PSP's Crappy Lineup

[Warlock]

http://egm.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3142637

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. So glad I didn't shell out $250 for what is essentially an overpriced portable DVD player (that doesn't play standard DVDs).

[Grasshopper]

"protable DVD player (that doesn't play standard DVDs)"

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. $250 is steep. It seems like the only original game, aside from a few puzzle games, is Death Jr. Which was suppose to launch with system. Now, only getting pushed back month after month.

I'd like to hear its opinion on the DS though. The systems capable of far less than the PSP, with a much smaller library of games. But most are orginal, and there seems to me a small variety in each on. I'd like to know how its doing in people's minds.

One thing I saw that kind of ticked me off was once on the G4.com TV show. It was DS vs PSP. When they showed a poll of who was satisfied with their PSP, most were not satisfied. Laura Foy and Tina Wood acted astonished as to how this could happen. "I love my PSP!" they said. Then when showed the poll for the satisfied DS owners, it was an overwhelming answer in favor of yes, I am satisfied. Laura Foy replied something like it was just because of all you Nintendo fanboys.

That was a little biased and uncalled for I thought. Why can't they belive the PSP isn't worth it, and blame the DS's success on fanboys. Its not like Sony doesn't have its fanboys either. They could have easily bought the PSP and said they were satisfied. You see where I'm coming at? I hate that show.

[Brasel]

I'm really not satisfied with my DS at the moment, honestly. I wouldn't get a PSP for anything. I'm one of the biggest Metal Gear fans and I didn't think anything of passing up Ac!d. As for my DS...I have three games, Mario 64, Need For Speed Underground 2, and Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits (all for Zelda64Gld). I want to play the Kirby game, but nothing else looks all that great. But, like I said, I still wouldn't touch the PSP with a ten foot pole.

*edit* After reading the article, which I should have done first, I realized I had something to say about it. I am an open Nintendo fanboy...although I'm clutching my fandom with my fingertips and watching it falling away from me, I had just had to say "YES!" and pump my fist in the air when I saw the stats comparing the DS and the PSP. :)

[Orion]

I have a friend who bought a PSP and he is selling it, since he doesn't play it anymore. He is also selling his DS, for the exact same reason.

I do plan on buying a DS since there are some high quality games coming out at the end of this year (SC, Mario Kart, and SMB to name a few). However, a lot of people buy the PSP just because it's the "cooler" thing. It's a fashion statment of sorts, being able to say "I've got the coolest gadget." I have several friends who work at Walmart and EB, and this, according to them, is almost always the case. DS sales, however, are made to mostly parents.

Once you tell people taht the PSP doesn't play actual DVD's, though, their interest usually seems to diminish.

[Darth Marsden]

It's an interesting article. I was wondering why I hadn't heard squat about PSP games - there aren't any. Surely if you're going to release a games console (which is, basically, what this is) then you've got to have decent games for it, right? Where are those? Anyone?

[KingArthur]

I enjoy my psp very much actually, Lumines, Whipeout Pure, Twisted Metal, Untold legends, all great games, add to the fact that it can play moves, mp3's and a huge library of classic games (Mario Bros. Crono Trigger, FF6, Sonic) and i think its pretty much my favourite handheld ever. Just release a few more unique, good games and we're set. (Dirge of Cerberus, GTA:LCS, Infected, Death Jr, Battlefield, star wars battlefront 2, LOTR Tactics, Generations of chaos, you get the idea)

And yes, I did own a DS, but i sold it\, the reason? there is really only one or two games worth playing right now, Kirby and Feel the Magic, which i had beaten within a day of getting it. Now that some good games are starting to be released, i may get another one, but probably not untill Mario Kart is released.

[vegeta1215]

I haven't bought a DS yet, but there are a lot of games coming out this year that I really want to play. In fact, the whole DS lineup this fall is amazing.

As for the the PSP, it's too expensive for me, and I really don't have any interest in it. Being able to play movies and music is a nice feature, but I'd rather watch movies at home on a nice comfortable couch.

