PSP or NDS

Okay.
Here's why I don't like this logic.

If I wanted a portable media device to play movies and music and browse the internet, I'd buy a PDA, which is meant for that.
If I wanted to play video games, I'd buy a handheld GAMING console.

The DS, while it does have the ability to play movies and music (I can do it very easily with my CycloDS Evolution cart), is a dedicated GAMING system, which doesn't market itself as coming crammed with a bunch of features I wouldn't want my system to have.

If I wanted a device to listen to music on, I'd buy a real mp3 player, not a device whose features are spread too thin and not able to do any one thing well. I'd rather listen to music on a device with an intuitive interface that could actually correctly read ID3 tags, rather than a video game console that just threw in the MP3 codec and a file browser at the last minute to increase its marketability as an mp3 player. Also, memory card based mp3 players are extremely limited because of their space.

If you wanted an mp3 player, chances are, you'd buy a Zune or an iPod over a PSP ANY DAY.
I wanted a video game console, so I bought a DS. All it does is play games. It doesn't claim to do anything else, and it's very good at what it claims to do.

The PSP on the other hand, claims to be a device for playing games, watching movies, listening to music, browsing the internet, and a bunch of other stuff.
You may buy it because it can do "so much more than the DS"...
It plays games...okay...and the selection is limited.
It plays movies, sorta...after you convert them 2 or 3 times to get them into a format that the PSP recognizes (I've had a PSP before...I'm not just making this stuff up )
It plays music...pretty decently...if you want to have an extra copy of windows explorer in your pocket to browse through folders and filenames trying to find what you want to listen to.

The DS claims to play games.
You put in a game, tap the corresponding button, and play.
No gimmicks, no hassle, just games.

Another reason that I like the DS is that I have no problem emulating much of the old software (NES, GB, GBC) that I actually played, since I was never really into console gaming in the first place.
That and it's not a fingerprint/smudge magnet.

 

It sort of is, the screens get quite dirty after a while.

 

The PSP IS a smudge magnet, and so is the DS, but when I get a smudge on the DS, I just don't care. If there is a smudge over a 16-bit sprite (I'm talking about pokemon), who cares? However, if there is a smudge on the PSP during my Bahamut summon, I immediately use a cloth. I like the widescreen on the PSP. It really makes it hard for me to play DS games because of that. The bottom screen on the DS has nothing but smudge lines and that's from the stylus. I have to wipe more times just from that rather than other things. I've had to replace my DS twice because of the constant rubbing with the stylus. On my PSP, there is just one little pixel that is messed up and that is because of its previous owner (my friend) who did not take care of it as if it were a classic 1970 Z-28.

I agree that the PSP is more multimedia geared, but like you said, who actually uses it? I use the video part of it to play my PS3 videos off of my PS3 for when I am not watching them on my PS3. (did I mention that I can watch my PS3 videos anywhere in the world that lets me connect to the internet?) I actually like buying memory card based mp3 players because when you fill up a zune or an iPod, you have to buy another one if you want more space without deleting songs. At least with a PSP, you can get a larger memory card, have multiple uses for it, and it's cheaper to just buy another card instead of buying another PSP. I guess the only drawback is carrying 10 8 GB, or 20 4 GB cards. I like having an all-in-one device because who wants to carry around a PSP or a DS, AND an iPod, plus the mandatory cell phone? No matter what, it's still 3 items that don't comfortably fit in your pockets. I also can have internet radio on my PSP. Not the greatest, but that frees up the having to have 4 GB of music on my PSP. And if you're not in a spot that has internet, I would assume you are in a cave or some backcountry area.

For some people, they like the PSP slim, but I like the phat one better, since I get a better grip on it. Same goes for the DS Lite. I feel that I can't get a good grip on the handheld and I have dropped mine several times trying to get the stylus out at a critical moment, only to drop it and have to restart because I missed it. Luckily, the Lite was my sister's and the phat NDS is mine.

I don't see how people can screw up the video conversion. I've never had any problems with it, besides the software thinking it's a PS3 video conversion instead of a PSP conversion making it so my PSP converter (PSP 9) not run at all. So I got a different independent converter and I never had any problems with it.

As for the NDS video thing, I haven't even bothered trying to get a DPG converter yet, yet I have two movies in dpg format that someone else did. It's a too small of a screen to play videos. I have to squint to half-way enjoy it.

