adam reeve

So I realise as I write this that I better don my asbestos suit incase any Nintendo fans are passing through, but it’s really not meant to be inflammatory (no pun intended). I’m a big fan of Nintendo, and not a particularly big fan of Sony – I own a GameCube but not a PS2. I really like my GBA-SP, and I can’t think of any Sony product I own apart from the PSP. But before I go any further, take a look at the picture below.

Now tell me – how is that not the sexiest portable device ever created? Nintendo dropped the ball on this one, it’s sad but true. The design of the DS is cheap and nasty, the silver plastic looks like a toy. While the dual screen feature is interesting, the touch screen is a gimmick. I’ve owned several PDAs, I know how much fun it is to play games with a stylus. Very little. It also needs more games – the release list (particularly third party) is looking worryingly empty right now.

On the other hand, the PSP has a fantastic screen. It’s frequently said, but you really have to see this thing to believe it. There are something like 30 games already available, which for a 1 month old system is amazing. The graphics are awesome, the sound is great, the multimedia stuff (I watch old Alias episodes on the way to work) is nice too. I know of 3 people who have bought a PSP after seeing mine, it really sells itself.

There are bad points of course – the battery life could be better, though it’s not as bad as all that. The load times from UMD can be a pain, but the sleep functions helps a lot with that problem. Memory Sticks are expensive, but getting cheaper. I would have liked two analogue pads so that FPS games can be more easily controlled. There’s also an annoying stutter when it comes out of sleep mode.

I’m really looking forward to the next Game Boy model which is supposed to be being announced later this year, if Nintendo can pull something worthy out of the hat they could save themselves. At the moment though, I’m not holding out much hope for them.