[Gerudo]

Surely if you're going to release a games console (which is, basically, what this is) then you've got to have decent games for it, right? Where are those? Anyone?
this goes for both PSP and DS. they lack games, period. i mean, i payed only 60 bucks for my pre-played DS, and got rid of some crappy games and an old regular gba in the process. anyways, i own 1 game (K:CC), and still have like 8 or so gba games. i see a few games that interest me, such as Bomberman, Driller, and Nintendogs (yes, i want that game, shut it).

anyways, i seem to have contradicted myself, but not really. the gba had more games than you could ever take a shit on, this being about a month after its release. you'd think the newgen handhelds would follow that...

[Warlock]

The DS is still lacking games but some of the stuff it does have is pretty good. SM64 DS is awesome of course and Kirby Cursed Canvas is surprisingly addictive. I heard there were a few other decent titles out there too. And of course, there are a ton of great games on the horizon.

But other than that, the DS does serve as a bad-ass backlit GBA :) The button placement is a little ackward for a few games (i.e. Zelda 2 - Classic NES Series) but you get used to it. The screen is so bright and colorful that for a few weeks when I had to send my DS in for repairs (screen cracked due to I guess insane cold weather when I had it in my backpack outside) I had to use a GBA SP and it just looked like absolute shit compared to the DS.

[Daarkseid]

I a huge library of classic games (Mario Bros. Crono Trigger, FF6, Sonic) and i think its pretty much my favourite handheld ever.

That would be the primary reason I'd get a PSP.

[Vagla]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Meteos for DS. I've played that game more than any other DS game (48:36 play time and 84:09 powered on) and have had an absolute blast. It's totally replayable and shooting for high scores in it is pretty damn fun. Definitely one of the best handheld games I've ever played. Wario Ware Touched is also pretty fun, albeit kinda short.

I have no interest in a PSP because my Zodiac does everything a PSP does and more at a cheaper price; it only lacks a good, large selection of commercial games. It does have some great emulators available for it, though, and some pretty good freeware games. If the PSP starts getting some commercial games I want beside Lumines, then maybe I'll consider getting one, but at the moment I'm very happy with my Zodiac. :)

[Warlock]

That would be the primary reason I'd get a PSP.

The latest firmware upgrade breaks all emulation, or so I have heard. There may be a way around it but Sony is definately trying to stop it.

[Daarkseid]

Unless SONY's firmware is undefeatable, which seems highly unlikely, I'll just get a PSP and it'll only be a matter of time before I can use it for emulation.

Not like it's getting much market share with me, anyway. I only want the PSP for emulation, and nothing else. None of the games now or upcoming interest me. Except possibly harvest moon, but unless it intends to be based on Back to Nature's formula, I might skip that as well.

[bonegolem]

I didn't see many exciting games for PSP. Thought Metal Gear AC!D would be the rizzle dizzle but...they turned it into a...puzzle game... :odd:

[MottZilla]

I second Daarkseid on that. However few people will tell you how the emulators don't perform as well as they should. Only recently has one strange port of SNES9X gotten full speed with some games. Where as the SNES emulator for NDS already ran full speed from release 1 and it's made by the very talented Loopy. And Loopy is porting his amazing PocketNES from GBA to NDS.

The PSP was a nice thought but poorly executed so far. If they were smart they'd have made it easy to run homebrew but hard to run copies of commercial software, although not like it matters since everything is sub par anyway. Infact I've only seen one game in a store I'd buy, and that's Capcom's Darkstalkers.

[Orion]

Kirby's Canvas Curse didn't appeal to me at all. My g/f and I tried it at a kiosk in Target, and we found that the touch screen made it more complicated than intuitive. We both became frustrated after trying the intro stage. I hope this isn't a sign of the kind of "intuitive" play we can expect from the revolution.

