NDS Lite vs PSP?
 

I don't know if such a thread has been created yet, but I'm looking to buy either a NDS Lite or PSP in the upcoming future. I heard many good things about both, and personally, I can't decide, so I just wanted to know what you gaming gurus think. The kinds of games I play vary, and I play just about anything. I'm no hardcore gamer, but a decent gaming library would be nice too.

So, like I said, what do you think? Should I buy a NDS Lite or PSP?

Well, as an owner of both, I can say they are both great machines, but one suffers from lack of support, while the other doesn't. It really comes down to what you want from your portable.

If you buy one to play games, get a DS Lite. No ifs or maybes, that's what any reasonable player should buy. It's simply a brilliant machine. Brilliant design (barring the volume slide), brilliant features, brilliant games.

The PSP has a few completely excellent games (Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins, Lumines, Wipeout Pure), but as a games machine, it's lacking in proper great titles. There's many games that are "good PSP games", but are not the kind you buy the machine for. Most of them are the kind you buy because you want games for a machine you bought (see, PS3).

On the plus side, it has a lot of non-gaming going for it. MP3 playback is great, video playback is great even if you have to separately convert every single video you want to use. Easy to hack, easy to pirate for. The PS1 emulation is fun for 10 minutes and portable Vagrant Story has its appeal, but it's again down to what you want from a machine. I for one don't think it's worth buying the machine since I can and want to get those same PS1 games for my modded PS2.

Same way SNES and GBA emulation on the PSP is fun, but you could just as well emulate GBA games on the DS if you so wish, and SNES emulation fares far better on an Xbox (I've recently discovered).

So again, if you want a portable for great games, get a DS. A fantastic library of DS games AND GBA games make for a stunning selection of gems.

If you want a neat yuppie toy for fiddling with, that also plays host to a small number of unique and great titles, get a PSP.

And if you intend to emulate on the PSP, I suggest you wait for the upcoming Slim & Lite model, which comes with double the memory.

For me, I seriously love the idea of playing PS1 games on a portable handheld, since i can enjoy classic games such as Suikoden 2, and Parasite Eve even when i'm on a car or on a trip.

As for the NDS, there are some games that are worth playing, such as Phoenix Wright, Pokemon,Trauma Center,Wario Touch.

For that matter i would recommend you to buy a PSP, if you want to immerse yourself in hours and hours of gaming.

as for the NDS, buy it if you really want enjoyable and unique games.

But for me i have both, but for now my vote goes to PSP.

If you have to choose one now or soon, I would recommend the PSP. With the recent release of the pandora battery, installing homebrew and custom firmware is no longer a big risk or problem. The DS is a great gaming machine with an amazing library, but there is no 100% sure bet that the PSP slim will be able to be downgraded right off the bat. Running emulators on a XBox, and bootleg PSX games on a PS2 may be great, but they aren't exactly portable consoles. So my vote goes to getting the current PSP model.

My vote goes for the PSP as well, but not for homebrew reasons.

I never owned a handheld gaming system before until the PSP. I bought it for it's multiple uses -- MP3 playback, UMD movies, wireless web browsing, etc. -- but I've grown to love it for the games as well. There are a lot of really great games for it and I've gotten plenty of use out of mine over the two and a half years I've owned it.

The DS admittedly has a larger number of games, but honestly (and strictly for my gaming tastes) I haven't found a single game that'd make me buy the system. If you're gonna buy one of the two, look to each system's library of games and weigh their pros and cons for yourself, since you're the one buying the system, not us.

Nintendo DS: Mario Kart online with anyone across the world. Same with Tetris. And, some RPGs with more being developed.

I second Qwarky's post.

If you want a portable media player, go for PSP.
If you want to just play games, go for DS.

If you already have a PS2/3/X360, then unless you're a keen on-the-go gamer, you don't really need a PSP imo.

I have a very slight preference for the PSP because it's the traditional way to play games without the risk of losing necessary bits and pieces (namely, the stylus) and it looks far nicer. Technologically it's capable of far more than the DS, which mainly has only traditional games for it anyways that don't really use the touch screen.

