Should I get a DS or a PSP?

The innovation of the DS has been pretty cool, I've loved it so far. The touchscreen aspect has been awesome, and any old school gamer has to love being able to play New Super Mario Brothers (I know I do). I can't attest to anything on the PSP except for watching people play, but I will say the big screen and sharp graphics look pretty cool.

My wife has had a PSP for a year and a half and she rarely touches it. She loves the DS though. It all depends on what your tastes are.

From the sounds of it, it seems like your wife would love the games on the DS and you'd love the games on the PSP. My vote goes for the DS though, if simply for the innovation and the fact that it's a hell of a lot of fun.

Get together with your wife and look at the games available for each system as well as what's on the way. Seeing as how innovation and graphics don't seem to be huge concerns for you, go with the system that has the games you two think you will enjoy the most. Most game sites have year end 'best of' lists as well as holiday shopping guides that you should still be able to dig up as a good place to start looking.

DS sounds the way to go, for the reasons already given.

That said, I personally love my PSP and use it all the time, for games (Killzone: Liberation!) and net surfing, podcasts.

I recently sold my PSP 4 games and picked up DS and 1 game. Here are my main reasons.

1. Loading Times on PSP suck, not all the time, but somegames it can take forever to load. Imagine an RPG but every battle has to take 1-3 seconds to load. Over the course of a 30+ hour RPG your gonna spend ALOT of time doing nothing.

2. Lack of UMD support from 3rd parties. I owned Ghostbusters and Big Trouble in little china for UMD but that was about it. Sony is now one of only 2wo companies still making UMD movies.

3. Its huge and bulky and isnt really useful for anything except gaming. It can be used as an MP3 player but you cant fit it in your pocket. It can use the internet but the interface sucks.

4. Simple numbers, I think there is something like 11million PsP's sold and something like 25+million DS's sold. Rumor has been going around for a while that if sony doesnt really up their support for PsP it will be dead before 2009.


However, it has a huge library of more adult games (MGS, GTA) and the games look kick ass. It feels alot more solid then the DS also. If you have a PS# you can Download some old PS1 games. Possible price drop b4 summer, on both PSP and PS3.


I can't really say much about the DS, I only had it a few week. But i picked it up to play games like Elite Beat Agents and Trauma Area, both of which couldnt be as fun or even made at all without a Stylus touch interface. The 2d Mario game is a Blast! Still looks and feels like a toy thou, but I can get over that.


Having owned the PSP since launch and the DS all bout a few months. I would say DS, its cheaper, has alot more innovative games, Nintendogs makes girls wet, and alot more support from 3rd parties.


*NOTE* (If I would have know they were going to release a Remake of Final Fantasy Tactics I would have NEVER sold my PSP!! Damn them to hell!)

It is a toy. It's a device with which you play video GAMES. You can call most recent consoles "entertainment hubs" or sumesuch if you'd like, but to me they'll always be toys.

And there's nothing wrong with that.


redryder, we have some rather large threads dedicated to both handhelds that are a lot to read through, but may also be worth your time if you need to figure out which of the two has the best games to suit your tastes. That is the key, as others have said, to choosing the best one for you and your missus.

If you like music games, you have to buy a DS Lite and Elite Beat Agents. There is no disputing this.

If you enjoy quality design and a whole lot of fun then you'll get the DS. Don't get me wrong, the PSP has added some solid titles...but the present and FUTURE quality title advantage is with the DS.

I like how that little tidbit was nestled in there.

My problem with the PSP has always been that it doesn't seem to offer much in the way of games that you can't get on the PS2. Sure, they're portable, but for over 200 bucks, I'd like to see a little more innovation. That's where the DS takes the clear advantage. You can play games on the DS that you simply can't play anywhere else, because of the stylus and touch screen.

The PSP has great graphics, a big screen, and some nice extra features. But from a pure gameplay perspective, the DS kicks its bottom.

Now waiting for Nick to mount a spirited defense of the PSP.

If you want your wife to be happy, get her the Nintendo Ds.

My wife hates video games and yet I show her the Nintendo Ds and she loves it. Ithink the stylus aspect really appeals to Non-gamers.

Buy a PSP, there's 2 or 3 decent games you might enjoy and your wife will never touch, save for Lumines and Me and My Katamari, if you can even find it anymore. Most of the good games can be found on the PS2, which you can probably find used for $80 now. The lull between good games is a cold and lonely one, even with the ability to download PS1 titles.

Buy a DS, there's 5 or 6 EXCELLENT games for every man, woman, and child in the gaming world. Most of the good games are exclusives, and even if you run out of new stuff, the MASSIVE back catalog of GBA games playable on the system is always there to fall back on.

DS, by a long shot.

Just to pile on, buy a DS. There is no reason to justify a PSP over a DS at this point. Maybe in a year or so PSP will hit with some awesome titles, but the DS is by far the better investment.

