Hands up if you remember Davilex. Not many of you? Good. It’s like a swear word around these parts. For those not in the know, Davilex was the development studio responsible for the PlayStation 2 versions of Knight Rider (possibly the worst game of all time), and possibly the single most heretic piece of videogaming coding in history, Miami Vice. This was a game whose only saving grace came when you jabbed pause and Jan Hammer poured out of the speakers.

Thank the good lord Don Johnson then, that this Miami Vice is a tie-in to the forthcoming Michael Mann flick, and has absolutely nothing to do with Davilex. Developed on these fair shores by Rebellion, Miami Vice tells the story of Ricardo Tubbs and Sonny Crockett, two undercover cops trying to bust a huge drug ring in Will Smith’s ‘second home’, Miami Florida.

As you may have expected, it’s a thirdperson action game, but one brimming with well executed ideas. For starters, it’s obvious that this is a game that has been designed for the PSP from the ground up. No cumbersome use of the face buttons to control the camera here. Moving Crockett (or Tubbs) around is simplicity itself, with a Resident Evil 4-style aiming mechanic, brilliant use of cover and a meaty selection of weapons.

And you’ll need them, as Miami Vice’s enemies are surprisingly intelligent. They work in teams, make use of cover and point-blank refuse to run out into no man’s land, so progress takes patience and accuracy. Satisfyingly, a well-placed shot to the knee will actually cause enemies to limp, while a bullet to the brain will drop them in one. It really is far better than it should be.

All this shooting is spliced with the odd speedboat mission (which are no more than perfunctory), a hacking mini game that plays like Geometry Wars and a drug dealing side plot where you play the city’s pushers off against each other for cash. We spent our drug money on a white suit, because that’s how we roll.

There’s genuinely little to fault about Miami Vice. It looks lovely and captures that Miami haze superbly, handles excellently and is packed with extras. However, despite the constant distractions from the main quest, all the duck/cover/shooting becomes unsurprisingly tiresome before long. Still, this is a highly polished example of what PSP action games should be.

Jon Denton