Awhile ago I posted that I sensed the demise of the Nintendo LameBoy monopoly. Well, I may be exagerrating since I do believe Nintendo has staying power and may be able to step up to the plate. The Sony PSP however is one serious gaming machine. Here's my PSP story:
The day before the PSP was to be released, I had to run into Fred Meyer (for those that don't know, it's one of those time sucking stores that has everything you need...time sucking in the sense that you walk in and leave in 5 minutes but it's really been 5 hours). As I always do when I go into Fred Meyer, I visit the electronics section just to see what they have. Honestly, I already know what they have since I follow tech news 24/7 but I need to fill the gas tank up occasionally with blinking lights, rows of console and PC games, and the occasional console game they have on display. I noticed a sign that said that they will be receiving 30 PSP's and will start selling them at 7:00 the next day. I made a mental note to try this place first.
The next day, I dropped my kid off at school at 7:30. Normally I head to the gym at this time, but today I had to floor it and drive to the Fred Meyer in Redmond, WA which was about 20 minutes away (uggh, traffic). I head into Fred Meyer and see 1 customer at the counter buying a PSP. It's my turn so I ask if they have anymore and the guy said they had plenty left. It was then I just wanted to laugh at all the poor suckers standing in long lines at places like Best Buy or EBGames or GameStop. My total wait time was less than a minute.
So I got my PSP and 2 games, Metal Gear Acid and Twisted Metal Head-On. I go to work, put in the SpiderMan 2 movie that came in the PSP box, turned it on and my jaw hit the ground. Oh my freakin word, this thing is a beautiful (a co-worker of mine called it a work of art when he saw me demo it to him). The picture on this thing is nothing less than amazing. Some people complain that $250 is too much. Well, those same people have no problem plunking down way more than that for an iPod that just plays music. The PSP plays music, plays movies, plays games and has a built in WiFi connection. $250 too much? Heck no!
So, here I am almost a week later. I am still glued to the PSP. In my opinion, it's a big leap in mobile gaming technology (way more so than the mediocre DS). A couple of days after buying my PSP, I also purchased a new game called Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade (I'm an RPG nut). So, what do I think of the games. Here's my quick synopsis:
1. Metal Gear Acid: What a fantastic game. It will turn some people off if they go into it thinking it's another Metal Gear game (which it is). It doesn't play the same. Instead, it uses a trading card type of interface. Having played several of those type of games (remember Etherlords?), I felt right at home. This game is quite awesome and a very good launch title.
2. Twisted Metal Head-On: I put this one in when I demo the PSP for other people. It's fast paced, has awesome graphics, is easy to figure out and is just plain fun. I will admit that it does get a little boring since there's not much more to do than drive around shooting down other vehicles, but it's great for those quick 10 minute game fixes your body craves. One very cool thing about this game though is that it's the only one that I know of right now that supports Infrastructure mode. On the PSP there are 2 types of wireless gaming connection types. Ad-hoc lets you play wirelessly with someone in the same room as you. Infrastructure lets you play with anyone on the Internet (as long as you have a wireless Access Point to connect to). However, the only thing I've done is connect to the Internet and check out the game lobby (where 93 people were playing). I haven't played an Internet game yet.
3. Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade: This too is a cool game although GameSpot only gave it a 6.9 rating. It's a lot like Baldur's Gate or Diablo, the graphics are top notch and it's also good if you need a quick 10 minute game fix. It's not an in depth RPG but then it's not supposed to be. It's an Action RPG and what it does, it does well. I recommend this one to any RPG fans.
So there's my synopsis. It's been a successful launch. There are reports of many people that have dead pixels on their PSP screens, but I must be one of the lucky ones. I don't have any dead pixels. I was worried about battery life too until I played it. With full brightness turned on and the wifi connection turned off, I can play on the PSP for about 4.5 - 5 hours on a single battery. That's longer than my average plane trip so I'm happy. If I add another battery, it is more than enough.
Thoughts?