PSP is akin to playing a traditional game boy, for me.

I think I am starting to understand while reading this thread that Playstation 1 lovers from back in the day have a favorable opinion of the PSP because they want to play other iterations of their favorite stuff (or new games like them) on the PSP.

Fans of Nintendo love the different "mascots" that it has and the other simple turn on and play games would recommend the DS.

So, Shadoweave..... did you play more PS1 or Nintendo in your past?
Also, what genres are your favorite? (RPG, Puzzle, action, adventure, etc)?

Well, for me, I've always been more of a PS1 fan, cause I'm somewhat of a RPG addict I suppose. I've also been rather keen on puzzle games as well.

And yes, I know the final decision's up to me, but I just wanted to get a rough idea of the opinions of the rest of you as well, as to what you felt was the better system. Hmm. Seems like most of you guys are favouring the PSP too.

Well, the best game series of all time (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) is on the DS, so in that sense I'd recommend you get that. The DS has a vast selection of games, most of which are terrible but there are some really good ones that you can't really afford to miss. It's kinda like the PS2 in that way.

The PSP on the other hand has a few really good exclusive titles (Crush and Loco Roco come to mind), but when I say a few, I mean like, three. I haven't tried emulation or anything like that, because I can do all those things about a million times better on my PC, it's just not worth the effort to me. I also can't imagine anyone ever using a PSP as an MP3 player, it's way too bulky. It is a good movie player but since you have to convert, I don't think that's worthwhile either.

Since the PSP has a smaller slice of the market, it's risky to buy one. There are a few good games out on it now, but it might turn out that there aren't that many more coming. I certainly don't have any on my to-buy list...

On the other hand, the DS's RPG library is weak as hell so far. With the exception of the super hardcore RPG Etrian Odyssey, I don't think I've played any remotely good RPG on it yet. It's great for puzzle and adventure type games though, as well as some pretty different/offbeat games (although that's also the field the PSP excels in, weird offbeat goofy games).

Oh yeah, and the DS is cheaper, I guess? But they're both not super expensive.

I've never been a fan of the current PSP...The low battery life, controls, godawful/laughable load times, and (until recently) the library have all been major turnoffs for me. I say recently about the library because over the past year and a half or so, it has mustered just enough games for me to justify a purchase. At least, the remodeled version. The remade Megaman games, Ghosts and Goblins, Princess Crown and Gurumin make the old-school gamer in me very tempted.

BUT...

Between the 2D platform goodness, easy WiFi access, strong support, GBA access (Puzzle Fighter/Namco Museum on the go is too good!), much superior design and Tetris DS/Planet Puzzle League (both online!), I'd say the DS is the better of the two by far. And I just mean the original, big one...The Lite is sexy, but I like my original too much to give it up. I like the touch screen as well, but more as an afterthought to the quality of the actual games.

I'm not sure how easy it is to run backups of commercial games on a PSP, but I do know it's really easy on a DS with a simple cart (not to mention it gives you emulators, music, movies, etc on top of it). The firmware BS for the PSP has always given me a headache, so I haven't explored emulating anything for fear of ending up with a bricked unit.

Edit: Actually, for RPG's, there's Mario and Luigi 2 and Advance Wars DS. Plus the entire GBA catalogue...That means FFVI Advance.

To be fair, softmodding a PSP IS relatively easy once you have everything you need gathered up (a big hassle) and know what you're doing (tutorials range from helpful to downright uselessly vague and unclear). But before that, it's all pretty impenetrable. Being able to do it all in software, without any need for physical add-ons or modifcations was a big plus for me.

On the other hand, all this pandora's battery stuff isn't nearly as all-solving as PSP enthusiasts are making it seem. You will still need a hacked PSP to make use of it, so if you brick your PSP and you don't know anyone with a hacked PSP (very likely, for instance I'm the only one in my group of friends with a PSP altogether), you're just as screwed as you were before the exploit was discovered.

