Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

As fun as Rockstar's PSP Stories are, they're essentially just shrunk-down versions of Grand Theft Auto. But for Snake's first handheld stealth-action adventure (counting those weird Metal Gear Acid turn-based strategy games) creator Hideo Kojima built Portable Ops from the ground up. The Cold War-set game takes place after the prequel events of MGS:3 but before the series 1987 debut Metal Gear (which I vaguely recall playing back in elementary school on my original Nintendo) during which Snake got caught up in a complex triple-cross, offed his mentor and got promoted. Having quit his old special forces unit FOX, Snake soon discovers that they've gone rogue and everyone think he's responsible. The game kicks off with Snake locked in a secret Soviet jail in Columbia where FOX have joined forces with a bunch of equally rogue Russians in hopes of creating their own militant nation. Defeating them is the only way to clear your name, but rather than being an entirely solo stealth game, this time they've added a squad-based mechanic involving the recruitment of disgruntled enemies. The graphics are great, both in-game and the highly-stylized storytelling cut-scenes, and while not able to get entirely sneak around the PSP's lack of a camera control stick, Portable Ops remains a more-than-solid entry in the ongoing series.