by Aaron Stanton

Games:

The PSP and the Nintendo DS will both have great games, each with their fair share of exclusive titles. The DS will have Zelda, already has Mario, and the PSP will tout Sony exclusives. Though I’m cheering for the touch screen capacity of the DS (see below), only time will tell which system wins out in the software war. There is, however, a huge advantage that goes to the Nintendo DS: backwards compatibility. With the PS2 and the GameCube, the home consoles, Sony’s system has hundreds of more titles than the GameCube when you include both PS and PS2 games. In the handheld market, though, Nintendo has the situation reversed. The Nintendo DS is capable of playing Gameboy Advance games, which are about as good in terms of graphics as the old Super Nintendo game system. At this moment, two months after launch, this gives the DS around 800 announced titles, 63 of them designed from the ground up for the DS, compared to the PSP’s 75. These titles include classic games that are amazingly addictive, with games like Zelda: A Link to the Past, Four Swords, and Minish Cap. Not only is Mario 64 available for the DS, but you can also play versions of Super Mario World, Mario Brothers 2, and Mario Brothers 3. There are tons of good games that can be picked up for cheap, and they’re all available right now, off the shelves, for the Nintendo DS. It’s an advantage that simply can’t be ignored.

Features Unique to Either System:

Here is where the direct comparison has to end. There are certain features that the Nintendo DS has that the PSP simply does not, and vice-versa. There are things that the PSP is designed to do that the DS never will. It a lot of ways, these features here are the deciding factors between the systems.

• DS: While graphically the weaker of the two systems, the Nintendo DS is still an excellent gaming system, and not just in a “when considered by itself” sort of way, either. Even when compared directly to the PSP, the DS is able to come away the winner on some very key points. Primarily, this has to do with its interface, meaning the touch screen and the microphone. Both have very real, concrete applications that make the DS a powerful system for games, and I’m not just talking about being able to “touch” Wario. There are certain genres on the PC that have been traditionally poor performers on any console unit, home or portable. Mainly, I’m thinking about Real Time Strategy games. These include StarCraft, WarCraft, and Command & Conquer games, among others. While many of these appeared on older consoles like the N64 and the Playstation, they’ve failed because console controls have been incapable of translating the PC experience into something that’s fun in the living room. Until now. The DS’s touch screen opens up genres that have been traditionally too complicated for use on a console controller. Selecting units, telling them where to go and how to behave has been too difficult without the ability to just point-and-click. Now, for the first time on a console, the DS has an interface capable of handling such things. Imagine playing StarCraft against your friend over the wireless DS network. It’s a genre that simply can’t be captured as well on the PSP.
  
  Additionally, the touch screen gives the DS near PDA abilities. Just recently, Nintendo licensed the Palm operating system, raising the possibility of word processors that run on the DS, email programs, and Internet browsing software, which would be great if combined with a keyboard of some sort. While the touch screen sounds sort of gimmicky upon first hearing of it, there are really exciting possibilities that are just waiting to be developed.
  
  Another feature is the microphone, which is built into the unit, including a plug-in for some sort of headset, maybe similar to a cell phone headset. Possibilities have been raised that the DS might be able to serve as some sort of an Internet phone, or be able to offer in-game chat features. When you consider how significant some of those applications may be, and suddenly the PSP’s, “I look really good” doesn’t sound nearly as hot as it did.
  
  
• PSP: While Nintendo is focusing on expanding the capabilities of handheld game systems, Sony is focusing on providing the user with a portable media center. Unlike the DS, the Playstation Portable uses a proprietary memory stick to store data in addition to the UMDs, which aren’t writeable. MemoryStick Duo cards come in sizes up to about 1 gigabyte, and can store everything from mp3s to movies. Because the format is one that is used by computers as well, the discs can be plugged into a personal computer, loaded up with music, or mpeg4 video, and then returned to the PSP for playback. This means that the PSP is not only a portable game device, but also a portable media center that plays music and lets you watch movies on the go. It can serve the function of mp3 player, game device, or child-distracter on long trips.