And to give perspective, I have a hacked PSP, but my DS is untouched. And I own more bought (good) DS games than I have downloaded PSP games.

From what you guys are saying, I get the impression that the DS has a larger library in terms of the NDS games themselves, but the PSP has a greater capacity for emulation?

But from what surasshu says, the RPG libraries on either handheld console are still rather weak I suppose. I guess if I really want RPGs, I should stick with an actual console itself.

Nonetheless, thanks for all your help, everybody. I'd probably get a NDS Lite after my exams are over, then maybe follow up with a PSP once the Slim version comes out, provided it can be hacked of course.

I wouldn't want to live without either of the two, actually. As an owner of both handhelds, I can't understand how you can possibly favor one over the other. Both the PSP and the DS have their very own appeal and areas where they excel at. A lot of these technicalities have been mentioned in this thread, so I think you've gotten the rough picture already.

Just let it be said that you'll be missing a lot of excellent games if you're choosing one over the other.

PSP may as well stand for port-station at this moment (lol, I'm so clever making a joke everybody in the world has made!) but sadly, that's okay with me. I'm actually looking forward to the ports of castlevania rondo of blood and the two Star Ocean games. I'd second the above post, that I wouldn't want to choose between the two, because they both offer me enjoyable games.
(just different kinds of 'em.)

Don't forget on the DS you get all of the GBA games, which includes all of the FF remakes that Square put out as well as the giant number of poor to pretty good RPGs that Atlus pumped out for the system.

Also, playing Puzzle Quest right now and it's one of the coolest takes on a puzzle/RPG game in a long while.

For the RPG fan, FF4 is being completely remade for the DS:
http://img46.imagevenue.com/view.php..._122_787lo.jpg

Also, Dragon Quest 4-6 are coming to DS..... except I'm not sure about USA yet, but I'm thinking so.

I guess you guys are right in saying that they can't really be compared. But from what you guys mentioned about the RPG libraries, I suppose that most probably seals the DS as being my first choice, and then I'll get the PSP after I get enough cash. Once again, thanks for all your help!

Oh god, I had completely forgotten about Ultimate Ghosts N' Goblins. I swear we need a thread with a small list of certain games for each system that everyone should be aware of or some shit like that for all of the different consoles.

I can't keep up anymore with all of these different systems out. I put games off and then completely forget about them, man :gonk:!

Depends what sort of games you're into, and how you expect to use a portable machine. The PSP has some decent features, but for me lacks any real games (there's a couple, but really it's a couple, the rest are things you can get better versions of on other machines, like the PS2).

For my money it'd have to be a DS all the way, with a good library of games and some really great titles already out, not to mention some great ones on the way (Zelda Phantom Hourglass anyone?). I have both, but my PSP hasn't been touched in about 4/5 months, maybe longer.

is the PSP capable of GBA emulation? and how good is the PSone emulation?
I'm also debating whether to get a DS or PSP, right now I'm more inclined to buy a DS, the only thing that really makes me want to get a PSP is FF tactics and maybe portable ops, and the ability to play psone games on-the-go.

The PS1 emulation was stunning, at least when I last tried it. I don't know if further firmware updates and custom firmwares have improved or worsened compatibility, but I - as a large opposer of emulation - was deeply impressed. Converting PS1 games to working form for PSP was simple and easy (again, once you had what you needed gathered up). There were minor sound and graphical effects the PSP couldn't replicate (the blur effect you got in FF7 whenever a fight started and the consequent swish sound, for instance), but it was still amazing. Sony's own emulator and all that, but hey.

As for GBA emulation, I'm fairly sure it's capable, but I personally never got it to work. All the emulators I found at the time were crippled WIP and one that apparently was supposed to be working wasn't actually a proper program, just parts of it. The readme that came with it was too much linux speak, but I deduced I should have apparently looked up a bunch of other pieces and files they gave no info where to find, at which point I gave up and figured I'd see if some of the other projects get finished.

