SCi and Deadline Games served up a spicy Latino hit with the 2005 release of Total Overdose on Xbox, PlayStation2, and PC. Drawing influence from GTA, Max Payne, and Robert Rogriguez in equal doses, and with a tongue firmly entrenched in the cheek, Total Overdose hit enough spots to overlook the homage filled mish-mash and glitches that overtook the bodycount.

Making a swift return, Ramiro "Ram" Cruz makes an appearance on the PSP in the catchier titled Chili Con Carnage. A re-imagining of the original, the storyline begins with the untimely demise of his father Ernesto at the blades of a combine harvester. Bizarrely, Deadline Games appear to have changed much of the Total Overdose plot, ignoring the story behind Ernesto's apparent poisoning and Ram's twin brother Tommy. There's no real explanation for this, whilst the game's initial stage is a carbon copy of one of the first stages in Total Overdose; presumably the Danish developer is hard at work on a genuine sequel, though exactly which storyline this will follow seems a little confusing.

Bug Extermination

In an effort to iron out the glitches that plagued the original, and presumably to get a quick handle on the limitations of the PSP, Chili Con Carnage replaces the free-form, GTA gameplay with a series of linear missions, drawing it closer inline to the Max Payne series. The decision to replace what was originally an uninspired GTA clone that failed to seamlessly merge missions and an open-world, with something that has a greater sense of direction suits the game and the format it's appearing on.

The biggest improvement is the eradication of most of the bugs and glitches that plagued the original; there was one occurrence when a shoot-dodge into scenery caused the screen to go black, but an amusing message seems to suggest Deadline Games are only too aware of the predecessor's problems.

A Spicy Burrito Blast

Every feature that made the original such a blast makes a return: the outlandish shoot-dodge manoeuvres, the combo score mechanic, the loco moves, and the rewind system, combine to create a game that is never short on explosive entertainment. Rewarding the player with extra skill bonuses based upon the score at the end, the combo mechanic provides the major hook behind the game and feels a more prominent feature than in the original - to achieve Gold you'll have to keep a combo going throughout the entire mission, making the race for the Time boosting power-up's even more urgent. Although many missions feature vehicles and there's a handful of on-rails shooting sections from turrets installed on trucks or dangling from the bars of a helicopter, controlling vehicles has largely been made a redundant feature in the PSP adaptation.

Ensuring Chilli Con Carnage not only faithfully captures the action of the original, but actually exceeds it on a number of elements, would be wasted if the game suffered from the same drawback that plagues many PSP titles: a sloppy and clumsy interface. Fortunately, Deadline Games it's an area that Deadline Games has approached with an understanding from the offset. There's nothing particularly different or clever about the control setup in Chili Con Carnage, it's just the fact that it works and rarely provides an obstacle to dodging bullets or cartwheeling from the walls.

That's A Lot Of Chili

Interspersed between the 19 story missions, Chili Con Carnage features a variety of optional 'Style' and 'Macho' challenges that reward with further bonuses. Replacing the upgradeable stats icons from its predecessor, the challenges range from performing a series of listed manoeuvres, or defeating a certain number of crazy gringos whilst keeping the combo going. Although they fail to provide much variety to the action focussed gameplay, they do a good job of teaching the basics, leading onto the finer details of the game and provide a satisfactory reward to make them worthwhile. Ram's thirst for revenge will also bring him face-to-face with the likes of Mama Virgillio, Papa Muerte and Caesar Morales, in a set of exciting boss stages that provide some memorable highlights of the adventure.

With a sizeable single-player campaign alongside a challenge mode, Deadline Games have also integrated a couple of multiplayer modes into the fray. Despite the lack of Game Sharing features, multiple players can share one unit in turn with the 'Hangman' mode, whilst the 'Fiesta' mode provides traditional Ad-Hoc Wi-Fi deathmatch action.

Recognising the flaws behind Total Overdose, Deadline Games has taken Chili Con Carnage back to the drawing board. The result is a more streamlined shooter that ideally suits the PSP. A strong control system combined with high quality presentation and humour, results in one of the most entertaining titles of its kind on the handheld format.