Games.net

Sure, there's lots of cheap thrills to be had in the PlayStation Store, but those little charges can add up fast. Here's the first of our monthy guides to getting the most out of a limited online budget.

Looking for travel guides for the other online marketplaces? Check out our guide to getting the best $30 can offer on the Wii Virtual Console and the Xbox Live Marketplace!

Like backpacking through Europe, traversing through the various console online stores may seem like an inexpensive jaunt, but it can easy clean out your wallet if you come unprepared. Sony's PlayStation Network for the PS3 may not have the breadth of selection of the other console, but there are still a lot of great games available for download, especially if you happen to own a PSP--and we're assuming if you dropped six hundy on a new console, you're the type that has owned a PSP for a good, long time by now.

The PlayStation Network Store is divided into a few distinct categories. There are the many game and film trailers, demos for full-featured and downloadable titles, as well as PlayStation Network games and PSP-playable PlayStation 1 downloads (both of which usually incur fees). With the disc-based games in a bit of a drought, you've got to make the most of your downloads, so here are the best titles you can pick up with $30 in your PlayStation Store wallet. We'll chop ten dollars off that amount for monthly roundups of the PSN's best moving forward.

PlayStation Network Titles

flOw- $7.99

In between the high-def action provided by games like Resistance and the first run of Blu-ray movies, you'll probably want a calmer game to chill out with. Enter flOw. There's no menus, energy bars, time limit, and only the most simple of objectives--to grow your small, cell-like creature by eating other tiny organisms. It's a great, simple, beautiful game that every PS3 owner must experience.

Blast Factor- $7.99 (expansion pack available for $2.99)

If you take into account that the ultra-fun and ultra-cheap Geometry Wars is an anomaly in the world of console downloads, you can enjoy the similar, but more expensive Blast Factor. As far as Robotron-esque shooters go, it's pretty darn entertaining with some neat motion sensitive controls to sweeten the deal. The cheap expansion pack makes it one of the best simple multiplayer experiences on the PS3, though we'll exclude it because it puts us a buck over our $30 limit. Yes, we're that anal.

Jumping Flash- $5.99

One of the (supposed) benefits of these new downloadable emulation services is that gamers can catch up on forgotten gems of a passed era. While Jumping Flash was popular enough to warrant a sequel, the series has all but languished for over a decade now. This unique, cheery mix of first-person shooter and platformer, (replete with the still-amazing triple jumps) is something every gamer should experience, but few have.

---

Destruction Derby- $5.99

What happened to this genre? Sure, we've got out Burnouts and our Gran Turismos (a highly recommended free download, BTW), but the Destruction Derby franchise was amazing fun back in the day, and if the original can hold up this well, a new iteration would be much appreciated. The races are still amazing (especially when your frontend takes too much damage and you've got to speed in reverse "License to Drive"-style) and the derbies are still utter pandemonium. It's a great title that has no equal amongst the speed-demon PSP racers.

Games.net's Countdown to...