But since the PSP can emulate SNES, I'm sure it can do GBA decently.

Game Boy emulation on the other hand I got to work. There was one Game Boy emulator (black and white graphics and all) that did an absolutely beautiful resize of the picture, but would lose sound whenever you went to the emulator's menu (to change configuration, for instance). This was a problem, because the emulator never saved button configuration and always started with default settings. The other emulator I had did a wonderful job of emulating a bunch of consoles (GB, Famicom, NGPC), but its resize wasn't nearly as good. But it saved settings, so I ended up using that a lot instead.

I'm not reading all of the above. I'll just keep this short, since I have owned both a PSP and DS simultaneously (impossible).

The PSP is great for emulation and has a huge team working to provide different material which is all free. The problem with the PSP is that there's barely any good retail games available to purchase, or download if you're that way inclined. Which you probably are, given that owning a PSP is not worth it unless you devour yourself into emulation.

The DS (Lite)'s library of retail games is huge, and there's something for everything. It lacks RPGs, but it's still managing to dominate in sales. Emulation is rather poor, but downloading DS games and putting them on a slot-1 device is common practice these days.

If you want emulation, buy a PSP. If you want a bunch of good retail games, buy a DS.

it's not because you think you have good taste in video games that he will think that you have good taste...

Also, if you want a bunch of good retail games, buy a PSP.

Oh varying opinions. I hear the Virtual Boy can be portable and offers great graphics and a new way to experience games. Hyuk hyuk.

For the best of times buy the best software and hardware you can so you'll obviously want Elf Bowling DS (soon to be available on DVD) and Winx Club: Join the Club for PSP (also probably available on DVD) and cram it into a multi-use holographic display made in China from the future and put it in the blender set to jet-propulsion and watch the world melt into rainbows before your eyes. You'll probably be needing a time machine for some of these items so really all you need for this to all work is a cardboard box and some wicked imagination. Good luck and god speed!

Bullshit. The PSP has a few good games but that's it. In comparison to the emulation and freely available stuff that's out there, there's little point in even purchasing PSP games. The same cuts both ways for the DS, except there's little emulation.

I can think of, what, 5-10 PSP games that I'd actually play? 1-5 that I'd actually buy? In comparison to the DS, it doesn't compete. Seriously. It's doing well against the DS but the fact of the matter is this is a "PSP vs DS" thread. And the DS is winning.

1. Everybody has different taste in video games.

2. There are only 1-5 buyable games on the PSP. Other people may find a lot more than us that are buyable.

Alright, make up your mind.

The PSP is built more for a media player. The DS is built for games, but has the potential for the media, but is harder (M3 Simply, etc). I find the DS to have the AAA titles as well as a better all-around library, stylus or not.

Lix says the DS has way more games he'd buy, and I disagree with him entirely. I can't think of a single DS game I wanna play, much less buy. But then that's the type of gamer I am -- I'm not really interested in having my choice of two dozen puzzle games and brain-training games, which comprises a hefty portion of the DS's library. Not necessarily a bad thing if you're into those sorts of things. From my perspective, the DS doesn't have many games with what I'd consider "substance" -- it's mostly pick up, play for a bus ride and put down, not picking it up until you get back on the bus.

The PSP, on the other hand, has games I'd sit down for hours and play; Valkyrie Profile, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters, both of the Mega Man games, Dragonner's Aria, Brave Story, Kingdom of Paradise, Jeanne d'Arc, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, the two FF remakes (though you can get those on the GBA), Tales of the World, and (import only) Breath of Fire 3 and Tales of Eternia.

I've purchased many more games than just those listed, but the PSP is not just an emulation system. I've never used my PSP for emulation, and I've been way more than satisfied with it. To this date, I haven't seen a reason to purchase the DS. I might when/if the Dragon Quest remakes are released in the US, and probably when DQ9 gets here, but then that'd be it. 3 games versus the 14 I listed above.

