the sony PSP

[wip3outguy7]

A little late to the party, but I love the PSP so I'm pitching in my two cents.

I am on my 4th PSP. I sold my 2000 a couple of years ago to fund my HRAP2SA. I really didn't miss it. I inherited a PSP 1000 with a bum analog nub from my nephew a few months ago when he moved away. It happily sits on the shelf in its pretty Logitech hard case, collecting dust. I imagine I would play around with it a little more if I replaced the nub. But that still doesn't resolve the issue I had with my other PSPs - I have to make time to play the portable.

I have 8 consoles at home and a huge library of games to go with them. While the PSP offers a stationary console experience on the go (exactly what I want in a portable), I am always the wheel man. I am never EVER in a situation where I can just sit back for the 20 min ride and play some PSP. When I owned my previous systems I would try to make time for them during breaks at work or while waiting for someone in a public place. I would always run into one of two situations: I end up playing an engrossing game that is going to run way past my allowed break/wait time, or I would be playing a game best suited for multiplayer... and no one else I knew had a PSP with the game I wanted to pal up in.

At one point, my friend and I would meet up at a local coffee shop for Macross Ace Frontier and Phantasy Star Portable. We did this for months, but we were creating a solution for a problem that didn't exist. My friend could have easily driven down the street to my apartment and we could have gamed on one of my many other systems. Hell, we could have gone to one of the many arcades here in Austin. In our case the PSP was definitely a system geared to our demographic, but the truth is that a large percentage of our demographic isn't in a ride along situation long enough to really toy with the system. I think this is ultimately the downfall of the system.

Despite my issues with the PSP, it's a fantastic little handheld and I hope to one day find a use for it again. That is if I don't just replace it all together with a NGP/PSP2. Anyone trying to argue that the library is lacking is an un-informted twit quoting 5 year old information they knew nothing about in the first place. The PSP's library is solid. You will have no trouble finding games to play - good games to play. Fuck the naysayers who complain about the lack of a 2nd analog nub/stick. Games like Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow easily handle this by allowing you map movement to the face buttons and look to the analog nub.