A frantic shooter from the folks behind 2005's Total Overdose.

Note: We would have loved to feature screenshots of the game throughout our review, but none were available from the publisher at the time of writing.

For years the PSP has been plagued by a rash of mediocre PS2 ports. These ports, generally, have paled in comparison to their console brethren, largely due to the lack of a second analog stick. As gamers began to realize that they were doling out their hard-earned money for scaled down PS2 games, crafty developers responded. They began to disguise their efforts by slapping on a new name or a few minutes of new CG footage. Frankly, that’s exactly what I expected from Chili Con Carnage (though its predecessor, 2005’s Total Overdose, appeared on Xbox rather than Playstation.)

That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when I fired up Chili Con Carnage and found that developer Deadline games had disavowed such underhanded tactics. Chili Con Carnage, while not a true sequel, provides a plethora of new material and strips away aspects of the original unsuited for a hand held. While many of the environments and character models are recycled from the original, the story and gameplay have undergone drastic changes. Also, the GTA-style open world has been abandoned in favor of single, linear missions that are far more suitable for the PSP.

Chili Con Carnage follows the story of one Ram (Ramirez) out to avenge the death of his father. Pretty standard video game fare, really. Like its story, CCC’s core mechanic is nothing new. The run and gun gameplay will be very familiar to fans of shooters like Max Payne and Dead To Rights. The ‘bullet time’ feature is present, allowing you to slow down time and pick off your enemies. Instead of a meter, a la Max Payne, however, it is unlimited and initiates every time you dive. You can also collect interesting power ups, several clearly ‘inspired’ by popular films.

Examples include the one-shot kill Golden Gun from 007 and a move that has you spin in a circle while firing off 2 automatics, a move familiar to fans of ‘Hard Boiled.’ CCC also allows you to perform flips and wall jumps and a well executed auto targeting system makes head shots a breeze. The left trigger serves as a separate auto targeting feature for inanimate objects (i.e. the obligatory exploding barrels.) In fact, exploding crates and barrels are placed so generously that they play a significant part in the gameplay, often allowing for instant kills if you spot them soon enough.

These objects also play a role in CCC’s innovative scoring system, which manages to add significant replay value to the single player campaign. Like any typical action game, to advance all you have to do is defeat all the enemies and reach the end of the level. However, CCC also allows you to earn medals for each board, based on your point totals. Earning enough points for a medal requires stringing enough kills and destruction together to form combos. The explosive crates and barrels are key as they allow you to keep your combo meter as you seek out your next kill. This added replay value is particularly important because it’s possible to tear through CCC’s single player campaign in about 4 hours, should you choose to skip the optional bonus challenges between missions.