winning Eleven game in 2001 on the PS2 (though this was not Konami's first PS2 soccer game, as International Superstar Soccer, a.k.a. Jikkyou World Soccer 2000 & not to be confused with International Superstar Soccer for the SNES, i.e. Jikkyou World Soccer: Perfect Eleven, came out first in 2000), with a new entry coming out every year, eventually becoming the biggest rival to EA's FIFA series (now EA Sports FC). Like any good yearly sports game franchise PES supported hardware well past its years (the first two entries has PS1 versions released going into 2002), and even when the series moved over to HD consoles starting with PES6 on the 360 there was still a PS2 version released (more or less) alongside. This would continue on all the way until Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, which initially saw release on the PS360 & Windows in September of 2013, before the PS2 & PSP both saw backports released the following November, alongside a Japan-only 3DS port. This would be the final PSP game ever released in Europe & Mainland Asia (North America actually wouldn't get it until March of 2014, and could very well only be a "South of the Border" release for all I know), but the real kicker (heh) here is the PS2 version. Released only in Europe, PES 2014 would wind up being the final PlayStation 2 game ever released, beating out the likes of FIFA 14: Legacy Edition (which was a "South of the Border" only release in North America), the Seekers of Aldouin expansion for Final Fantasy XI, & Don 2: The Game (an India-exclusive that was actually Sony's last first-party release)... and it came out literally just one week before the PlayStation 4 launched.
Yes, the PS2 was so utterly successful of a console that it's final official release came out on November 8, 2013, only seven days before the PS4, the successor console to its own successor console, launched in North America on November 15, 2013. Yes, the Wii's final games came out after the Switch had launched, but do remember that the Wii U was not a successful console, only lasting a little over four years and in fact had gotten discontinued two months prior to the launch of its successor. In comparison, while the PS3 had a rough start it did wind up being a very successful console, & yet the PS2 was still so massively successful alongside it that its final game came out six years after the PS3 had launched. Hell, I wouldn't be shocked if Sony told Konami that it had to make sure that PES 2014 came out before the PS4's launch; I mean, how would it look if an official PS2 game came out after the PS4 was already out? Also, while the Wii was an SD console it was contemporary to the HD PS3 & Xbox 360, whereas (again) the PS2 was released in 2000 & designed around being played on CRT TVs. By the time PES 2014 came out on PS2 the type of TV it was meant to be played on was no longer in production (outside of some recycled/repurposed sets), and even the 50 Hz PAL signal the port was made for as a European-exclusive was no longer being broadcast across most of Europe! In essence, it was a backport that was still clinging to technology that was truly well & dead, and that's what makes it so interesting that it even exists.
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The transition from the sixth generation to the seventh generation of video games was definitely a unique one that really hasn't been duplicated, as it coincided with the rise of high-definition resolutions & displays, which in turn led to the decline of standard-definition. However, the raw & still-unstoppable success of the PlayStation 2 meant that there would be one SD-focused game console that would continue to see support for the next... seven years after the Xbox 360 launched, while the PSP debuted a year before HD started becoming standardized for gaming; sure, the PS Vita's screen was "qHD", i.e. not truly HD, but that launched long after HD became standard. Because of that there were interesting cases where studios decided to essentially push the PS2 & PSP to their limits by seeing how closely they could still offer experiences that the new hotness of the HD consoles were offering. Obviously, these end results were by no means the "ideal" way to experience the games I listed up above, but today they do offer an interesting look at the final years of SD gaming as we once knew it, in some way or form.
And with that I've come to the end of my 99th Obscusion B-Side piece. I introduced this non-anime/manga-focused part of the blog in December of 2014 as part of the 4th Anniversary, and now we're on the verge of hitting triple digits only four months prior to the 15th Anniversary! What do I have planned for B-Side #100? I honestly can't tell you right at this moment, but I hope it'll be something fitting for such an occasion.
Gundam Musou Special © Sotsu・Sunrise
Dynasty Warriors 6 (PS2) © 2007-2008 Koei Co., Ltd. (now Koei Tecmo Games)
Shin Sangoku Musou 6 Special © 2011 Koei Tecmo Games
Musou Orochi 2 Special © 2011-2012 Koei Tecmo Games
Wrestle Kingdom (PS2) © 2006 Yuke's © New Japan Pro-Wrestling Co., Ltd. © 2006 All Japan Pro-Wrestling © Pro-Wrestling Noah © 2006 kensuke office
Test Drive Unlimited (PS2) © 2006 Atari, Inc. (now Nacon SA)
BlazBlue Portable © Arc System Works
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II (PSP) © Arc System Works
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend (PSP) © Arc System Works
Split/Second (PSP) © 2010 Disney
Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 © 2013 Konami Digital Entertainment
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