Loitering in The Warriors

As anyone who's played The Warriors can attest, it's neither a simple adaptation of the 1979 cult film nor a simple brawler. Putting players in charge of a roving group of young toughs, it gives you the freedom to stalk New York's neighborhoods at your own pace, stealing and smashing whatever's handy as you bash through the city's street gangs.

The Warriors' Coney Island stomping grounds are particularly well fleshed-out, and if you've finished the story - or just don't feel like following it - you'll find plenty to do just wandering Coney's streets. With the release of the PSP version only a few days away as of this writing, we've put together a last-minute look at a few of the ways you'll be able to get into trouble between missions.

Above: Pure button-mashing bliss for anyone old enough to drink

Armies of the Night

Sometimes, even streetwise toughs with nothing to lose just want to spend a quiet night in. When you find that you'd rather just hang out in the Warriors' clubhouse than go out and bust some heads, the game-within-a-game Armies of the Night is there for you.

Originally an unlockable extra after beating the console version's story mode, this tongue-in-cheek, side-scrolling homage to Double Dragon and Final Fight is now playable from the moment you finish your first set of missions. In a setup so stale it's refreshing; Warriors Swan and Ajax batter their way through every gang in New York after Swan's girlfriend Mercy is kidnapped by the city's toughest set, the Gramercy Riffs. Best of all? You can play it with a friend (via Wi-Fi), which is really the way these things were meant to be tackled.