Resentment towards handheld gaming devices

[Emperor Megas]

Plus some adults may want to avoid the stigma of playing a "child's toy" in public. (Your mileage may vary with that depending on what handheld you're playing, how old you are/look, and what your gender is. I feel more judged as an adult female gamer since I'm seen as more of an oddity than an adult male gamer.)

Damn, you know I never even considered that people (outside of Japan) were actually insecure about playing hand held games.

If anything I figured the opposite. I can't imagine anyone being insecure about playing Mario Kart 7 or Angry Birds within eye shot. We Cheer or Just Dance however...

[treismac]

I don't understand why anyone would've played one of these things as a kid in a car. You have a whole world of interesting things going by outside your window, why would you have ever kept your head stuck to the screens of a handheld instead of the show going on outside the car windows?

You have evidently never rode on the straight shoot of asphalt that is I-16 for hours upon hours as hordes of identical pine trees stare at you dully from the side of the interstate. It is one continuous loop apart from the changing signs. On a long car trip up to Atlanta in the back seat of my parents' car when I was a kid, believe me, I had no complaints about the GameBoy back then. None.

[Gameguy]

There needs to be a portable version of Desert Bus made for roadtrips.

[Leo_A]

You have evidently never rode on the straight shoot of asphalt that is I-16 for hours upon hours as hordes of identical pine trees stare at you dully from the side of the interstate. It is one continuous loop apart from the changing signs.

I'll grant you that I've never routinely done hours upon hours of interstate travel, just for that very reason.

[Aussie2B]

Damn, you know I never even considered that people (outside of Japan) were actually insecure about playing hand held games.

Well, I wouldn't say I'm insecure myself, more like I just don't want to invite commentary and funny looks from stupid people. Plus, there's also the opposite problem for women. There are a lot of creepy nerds out there, and they'll act like they hit the lottery to find an adult woman playing a handheld. They see it as the perfect opening for their feeble attempts at hitting on me.

But, regardless, I do still play handhelds in public from time to time, especially on flights.

[Emperor Megas]

Well, I wouldn't say I'm insecure myself, more like I just don't want to invite commentary and funny looks from stupid people. Plus, there's also the opposite problem for women. There are a lot of creepy nerds out there, and they'll act like they hit the lottery to find an adult woman playing a handheld. They see it as the perfect opening for their feeble attempts at hitting on me.

But, regardless, I do still play handhelds in public from time to time, especially on flights.

I can see how that would be annoying, but is it really worse when you're in public and aren't playing a hand held? I'd imagine the only thing that would change would be the type of guy hitting on you.

I mean if I were a girl I'd probably be a little more tolerant of socially awkward geek boy than greasy Gino, sleazy 'Carl' guy, amped up MMA fan, etc..

[Emperor Megas]

I don't understand why anyone would've played one of these things as a kid in a car. You have a whole world of interesting things going by outside your window, why would you have ever kept your head stuck to the screens of a handheld instead of the show going on outside the car windows?

Wow, I didn't see this comment before. Honestly, I don't understand how it's possible that you don't understand why a child would want to blow shit up, eat dots and ghosts, arrange colourful puzzle pieces, slay dragons, beat people up, etc., than see cars go in a straight line at various speeds (maybe), or watch the 100th building or 54 thousandth tree go by much the same as the last before it.

The world is an interesting place, however the interstate or inner city by car isn't the best way to experience it.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

"Small" is a style. Small systems, small games, etc. There are a lot of people who enjoy these things. Just like the people who enjoy small restaurants, small theaters, small cars, small houses. There's a coziness to it.

Maybe handheld gamers don't enjoy having their eyes burned out of their head by a 45" TV. Maybe they don't want to spend time in the living room where 50% of their time is already spent watching TV. Maybe they just want to retire to a quiet corner of the house, pop in a tiny cartridge, and kick back and relax.

Besides, does an already oversaturated gaming market really need to start bringing over portable games? Aren't there already about 20,000 games out there to play on the consoles? Is there a genre that's not sufficiently covered? Is there really something missing? It doesn't seem like it.