Again though, this is my taste in gaming. I'm not big on casual games cuz I find them boring and lacking, but if that's what you're into, then yeah definitely get a DS -- you'll find more to purchase and you'll get more out of it. If you want games that are more comparable to console games, I'd say go for the PSP.

Edit: But really, saying that one system is built for games is....inaccurate. Both systems are built for games. If the PSP's only purpose were multimedia, then that statement would be dead-on, but it's not. It was built as a gaming device with MP3 playback, video playback, and wireless Internet access included. If it wasn't built for gaming in mind, it'd have a library like the N-Gage's.

Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Resident Evil: Deadly Silence
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Luminus Arc
Lunar Knights
Magical Starsign
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All

Just a few of the many that you can do more than just "pick up and play for a little while" games. IMO, it's a advantage that the DS has games that work with both prefferences. Remember, these ARE handheld systems. A lot of the better PSP games feel more like at home console games IMO. The PSP does have a few gems though. Personally, i've been running through these:

Brave Story
Legend of Heroes 3
Riviera
Guilty Gear: Judgement (much better than the craptacular DS GG game)
Valhalla Knights (the gameplay can be a bit slow at times, but the multiplayer is quite fun)
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth
Jeanne d' Arc
Tales of the World
Monster Hunter Freedom 2
Tekken: Dark Ressurection (I have it for PS3, but still play it during train rides)
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

All of these are excellent games IMO, but only 2 of those are really "on the go" games. Tekken, and Guilty Gear. Either way, I still have a lot of the PSP library to explore, so my opinion might change with time. As of right now though, the variety in the DS library is leaps and bounds above the PSP library IMO.

Riviera started as a GBA exclusive.

and the PSP version is superior. Your point is?

It's not a PSP original. The GBA version is better to play because Nintendo handheld games are fast pop-in and play games with insta-loading and insta-saving quests.

It's a RPG with above average amounts of dialog. There's nothing "pop-in and play" about it. I might as well carry around a PS2 with a attach on monitor and play Xenosaga on the go. I will give you the load times though.

What I mean by pop-in is just putting the cart in and turning the GBA on.... after the company name screens, you are already playing the game.

Yes, but...Most of those are RPG's and/or ports/remakes. Kind of unfair to compare against a library of "puzzle games and brain-training games", when the 2D platformers available were such a key decision for me to get a DS to begin with and most of the games are original or at least do something radically different (read: online for Puzzle League). I love RPG's, but: A) DS has them as well and fewer straight ports (though probably fewer overall) B) DS has a ready-made GBA slot, so you can readily factor in the entire GBA library. C) The amount of original RPG's on PS2 dwarfs the amounts on both systems by a considerable margin if we're not factoring in portability.

Not a fair comparison there, I thought. I think part of the DS' success has been due to casual games, but saying it's basically all "puzzle games and brain-training games" isn't even close to accurate (Nintendo has, what, 3-4 brain training games out? That's like 2% of the entire DS library!). Especially when the biggest and (IMO) only original PSP game worth owning for ages was Lumines and Sony spent most of their advertising on the system's non-gaming features (I actually can't remember a single commercial for an exclusive PSP game).

The Nintendo.com Master Game List came back with 47 results with the category "Puzzle" included, and they've missed several since they categorize as well by "Mental Training." So it's closer to 60, really.

I'm not really trying to be negative or anything, but whereas the DS does have a lot of games, considerably more than the PSP as well, that doesn't necessarily mean more of their games are better. Maybe it does for you and other DS owners, which is perfectly fine. Hell, it's fantastic, because you have a lot to choose from.

I, as a PSP owner, may not have that much to choose from, but what I do have is product I consider to be (and please don't take this the wrong way) of higher quality. I'm a much bigger fan of Metal Gear Solid than I am of Phoenix Wright, and both games are popular on their respective handhelds.

For the purpose of the thread though, I don't think I'd recommend looking at the systems to determine which one to buy. Rather, look at the game library -- I can't say that enough. Working at a GameStop, I see far, far too many people getting mad because they bought a system without knowing the games that were currently available and about to be available.

