I had my DS for a year. It’s dead now. I sold it on Ebay. We did have fun together but it was time to move on. The moment of clarity was during Mario 64 DS – good, if uncontrollable, version of the 64 classic. I suddenly wondered why I was playing a portable N64 game. It was for nostalgic reasons and although Nintendo did try their best to add more features it was a 10 year old game. There are many games for the DS that are great but all are largely rendered unimpressive due to the ickle screen. Metroid looked good but what is the point when the screen is too small for the game. When the DS was launched it was going to change the way games were designed due of the Dual Screens. It didn’t of course. Developers put all the action in one screen and then shoved a map or other peripherical feature on the other. I gave it a chance and willed Zoo Tycoon to be a game to get my teeth into but I found it to be so bad as to be played once. So I flogged the whole thing and went with the PSP. It couldn’t be any worse could it?
The PSP is better than a DS. Better graphics, sound, screen and games. Yes games. Of course you can’t get a dog simulation on a PSP but then it depends which demographic you are. I’m not in the 12 year-old-girl camp. There is one simple marker to judge a console – a decent footy game. DS had none. PSP has two and one of which is Pro Evolution Soccer. I don’t care if I can’t shout into a microphone or draw a cock on the screen but I do wish to lead England to victory against the Hun. The PSP won’t bark at another PSP but it does let me manage Southend United. I can’t collect coins or mushrooms but I can shoot terrorists in Iraq. I can even be a John courtesy of GTA.
The PSP does have a number of faults of course – 6 hour battery life, memory cards and loading times but all are worth it and are exaggerated in most reviews I have read. I do miss the instant feel of the DS and I wish I could sling the PSP in a bag but these are minor points. I have experimented with my two lovers and I’ll take my gobby, over-reaching Sony over the safe but boring DS. That’s Essex for you.
[...] that but a low pitched hhhhmmmmm as the disc spun round. So less than six months on and after me eulogising my cock off about the PSP being far superior I have now been made to look a bit of a twat as my PSP [...]