See, I really love my PSP, but I just happen to fall into the little segment of gamerdom for which the release list seems to be targeted. The Metal Gear Acids make me happy, Portable Ops is a blast; Exit, Lumines, and LocoRoco are easy to pick up and play and a heck of a lot of fun; Hot Shots Golf is satisfying in portable; both Mega Man remixes give me bubbling nostalgia. Daxter is a great platformer, regardless of console (or your preference).

Quite a few good upcoming titles as well, what with a new Ready at Dawn game in the works, Ratchet and Clank, and Crisis Core off the top of my head. Sure, they're existing franchises, but when they're tuned right for a portable they really make the little brick sing.

DS, no question about it. I had both systems for awhile, the few RPGs for PSP are junk. I use my DS almost exclusively for RPGs, 1 DS RPG and 1 GBA RPG, nothing else I need to cart around.

I hate to pile on the PSP because I really like the system but the DS is the better value right now. It has a huge library if you factor in GBA games, a great price point, and innovative gameplay.

After I traded in my GameBoy Advance, I paid forty dollars for a DS at Gamestop. That price seems about rigth for an handheld system used exclusively for gaming.

I see the PSP as essentially a miniature console, with the same pros and cons consoles have. The DS is a true handheld system (for better or for worse), meaning that the games are uniquely designed for portable play.

If the PSP had a more open architecture, such that you could actually take advantage of its features in a more efficient fashion, I'd buy it for homebrew and multimedia purposes. From everything I've read, though, they've ladled it with so much DRM and proprietary OS crap that it's impossible to get anything done without a great deal of effort.

Also, I can't stand the lack of a second analogue stick on the PSP.

Exactly. And for a good while that's why I was okay paying $40-50 for a PSP game. ...and then Rockstar released Liberty City Stories on PS2 for TWENTY BUCKS.

I would have been really pissed off if that happened to me....and there's no way I'd plunk down for VCS. Of course, I'd also start to wonder if I wouldn't just have rather had these games on the PS2 to begin with.

Can you plug your PSP into the television? If one could plug the PSP into the television, and then plug two regular sized controllers into the PSP, it would make a great portable PS2.

Well with Vice City Stories hitting the PS2 and the only other decent game being the type of 'kiddy crap' you'd buy on the DS I'm not sure what the purpose for buying a PSP would be.

The PSP is losing money, and has been for a fair while, despite reasonable sales.
The DS has absurdly good sales and makes an awful lot of money.
Therefore, if life expectancy is any kind of factor for you, the DS is likely to keep on having games come out for it longer.

Thankfully, I got VCS for $20 on a smoking Best Buy sale. I really like having a portable GTA so I'm glad these games were released on PSP (VCS especially). I just don't like how PSP owners got screwed on the price. And I don't think the "early adopter" argument holds here.

Some dude hacked together a cable that allowed him to play his PSP on a TV but I think it required cracking open the case of the system. And then you have a problem with aspect ratio. I know you can get TV on your PSP but I don't think there's an official product that allows you to go the other way.

Consider this:

Rocky Legends with an added Boss Fight, right?

I don't know. I just found out that it existed today.

Unless it also contains Ivan Drago: Justice Enforcer, it's not much to get excited about.

It definitely rocks for trips.

I actually got my wife one for Christmas last year... and then I bought myself one when I had to fly out for a conference. Two DSs = awesome. We mostly take advantage of 2 player Mario Kart action, but there are lots of 2 player games out there.

I also love Advance Wars: Dual Strike, even though it is a bit on the easy side. One of the first games I bought, and I keep going back to it. If you liked turn-based war games, it is a fun one.

The Tiger Woods golf game rocks the fucking world. It was the first game I bought when the DS Lite launched and it's one I constantly go back to.

It's a fun game that really never gets old. The graphics are a little bit on the weak side since it was one of the first major DS games but it holds up IMO.

And oh, Hotel Dusk.

Must. Buy.

You have chosen wisely.

Little late on the draw there, Tex.

Good video quality and wide aspect will be worthless if you have no desire to turn it on.

Yeah, I'm not sure why the aspect ratio enters into it, especially now that they're no longer making movies for the thing.

Yeah, but if you want to meet girls, get an actual live dog. Preferably a cute mutt from a shelter. Just walking it will cause all girls to approach and comment on/pet said dog. You are a hero if you rescued it and a responsible man for owning a dog.

Ill buy my dog a little Fedora too.

You can rip and load your own videos, which can be widescreen.

I suppose so. Still, unless you have a job that puts you on a plane a lot of the time, I never understood why anybody would want to watch a movie on a screen that small. I can't imagine that very many gamers have traveling jobs.

Compare and contrast the screen of the PSP vs that of the iPod video, then look at the popularity of video on the iPod and you have your answer.

True. I don't understand watching movies on an iPod either, but clearly, people are doing it.