For the record, Sony had commercials for Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Jeanne d'Arc, Madden '08, Final Fantasy II, DBZ Shin Budokai, and several other Japan-only games, including Bleach: Heat the Soul.

Eh, I'd say about half of those are questionable as straight puzzle games one would normally think of (Tetris, Puzzle League, etc...) and a number of those games are pending releases. Besides, I didn't say DS didn't have plenty of puzzle games...I said they didn't have that many brain-training games (Big Brain Academy, etc).

I'm not trying to be negative either, but I don't think that was a particularly accurate take on the DS library. I actually think PSP has built a fine library...My problem is so much of it is scaled down versions of PS2 games and ports/remakes. Unless there's a ton I'm missing...I do like the RPG selection though (granted, the main game I want to play is a Japanese PC port, but that's beside the point, since Gurumin was never released here on PC!), but I have too many to play between my home systems and GBA/DS.

Awhile back I had done GBA emulation as I was nacking some Zelda titles I missed, It must have been the emulator becuase it seemed to slow down way too often; Overclocking didn't do much to help. So my GBA emulation experiance was kind of dull, The other emulators I have tried though work excellent (SNES, Genisis... Etc).

If I'm not mistaken, Riviera was originally released on the Japanese only Wonderswan handheld.
The GBA version is also a port.

In more relation to the actual topic at hand, I own a PSP and my younger brother has the DS Lite. I look at the PSP as a more of "Portable Playstation 2" as it has the console based titles i'm into and I enjoy the media capabilities. The DS seems to cater more to the portable crowd and offer many titles that are meant to be played for shorter times but can be played longer if you wish.

The PSP's main appeal for me is it's homebrew, As it is for many people. The idea of playing SNES on your PSP and even Turbo Graphics titles is a huge draw in for me; N64 Emulator is coming along nicely too, It has a lot of slow down but it's getting better. There's other various homebrew applications on the PSP that are worth noting, Such as the port of Duke Nukem 3D and Doom...

The DS' main draw for me would be it's exclusive titles, This being "New Super Mario Bros" and "Sonic Rush". I felt the systems purchase could be validated through the whole idea of getting the New Super Mario Brothers.

I guess it comes down to, Are you into the accesibility the DS offers; Don't forget it's very favourable exclusive titles. Or are you into the more console on the go feel with the great Homebrew scene surrounding PSP?

It's depressingly obvious Southjag has no actual clue what kind of games are out for DS (since he doesn't own one). And fair enough, I guess. I've no clue what's out for Vectrex and can easily claim right now I can't think of a single title on it I'd want. If you paid more attention to a console, you're bound to see how much variety the game library has.

To give more perspective, I own 14 DS games plus about 15 GBA games, 8 of the DS games I personally consider as unmissable, the rest are "great". For GBA, the numbers would be 9 unmissables. None of them are puzzle games, nor brain training. I don't even own Nintendogs.

I'm counting I have 12 PSP titles and one of them is puzzle (unless you also count Exit and Locoroco). Three of these titles I'd count as completely excellent, the kind that make the machine worth buying.

If you're going to claim "DS only has puzzles and brain training" based on finding 47 (or 60) games listed as puzzle (if you think the likes of Ultimate Mortal Kombat and Rainbow Islands count as puzzle), then using that logic one would claim "PSP only has bad games" because a good number of its titles are ports ill fit for a portable console and/or rated poorly. But the PSP has great titles and any sensible person can see that. If you've played nothing but PS2 games all your life and have never really owned a portable system, you're bound to be impressed by the system.

The other idea, to berate many DS games as the type you only play on the bus, aka on the go, is absurd. That's like complaining PS2 (another console with massive crap to classic ratio) only has games you play on the TV. A portable system is supposed to be played on the go, is it not? A game doesn't need to be short and throwaway to be fit for a portable device (or on the DS, as you seem to think). That's been the beauty of the best GBA and DS games (and PSP for that matter). They offer games with considerable depth that you play at home as well, but see no reason not to structure them to fit shorter play sessions as well.

