Oldschool Console Rivalry: PSP vs NDS

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2006-09-12 11:05pm

Stark wrote:Okay, follow me here. PSP guy demonstrates insecurity. I am surprised by this, and wonder if PSP owners are younger/'trendier' than others. With me now?

But I think anyone can tell right off the bat that it wasn't a serious question. If it were any other product I think anyone else would raise a red flag and say "hey, nice agenda you got there"***

It's ironic that I started this thread about my surprise at the continuation of this behaviour, and now you're pretty much demonstrating it. Did I hurt your feelings by not liking PSPs?

If you think I'm demonstrating this behavior and proving your point for you, then you're just seeing what you want to see.

I even specifically mentioned that I own plenty of consoles, and nobody has ever taken me to task on my purchases like that since the days of Mega Drive.

Probably because PSP was the first serious challenge to the Nintendo handheld market in years.

I just find it funny that certain people have stressed (going beyond that, actually) the fun aspect of the Nintendo handheld, as if you WILL like the DS, or there is something wrong with you. I've seen much of that.

*** The only way you could get a real informed answer to that question is looking up sales data or something like that

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-12 11:07pm

Yeah, except I don't care. Like I said, I know plenty of people with PSPs and nobody with a DS - I don't harrangue them. PSPs aren't my thing, but I don't care and aren't about to convert anyone. If you think a rhetorical question is revealing my evil PSP-hating agenda, then YOU are just seeing what YOU want to see. I bought bloody New Mario with my DS too, and it's fucking shit and I returned it for Trauma Center. Sorry you got burned by a return policy buddy.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2006-09-12 11:11pm

Stark wrote:Yeah, except I don't care. Like I said, I know plenty of people with PSPs and nobody with a DS - I don't harrangue them.

Great, but why do you feel obligated to ask us some silly question that can't be answered without some hard data?

PSPs aren't my thing, but I don't care and aren't about to convert anyone. If you think a rhetorical question is revealing my evil PSP-hating agenda, then YOU are just seeing what YOU want to see. I bought bloody New Mario with my DS too, and it's fucking shit and I returned it for Trauma Center. Sorry you got burned by a return policy buddy.

You're letting their sales-pitch bother you so much that you have to ask that question after just one guy bugging you? Come on dude

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2006-09-12 11:11pm

The PSP and the DS target different demographics.

Or rather, the majority of games released do.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-12 11:16pm

Hamel wrote:[You're letting their sales-pitch bother you so much that you have to ask that question after just one guy bugging you? Come on dude

Shit, did you just say I shouldn't start the thread? Dammit, TOO LATE!?!?! I shouldn't ask rhetorical questions that can't be answered by hard data, even about TOTALLY SUBJECTIVE things like console preference??

Sorry, anyone launching into their console-war speech in front of available women is just crazy. It stuck in my head because it basically guaranteed he wasn't going to get his cock sucked. That level of console-warness reminded me about the oldschool console wars, and the vehement playground arguments about bullshit.

Oh wait, that's all in the OP. You did read that, right? I'm talking about a mentality I thought was long-dead, not saying mean things about your favourite little handheld.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-09-12 11:19pm

Stark wrote:Yeah, except I don't care. Like I said, I know plenty of people with PSPs and nobody with a DS - I don't harrangue them. PSPs aren't my thing, but I don't care and aren't about to convert anyone. If you think a rhetorical question is revealing my evil PSP-hating agenda, then YOU are just seeing what YOU want to see. I bought bloody New Mario with my DS too, and it's fucking shit and I returned it for Trauma Center. Sorry you got burned by a return policy buddy.

I have the opposite situation.

I'm probably the only person I immediately know with a PSP, while I know about 6 people with DS's, who incessantly play bomberman with each other when bored together waiting for a meal or something. It's just demographics. Some people like some types of games better too.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2006-09-12 11:21pm

The DS plays Game Boy Advanced games. The PSP plays... UMDs.

Advantage? DS.

Anarchist Bunny · Post by **Anarchist Bunny** » 2006-09-12 11:26pm

I bought my DS several months after it was released, along with Super Mario DS, which was a good port of a game I had already played the fuck out of.

Then I got Kirby Canvas Curse which was a decent enough game that really introduced me to the Stylus as a playing. Nothing terribly great, but nothing out right horrible.

Then I got Advanced Wars: Dual Strike, this was the first really great game. The stylus straightened out something that was also a hassle with console/handheld strategy games, having to use the D-pad to move the cursor arround(god I wish they would make a Final Fantasy Tactics on the DS).

Then I got Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows, which while not a game needing the stylus, is in itself the best incarnation of the Metroidvania genre.

Mariokart is a great multiplayer game, I'd play it more if I had a high speed connection, or friends with DS, but alas...

Tetris DS is crack. I play a bout of regular whenever I have a bit of free time, but not enough to crack open something like FF4 or Advanced Wars.

Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time was a great sequal to the GBA game and a great RPG not in the generic FF style.

Trauma Center really shows off the Stylus and makes some damn challenging levels with out fustrating you, and I know I'll be getting the Wii port.

Out of the DS games I've gotten that were lackluster were Animal Crossing, Resident Evil:DS, Metroid Hunters, and Trace Memory. Animal Crossing is a great game that suffers from the same problems I have with the Harvest Moon series, it takes too long to get to the tail end content, and I burn out in the midgame. I can't just play them off and on consistantly. Trace Memory wasn't bad, I just sort of fizziled out on it, though the part where you have to reflect the top screen onto the bottom by partially closing it was brilliance. Resident Evil suffered from being too true to its origins, rebirth mode should of had more than stylus minigames, but after RE4, all previous incarnations are unbearable. Metroid Prime: Hunters was a very very well made handheld FPS, the genre just doesn't work handheld.

Hamel you dropped out of the system purely on two poorly picked games.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2006-09-12 11:28pm

Heh. I have a PSP - play Grand Theft Auto, Street Fighter 3, Tenchu, X-Men, etc. No buyer remorse - I haven't seen any DS titles that look remotely interesting to me.

I think you'll find loser fanatics waving any banner, though. I'd have to be dragged kicking and screaming into a platform debate during a night on the town.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-12 11:29pm

What is it with me being in some social sinkhole of no DS-age? You ... affluent Americans.

I can clearly state the the strange, nonstandard, touchscreen games are the reason I got a DS. They had a dog simulator, but it's also got heaps of games that I couldn't just play on my PC/PS2/GC/etc. Like I said before, I don't actually use it as a 'portable', since I'm seldom anywhere I could use it. I prefer Trauma Center to Dynasty Warriors: Again and Need for Speed: Anal, since my PS2/PC/GC could play those kind of games far, far better without me having to blow AU$400.

Davis 51 · Post by **Davis 51** » 2006-09-13 12:00am

Well, America is one of the few countries that the PSP 'suceeded' in.

A few years ago, I saw very few DS's and a lot of PSP's. Consequently, I had many oppertunities to try out PSP games. They looked great, but were mostly mundane. Most were mundane except for Libety City Stories. Yet everyone who owned one said it was the greatest thing since sliced bread because they could (get this) play illegal emulated Super NES Games. I shit you not.

My parents got me a DS for christmas with Mario 64 DS and Advanced Wars: Dual Strike. I loved it.

At the past two Otakons, there were DS's everywhere. I also think I have a picture of a bunch of people playing DS's while waiting the Microsoft press release to start. Oh, and right now, the marketshare majority is owned by nintendo with the DS lite.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2006-09-13 12:11am

Stark wrote:Well we certainly all know New Mario sucks balls, that's for sure.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this is wrong, and that nothing you'll ever say or do for the rest of your life will make it true.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-13 12:18am

Okay fine! I didn't like it BECAUSE I SUCKED AT IT. Happy now? I rule at Megaman, but something about NMB ruled me.

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2006-09-13 12:28am

Stark wrote:Okay fine! I didn't like it BECAUSE I SUCKED AT IT. Happy now? I rule at Megaman, but something about NMB ruled me.

*comforts Stark* There, there, it's no big deal. I'm sure it happens to lots of gamers. Hell, you pretty much just summed up my attitude of Halo.

I must say, though, I'm surprised you cracked and admitted that so quickly. You're Stark, man, everyone expects you to hate everything.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2006-09-13 02:15am

....So, the Nintendo DS... I hear it has two screens.

atg · Post by **atg** » 2006-09-13 02:20am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:....So, the Nintendo DS... I hear it has two screens.

And one is a touch screen apparently. What kind of wacked out stuff will Nintendo think of next, imagine something craaaazy like motion sensing.........

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-13 02:20am

Trogdor wrote:I must say, though, I'm surprised you cracked and admitted that so quickly. You're Stark, man, everyone expects you to hate everything.

People tell me I'm losing it, that this'll be my last season. No way man.

And DPDP, I think a single touchscreen of larger size might have been a better decision. all the current stuff would still work, but the combined screen real estate would have been useful for somethings.

Ravencrow · Post by **Ravencrow** » 2006-09-13 02:21am

atg wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote:....So, the Nintendo DS... I hear it has two screens.
And one is a touch screen apparently. What kind of wacked out stuff will Nintendo think of next, imagine something craaaazy like motion sensing.........

I thought they've already done that with one of the GBA warioware games.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2006-09-13 02:44am

Stark wrote: And DPDP, I think a single touchscreen of larger size might have been a better decision. all the current stuff would still work, but the combined screen real estate would have been useful for somethings.

How much larger can you go without making the entire thing unwieldly, though? Remember, this is a portable game system we're talking about.

Ravencrow · Post by **Ravencrow** » 2006-09-13 03:53am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:
Stark wrote: And DPDP, I think a single touchscreen of larger size might have been a better decision. all the current stuff would still work, but the combined screen real estate would have been useful for somethings.
How much larger can you go without making the entire thing unwieldly, though? Remember, this is a portable game system we're talking about.

I wonder if it's possible for the NDS to eventually have screens the size of a psp screen, if they can maintain the same thickness as the current psp, it should be good enough.

atg · Post by **atg** » 2006-09-13 03:55am

I wonder if it's possible for the NDS to eventually have screens the size of a psp screen, if they can maintain the same thickness as the current psp, it should be good enough.

I'm sure folded out they could make it the same thickness as the PSP. However when folded up it would likely be bulkier.

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-09-13 04:23am

The DS wins out for me. Innovative (Two screens AND one of them is a touch screen - initially I had completely dismissed this as a gimmick, but damned if it don't work well), brilliant games (Meteos, Brain Training, Mario Kart to name a few) and cheap as chips compared to the PSP.

Also - the DS has that special something which has given it mass-market appeal. Sarah bought one (to play Nintendogs, which she ended up not playing much at all as she became a Warioware and then Sims2 and then Mario Kart fiend), then later bought me one so I wasn't always stealing hers and so that we could play against each other.

I seriously know of more non-gamers with DS's than gamers. And that is the most impressive thing about them.

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-09-13 05:00am

Stark wrote:Well that's it: aside from Xbox fanwhores (a noisy bunch) I haven't seen anything like this in years. Have I just missed it? Have the rivalries still been going strong?

I have always found PS2 fanwhores to be WAAAAAY more noisy and abusive than XBox fanwhores. Mainly because of the whole thing of them refusing to acknowledge the XBox being inherently a more powerful system.

Havok · Post by **Havok** » 2006-09-13 05:24am

Stark wrote:
Trogdor wrote:I must say, though, I'm surprised you cracked and admitted that so quickly. You're Stark, man, everyone expects you to hate everything.
People tell me I'm losing it, that this'll be my last season. No way man.

And DPDP, I think a single touchscreen of larger size might have been a better decision. all the current stuff would still work, but the combined screen real estate would have been useful for somethings.

I dunno man, I've only been here for a while but I've noticed a definite drop off.

On the handhelds... I don't get it at all if that helps. It seems lik the same people that use text messaging instead of just calling. Doesn't make any sense to me.

I mean I understand the occasional uses. Car/plane trips. Between classes. But watching movies and the touch screens? I don't get it.

Ravencrow · Post by **Ravencrow** » 2006-09-13 05:39am

Don't understand touchscreens? They enable the game to have mouse-like controls. Eg. Drag & drop, drawing, direct selection of objects on the screen etc.