Last Sunday saw the release of the highly anticipated Playstation Portable (PSP) handheld games console in Japan. This being an obvious, if not somewhat arrogant attempt by Sony to usurp Nintendo's monopolising stranglehold on the handheld gaming market.
Now most who know me know that I'm a Nintendo fanboy all the way - sure I own/have access to other gaming consoles (PS2 / Xbox / Dreamcast) but I grew up with the Nintendo name which to me has always stood Synonymous with quality, excitement and fun. Attributes which console gaming used to be about before it turned dark, too adult and lost its innocence.
I shed a tear when I look back at the good old days when everyone owned a SNES and Nintendo stood king of the hill in terms of their market dominance.
How those days have changed! - These days its seems the Playstation2 reigns supreme, and Nintendo's reputation has been relegated to ridicule because of its wholesome, family (or kiddie as some Sony fanboys call it) orientated image.
It seems that the mainstream gamer is no longer interested in Nintendo's innovative and exciting franchises but would rather have endless upon unless redundant sequels to a wealth of mediocre Playstation simply because they are 'more adult'.
Gone is the dominance of innocence and charm from the Nintendo era. These days a good game is considered one not where you join in simultaneously with three other pals, but play alone gunning down prostitutes (only after you sleep with them of course).
To me, the fantasy and purity of gaming as reminisced in nostalgic films such as The Wizard has been completely tarnished, largely thanks to Sony's Playstation.
Regardless of the current status of the full-format console scene, Nintendo continued to rule in one area - an area where up until Sunday they held near 100% of market share - that being the Handheld market, namely with its variation of Gameboy products.
It is on this platform where the innocence of gaming continued to flourish - where men/boys need not feel insecure about controlling Italian Plumbers, or Cartoon Hedgehogs - where sex death and violence do not dominate.
Nintendo (in Japan and the US) released the latest in their handheld line, the DS - a dual touch-screen, voice recognition, wifi enabled device that was to sit alongside the GBA and Gamecube as a third range device. But then Sony go and release the PSP!
To be perfectly honest with you, i'm in two minds about the PSP.
While Nintendo aimed to revolutionise the way we control games with the DS, Sony aimed to create a powerhouse. And a powerhouse the PSP certainly is - its screen is much larger and wider than the DS screen, graphics sharper (on par with PS2 while DS is on par with N64) and colours more vibrant. More over it serves as a multimedia device that views Jpeg photos, plays MP3s and Movies on a Mini-DVD based prepriority format. Sony describe it as the "Walkman of the 21st Century" and its hard NOT to be impressed with its specs - as a Techie, one half my mind is certainly intrigued....
...then again the other half of me hates the damn thing and wants it to fail. I mean the whole device smacks of arrogance. The Gameboy has (over the years) seen-off the (Then) more powerful Atari Lynx, Sega Gamegear, PC Engine GT, Neo Geo Pocket Colour and Bandai Wonderswan. What makes Sony think they can come along with a mere powerhouse (without a thought to revitalising any aspect of gaming) and steal Nintendo' s near 15 year market with such ease while also stealing thunder from Apple iPods, PDAs and Portable DVD Players??
Unfortunately this isn't as unfeasible as it seems - there are many gamers out there who highly anticipate the PSP simply because of its Playstation branding. Forget about the fact that it has a pathetic 2 hour battery life, the discs skip/jog and freeze the machine and that you are forced to spend at least £30 (min) on a Sony memory stick for the privilege of saving a game!
Nope - these Sony fanboys now represent the mass market, the mainstream and in a worse case scenario this thing could overtake the Gameboy - that is if Nintendo follow past mistakes and don't play their cards right.
I urge you all, if you care about gaming at all, to give the DS a chance - once again the ever-innovative Nintendo (which 90% of the industry's evolution is attributed to) have gone all out to envision and creative something that will revolutionise the way we interact with games. It is a so much more carefully thought out device than the PSP, which ultimately is nothing more than a beefed up GBA. The industry needs vitality - but if Nintendo by some miracle are bullied out of their handheld market-share you can pretty much bet they will do a Sega and pull out of the hardware race.
And that, my friends would truly be the day true gaming innovation, or more importantly INNOCENCE will whither away and die due to the Playstation's dull mainstream sterility.
and if that day comes (which it probably wont), I will never play video games again.
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