And as a little head's up, the N-Gage was designed with games in mind. It's proof that intent alone doesn't get you far. It's also proof that your knowledge on N-Gage is limited to seeing the funny photos of sidetalking and probably having heard about its commercial flop.

My friends came up with this dilemma once.

I had advised them to google highly rated PSP or DS games. Whichever one induced more seizures was the one they should go for.

All of them ended with the DS.

Okay, that example's bound to cause furure...
SO ON THE FLIPSIDE, while the DS was geared for my then-virginic videogamer friends (excluding Warcraft and CS), I would also heartily recommend the PSP, as it is one of THE best portable multimedia devices. The MP3 is great, videos are a dream to watch
(thanks to the nice screen), and the possibilities of homebrew and hacking is fun to tinker around with. There aren't as many must-have games like Tekken 5 DR, Metal Gear, Guilty Gears, but if you're more of a hardcore gamer, you'll love PSP's library. As for me personally, I own a DS, but I can write about the PSP cause I managed to borrow my cousin's PSP while he was overseas :p. Although it was pretty cool, I wouldn't buy my own PSP until maybe very late in its life (like I did the PS2).

Initially, I hated the idea of the DS. That changed when games like Trauma Center, Phoenix Wright, Advance Wars and Mario Kart (among others) came out (though they may not be your cup of tea).

Actually, I think I might conclude with this:
-PSP: For the hardcore, more traditional games
-DS: For the less hardcare (more casual), mostly unconventional/unique games

The sad truth is that every popular game console/handheld that comes out will have at least ONE game that someone would like a lot.

In my opinion, it should come down to a calculation. Cost to fun ratio. Add up how much money you'd spend on the system plus the games and see which ratio is better. The DS might automatically seem to win (because of its lower cost), however, if you value one PSP game as very high and want it very bad, give it more "weight" in the calculation.

But theres over 1200 games for the DS. That doesn't sound like much in comparison to it's library. If you view the DS as, "oh it's just a bunch of brain training and puzzle games", you aren't looking hard enough. I went through the PSP ordeal last year, and I didn't find that many games I enjoyed. Locoroco, Taiko no Tatsujin (which is now on DS, I guess), Power Stone, DJMAX and a couple of others.

I looked quite hard too. But oh well. I just prefer the DS because of it's library. If you selectively pick out games that have certain aspects which appeal to you, you're going to enjoy them a lot. Stay away from the "brain training and puzzle games" you speak of, and you'll still find something out of the 1200+ games the DS has.

Actually, lix there's about 500+ games. If you're guessing 1200+ games from the NDS rom websites, you've forgotten that most of those games are in Jap, US and European forms. But still, 500!!!!

And to agree with the majority, yeah, you'd be a fool to say DS is only for the Edutainment games.

The DS is a very good lump of DS. I bought the old faux wood-finish version with gold trim back at the local launch. And for what? Zoo Keeper of course! Best launch game ever? Oh my no (close). Since then I've enjoyed a portable revival of adventure games, a new (NEW) Super Mario Bros. platformer, a game that lets me play as a girl who cries on flowers and burns bridges with that time of the month, a bunch of completely out of nowhere sequels to really dead Taito games, an onrine Marieo Cart, the best handheld pinball game since Revenge of The Gator, at least ten BILLION other enjoyable puzzle games that have actually managed to burn me out on the whole bloody genre (for a while, at least) as well as things that just wouldn't be what they are without the whole touch touch gimmick kiddy thing (EBA/Ouendan LOVE Q Edition, Cooking Mama, Kirby Canvas Curse, extremely long sentences).

