Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex E3 2005 Hands-On Impressions

We had a chance to go hands-on with Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex for the PSP at Bandai's booth, and we came away with a few impressions of it. Basically, it's shaping up to be a pretty impressive first-person shooter for the handheld system, albeit with some wonky controls.

Presumably, the character you play as in GITS: SAC is Motoko Kusanagi, the same heroine of the game of the same name for the PlayStation 2 that was released last year. However, now she's wearing fewer clothes than ever. We, personally, are all in favor of mandatory G-strings for sexy female cyborg police officers, and if you're with us on this, then you'll be pleased to note that Ms. Kusanagi apparently wears one throughout the game. We didn't get too many details on the storyline of the game or whether it's a straight port of the PS2 version, but we did have the opportunity to both run around a couple of levels and pop some fools in the head with a machine gun and a particularly devastating punching attack.

When you first pick up the PSP version of the game, the most noticeable thing is the controls. The analog stick is used to move yourself forward and backward, while the face buttons are responsible for turning and shifting your aim up and down. If it sounds weird, it kind of is. But it winds up working fairly well after you get used to it. Although there isn't an auto-aim feature, so far as we could tell, you have plenty of health. So if you want to run up to dudes and punch them in the face really hard, you should be able to do so. Unfortunately, you can't get too trigger-happy, though. We actually managed to fail a mission by detonating a grenade near a couple of hostages, thus killing them. It was an accident, though. Honest!

Graphically, this game obviously isn't going to be knocking down Doom 3 from its perch as king of the FPS graphical hill, but the frame rate seems smooth enough, and you can at least distinguish what the function of a room should theoretically be. For example, a server room is filled with computer towers, and so on.

All in all, if you're looking for an FPS on the PSP, then Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex may shape up to be something worth buying. We'll have more details on the game as they become available, so keep an eye on GameSpot for more info. And for more G-strings, of course.