Reasons to own a PSP, and there's 60 of 'em [Joystiq]

[DP ServBot]

Filed under: Culture, Sony PSP

Sony's PlayStation Portable holds a very odd little spot in gaming currently. It's not a failure in the portable market but, putting it next to the Nintendo DS, it just isn't as successful as it could have been. The PSP had a slow start, just like another recent Sony console, but if you picked up a PSP now, there's a pretty solid group of games. Not to mention that it's got some games in the pipeline, including the drool-worthy God of War: Chains of Olympus.

Our chums over at PSPFanboy have started putting together 60 reasons to own a PSP. They got the first part up now, which includes five reasons to own it ... hopefully there will be another 11 parts. The first five reasons PSPFanboy gave to own a PSP, with a quick quote from them for each reason, are:

• Games: "The library features some real gems, such as Lumines, Wipeout, Grand Theft Auto, and Tekken: Dark Resurrection ... a quick look down the horizon reveals a plethora of Final Fantasy titles, a new God of War, Syphon Filter, Castlevania, Silent Hill, and more."
• PSone classics: "The advent of the PSP Store later this year, we're confident that even more great games are going to come out."
• Downloadable demos: "Who doesn't like playing games ... especially when they're free?"
• Great homebrew games: "Upcoming titles like No Gravity show an unstoppable momentum for this underground movement."
• Play Flash games on the go: "Love a Flash game on the web? The PSP can play that as well. In fact, some developers have even created Flash games specifically for PSP's widescreen."

So, we're looking forward to the next 55 reasons. Clearly many people are not convinced, but the PSP is beginning to fulfill its potential. It's just the sad state of things that Sony is getting into the habit of manufacturing potential products. We want our systems good, and we want them good immediately or, at least, as soon as possible. Oh well, still much love for the PS2 -- that thing rocks!

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[Overbite]

I can think of some more.

61. It has a Triangle button
62. It has a Square button
63. It has a O button
64. It has a X button
65. You can use these buttons to make your character
66. or car
67. or whatever do things
68. The PSP can also make sounds
69. Or you can turn the volume down and it wont

[geneshifter]

As someone that finally bought a PS2 in 2006 only for Guitar Hero, I'm loving the PSP. I can see where it could be boring to a real PS2 buff but I think the games are great. The problem is the price of these games. I always wait for a used copy or for a sale like the one going on now. I also love my NeoGeoCDZ emulator so I can play Ironclad, Pulstar and Metal Slug on the go with that big beautiful screen

[Hawksmoor]

I too am loving my PSP. I'm also honestly surprised at the number of people I see online that seem to have a real zeal for bashing the system (like Overbite). If it was justified by a lack of good games or shoddy design or constant malfunctions I could somewhat understand, but it doesn't have any of those problems.

Some may claim it lacks enough quality titles, but I really don't agree. I also enjoy my DS and GP2X, but there's no doubt in my view that the PSP can more than hold its own. I love games like Powerstone Collection, Tekken, Exit, Every Extend Extra, Burnout Revenge, Star Wars Battlefront 2, Virtua Tennis, Hot Shots Golf, and the recently released CRUSH, which is amazing.

Add emulation, music, web browsing, camera capability, GPS cabability and you've got a really versatile machine.

[petewhitley]

It's just such a stale, cliched, and irrelevent (at this point) argument. The PSP is a killer system, with a solid library of titles for almost all gaming tastes. If you're serious about handheld gaming, you have one or will get one. It's been successful enough to warrant a follow-up (i.e. "PSP 2" is pretty much a lock at this point), so you idiot trolls can get used to it as a platform.

[Darren870]

[mailman187666]

where can i go to play flash games on my psp? I tried going to newgrounds.com to play some Alien Hominid on he PSP but it always says memory low whenever I pretty much do anything online with it.

[studvicious]

^^ that was a funny comic. I'm looking forward to the redesign - and if it comes in white, I'm sold.

[Chris]

Loading times in any form on a portable system are a very, very bad idea and the digital stick is just a joke and ruins the emulation goodness, so there's no way I'd buy a PSP atm, regardless of how many reasons there might be to get one.

[Damaniel]

The PSP has some great games, and I've spent a lot of time playing mine. The biggest issue I've had is the insanely slow load times of some games (Dungeon Siege comes to mind), but the unofficial firmware releases out there have allowed me to run my games from the memory stick, which improves performance a lot. In fact, I hope that the rumors about extra flash in the next iteration of the PSP hardware are true -- having an 'official' way to run games without constantly streaming from the UMD will hopefully help the PSP's reputation improve.

[Overbite]

people I see online that seem to have a real zeal for bashing the system (like Overbite).

im not bashing the psp, im bashing the dumb list that picks out tiny things to call "features"