Whilst I am hardly what you’d call a film buff, I do have a bit of a liking for some of the more cultish flicks out there. Death Race 2000, anyone? Rollerball? Both excellent films (especially Sylvester Stallone in the former!), and ones that comfortably fall into the same kind of alternative hit bracket that The Warriors does. Made in 1979, the film portrays one hectic night following a gangland meeting gone wrong, and one particular gang’s troubled journey back home having been blamed for an assassination that wasn’t their doing. Spawning a number of copycat titles and still holding a firm fanbase to this very day, the chance of a videogame version obviously interested the bods at Rockstar one morning in between debating Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt titles.

So, here were all are with the finished PSP product. The game was released just over a year ago on the Xbox and PlayStation 2, but for anyone who for some reason failed to pick it up (or only had a PSP at the time), now’s your chance to play a like-for-like port of what was already a great title. The great thing about The Warriors as a game is that, despite having roots in the original film, it backtracks and gives even those who’ve watched the motion picture a number of times a chance to pad out the original storyline with some new, well-written content.

As you can well imagine, the game is based loosely around the GTA framework. Throughout the main storyline’s 25 chapters you’ll control each of the nine Warriors at least once, with a number of different objectives and tasks thrown your way as you try to get up to speed with life on the streets. Played from the familiar third-person viewpoint, most of your time will be spent causing chaos and rumbling with other gang members in what is best described as a three-dimensional adventure beat-‘em-up, and despite initial concerns over how repetitive the game will get with such a mechanic it settles down very nicely indeed.

So nicely, in fact, that within a couple of moments of the first couple of levels you are hooked into proceedings, constantly wanting to check out the next level and what it has to offer. Early on you take the role of gang whippersnapper Rembrandt as he tries to prove to leader Cleon that he is worthy of his place in the Warriors, and it’s here that you’ll learn the basics of control and combat. Essentially this involves combinations of the cross and square buttons or just plain simple mashing of either, with a tap of the circle allowing you to grapple an opponent. I could go on about the nuances of the system, but to be perfectly honest a good bit of button mashing is more than good enough to see you progress through the main portion of the game.

Not that this has any kind of derogatory effect on the enjoyment of the fighting, of course. As you wander around each of the game’s levels you will come across numerous members from other gangs, all being true to the film and incredibly violent to boot. Battling against a group of face-painted baseball players or twisted mimes is all part of the deal here, and the game does a great job of remembering all the little details of each gang that appeared in the film. In time you’ll be brawling against all types of opponent, and although the aforementioned button-mashing will see you through, getting to know the handy combinations and such will no doubt give you that added edge.

Despite being the main theme of the game, the fighting isn’t the only thing you’ll be doing. As you go through each level you are given a number of targets that, on reaching, will reward you with an avalanche of extra unlockable content. Take, for example, an early level where a power blackout sees gangs flooding the street and looting anything and everything. You’ll obviously have to get involved in a little bit of rough-and-tumble, but your main objective is to smash your way into shops and loot as much as you can. Running around the level will also reveal that you have a couple of bonus objectives in the form of stealing car radios and tagging walls with your graffiti logo, and completing each of these will again give you bonus stuff to mess around with. If for whatever reason you don’t manage to succeed first time, you are allowed to go back over any mission you successfully complete to try and pick up the things you may have missed.

As I mentioned above in regards to the gangs, the detail and authenticity of the game is one of the main joys. You don’t have to have seen the movie to be able to enjoy the story, as Rockstar have been able to wave their magic storytelling wand over proceedings and really bring home the general gist of the movie as well as adding background layers to all the characters. Likewise, those who have seen the film (countless times, in my case) will get their fill revisiting some of the locations and reacquainting themselves with favourite characters, and will revel in the chance to play through and see what is basically almost a full-length prequel to the happenings in the film. The smaller details such as the famous radio announcer, an awesome old-school arcade game and the exercise mini games at the hideout are mere icing on the cake.

It’s not all about the storyline mode either, although this does form the hub from which you unlock content elsewhere. There’s a Quick Rumble option that allows you to pit whoever you want against each other in any unlocked arena and in a number of different situations (i.e. one-one-one, mass brawl etc), and these are available as both one-player and two-player via Wi-Fi. Brilliantly, the main storyline mode itself also caters for two players, so if you have a buddy with a PSP and a copy of the game then there’s no better way to do things.

On the face of it, without the cars and general humour and content of the Grand Theft Auto series, The Warriors doesn’t quite match up. Saying that, the thing that makes the game so good is that it sticks very nicely to the original material (a good dose of the original actors provided voices for the game) and then goes on to add a completely new angle for the story without ruining things. It’s a testament to both Rockstar themselves and the original movie that it all pulls together so well, and being packed with extras such as added story missions and rumble characters and arenas it becomes addictive due not only to the quality of the product, but the anticipation of the rewards too.

So, all that’s left is for me to tell you that if you have seen the original movie, don’t worry: the classic has been treated with a great deal of respect. If you haven’t, then the game’s as good a place to begins as any, and will give you all the atmosphere and dramatic quality the source material did for the rest of us. Think of it as a beat-‘em-up version of Grand Theft Auto placed into a more solid storyline and you’d be almost there or thereabouts. The PSP version doesn’t necessarily offer anything new that the home console versions didn’t so it may be worth your while searching out those if you can, but for anyone wanting something to do with your PSP’s now you’ve finished Vice City Stories, this is a more than appropriate choice.