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I was recently talking with a friend about handheld consoles and from that discussion realized I should probably take a few minutes and type up an article here on what my recommendations would be for handheld gaming console purchases and why, so here goes...
In my friend's case, a friend of her husbands was talking about possibly getting her husband a Nintendo DS Lite handheld so that her husband would have a small gaming system that he could take with him and play while waiting on service calls and such. Times when he might have to kill a few hours while waiting for parts to be delivered to a customer job site. The friend was thinking that her husband might enjoy games like Brain Age, Brain Age 2 or Flash Focus which could help sharpen his mental skills, eye hand coordination, peripheral vision and such. Not a bad thought, but I interjected that perhaps she should try to convince the friend to give serious thought to buying her husband a Sony PSP handheld instead.
Why the PSP over the Nintendo DS Lite? Well, for me it comes down to what you can do with the two systems. Nintendo pretty much pwnz the handheld gaming market. Seriously they have such market share there that in many ways it is foolish to consider any other handheld gaming system... then again, what type of games do they have on their console? Oooops, that's the problem for Nintendo. They have several educational type games, or games that can help provide stimulation for the mental faculty, but beyond that they are primarily a maker of youth oriented games on their system. While there are a few games for the Nintendo DS that are aimed at a more mature player, the vast majority of Nintendo games are for the younger crowd.
On the PSP that games selection is probably no where near as deep as it is on the Nintendo DS or DS Lite system, but it is typically aimed at a more mature individual. Teens and up, rather than on Nintendo typically aimed at teens and younger. Games like SOCOM, or Rainbow Six Vegas and such. The Grand Theft Auto games too (or variants of them) and more. Along with some excellent puzzle type games like Lumines, Lumines 2, Luxor and others.
Add on top of that a built-in web browser that can be used to access the net if you can find a WiFi signal in your area. Need to access something like Gmail or Yahoo! mail? Fire up the browser on the PSP and have at it.
Finally, the bigger reason that I suggested a PSP to my friend (for her husband). Movies and music. Sony's PSP has a fair sized library of movies available on the UMD format. At least enough to get yourself several favorites to keep available for times when you think you might be looking at 2 - 3 hour wait time at a customer site. Pop in a favorite movie and enjoy it. Worst case, you can 'rip' a DVD to your PC, convert/transcode it over to something that will play on the PSP (fairly easily) and roll-your-own videos that way (saving the cost of buying a movie you already own on DVD in the UMD format). The PSP reads Sony's Memory Stick Pro Duo format, which you can normally find adapters/readers for to use with your PC. (Or you can send files over to the PSP via it's mini-UMD connector that will connect the device to a PC).
On the music front, you can take music files over to the PSP giving yourself an MP3 player type device to listen to while you work.
I actually like both of these handheld console systems, though I no longer personally own a DS Lite. I bought one shortly after they were released and then sold it just before last Christmas. There was nothing wrong with the device except for one thing for my tastes -- not enough games I wanted to play. Or at least not enough games that I wanted to play that weren't more expensive than I was willing to pay at the time. I do currently own a PSP, the PSP 2000 (or is it 2001) model, the lighter 'slimline' model. Definitely lighter and more comfortable to hold than it used to be. I still wish it had joysticks on both sides of the device, but I understand why it doesn't currently offer such eatures and likely won't offer such options anytime soon.
If you are buying for a younger person, I would seriously consider, and probably recommend the Nintendo DS Lite. It is a fine gaming system, but that is really all it is intended to be -- a gaming system. For older persons (not old people, just older persons) I think the PSP is the right choice since it can be so much more than just a video game playing machine.
