Monday, March 28, 2005
Piece of gaming royalty?
Thanks to Brendan's unabashed love for all that is new and shiny I was finally able to get my hands on the PSP this weekend. Finally, I don't have to listen to Nick tell me that my opinion is worthless because I haven't actually played the system. Have my feelings changed now that I've experienced Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix and Darkstalkers Chronociles for myself? Not in the slightest.
Ok, that may be a mild exaggeration. While I used to say the biggest problem with the PSP was its exorbitant price point, I would now place the controls at the head of the class. While I experienced no problems with any of the face buttons, that seemed to be the only area I didn't have some complaints. Upon first looking at the system the digital pad seems much nicer than any of the current consoles. It's much tighter than what you would find on the PS2 controller - finally removing those gaping holes that have haunted me the last ten years - and is large enough that I can confidently say the target audience is not a fetus. Unfortunately, the days of pin-point control are long gone.
It may have simply been a problem with sloppy programming, but Darkstalkers was nearly impossible for me to play. It's easier to play through Ninja Gaiden blindfolded than correctly pulling off two consecutive fireballs. And don't even try to do a dragon punch. Capcom anticipated the problems people would have and included a simplified control scheme. This means you can hit right and punch to pull of a dragon punch. However, this only solves a little bit of the problem. Because of the way I have to hold the PSP, my hand would cramp up after two fights. I tried holding it every way I could, including resting the system on my lap and pretending it was an arcade stick, but I couldn't find a way to hold it that both gave me good control and didn't cramp up my hand. It was like being forced to play P.N. 03 over and over again. Bad times.
The other major problem is the shoulder buttons. They just don't feel right. While I was able to pull off grinds and air moves in Tony Hawk's Underground with moderate success, I just couldn't get the revert to work. The timing is always difficult on that - you have to hit R just as land an air move - but this felt like pure luck. It may have simply been my own incompetence, but I have enough confidence in my THUG abilities to think this may not be the case. The shoulder buttons are actually less responsive than the GBA SP's. I would place it around the level of the Z button on the Gamecube. They work but aren't something you'll want to use if you can avoid it.
Oh, and the R button tends to stick if you don't hit it hard enough. It's a mild complaint, sure, but it just makes the shoulder buttons that much worse.
The system isn't a complete failure but I was disappointed with it. The graphics are slick, though not as good as what I've seen on the PS2, and the sound seems to be of the highest quality. But that's all pretty pointless if it's hard to control the actual games. I'll give it another look if any of my friends buy one, but I really don't think I'll have any reason to purchase this any time soon. Maybe I'll just wait for the redesigned PSPee to come out.
Ok, that may be a mild exaggeration. While I used to say the biggest problem with the PSP was its exorbitant price point, I would now place the controls at the head of the class. While I experienced no problems with any of the face buttons, that seemed to be the only area I didn't have some complaints. Upon first looking at the system the digital pad seems much nicer than any of the current consoles. It's much tighter than what you would find on the PS2 controller - finally removing those gaping holes that have haunted me the last ten years - and is large enough that I can confidently say the target audience is not a fetus. Unfortunately, the days of pin-point control are long gone.
It may have simply been a problem with sloppy programming, but Darkstalkers was nearly impossible for me to play. It's easier to play through Ninja Gaiden blindfolded than correctly pulling off two consecutive fireballs. And don't even try to do a dragon punch. Capcom anticipated the problems people would have and included a simplified control scheme. This means you can hit right and punch to pull of a dragon punch. However, this only solves a little bit of the problem. Because of the way I have to hold the PSP, my hand would cramp up after two fights. I tried holding it every way I could, including resting the system on my lap and pretending it was an arcade stick, but I couldn't find a way to hold it that both gave me good control and didn't cramp up my hand. It was like being forced to play P.N. 03 over and over again. Bad times.
The other major problem is the shoulder buttons. They just don't feel right. While I was able to pull off grinds and air moves in Tony Hawk's Underground with moderate success, I just couldn't get the revert to work. The timing is always difficult on that - you have to hit R just as land an air move - but this felt like pure luck. It may have simply been my own incompetence, but I have enough confidence in my THUG abilities to think this may not be the case. The shoulder buttons are actually less responsive than the GBA SP's. I would place it around the level of the Z button on the Gamecube. They work but aren't something you'll want to use if you can avoid it.
Oh, and the R button tends to stick if you don't hit it hard enough. It's a mild complaint, sure, but it just makes the shoulder buttons that much worse.
The system isn't a complete failure but I was disappointed with it. The graphics are slick, though not as good as what I've seen on the PS2, and the sound seems to be of the highest quality. But that's all pretty pointless if it's hard to control the actual games. I'll give it another look if any of my friends buy one, but I really don't think I'll have any reason to purchase this any time soon. Maybe I'll just wait for the redesigned PSPee to come out.
// posted by Tom @ 8:45 AM 
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