It's two gaming worlds: one handheld and one made of consoles. Keep them separate. Don't port the large games over to the handhelds, and don't port handheld games to the consoles. Sometimes letting two things develop in their own separate ways is a good thing to do.

[treismac]

The world is an interesting place, however the interstate or inner city by car isn't the best way to experience it.

Yeah... there were scenic country roads my parents could have taken to our vacation destinations, but they took the more bland, direct route every time.

[jammajup]

I have never really been interested in the hand helds to be honest as i like to play games on a large screen and even though i love gaming i have no interest in gaming on the move,on holiday or on public transport (never a good idea in my opinion).I have played a DS of course and was quite impressed by its power,its a good system but i do not think there is any game i have not seen before or better than a tv system.

[Leo_A]

Wow, I didn't see this comment before. Honestly, I don't understand how it's possible that you don't understand why a child would want to blow shit up, eat dots and ghosts, arrange colourful puzzle pieces, slay dragons, beat people up, etc., than see cars go in a straight line at various speeds (maybe), or watch the 100th building or 54 thousandth tree go by much the same as the last before it.

The world is an interesting place, however the interstate or inner city by car isn't the best way to experience it.

See post #44. I grew up in rural NY and we rarely used interstates.

[Rickstilwell1]

You know how I said before I've been recording all my game footage? Recording the footage from handhelds takes a lot of extra work but the videos are cool and unusual when they are mixed with perfect line-out audio rather than the camera audio. DS footage is hard to do but worth it, while PSP footage is made easier with the component cables. Almost anything older than those two can be played on a modded Xbox or in the case of the Game Boy line had a way to be displayed on TV.

[Emperor Megas]

See post #44. I grew up in rural NY and we rarely used interstates.

I get that, I just don't understand how you "don't understand" why a(nother) kid would rather play video games than look at boring shit out the window.

[Rickstilwell1]

Here we go. Check out this method of recording Nintendo DS videos. Synchronized! And the lighting didn't turn out too bad either. Here's some Mario Kart DS footage. Try full screen mode to see it more easily:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-asweSo588

[old man]

I'm glad that so many great games are coming out for hand-helds, but I agree with the OP in that I would prefer to play them on a big screen.

[jb143]

How close do you people usually sit to your TV when you play games? Try this experiment. Sit where you usually sit to play games on a TV. Take a handheld and hold it at the normal distance you would to play it, but have its screen appear next to the TV screen. Compare the 2 relative sizes from your point of view. Now tell me that hand held screens are really that much smaller. It's all relative...unless you sit as close to your TV as you hold a handheld that is.

[djshok]

I don't really have anything against handhelds, but I do find that my gaming performance is a lot better on a big screen than on a handheld when I play the same games. Ie: the GBA Mario rereleases or the Sonic games that are available for both SMS and GG. I always do a lot better when playing on a TV.

[kedawa]

To be honest, I'm more likely to ditch console gaming than I am to stop playing my GB micro. My PC doesn't fit in my pocket, after all.

I'm not a fan of the 3DS or PS Vita because of their pathetic batteries and large size, but there are some interesting handhelds coming out of China these days, and I'm tempted to pick up a Dingoo or something like it for portable emulation.

[The Dord]

I wish metroid fusion was a proper console game.

I've played it on the GBA and I know it's on the Virtual Console, but this would've been a great gamecube retro game or a hacked rom so it could fit the proper resoultion of a snes and become reprocarted for the snes.

[Pedro Lambrini]

I wish metroid fusion was a proper console game.

I've played it on the GBA and I know it's on the Virtual Console, but this would've been a great gamecube retro game or a hacked rom so it could fit the proper resoultion of a snes and become reprocarted for the snes.

I know it's easier (and cheaper!) said than done but you should try to get hold of a GBA Player and 'Cube. You can play Fusion and Zero Mission on the big screen as well as all the other GBA classics out there (Ninja Cop, Mario Super Circuit, F-Zero MV blah, blah, blah).

To me, a GBA SP and a GBA Player is pretty much the perfect set up. I can play my games on the big screen through my stereo and then take them on the road too.

If you can get an older 'Cube and a component cable the GBA games look unbelievably good in a chunky pixelly kinda way.