Last time we did a round-up of handheld games, it was the seemingly all-conquering Nintendo DS that got our attention. However, no matter how much Sony has starved the PSP handheld of interesting software, as a piece of hardware there's much to like. And, at last, some decent looking new games are coming out. Thus, it's round-up time...

We start with Ridge Racer 2. Of late, the Ridge Racer series has been eclipsed in arcade racing circles, primarily by Burnout but also a little by Need For Speed. This version doesn't add much at all to the franchise, and indeed it's not too far removed from the first PSP Ridge Racer game, but it's a hoot nonetheless. The Ridge Racer hallmarks are intact - nitrous boost, exaggerated drifts, a solid world tour to play through and some good multi-player options - but it's very close to the game that preceded it. Tremendous fun, though.

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Gangs Of London, meanwhile, doesn't take long to dispel the cuddly, family-friendly reputation of the handheld game. The tutorial mission alone has you blasting through a police ambush and taking out airport security guards, simply to steal a van. It also feels uncomfortably shoehorned across from the bigger PlayStations.

The idea is that you take your gang to the streets of London (you'd twigged that, right?), and rise to be the proverbial Lord of the Manor. And to do this you'll mix in some heavy action, driving elements, a bit of stealth... you can pretty much recite back the formula in your sleep. In its favour, Gangs Of London does offer a lot for your money, with plenty of game to work through. But the control system hurts it a lot, a bit more damage is done by the camera, and it's finished off by the fact that for long periods it's not that interesting to play. Strictly middle-of-the-road.

Much, much better is Tekken: Dark Resurrection, which is one of the finest games on the PSP to date. It's a fighting game, as you'd expect, but it's firstly a fighting game that delivers visuals you never thought possible from a handheld game. It then backs them up with over 30 playable characters, a healthy selection of game modes and the option to download pretty much as many ghost fighters as you'd like. Bluntly, there's a good deal of expandability, and the core game that's there in the first place is amazingly good fun and utterly compulsive anyway. It's an absolute joy, and a testament to what the PSP can actually do.

And if you're after a slightly different type of fighting game, then the Power Stone collection is just wonderful. The name will be familiar to Dreamcast owners, as Power Stone was a short-lived Capcom fighting franchise. The key to its fun was in several areas: the fact that you could pick up pretty much any object and use it as a projectile, the four-player fighting arenas, the temporary super powers you achieved when you collected three Powerstones, and the lucid playability of it all. The PSP version brings together both Dreamcast Powerstone releases on one UMD, and in one shot puts many of the so-called retro releases to shame.

To finish, a quick shout for some of the terrific, early PSP games that have now made their way to the lower cost Platinum range. Virtua Tennis World Tour is superb fun, although hampered if you don't have a memory stick, and genuinely captures what made the Dreamcast and arcade originals so much fun. Burnout Legends too, which got a slightly rocky reception on the main PS2, works well on handheld. It's just easy to dip in and out of, and for the best arcade racing at the moment, Burnout is still the name to trust. And there's also the first PSP Ridge Racer game which, given its similarities to version two that we've reviewed above, could well be worth picking up if you find it in one of the inevitable two for £30 offers.

These are still interesting and perhaps unstable times for the PSP. Many assumed that Sony would sweep Nintendo aside, but the success of the DS has taught many in the games industry the value of good, interesting games over tired franchises. Of the titles here, Tekken shows Sony's machine at its best, delivering (and then some) on the graphics front, but also playing host to an excellent, fast moving game that the DS simply couldn't handle. Sony needs a lot more of those, though, if it's going to turn the corner.

Tekken is a no-brainer recommendation, Ridge Racer 2 is a hoot too, although not changed enough from its predecessor. Gangs Of London perhaps shows some of the symptomatic problems with the PSP to date, and that's where Sony needs to do the work. And we still really like Power Stone.