PSP

Towards the end of 2005 on September the 1st, Europe was finally graced with Sony’s answer to the Nintendo DS, who had complete dominance on the handheld market since debuting the original Gameboy back in 1989/90. I mean it’s not changed even now, Nintendo still rules the handheld systems. I think this shouldn’t be the case though, as the PSP overall across it’s various models still managed to sell somewhere in the range of 80-82 million units which if you ask me is fully impressive. This still pales in comparison to the 154 million the DS shipped, ranking it the second best selling console of all time.

Both systems counted as seventh generation consoles, so they were directly battling it out against each other. Ultimately Nintendo reigned supreme in the end, namely due to attracting third party developers making it easier to make games for them. This is a shame in hindsight as to me I prefer the PSP, it had far better games, out performed the DS in every aspect outside of having 2 screens and one being a touchscreen, and complete backwards compatibility. Maybe another small one could be, having the pokemon series, but that’s more personal bias. 

The PSP, was more of a multimedia player if you’d ask me, having video and audio playback, the browser meant you had some internet capabilities, not the most adept browsing experience but not the worst either.  Memory storage still worked like its console counterparts, but rather than the memory cards of the PS1/2 system it uses Sony’s own memory stick pro duo flash drives. The games came on UMD optical discs and were read from in the back of the handheld system. The UMD’s also released many, many film and tv series another feature it has over the DS.

The graphic capabilities on this did vary, but I’d say it sat somewhere between late PlayStation 1 games and early Playstation 2 games, with the odd stand out game. As all consoles get those games that hold up well even years down the line. This was down to it being at the time the most powerful handheld console to date. As for those specs I won’t be getting into them at this time, but you can trust me, I wouldn’t lie to any of my devoted followers, I only speak the truth.

Over the 10 year life cycle of this majestic beast, before if was finally laid to rest in December 2014, there were various improvements with newer models being released. The first was the 1000 model, and then came the 2000 then the 3000. They only made minor adjustments each time; slimmer, brighter, better screens, bigger internal storage to make the games boot faster. As the load times in game could be pretty dire sometimes. Certain games would lag in menus and during gameplay, it can cause stuttering, and frame rate dips. So these improvements were very welcoming. Then came the PSP-Go which again was smaller and lighter, and they decided to just overhaul the design completely, so the screen slid upwards revealing the controls, which admittedly weren’t very ergonomic. It also got rid of the UMD drive as it was marketed more of a digital version. The last model was the street, which was a stripped back model of the 2000/3000 design lacking WiFi, no microphone, brightness settings etc. 

The handheld itself holds and works like a DualShock in your hands with a screen wedged in the middle of the dual sticks. It does have a few draw backs. Only one analogue stick for me is the biggest meaning most games come with a fixed camera, or janky as fuck button controlling to ping it back behind your character. This isn’t ideal especially in games like Monster Hunter, Ratchet and Clank, where you could have more control to keep up with the action effectively. The Left and Right shoulder triggers as well. Not having the L2/R2 buttons that the PS2/3 had at the same time, some games didn’t port over as well or the specific version had to cut corners with it again like with the lack of the second analogue stick. These were fixed in the PS Vita the successor to the PSP. Which should’ve been the one to dethrone Nintendo, that article I’m sure will come in due course as I’m a big fan of the Vita and feel it didn’t get treated right by Sony itself. The only other nagging point i’d have is during gameplay when loading directly off the disc, the disc drive can be a tad loud, with the scratchy sound that emanates from it.

I think Sony really tried with the PSP, it upgraded the system several times, many firmware updates which all made it work better. Gave fans/collectors the opportunity to buy limited edition versions of it like the Final Fantasy or Gran Turismo special editions. It either ported or made PSP specific version of triple A titles for the system. Or just new entries in fan favourites like Daxter or Secret agent Clank, from Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank respectively. By the end of it’s life cycle there were 1,370 games which is nearly a 1000 less then the DS which was around 2,260 games. But I’d argue the DS has many games that are just trash at least the majority on PSP are big name games, and if they were on both systems the DS’s was nowhere near he level of the PSP’s.

This is another very strong 8/10 for me. So this console has been Certified Highly tasty.

To me this should have been the console to start the momentum shift in the handheld console wars, but Sony fucked itself with the Vita. It was an impressive technical piece of tech for the time, managing to bring impressive graphics to on the go gaming, with only mild set backs with load times, game lag and some shitty button controls.

This guy clearly knows whats up.