PSP or DS?

[Chicago Ted]

I'm heading to England in a month, and will be staying there for a while. To prepare for the long flight, I already have several movies and hours upon hours of songs on my iPod, my Rubik's Cubes, and, soon to be, a butterfly pen to keep me occupied while I'm there.

However, when I check my Gameboy SP I find out it's busted. Since I'm done school my dad offered to get me either a DS or a PSP to replace it.

My question now is which I should go for? This is mainly a question as to which has better games. I hear that Chinatown Wars is decent for the DS, I am already a fan of the Pokemon series, and have a few Gameboy Advance games so those are the pros for me getting a DS. On the other hand, the PSP seems to be more powerful and has a few games that peak my interest also, namely the GTA and Battlefront games.

So I am torn between which to buy, and so I ask the Escapist for some feedback on these systems.

Oh, and what type of audio file does a PSP take? Will it run songs I bought off of iTunes?

 

[ChocoCake]

All I will say is that I would personally buy a DS just so I can play Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum.
That is all.

 

[bodyklok]

Well it partly comes down to what sort of games you like, there are some good games on the PSP but the same goes for the DS.

 

[Chicago Ted]

All I will say is that I would personally buy a DS just so I can play Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum.
That is all.

Yeah, it's weird but I am always amazed at how many hours I can acumulate on those games so quickly. While I feel the other's might keep me amused for a few hours, on almost every Pokemon game I own I have clocked in 24 hours, and that doesn't even take into account how many times I've restarted some of them.

 

[ChocoCake]

Yeah, it's weird but I am always amazed at how many hours I can acumulate on those games so quickly. While I feel the other's might keep me amused for a few hours, on almost every Pokemon game I own I have clocked in 24 hours, and that doesn't even take into account how many times I've restarted some of them.

So true, so true...

 

[BolognaBaloney]

i would personally avoid psp, I had one, and there really weren't any games that held my interest. Everything tends to be a bad ps2 port with frame-rate issues and poor controls. DS would be my vote.

 

[Skullpanda]

Well...it's more towards your gaming style, really. Personally, I prefer the offerings from the PsP compared to Nintendo's library, but that's just me. The main offerings from Nintendo, however, are largely based around the target audience for the DS, i.e.: Little kids. You won't find much that could really be considered hardcore, although there are some decent Rpg's to be found.

The PsP has it's own drawbacks, however. Since there hasn't been an explosion in sales, Sony really isn't doing much to support it, or even really pressure developers into making stellar games for the platform. There's a solid base of games that are quite good, but then there's the garbage that surrounds it. You'll defintitely have to look at reviews closely before deciding to buy a game, and depending on the game, you may have a remarkably short experience (I demolished God Of War in a few hours, and I really never pushed myself to finish the game). The one major advantage is the fact that you can use it for music and movies as well. UMD movies are generally crap, but if you find some good downloads, you can put pretty much anything on your memory card.

For file format, you're looking at either Mp3 or Atrac file format. I doubt you're using Windows Media player, so you shouldn't be too worried about the WMA patch that you can download.

 

[Chicago Ted]

i would personally avoid psp, I had one, and there really weren't any games that held my interest. Everything tends to be a bad ps2 port with frame-rate issues and poor controls. DS would be my vote.

Alright. I had a friend who only used the thing as an iPod. I never saw him play games on it so I'm going to ask him as well. After he got an iPod it disappeared though...

 

[megapenguinx]

I would go for DS Lite since it has a way better battery life. The PSP will play any non drm'd file you buy off of itunes (music wise, the ones with the + next to them)

 

[The_Echo]

If you need a number of good games fast, DS. More games to choose from, a lot of greats, and I think it has a longer battery life too. Also, the PSP will not play songs bought from iTunes.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

I would say DS. Classic DS, since you own an Advance series hand held. Dsi has no slot 2, and can't play those games so your current library would be useless.

PsP would be good if you had a PS3 to buddy with it.

 

[hagaya]

Get the DS, and buy Rhythm Heaven. That single game has kept me occupied for probably a total of 20 hours since I got it. There's also a good number of RPGs after the glut in late 2008. The Chrono Trigger remake is a one of my highest recommendations, and if you have the time to get an import, get Jump Ultimate Stars. The language barrier isn't much if you can figure out the jist of it or look the basics up, and its pretty much Super Smash Brothers on the DS only with the character roster on steroids. There are numerous other recommendations, and the PSP has... Patapon. Good game, thats about it though.

 

[thiosk]

didn't the DS get chronotrigger?

Done deal.

Done.

 

[Chicago Ted]

I would say DS. Classic DS, since you own an Advance series hand held. Dsi has no slot 2, and can't play those games so your current library would be useless.

PsP would be good if you had a PS3 to buddy with it.

I knew about the DSI missing it's backwards compatability, and higher price so I planned on getting a Lite. Probably should have mentioned that earlier. And I don't have a PS3 to go with it.

And I didn't expect so many people to say DS over PSP.

Another question also, since it seems like many of you own DS's, how much battery life does it have?

 

[yeah_so_no]

I've got both, and I use both of them in waves about the same--I'll go months just with my DS, then switch to the PSP, then back. I played FF3 and 4 back to back on my DS, now I'm playing Persona on my PSP now, and when that's done will play TWEWY on DS. It really depends on what kind of games you want. DS has the wider range of games, PSP the more graphics-intensive games. This isn't too helpful, I know, but I'm basically trying to say you'll probably be happy either way if you go for the one that has the most games you want.

 

[Aura Guardian]

I would say DS. Classic DS, since you own an Advance series hand held. Dsi has no slot 2, and can't play those games so your current library would be useless.

PsP would be good if you had a PS3 to buddy with it.

I knew about the DSI missing it's backwards compatability, and higher price so I planned on getting a Lite. Probably should have mentioned that earlier. And I don't have a PS3 to go with it.

And I didn't expect so many people to say DS over PSP.

Another question also, since it seems like many of you own DS's, how much battery life does it have?

23-30 hour give or take

 

[Aura Guardian]

stuff

That is of course, you don't go online (Pokemon) or wireless play(Mariokart) a lot.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

Go for Dee "Ess"!