written by jadedshade on 14/10/2006
Good Points
Large LCD screen
Good graphics
Portable gaming (of course)
Well built
Bad Points
The absence of a second analogue stick
Lack of games
Difficult controls in many games
Low battery life
General Comments
Forgive me if I am not as "woosey" about mine as some people, but the simple fact is: It's just not the hand held PS2 we were all expecting.
However, the Sony PSP system does offer a high standard of portable gaming, and the games are generally quite pleasing to the eye.
The absence of a second analogue stick makes controlling characters in some games awkward and difficult. Of course, some of the responsibility does fall back on the game developer.
A great example of this awkwardness is in games like Splinter Cell: Essentials, Star Wars Battlefront II and Tenchu: Time of the Assassins.
Often the X, O, Square and Triangle buttons become a replacement for the second analogue stick (generally used to move your cursor for aiming), and it makes the game play clumsy due to the fact that pushing one of the buttons will often move your cursor too far.
Despite its flaws, I do like this system. It provides me with good quality entertainment on the move.
With it's compact design I was concerned that there was a lot of Micro Engineering just waiting to go wrong. However, Sony did a good job building this console, and I haven't had a problem with mine, and anyone I know that has had a problem is someone that has treated their PSP with the appropriate care.
Overall, this is a fun system. But if you are looking for a hand held PS2 experience, this just isn't it.