The first broadly known PSX emulator – psx4droid – has been kicking around the internet for some time now, managing to take the title of Best Android PSX Emu gaming crown by being the very caterpillar in an arse-kicking contest of worm-only entrants to turn up and take the mantle. So it was only natural a usurper rose to have a crack at the crown. It is FPse we see taking a run-up with the sized twelve Nikes and bottle of Red Bull.

Tearing up the track in McRae’s Subaru or marvelling at Barry’s insight over Jill’s infamous lock picking skills can be enjoyed en route, en masse or even on the toilet through the happy medium of touch screen ‘droid (or Windows) phone.

Weighing in at around 6MB the app itself takes up very little room, though with each game you choose to save onto your phone, you’ll find quite staggering chunks of memory being filled.

Allowing you to experience the emotional trawl known to Sophie these moments of potentially heart rending and hair pulling decisions are not so easily made, those final few MB’s of space required to finally get Final Fantasy 7 onto your SD card having to come from somewhere and honestly when did you last watch your sons first school Christmas play, anyway? Surely that’s backed up somewhere else, right? Right???

Installation is nothing more than the usual ‘click-the-link’ and after locating the game you wish to play on your phone (more of which later…) you’re off into the heady world of having precious memories of treasured gaming moments brutally kicked in the fork as you realize your gaming skills have been dulled by today’s handy-hold, ‘Press X To Not Die’ virtually on-rails landscape.

The traditional d-pad and four button layout is nicely represented on-screen, with an inclusion to change it to thumb-stick and buttons or even dual thumb-sticks allowing a generous amount of flexibility in how you choose to game. The shoulder buttons sit atop the screens furthermost corners, and with a Start and Select rounding out the representation, on the whole it looks tidy and clean. Everything you could think you would need is always where your thumb needs it to be, and any changes to what button does what, can be made on the fly, with a quick trip to the Settings-Input option and deciding upon what ‘X’ should be.

The in-game pop-up menu means you’re never more than a touch away from finally conquering that level through a ‘quick save/quick load’ exploit previously denied to you. The bounteous Settings screen holds a veritable plethora of choice with which to play and pique an interest into a giddying discovery of how to re-install FPse for the unwary. It also has a fully customisable gaming haven more personal than a joke about genitals for those with the knowhow of knowing how.

Own an Xperia Play and the slide-out controls are mapped to the PlayStation pad exactly. An obvious, but nice welcome touch, and as close to the original as you could get for the true emulation experience – without buying one of those god-awful add-on syntha-pads…

…or stick on buttons.

As this is an emulator there is a limited amount of games you can expect to play on it. Currently, that list stands at around 350, which is hardly a paucity of choice. And with both Final Fantasy 7 and Gran Turismo running smooth and easy there are two more notches in the Plus side for many people.

Not every game will run on it. If you intend to play one of the more well-known releases (Metal Gear Solid, F1 ’97, Oddworld) things should be fine. Some obscure Japanese only Seats-Of-Rage-Meets-R-Type rip-off, possibly not.

The sound, ever the Achilles in the Arch-Topped Adidas, happens in spots and spats of sometimes good – in-game soundtrack running smooth, on-screen interaction sounds beepy and clean –other times awful – huge great clippings of noise being emitted randomly as and when the speakers aren’t violently objecting to the filth of static and squeals being passed through them by way of feedback and playing dead.

But learn to save often and maybe leave the head-phones at home and the volume wheel spun down and the final hurdle approaching is one that could leave many stumbling. And despite Disney’s best Depp efforts, piracy is still looked down upon by the law, and all the eye-liner and Keith Richard classes in the world won’t change the laws of legality regarding your own countries’ personal view on the matter of ROMs, copyright and ownership.

Get into the grey world of ROM reclamation, however, and FPse marks itself out as the leader in not only PlayStation One emulation but also the default timewaster of choice for those precious scant moments of the day not filled with the modern day mundane or social networking updates or Angry Birds.

Ten minutes here or two hours there, and before you know it you’ve bested the game and saved for the last time and finally rescued enough Mudokens to see the ‘Good Ending’ and I’m damned if I’m getting out my seat now just so you can move your wheelchair because you’re getting off the bus now even if it is your stop, goddamnit!