[Vagla]

What the hell? Kirby: Canvas Curse is too complicated? What, is Tetris the only game you're capable of playing? Seriously, Kirby CC is all about drawing lines and poking Kirby to make him go faster; there's nothing really complicated about it. The whole line thing just makes sense: you can block enemy fire with the line, guide Kirby, and change his direction. I really have no idea how the game could be considered too complicated. It's a simple and ingenius design that only takes getting used to because it's never been done before and people are used to playing with buttons. Please elaborate on how the intro stage could frustrate you because even my mom, who knows nothing about video games and has never been even remotely okay at any game beside Monkey Bowling in Super Monkey Ball, managed to breaze through the first stage. It seems to me that you skipped the tutorial and didn't bother to learn how the game works before giving it a shot, which is a bad idea in a unique game.

[Orion]

What the hell? Kirby: Canvas Curse is too complicated? What, is Tetris the only game you're capable of playing? Seriously, Kirby CC is all about drawing lines and poking Kirby to make him go faster; there's nothing really complicated about it. The whole line thing just makes sense: you can block enemy fire with the line, guide Kirby, and change his direction. I really have no idea how the game could be considered too complicated. It's a simple and ingenius design that only takes getting used to because it's never been done before and people are used to playing with buttons. Please elaborate on how the intro stage could frustrate you because even my mom, who knows nothing about video games and has never been even remotely okay at any game beside Monkey Bowling in Super Monkey Ball, managed to breaze through the first stage. It seems to me that you skipped the tutorial and didn't bother to learn how the game works before giving it a shot, which is a bad idea in a unique game.

First off, get the damn stick out of your ass. Don't start bitching at me about my preferences.

Second, I hardly call using a stylus to draw a line and poke things that are no more than 5 pixels wide intuitive. It's uncomforatable to hold, and isn't at all easy to pick up and play quickly. I'd rather have a simple, absolute control over my movment rather than having to draw it out in advance and then try to tap miniscule targets.

[MottZilla]

I know what you mean Orion. I can't hold and play Kirby : CC for very long. It's rather ackward but I do find the game fun. However when doing the artist mini-game I find the stylus and screen size to be annoying when you must draw a line between 2 points that are waaaaay too close together.

[Vagla]

First off, get the damn stick out of your ass. Don't start bitching at me about my preferences.

Second, I hardly call using a stylus to draw a line and poke things that are no more than 5 pixels wide intuitive. It's uncomforatable to hold, and isn't at all easy to pick up and play quickly. I'd rather have a simple, absolute control over my movment rather than having to draw it out in advance and then try to tap miniscule targets.
I did not bitch about your preferences, but rather that the content of your first post was saying that the game frustrated you because of its complexity and as a result you hope that future gameplay won't be anything similar: THAT is what I'm arguing against. Your most recent post goes more into why you didn't like it, which is just fine and dandy; you dislike the game, and that's cool. However, disliking it because you perceived it as complex, which would most likely have been caused by not giving it enough of a chance, when it really isn't (and further claiming that you have to poke things 'no more than 5 pixels wide' when they are, in fact, a rather large 16x16 pixels in size) really doesn't fly with me. Dislike it for the right reasons (which doesn't include the sole reason of bad graphics ;)).

I didn't mean to bitch at you as if I have a stick up my ass, but your comments in that post really bugged me, specifically as a designer aiming to do unique stuff for the DS like HAL did with Kirby. I apologize for the tone of my earlier post; no hard feelings. ;)

[Orion]

Indeed, no hard feelings. It's is just my personal opinion in that trying to be different, they made it more complex for people who aren't used to this sort of thing. Plus, I have big hands, which makes this sort of thing somewhat clumsy for me.

[vegeta1215]

The DS will hold me over if I decide to get one...but again, I fail to understand why they dropped the price of the DS, and made the price of the micro so high.

I hadn't heard of a price drop before today, but you're right, starting in November the DS will be $129.99 - just in time for the release of Nintendogs. I still haven't decided when to get one. I was going to wait until the DS dropped to $99.99, but it might be a while before that happens.

As for the fall Gamecube lineup, I'm excited about the Fire Emblem game. That, and I'm still hooked on F-Zero GX (buy this game now! it's dirt cheap too!) and recently picked up Tony Hawk 4. They will keep me busy for a while.