Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP
The gloves are off and both the PSP and DS come out fighting. This year at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (more commonly known as E3), Sony unveiled their first entry into a now interesting portable system battle, the PSP. Not to be outdone, portable gaming giant Nintendo was showing off its newest experiment, the DS or Dual Screen. Are these systems the newest in the line of handheld greatness, or are they destined to fail? Let’s take a slightly more in depth look at both systems.
First up at the plate, the Sony PSP. The first thing you notice when you see this system is it looks great. It looks sleek, slim, and stylish. With a black case, backlit wide-screen, and thin design, it is definitely the best looking handheld ever in my opinion. But that is enough talk about how it looks, lets talk about what it does. With graphical power supposedly close to the Playstation 2, the Sony PSP looks like it could very well have the best graphics ever for a handheld system. Not only will the graphics be close in relation to the PS2, but with the PSP’s special screen it allows games to be played in 16:9 widescreen format for a movie like experience. But it gets better yet, the PSP allows for players to hook up wirelessly for LAN capabilities. All these features surely means success for the PSP….or does it?
Under this sleek, cool looking system lies an unexplored area that is full of unknowns and possibly scary problems with Sony’s little powerhouse. Remember the awesome graphical capabilities of the PSP? Well no one really knows how badly this could affect the battery life of the system. Certainly all that graphical power and backlit screen shown in a widescreen format must affect the power consumption in some way, but how much we may not know until it launches. That’s just one possible problem with the PSP, another obvious issue could be the price range. Some reports have the price of the PSP to be around $120-$130 yet other have it well over $200. Would consumers be willing to fork up that amount of money for a portable system? Only time will tell. The long list of issues continues with the amount and quality of games for the PSP. The major issue at the time is, well, there are no games currently announced for the system. You simply put can’t judge a system when you don’t know what quality software will come with it. Presumably there has been no lack of developers interest in the PSP, but we will have to wait to see what comes down the line. Also an issue in the games department is since the graphical ability of the PSP is close to that of the PS2, Sony may attempt to port many of its console games over on to the small screen, and let me be the first to say that playing console games on a very small screen is sometime very difficult and almost impossible. Trust me, I’ve tried. Lastly in my seemingly never-ending problems with the PSP is what I find the worst problem of all, the PSP uses discs. I find that to be a huge problem for me, I love being able to take my GBA, a few of my favorite games and being able to just throw it all in my pocket. But now with discs you will have to carry your games around in packs making it slightly more difficult to change games in and out. Don’t think that I don’t recognize the performance and graphical increase by using discs, but I just don’t think discs are right for a handheld.
Now that I’ve covered the PSP, lets talk about the Nintendo DS. Nintendo has called the DS it’s “Third Pillar” as in it is not a replacement to the Game Boy Advance. This is a good move for Nintendo in the event that the DS fails, they still have the next generation of the Game Boy to fall back on. This system scream innovation, it has features never before seen in a gaming system. The most obvious being in its name, it has dual screens. The two screen add another element to the gameplay. The second screen may be used for maps, items screen, level or character info or even combined with the other screen to make one large screen for playing on. Another new feature for the DS is the bottom screen is a touch screen. The DS will come with a stylus that can be used on certain games that choose to use this feature. The addition of a touch screen can add almost endless possiblities to gaming, including a new game called Pictochat where players can send messages or pictures to one another. This brings be to the next feature, wireless LAN capabilities. Like the PSP, the DS has wireless capabilites to allow players to connect to each other seamlessly. Nintendo has also stated that although they will not be making software that allow the DS to connect via wireless internet connections, that if a third party chooses to do so, players could connect to each other over the internet and play games together. This addition certainly makes you believe that the DS will takeover the handheld market by storm….right?
Although innovative, the Nintendo DS is not without its fair share of problems. To begin with many people are comparing this to one of Nintendo’s previous systems, the Virtual Boy. Remeber that one? It was Nintendo’s first try at something completely new and innovative, and it was a complete failure. Could the DS be doomed to the same fate as it earlier counterpart? Issue two with the DS, how will people take to the addition of a touch screen? Some people have said that this is a step in the wrong direction for Nintendo as this makes this systems seem very more “PDA” like and that is not something Nintendo wanted to do. Also how will developers find ways to use the touch screen? Most likely it will come down to whether developers can find a way to integrate using the normal controls in combination with the touch screen, or will they try to give the players too much to doing using the controls and touch screen at the same time. One last issue is can Nintendo continue to make good quality games like it always has, or will they struggle to produce new games that can use the functions of the DS without just porting a bunch of console games that people may not find interest in playing again?
Okay, we’ve seen the pros and cons of each system. Now it’s time to decide, will they both find a spot in the handheld market and survive for years to come? Will one system be the outright better of the two and kill the other in a few months? Or are both systems doomed to fail? I believe that option number three is the correct one here, and before you go crazy on me let me explain myself. Saying that both systems will fail is probably slightly harsh, one thing you have to consider is we haven’t really been given the full details on everything about the system so any speculation on how they will do in the handheld market ispurley speculation at this time. But I believe with the information we have now, that both systems will slowly die out. When both systems launch they may sell strong, but over a longer period of time sales may drop of dramatically. Both systems are a gamble by each company in that it is something brand new and never seen before. I believe that when it comes down to it, consumers will stay with what they know works, the Game Boy Advance. Until I see something that actually excites me on either system, right now I have to say that both will die a slow, painful death.
All comments, praise, hate mail, or suggestions for future articles should be directed to my e-mail at garyw@gamequbed.com.