Not too long ago, Chris Martin reviewed Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition for the consoles - and he scored it exceptionally well. So well in fact that I went out and bought it! I have to say, I agreed with everything he wrote and it was the best purchase I made that month. High-speed city races were something that I've never really experienced before and thanks to Chris I had experienced the best street racer out there. I never bothered with the once-a-year Need For Speed games and Juiced had been delayed yet again. Playing Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition on the PSP helps me remember those happy days of high-octane street racing and I can now enjoy them anywhere that happy day might take me.

Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition is a double-edged sword. Its major downside can be considered as its massive upside, depending on how you look at it. It's pretty much a PS2 port with better multiplayer support and a worse frame rate, which isn't that noticeable if I'm honest. If ports aren't your bag, well, you're going to be disappointed. However, you have to take your hat off to Rockstar here, because Midnight Club is a massive game with loads to unlock, loads of customisation, a lengthy career mode and the three cities are huge - on par with the GTA games. To fit all this on a PSP disc is an achievement in itself. I'm so impressed that I cannot wait for Liberty City Stories to come out, if Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition is anything to go by at least.

Because there's a lot of gameplay here, the lasting appeal is exceptional. Midnight Club 3 is a game that you have to get into to enjoy fully though, because the career is so much better than the quick race modes. It's probably not convenient to put up with loading times (which unfortunately are quite long) to jump into your career, to drive around the city looking for a race and then to enter that race on a short bus journey. This one's great for longer sessions, which is where I'd say it most shines.

If you've ever played the original, or read Chris' review, then you'll know what it's all about. It's basically a properly done street racing title, blasting through the streets at night overtaking opponents using your nitro, or by taking an entirely different route thanks to the on-the-fly map and massive cities, to win prize money and buy new cars, upgrade existing ones, make them look nice, put decal letters on your windscreen (Dexus for my Lexus) and just about colour anything on the car from brake pads to the colour of the nitro. These are but a few things that you can customise.

It's the rewarding racing that makes the game though, combining racing with tactics and even special car-class powers, such as the power to slow down time for some absolute fantastic slow motion manoeuvring, to take those tight traffic ridden roads. That feels good. Nitros in this game are gained quite cleverly too; later on in the game you can buy nitros to store, but most of the nitro blasts are gained by driving directly behind an opponent, until a bar fills up to the climax point and starts beeping. Then you press square and blast off into the distance, laughing all the way to the finishing line. Though, beware, when you're in front, there are no other cars to acquire nitro from and you're the one who becomes the subject of nitro handouts.

But enough about nitro! The gameplay is all about freedom. When you've finished a race you can drive around the picturesque city and find another race to participate in. Some races are optional and do nothing for career, other than give you some extra pocket money. Other races are compulsory, offering cash rewards, car rewards and percentage on the overall career bar. Being able to pick when and what to race is a blessing, as you might not want to race one certain person before you raise some cash for an engine upgrade and if that's what you want to do, then so be it - it's your game after all.

On thing that breaks up the gameplay action are those darn police. They see you speeding around the city, crashing into innocent cars, then they come after you, lights blazing. They'll even form barricades too, to try and make your racing life a misery. Sometimes those police cars frustrate you by making you crash, spinning out of control and losing you prime position.

Thankfully, the controls on the PSP are quite good compared to the console counterparts. The analogue stick on the PSP is the only way to control your vehicle and, in a way, I'm glad about this. Normally if a racing game supports the D-Pad then I'll just use that and won't bother about learning the analogue stick, despite it being the best method of control. Learning the analogue here is compulsory though and after a few races you'll get used to it and work the stick like a pro. The shoulder buttons are used for hand-braking and shifting weight onto your car's side, tipping it onto two wheels, so it can slip though a traffic jam! The D-Pad is used for a number of things, including skipping music tracks and turning your lights on and off. Then the four main buttons are pretty self-explanatory.

Controlling the game on the PSP is not an issue at all, although I have a couple of gripes that get in the way of making MC3 perfect. First are, the loading times. The initial loading time takes about a minute from power on to the Midnight Club menu - not too bad, I suppose. But then the loading time from the menu to the game is not as long, but it seems quite prolonged if you're anxious to get playing. This is why I wouldn't recommend this game for short bus or tube blasts. Playing it at home, or on a longer journey, is your best bet - both of which will satisfy your gaming desires for as long as the PSP battery holds out. After the loading times, there is no doubt that the game will have you hooked for hours. My last gripe concerns frame rate. I've read a lot of complaints about this and if I'm entirely honest, I haven't noticed it to be that bad - the UK version at least. The only time where things start going fuzzy is when you're going at intense speeds with the nitro. Even then, the PSP graphical capabilities do a rather good job of making the situation better, welcoming you back into the normal speed zone with open arms. Every so often, applying nitro can feel like you're applying slow motion and while the frame rate can sometimes be an issue, it's not as bad as people are making out and you don't get it too often either.

If you have a gang of friends with PSPs, then tell them all to get a copy of Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, because the multiplayer, if you have the friends with the money to invest, is one of the best features the game has to offer. The Wi-Fi multiplayer supports six players and you can expect to see all of the classic multiplayer modes, which add a lot to the game. Things like races are here, but there are other unusual modes that are so much more enjoyable. Capture the Flag, where a flag will be placed on the map and you all race to it, one of you captures it and then you have to get it to a designated place before your mates can steal it off you! Paint is another good mode, which can be best described by saying that it's like Territories in Halo 2. You go around in your car, painting areas of the city and the person with the most painted areas at the end wins. The best mode though, is Tag, which sees you all racing to a checkpoint before the game starts. The last one there becomes 'IT' in this game of Tag. Scoring points is quite tricky, as you have to be within the radius of 'IT' but obviously not too close, or you become 'IT' - it's like an old game of tag, with better rules and cars. Most of the ten modes on offer sport power-ups and weapons that you can fire, or protect yourself with, similar to Wipeout. Disable opponents' brakes and make them uncontrollably drive with the GO power up, give somebody a taste of Skoda control with the Reverse Steering power-up, or turn completely invisible with the Stealth power-up. These are just three of the ten exciting power-ups that you can collect.

The game has undergone some graphical changes in order to make the cars look just as shiny on PSP. The traffic has been toned down a little bit and the weather effects are few and far between. With those sacrifices though, the game looks great as you're driving past buildings at high speed and you can see glass balconies and shop signs as clear as day. Obviously the frame rate I mentioned poses a little bit of a problem from time to time, but on the whole, the graphics are very pleasing to look at.

Some graphical aspects might lack, but the sound is absolutely top notch. With over 110 full songs (yes, count them, I did!) it makes you wonder how the hell they managed to fit them all onto one disc. I would be a fool to complain that there is no custom soundtrack option, because with that many songs covering a multitude of genres from techno to rap, I'd be surprised if you don't find at least a dozen songs you like. Sound effects such as crashes and skids also sound great, and if there is ever a game that should be played with headphones, this is the one. It sure sounds great without them, but take it from me, the headphones improve the sound a million times, making this game worthy of playing on the PSP over a console, just for the engaging sound with headphones.

I'm going to score this game on proviso then. If you have friends and you want a game that will last you longer than a pair of rubber shoes, well, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition is just what the doctor ordered. If you have no friends with PSPs and you want a game you can play in short blasts then you should probably look elsewhere. However, everyone willing to put some time into the fantastic career mode will get a lot from this awesome conversion. Yes it's a port, but a port of a superb console original and it's a great achievement to bring this smash hit onto PSP. Rockstar really are stars and I simply can't wait for their GTA game on PSP, if Midnight Club is an example of their PSP work.

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).