Official PSP Thread!

[Jasoco]

Apparently it's regional. My store (Kmart) sold them all out in a few days. People still ask for them. While other Kmarts still have a dozen or so. Same with [Insert any other Kmart-like store here].

[stevec1636]

Seriously, how the hell do you walk into a store and plop down $300 on something that has a good chance of being defective? What's going on, people? Did Sony drug your Pepsi or something?

wow, a couple dead pixels, boo hoo. I bought a 1500.00 laptop from Dell that has a couple dead pixels. I'm sorry but a few TEENY TINY dots on your screen that you can't even NOTICE without a black screen in near complete darkness is nothing to deter you from buying a system. And it doesn't make it defective, it makes it a normal LCD based product.

and double

amen brother. mine has 2 dead pixels and i don't care!!

[Slate]

I FINALLY was able to Play a PSP for a few minutes. Ditto all those who say it is Shiny, And Yes, the graphics are Better than DS.. And Ditto the dead pixels are VERY hard to notice!

Yes, it is a great machine. But not worth $250 to me. (Few of the launch titles interest me) I can wait for the price to go down..

If you can not decode my message, Here it is in short:

I want one.

Edit:

It is VERY hard to wait when you are wondering When will i get this!!

[Slipdeath]

So you can spin the first-week sales figures into a loss for Sony (selling through not quite two-thirds of its initial ship, despite gobs of hype) or a win for Sony (selling as many first-week units as the DS, despite a $100-higher price point and a launch in the slowest period of the videogame year).

I wonder how Sony really sees it -- according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (The real paper), Sony expected to sell out of all one million shipped units at launch. While selling through somewhere between 475,000 and 575,000 units is one of the four best launches ever (what does beat it? Anyone have these numbers?), since Sony seems to have set their own bar at success = 100% sell out, even though I would call this a huge success in any other context, Sony's own comments make me wonder if it is or not.

It also seems safe to assume that more PSPs were returned or exchanged due to dead-pixel issues than DSes, although I don't know how that affects sell-through and sell-in numbers.

I would assume that it wouldn't affect sell-through rate, but would affect consoles-shipped. Sony doesn't have to claim that they got 2,000 or 200,000 back for defects, and the more they can claim to have sent to stores, the better it looks for their analysts and stock holders.

The article says that those numbers are the PSPs sold up to that date, not at launch.

[Jasoco]

The UMD Movies come out on Tuesday. We got a few of them in my store. I can't wait to see how badly they sell.

Okay. I finally got Mercury the other night.

I called the GameStop in Montgomeryville to see if they had it, it's further away from me than the other GS, but I wanted to get my $5 pre-order for D3 back and was hoping for some Taco Bell (The only one in the area, 12 miles away. Also the closest KFC now that they closed the one in town. Mother F***..) but the guy said "No, we're out. it's getting hard to find.."

So I called the closer GameStop. They had it. Drove up and it was the last one. I was wary of buying it because it's the last one.. which of course means "Open copy". I should have turned it down, but it's not that bad.

So I brought it home.. let's see..

Loading: Loading times are pretty long. The initial boot one is really long while the stages are maybe 10 seconds. Not really a turn-off though. Once you get past the first load it's fine.

Saving: No auto save. You have to manually save your game, AND manually load it when you start up. Why?

These two are minor annoyances.

The game is pretty teriffic. Mostly...

Controls: Sometimes it's very difficult to use that stupid analog disc. I can't go straight in any direction other than Up. So I have to rotate the field in many narrow levels. This is a gripe with Sony. Out of the 4 games I have, two require you to use that POS disc. Why I can't have an option to SWITCH THE STICK AND D-PAD is beyond me. The A, B, X and Y.. I mean Square, Circle, Star and Octagon or whatever buttons control the camera. You can snap to 90º, 45º or free. And tilt up or down. The D-Pad focuses the camera on the individual parts of Mercury if you have to.

Camera: Who woulda thought? Camera problems in a puzzle game. Only on certain levels though. Only the levels that are built upwards rather than just being flat have problems that make you have to adjust the camera sometimes. So far I've encountered only two levels that have this problem. i.e. only two levels so far are built upwards rather than flat. So it's not a biggie.

