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Nintendo Gives No Ground In Handheld Wars

Posted by Zonk on from the headshot! dept.

TomO wrote to mention a news item on the site Pro-G reporting on a general consumer confidence in the DS, greater than that of the PSP. From the article: "Wavemetrix, a company that specialises in working out what customers think of products, has released a new report on the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP. The report, rather shockingly, reveals that the 'DS is better than the PSP in every important area.' This includes games, quality, screen and value." Relatedly a Gamespy article states: "Few could have imagined it, but the DS is becoming the most significant new console in Japan since the PS2. What started as a rumbling -- with great novelty games such as Wario and XX/YY -- has recently turned into a full-scale dual-screen uprising led by Electroplankton and Nintendogs."

3 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Factual error by News+for+nerds · · Score: 0, Troll

    Electroplankton was a straight flop, actually.

  2. Re:Study: -1 Troll by austad · · Score: 0, Troll

    I've owned one of each. I got rid of the DS after a week. The games for it were only so-so, it felt like a cheap piece of crap, and I didn't particularly like the screen or controls.

    Personally, I think the PSP beats the DS on all counts. The DS seems like it's targetted more towards children, so if the results of that survey came from kids, I can see why they found what they did.

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  3. DS vs PSP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    DS advantages:

    1. Much longer battery life
    2. No lags in games (cartridge based vs disc based games)
    3. Smaller, lighter, more robust (clamshell design)
    4. $100 cheaper, games are cheaper (DS + 3-4 AAA games = PSP alone)
    5. GBA compatibility (translates to hundreds of games)
    6. Dead pixels problem not that prominent
    7. Touch screen gives a new dimension to games
    8. Insanely addictive games
    9. Great visual chat embedded for free (PictoChat)
    10. Flawless wireless play
    11. Excellent sleep mode (pause in any game): just close the machine
    12. Games are on virtually undestroyable tiny cartridges (PSP game discs require careful handling)

    PSP advantages:

    1. Bigger screen
    2. Can play movies in UMD format
    3. Can play music

    Basically, PSP is a convergence unit and DS is a gaming unit.

    Majority of current PSP games are just ports from PS2 and are not designed for portable play. Majority of current DS games are more "play as you go" games specifically designed to take advantage of special DS features and to be playable anytime and anywhere in small chunks of time.