…is apparently boredom and a vague feeling of being ripped off somehow, even though you didn’t actually buy it.

First, I’m not really sure what it’s supposed to be. It’s listed as a PSP Movie on Gamefly, so maybe it’s a movie? Except it’s more like an interactive sort of nongame thing where your reward for pushing buttons is a tiny selection of things, like animated comic books, and a selection of music from the various Silent Hill games.

The animated comics aren’t really all that animated. I don’t know who decided it would be a good idea, but they’re just sorta…moving the panels around, moving some of the people [or parts of them] around in the panels, and making the word-boxes and speech bubbles pop up in a very annoying way. But, hey, it’s set to music!

I think I’m getting ahead of myself here, because the comics were actually the second thing I found. The first was a room with a movie screen, and all that room does is show you select stills from the games. I’ve got the internet for that.

After pressing buttons at random [and finding out that the circle button on the PSP does bad, bad things when you’re trying to watch a movie], I figured out that the funny compass-type thing in the lower lefthand corner of the screen was there to tell me which directions I could go. Or, well, it was showing me which arrow to press on the DPad to start up another animated sequence between DVD menus, because you don’t really have a lot of choices on which direction you go once you press the button. Controlling Harry in the first game wasn’t quite this bad.

After the comics I already mentioned, I had to back out to the main room and pick a different direction. Lots of backing out and starting over here, because, y’know, it’s the school….

I probably should’ve mentioned that first. The, uh, ‘interactive menu’ seems to be based on the school. Or the bastard lovechild of the school and the hospital, because I’m pretty sure I saw a wheelchair in there. It looks good, which is a plus. I just wish I’d been able to see more of it while the camera was zipping me off to my next exciting D-pad and X selecting adventure.

The next dead-end I managed to find was the trailers section, which, again, kinda let down. I found out that you can’t always adjust the screen mode on the PSP while watching UMDs [at least, not if you’re me], and was stuck watching the Silent Hill movie trailer in a grotesquely smeared-out sort of way. The other trailers almost made up for it, though. I got to enjoy my little nostalgia moment with the original opening sequence from the original game [did anyone else notice if they left off the ‘e’ in ‘create’ in the game? Because there was an e missing in this one. I can’t find out right now, because the PS2 is busy with GT4], and two and three were all familiar goodness. The trailer for SH4, though? I’d never seen that one. I may need to track it down so I can watch it on something bigger than my hand…and not so mirror-like.

That was probably the best thing about all this. The Silent Hill 4 trailer that I hadn’t already seen.

After the trailers, there were some interviews I didn’t even bother to look at, and a smallish selection of music from the games. If you want the music, you’re better off tracking down the soundtracks. Really. I guess I can understand why they left off I Want Love [I’m rather fond of the studio mix] from the third, and I’m almost glad they also left Hometown out, but to have Promise, but no Promise (Reprise)? And the selection from the fourth game is just pathetic.

So…I’m glad I didn’t buy this. I’m also glad I got to see the PSP doing something other than running a GTA game. That little screen isn’t half bad, once you figure out exactly how to hold it so you’re not looking at yourself while trying to watch something. I suppose the thing has its uses, but I definitely prefer my DS Lite. The last time it sucked at me like this was when I was trying to play Trauma Center…which would’ve been better with a little hand-walking two-headed giant-baby thing, I think. Way better.