Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

When Hideo Kojima unveiled Peace Walker, he spoke of it almost as the fifth mainline Metal Gear – and anyone who knows the game knows that wasn't an exaggeration. This 2010 PSP gem from Kojima Productions is so dense and ambitious that it defies everything we usually imagine a handheld game to be.

At its core remains first-class stealth: sneaking, avoiding enemies and cleverly resolving situations, typical of the entire Metal Gear Solid series. But Peace Walker adds a thoughtful meta game to it – building your own army and a base called Mother Base. The soldiers you recruit during missions are managed and developed between individual expeditions, giving rise to a strategic layer that stretches the game to dozens of hours of content. Another big draw is the excellent co-op, thanks to which a number of missions can be tackled with a partner.

Story-wise the game develops the saga of Big Boss and slots into the broader mythological framework of the series that Kojima had been building for years. The density of content, the elaborate base-management system and the emphasis on team play made Peace Walker an exceptionally rich title that felt almost unbelievably vast on a handheld.

The game's significance is also evidenced by the fact that it later made its way into an HD collection on home consoles, where players without a PSP could enjoy it too. Many of its ideas – especially base building – went on to become the foundation of the later Metal Gear Solid V.

Why play it: Almost a full-fledged mainline Metal Gear on the PSP – top-tier stealth, building your own army and base, and great co-op in one exceptionally dense package.