Pick past the God awful virtual pet games and you're sure to find lots of STUFF. To me, the DS is the true portable PS2. You know, if PS2 had Sega Saturn graphics. Admittidly, I don't have much experience with the PSP (perhaps Nintendo should release a PSP Training non-game), I've borrowed my mates a number of times though his choice of games does nothing for me (wrestling, basketball, Metal Gear Yu-Gi-Oh) but I like what I see in the library its built up over the years! I even have a stack of games sitting around in my room for it, waiting for the launch of the slim unit next month. I mean even Sega's been making good games for the system, so there's gotta be something magical happening there! At a time when I'm arsing around on public transport more and more, the whole being able to watch videos on it sounds really appealing too. I don't know if it's annoying to convert them but probably, anything that involves computers is. Oh and they may have cancelled the Earthworm Jim remake, but emulation means I'll be able to play the original anywhere! : DOPEY_LOVESMILEYCOMEBACK :

I'm not going to pick one for you, because I'm just wasting a bit of time here typing about me. Me me me! This isn't 1991 though, where the options were Game Boy vs two absolute failures. I reckon you'll be pretty pleased with either system! Have a fun, enjoy!

I think what Infernal's really trying to say is "Buy an Atari Lynx instead".

Oops. Well, considering international releases are excluded, I'd say it's more around 700. Either way it's still a lot of games for a console which has only been out since 2004, which is 3 years. I don't even think the PS2 had that many that fast.

Well it's still the only handheld with a good version of Klax.. :tpg:

I've got both and I use both for different things. I've probably got a few more games for DS but until I bought pokemon, I'd clocked way more hours on the PSP. My personal experience is that PSP games are generally longer and more involving (The GTA games, I replayed BoF 3, Pro-Evo, Wipeout Pure and the mighty Lumines games) whereas DS games you tend to play for 10 minutes then get bored then play 10 minutes another time and get bored again.

Being in Europe, the number of titles available is significantly less and not being overly bothered about Jap rpgs, the DS library as I see it is a bunch of slightly gimicy, short games. Kirby's Power Paintbrush is pretty good, Warioware is fun for an hour or so, I've always hated Mario games, Bomberman is alright I guess, Trauma Centre gets too hard to fast for me to bother learning how to beat it and Nintendogs did an amazing job for several months of keeping my girlfriend quiet while I was playing Halo 2.

But ultimately, they're both worth owning I'd say.

But...I never said it only has puzzle and brain-training games. I said it comprised a good portion of the DS's library, both currently available and coming soon, but I didn't say only. Saying that would, indeed, make it look like I have no idea what kind of games are available on the DS. So, I agree with you there.

If it came off like I said that, my bad. Not what I meant.

Fair enough. I guess it came off that way because you presented it as "DS mostly has puzzle and brain training games and I have no interest in those" and at the same emphasizing the DS has no games that interest you whatsoever.

Which even outside the "not all DS games are puzzle" thing is still a strange claim since the DS has about as many (quality) RPGs available to it as the PSP, especially if GBA titles are counted. If anyone wants to go back to comparing numbers, that is.

There's another handheld with Klax on it? News to me. :plant:

GBA has Klax. =I

You can import the games as the DS is region-free.

So is the PSP. I think he meant the same game is therefore counted three times, wrongly increasing the number.

But a GBA is not an Atari Lynx.

Also yeah, the number is increased if there's a release of a game in Japan, America then/or Europe. So there's a portion of them that are actually the same game, just released elsewhere. Either because the language has been changed, or it's been released somewhere else by another publisher (lol Korean Mario Kart DS didn't come out until earlier this year) or it's in Multi5 for Europe.

Game Boy had Klax, but that was a stink factory decision because Klax is all about colour! Not this rainy day nonsense! You never knew what was going on! Game Gear had Klax, but it looked like a groin rash and played like one too! Game Boy Color had Klax, but it was slow, and flickered like Jimmy jump kicking a goon in the NES Double Dragon! It also lacked the crucial voice samples! Game Boy Advance had Klax, but you have to suffer the pain of having it share a cartridge with the worst Marble Madness ever. That's depressing! For society! PSP had Klax (via Midway Arcade Treasures), but it had C64 style loading times and by the time that's done it may or may not be the 90's anymore, meaning a crisis! A crisis for Klax!

:infernalisveryseriousbusinessaboutklaxdon'tmess: