| I WANNA HOLD YOUR HANDHELD! |
For the past decade, Nintendo has dominated the handheld gaming market so thoroughly that the term ‘Game Boy’ has become the Kleenex™ of the industry. It's even been added to the in-flight spiel when they tell you to turn things off during take-off and landing. Every contender has turned into a pretender, nine in all, and after Nintendo successfully relaunched the flawed GBA as the smart, backlit GBA SP, it looked like there would never be any real competition.
Then Sony made a little announcement at last year’s E3, and just like that, it’s on.
Easily the most compelling issue at the show, the battle of the next-gen handhelds got off to a swift start as Sony unveiled the upcoming PSP at their press conference, followed about an hour later by Nintendo whipping out the DS system at their press conference. Both companies showed off fancy-pants specs and applications, but it would take some hands-on time with both systems before I’d start jumping to totally irrational conclusions.
The DS
The pre-show Nintendo press conference is usually the most irritating experience of the entire week, due mainly to the odd presence of hordes of Nintendo fanboys who literally cheer and applaud at the mention of anything related to Nintendo. Those of us with less biased tastes are there to do a job, after all, and giving yet another screenshot of Mario in yet another game a standing ovation seems more than a little retarded to us.
But this year, we can actually understand some of the cheering. The reason? The DS.
Dual Screens? Die Sony? Nintendo is going with ‘Developer’s System.’ Call it what you want, but Nintendo’s new system shocked show-goers when it was revealed, partly because no one has ever seen anything like it and partly because we didn’t think Nintendo had this kind of risk-taking in ‘em. So what’s the real deal with the Dualie?
The features are varied and impressive:
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The more screens, the merrier? |
So indeed, the specs are pretty great, but to get a closer look, I ducked into a bathroom, strapped on my Mario costume and strolled into the back of the Nintendo booth at the show to see what the fuss was all about firsthand. In the guise of an Italian plumber/fat ex-pornstar, I got to play around with the thing a bit, and my feelings about it are now officially mixed.
The hardware itself is small and stylish and features a handy, folding top-cover (which houses the top screen) much like the GBA SP. Very nice. The dual screen approach is a daring move, though I wish the top screen was larger and took better advantage of the space rather than being the same size as the lower screen.
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Scary. Very, very scary. |
Most of the game demos were variations on the touch-screen capability. Using a stylus, you can move things about on the lower screen, much like you would with a Palm Pilot. Here I am pinching that adorable little bastard Pikachu. I also rolled Pac-Man around a maze, which worked well enough, and tried shooting at other versions of Samus in a Metroid DS game, but repeatedly slamming a stylus on a little screen while simultaneously trying to move around and not get stuck in a corner proved fairly awkward. A Warioware game was probably the best of the bunch, having you scribble on the screen to complete the rapid-fire mini-games. By and large, the games weren’t particularly interesting, mainly tech demos, but they did prove that the touch-screen ability works.
Still, Nintendo didn’t build their handheld empire on the back of gimmicks. They did it with the likes of Tetris, Pokemon and Advance Wars, interesting, fun software that guided the purchase of their systems. Currently, the DS is all about its odd new features, but ultimately those features mean little if they’re housed in subpar games. I’ll remain skeptical until we see some more solid games, but kudos to Nintendo for taking off the gloves and pushing the design envelope a bit.
The PSP
Okay, so Nintendo made this big deal out of the fact that every single handheld competitor they’ve faced has bitten the dust. The thing is, none of those companies were as big and scary as Sony, and the market back then wasn’t nearly as big as it is now. These two reasons alone are enough to take Sony’s upcoming PSP seriously, which is exactly how the product was shown at Sony’s subdued pre-show press conference. “I am Sony, the king of the console, and soon to be ruler of all things mobile! Those who oppose me shall be cleansed!” At least I think that’s what they said, though I might be embellishing.
So here’s some hard data on this devilish device:
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Kneel before Kaz! |
Clearly, the features aren’t as mind-blowing as the DS, but this is Sony’s first foray into handheld gaming, so you’d expect them to play it relatively safe. I of course had to test it out, so I quickly ditched my Mario outfit and threw on a racing helmet to fool the Sony people into thinking I was one of the drivers in Gran Turismo 4. Suckers!
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Told you it wasn't that big. |
My first thoughts upon seeing the PSP centered around its size – the thing just looked too big. But maybe Kaz Hirai (overlord of Sony) has really small hands, because I think the thing feels just about right. One issue, however, is the lack of a screen cover. Put this thing in your pocket unprotected and don’t be surprised if it comes out with a few scratches. Hopefully some sort of case will come packaged with it
The games were far and few between. In fact, they only had one there, a nameless RPG. I played it for a little and it looked good enough, with graphics roughly equal to a good-looking Playstation game. Things really picked up with the full motion video, however. I’m not a fan of Incubus, but damn those guys looked good thanks to the awesome screen. From a pure gaming perspective, I would take this one large screen over the dual screen of the DS.
Unfortunately, there weren’t enough PSP games at E3 to actually get a feel for what to expect from the system. There’s a lot of potential here, but the actual software is still a long ways off.
Both the PSP and the DS offer brave new steps for the handheld arena, and I know that many of you are dying to know which one will survive. For the first time ever, I think BOTH can survive. We never thought three console systems could be valid for long, but here we are three years later and we still see plenty of games for the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube. Who’s to say it has to be one or the other?
Just know this – the battle will be won or lost based not on the specs or the design or the stylus or the wireless networking, but on the quality of the games. That’s the way it works. At least you should be happy knowing that competition tends to drive prices down, so while the handheld dilemma might not be solved yet, it should prove to be an interesting battle.
>> continue to NOT NECESSARILY THE FIRST-PERSON SHOOTERS!