Graphics: The videos aren't impressive. They seem to be low-budget 3D tools. But when you get into the levels, the graphics are amazing. Really nice. The mercury is shiny. Comes in 6 colors and silver. The levels are detailed. But the text looks like someone had fun with the Photoshop layer effects. No antialiasing around the letters and numbers. Just a minor annoyance.

Sound: Nice music. Sounds. The Mercury makes sounds when needed. Namely when a piece falls off. The music is no match for Lumines though.

Level design: Amazingly easy at first. Amazingly increasing in difficulty. Not impossible, but it does take a few tries for many of them. But that's what a puzzle game's all about, isn't it? I am two levels short of halfway through the regular campaign. Apparently there are hidden levels if you accomplish the IMPOSSIBLE TASK of getting the #1 hi-score in every level of a world. There are 12 levels each world. And apparently 6 worlds.

Enemies/Hazards: There is one main enemy, and he is enough. The Mercoids. They eat your mercury. Avoid them. It's sometimes hard, but fortunately not every level requires all of your blob to make it to the end. Most only require 1% of the initial blob to make it. But of course, you get higher scores if you have more left. There is one main hazard. A Jacob's Ladder. It will zap you if you get close. For each zap you lose some mercury. They aren't too plentiful though thankfully.. at least not yet. Other than them, there's also the pain of falling off the sides.

Was it worth $40? Not sure yet, but it is fun. Would rather it had been a $30 or $20 budget. Puzzle games like this are really more suited to being budget titles. Still, it should give me some replayability.

Will it replace Lumines? Nope. Sadly. I don't think anything will come out soon that can replace Lumines in terms of addictability. We'll find out when "Smart Bomb" comes out next month and later down the road Puzzle Bobble and Puyo Pop.

Any questions?

[geelw]

...there are a bunch of bonus courses and goodies in mercury which make the game a better value. i was tempted to use the code that came with my review copy, but i made sure to lose that sheet of paper (after bgetting archer's e-mail addy off it- i need to bug him about something i asked him about last year, lol).

granted, you need to get really good at the game to unlock all the goodies, but hell, what's the fun of a puzzle game if you get to the end in a day or two? i'm having less control issues, but the camera is a bit too far out on some maps. personally, i'd hate to control this with anything other than an analog stick.

g.

[Jasoco]

Must. Have. Code..

There is no way I will ever be able to get the high scroe on every stage. No freaking way. I MUST HAVE THE CODE!!

Also, I hope I'm not mistaken, but it looks like Smart Bomb is coming out on Tuesday instead of next month? Am I wrong here? I thought it was next month, but GameSpot says Tuesday?

Hehe.. I now have the MP3 of "Lights" and the video for the same song on my PSP. "Lights" is the song from the last level of Lumines. A level which I hope to one day get to. Hopefully. Yeah right.. But I'll damn well try.

[Drexel923]

Also, I hope I'm not mistaken, but it looks like Smart Bomb is coming out on Tuesday instead of next month? Am I wrong here? I thought it was next month, but GameSpot says Tuesday?

I'm pretty sure thats correct. Smartbomb looks like a fun game, but I can't help but wonder why it isn't a DS title...it certainly looks like the controls would be better.

As far as Mercury goes, I like it. It's not the best puzzle game ever, but it's fun. And boy does it get hard...I was flying through stages early on, now I'm stuck and it's pissing me off

[Tatsu]

I'm not that keen on getting a new system again (I don't have enought time to play with my new X-Box and the older stuff) but the PSP really interests me. The games that are anounced or allready out look interesting and the console itself seems more appealing to me than the DS. But I'll sure not get the PSP at launch date. I will wait for the price to drop. Mean it will take ages until I have one since I got told that Sony will release that thing in Europe only in about September.

Anyway, it's interesting to read your experience with it.

[TheHammerGod]

As someone who owns two DS systems along with a PSP (thank god for EBay and the over paying for crap I don't want) the PSP just blows me away. I am currently playing Untold Legends which I find to have that same PSO addictive nature to it.

