The PSP is no stranger to some excellent music games. Unfortunately for us English-speaking blokes, these games rarely get translated into a language that we can read. Ruliweb has discovered a new version of the Beatmania-clone DJ Max Portable. The International Edition of the game features English language text and one new song that can't be found in the original ("River Flow" by Planetboom).

No hardcore PSP fan will be caught without DJ Max Portable. Now that it's in English, there really is no excuse not to have it.

[Via PSP-Vault]

DS Fanboy discovered a great list of the top 10 handheld imports from Modojo. While the list features many DS and GBA games, the PSP also shows up a surprising number of times.

10. Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You
Part of the huge dating game sim genre in Japan, this game has you trying to improve your sex appeal. If you're good enough, you might get lucky. Don't expect any naughty bits in this game though. That's for some other games.

7. Taiko no Tatsujin Portable
Taiko Drum Master was released on the PS2 to some fanfare, and the PSP version is essentially a remake... without the drums. While it seems like a lot of the appeal disappears without Drumcon, the soundtrack's happy J-Pop and Katamari Damacy tunes make this a hit for importers.

2. DJ Max Portable
Called "the single best game on the PSP" by the folks at Modojo, and for good reason too. Essentially Beatmania squeezed into handheld form, the game has you furiously mashing the PSP's buttons to the beat of the music. Harder difficulties apparently make you seem "less of a man." Wow.

Of course, these kind of lists require some kind of fanfare. See a video of DJ Max Portable after the cut.

I had my doubts with rhythm games that involved nothing but button presses, but after seeing the concept work for games like PaRappa the Rapper and the Bust a Groove series, it was then I realized I had to shut up and let game developers do whatever stupid thing they wanted with their games. After all, we can never have too many titles like Irritating Stick around.

Either way, Korean developer Pentavision has come up with their own Beatmania knock-off in the form of DJ Max Portable. The game mechanic remains essentially the same: bars fall from the top of the screen, and your job is to hit particular buttons in time to the rhythm of the game, hence it being called a rhythm game.

Looks like fun though.

[Thanks Timmeh]