It's funny how all that whining about how the PlayStation Portable isn't a console and deserves more than ports and franchise spin-offs stopped when God of War: Chains of Olympus was revealed. The handheld expansion of the venerable action series has given rise to a frenzy of anticipation and rightfully so. After spending hands-on time with the game in Sony Computer Entertainment's suite, it's clear that God of War: Chains of Olympus lives up to the hype by bringing the series' trademark fury in a new game well-suited to the handheld.

Chains of Olympus occurs before the events of the original God of War, setting Kratos on a journey for redemption after unwittingly murdering his wife and child. The gods are demanding, though, putting Kratos through a series of arduous trials that provide him with no relief. Ultimately, they betray him, leading Kratos down a path of revenge.

The game opens with the Persian army invading the shores of Attica. Kratos is on hand to repeal the invaders, which include several feral creatures in addition to the manly Persian soldiers. Our hands-on time with Chains of Olympus consisted of playing through this opening sequence, controlling Kratos as he pummels wave after wave of foes and then confronts a pair of mythological creatures.

Much of the combat mechanics have been brought over from the console titles, albeit tailored to the controls on the PSP. Light attacks are issued with the square button, whereas heavy blows are dealt with the triangle button. You can execute special attacks by holding down L and then pressing either triangle or square. Additionally, grabs can be done with a tap of the circle button.

Although the controls are simple, it should make it easy to jump right in and play; moreover, there's enough variety among the different attacks to keep things interesting. For example, we went up against a horde of Persian foot soldiers that were quickly sliced to bits with a few presses of the square button. Varying jams of the square and triangle button yielded different attacks too, mixing up the action. Kratos' arsenal of moves will expand as you progress through the game, so that should keep things fresh as well.

Context-sensitive combat sequences are also making an appearance in Chains of Olympus. At the end of the demonstration, we faced an angry cyclops and then squared off against a gigantic basilisk. Taking down the cyclops required a bit of basic combat, but once it we wore it down a button-pressing mini-game ensued. Quick presses of the face buttons allowed us to kill it with a stab to its eye. A similar situation unfolded with the basilisk with slashes of Kratos' blades wearing it down, then button prompts appearing on the screen. The pattern repeated a few times before the creature went down.

Our tour of Chains of Olympus was sadly pretty short, but nonetheless captivating. Not only does its action-packed gameplay appear to be settling onto the PlayStation Portable nicely, the game possesses an unparalleled presentation. Sony Computer Entertainment has confirmed that it will be the first title to take advantage of the handheld's full processing capabilities and it definitely comes through. There's an amazing amount of detail packed onto the screen from detailed enemies to beautiful backgrounds to killer special effects; of course, all this runs without a hitch on the small system.

There's no word on the possibility of multiplayer, although given the emphasis on story it seems unlikely. We are a tad concerned that Chains of Olympus may suffer length issues. Many of the best PlayStation Portable games have been on the short side and we're hoping it doesn't suffer the same fate. With a release set before the end of the year, we won't have to wait much longer to find out.