Just one more level.

Just one more quick quest.

Ohhh... a super cool new sword.

Thanks to the PSP stand-by mode I just power the unit on and off when I get a few minutes to play without having to load the game from scratch, thats a life saver.

[Jasoco]

I already posted my Lumines accomplishment in the Lumines Help thread. I still can't get over how good the game is. It's like the ultimate launch title. I can't see anything surpassing it anytime soon.

98,000+ points and 12 skins. How will I ever top that?

Is there any word when and if Namco Museum, Puyo Pop and Puzzle Bobble will make it over here? I really really want those without stooping to imports only to have them bring them over right after.

Refresh my memory. Is there a list somewhere of all the upcoming games and known release dates in a list? Rather than having to check each game individually.

[Chunky]

I found one, the first one i have seen. I have checked about 30 stores around hte area from time to time.

Every EB has a huge waiting list. I was told i could get in on the 3rd or 4th shipments if i got on now(the local one) no other gs or eb can tlel me when i could get one because of lists and shipping.

Games are very limited everywhere, my CC had 6 games, about 1/2 of each.

mine and my buddies have no dead pixels. if someone can make a little keyboard and get this full on web browsing/emulating, this thing will be the greatest thing i have ever touched.

[TheHammerGod]

Refresh my memory. Is there a list somewhere of all the upcoming games and known release dates in a list? Rather than having to check each game individually.

The easiest one to browse for me is at GameFaqs.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/psp/releases.html

[Jasoco]

Doesn't look like there's too much confirmed US releases. Why do we have to wait so long for the good Japanese stuff? It's not like it's that full of Japanese, they're puzzle games!

[geelw]

well, i think scea wants more us and euro developed games to make their way here, as there are a lot of quirky japanese psp games that probably wouldn't do huge numbers here. don't worry- we'll get plenty of games for the thing

the good thing is soe is working on an untold legends sequel (you didn't hear it from me) and some other stuff that's going to raise an eyebrow or two (i forgot what i typed already...)

although, in terms of puzzle games, i actually am surprised that there isn't a tetris for the psp already...

[Jasoco]

Apparently there's a Tetris coming for the DS. Dammit. I want it on the PSP. But I'll take what I can as long as it HAS A GOSH DARNED SCORE!!!



I found a long comprehensive list here:
http://www.ga-forum.com/showthread.php?t=43219

But no release dates for any of them. These are the games I am most interested in.

PSP:
Namco Museum (They better bring this over or I'm importing it.)
Puzzle Bobble Pocket (Ditto)
Puyo Pop Fever (Ditto two)
Space Invaders Pocket (Dit.. do I only want the unconfirmed games??)
Pac-Man World 3 (Maybe)
Daxter (I assume it's Daxter from Jak? Where's Jak? I want Jak!)

DS:
Nintendogs
Zoo Tycoon (Maybe)
Tetris DS (Only if it has a gosh darned SCORE!! Tetris Worlds was a POS because there was no score. I'd prefer it be on the PSP though.)
Super Mario Bros
Super Princess Peach
Spyro (Maybe. Would prefer a PSP version here too.)
Polarium
Pac Pix
Meteos
Lost in Blue
Kirby Canvas Curse
Katamari Damacy (Blah blah PSP blah blah)
Bomberman
Bubble Bobble (Hell yeah! Unless it sucks.)
Animal Crossing

[CreamSoda]

I'm thinking about getting Tony Hawk's UnderGround 2 for the PSP, could I please get some info on it?

I really want to get it, but am not sure if it will have the same great style music and addictivness of THPS2/3

And plus it's $50!

Thanks for the help.

[geelw]

here's a recommendation for you: http://www.bonusstage.com/art2182.html

g.

[Slate]

And plus it's $50!

Maybe you should check KMart. My local KMart has THUG2 (For PSP) For $40, i think.

[Crush Crawfish]

Tales of Eternia & Ys for PSP have been confirmed for a US release? Crap, I'm sold on a PSP once those come out. Good to see that there'll be some good RPG's for it.