Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is working up a head of steam. It’s gone from being a side attraction on the upcoming releases list to a main player, and not only in the world of PSP. Obviously it helps that Hideo Kojima and his endless hyperbole machine are behind Naked Snake’s latest adventure, but we needed more than that. So, naturally, we played it.

It’s with great pleasure that we can report thusly: Peace Walker is MGS through and through, from the ridiculously long, stylish introduction sequence (rendered only slightly more incomprehensible by the fact it was in Japanese) through the constant mention of close-quarters combat and natty camera cuts.

In-game, it soon becomes apparent that this is MGS but slightly different. Controls are mapped to the PSP so the face buttons act as a second analogue stick would, controlling the camera. The D-pad and shoulder buttons take care of other commands and it’s a decent enough system – we did have some problems playing on a PSPgo, but that can probably be put down to abnormally large hands on our part.

The demo we played let us take part in a few scenarios; sneaking through a jungle area, cleaning out an enemy base to how we saw fit and taking on a tank with up to three other squad mates. The latter, even as super soldier Snake, proved rather difficult indeed. Anyone with a passing interest in MGS will soon get the hang of Peace Walker and, to be honest, it was like getting in touch with an old friend and realising that not only do you still have a lot in common, but that you were a complete idiot for losing touch with them in the first place.

Multiplayer is getting a big push for Peace Walker, as we’ve previously mentioned, and the game seems nicely designed to incorporate the feature. Levels are short, serving the portability aspect nicely and there was more than enough variation included even in our relatively short demo. All in all, Peace Walker has gone from wanted to WANTED in the space of a few hours.