War Of The Portables 2009: Should You Buy Nintendo DSi Or Sony PSP?
Satoru Iwata wants
you to buy Nintendo DSi starting April, 2009.
Kaz Hirai wants you to buy the Sony PSP.
And thus starts the war of the portables, which extends to the year 2009
with the release of the Nintendo DSi and rumors of the release of the Sony
PSP2. Iwata, of course, is the president
of Nintendo, and Hirai is the CEO of Sony Entertainment.
So, as a gamer,
what path should you take? Should you
buy Nintendo DSi as Iwata wants you to do?
Or should you purchase the Sony PSP instead, as what Hirai suggested?
Well, each
portable platform has its own pros and cons.
Studying these will help us come up with a more learned decision on
whether or not to buy Nintendo DSi or the Sony PSP.
To Buy Or Not To Buy Nintendo DSi?
Many argue that
though the Nintendo DSi doesn’t have the processing power and the
graphics-capabilities of the Sony PSP, it is still the better choice. These proponents want you to buy Nintendo DSi
for the following reasons:
-
Deeper game
library. Nintendo DSi games greatly
outnumber their Sony PSP counterparts.
-
First party
support. Nintendo is known for the
quality of its first party games.
Franchises like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Punch Out, and others can only be
found in Nintendo consoles. The ratio of
first party applications for the Nintendo DSi compared to the Sony PSP is a
whopping 8:1.
-
Dual
screen. Forget widescreen. The Nintendo DSi’s dual screen design
provides an entirely new gaming experience.
-
Touch screen
functionality. For many people, this is
the clincher why they’d decide to buy Nintendo Dsi instead. Being able to interact with the lower screen
of the Nintendo DSi opens up a world of exciting gaming possibilities which the
Sony PSP cannot even begin to explore.
-
Dual cam. Though no applications, save for the built-in
photo manipulation software, has yet been released that makes use of the
Nintendo DSi’s dual cam, the fantastic possibilities are nevertheless
exciting. The Nintendo DSi can actually
serve as a portable video conferencing machine with the presence of these 0.3
megapixel cameras.
To Buy Or Not To Buy The Sony PSP?
The Sony PSP is no
slouch either. It boasts of the
following features:
-
Wider screen for
richer visuals.
-
Faster
processing power for more efficient game play and better graphics.
-
Bigger software
sizes for bigger features and better graphics.
-
More multimedia
functions straight from the box.
-
Friendlier
infrastructure to promote homebrew projects.
-
Backward
compatibility with PSOne games.
-
Interconnectivity
with the PS3. The Sony PS3 can actually
be remotely controlled via the Sony PSP.
Which To Choose?
Buy Nintendo Dsi? Or Buy Sony
PSP?
Let’s face it –
games define the consoles, even portable ones.
Remember the Sega Dreamcast? It
was a terrific gaming platform that can even compete with today’s generation of
consoles. But because of a limited
software library, it suffered poor sales and Sega had to give up with console
manufacturing altogether.
The Nintendo DSi
has more games – so much more that its games library dwarfs that of the Sony
PSP’s.
So, buy Nintendo
DSi or buy Sony PSP?
For now, the
Nintendo DSi is the clear choice.