The PSP can play PSX games on it. Enough said. I don't see the NDS emulating N64 games (or even have enough buttons to compensate).
The PSP uses the control stick to use L2 and R2, or L2 and R2 simultaneously. I don't see how the NDS could emulate Ocarina of Time or anything like that, or anything that requires the N64 "expansion pak." Sorry, but I don't want to have to use the stylus to shoot an arrow or use the hookshot. The lack of a joystick is disappointing especially for games like fps or other games that use 8+ directions for movement.

The NDS should emulate the NES, SNES, GB, GBC games better since its a nintendo product. It already has the general same controls for every console, just like the PSX has the same controls as the PS2, PS3, and PSP. They're generally all the same. There isn't that problem of saying okay well triangle on the emulator is X and X is B and O is A and square is Y. It's just one less hassle. I would find it funny if the PSP could in fact emulate those better than the NDS. The PSP emulators aren't that bad either except for a speed problem for the SNES one. I also find it ironic that the PSP has a NDS emulator under development. I can increase clock speed on the PSP while killing my battery in the process. If that option were on the DS, I think I would have a broken DS by now. Good thing I play plugged in when playing long-oriented games.

The PSP has much larger games which 9 times out of 10, it means that they are more quality games. I know that size doesn't ALWAYS matter, but games like Crisis Core, God of War CoO, and Disgaea AoD, just to name a few are 9 out of 10s for me. (I think I reviewed these as 9s...) I can't come up with that many NDS games that can match that besides maybe the Pokemon series and FF4 or something. Yeah I can fit over 20 games on a 1 GB SD card for my DS, but again, it's quality>quantity. Most of the good games for the DS are 128 MB anyway. Some NDS games might as well pass off as GBA games because some are the exact same size. (8 MB)...and the exact same quality.

I really hate the stylus controlled games. (games that ONLY use the stylus, and completely ignore the fact that there are other buttons).
I think a lot of games rely on the stylus way too much. Just like the Wii depends on the motion sensor way too much. I guess it boils down on preference. I find it very difficult to play the fps games on it since I can't use the R button to fire, the L button does that. So how does the secondary weapon work? Oh, by clicking the screen. boo. Before I even get a chance to click that, I'm already dead. Also trying to move and fire in such an awkward way with the left hand really makes cramps bad. A complaint I had with TWEWY was the stylus control. I want to make it rain fire. No stop moving around like an idiot. It would be nice if the stylus was a little bit more accurate and responsive. You know what I mean.

As far as hardware, in two of my reviews the sound is just horrible on the DS. It sounds like a weak blown tweeter trying to put out bass that it just doesn't have. Adjusting the volume on the DS is like trying to fine tune a guitar, and it usually ends up blaring because I turned it too much.

The PSP has a nice little interface AND buttons that tells me how loud the sound is like on a TV. Easy to adjust, I even have sound options on my emulators (and I think some games) so I can have it at +1 or +2 to make it even louder.

The NDS only allows three different hotspot configurations.
On my PSP, I have an entire list, from my house, to my friend's houses, to starbucks, to my school.
I hate having to reconfigure my DS on hotspots all of the time.
The Friend code thing on the DS is really pissing me off. I really wish it just stuck to ONE unique Friend ID even if I switch it to another DS.
The DS wifi pisses me off too. Trying to trade with people on Pokemon and getting disconnected every time.

The only reason why I liked the NDS so much was that I could get ANY game I want plus the demo releases and homebrew.
Now that my PSP does that, the DS hardly gets any use.

Here is my main complaint though.
The NDS has a TON of games, but how many of those games are spectacular? At least I can count more sweet games on the DS than the Wii. The Wii is plagued by shovelware, but so is the DS, just not as bad. The DS, just like the Wii, targets a much younger audience than I, and that is what I hate about Nintendo in general. I don't want to play Catz or Dogz or Cooking Mama. The only DS games I really play are games made by Square, a few Mario based games, pokemon and some random games made by Atlus. That's pretty much it. I played the DK racing remake and as soon as I saw that they don't have the silver coin challenge anymore I turned it off. The Super Mario 64 remake was okay except that I hate playing as everyone. They ruined Yoshi's Island doing that too with adding Wario. People complain that the PSP is a remake machine but so is the DS, now adding FF4 to the mix. At least the PSP remakes do it right and leave the gameplay the same. FF4 is the only remake that I enjoy despite its little gameplay changes, which are positive changes in my eyes.

The PSP might not have as many as 2400+ games but at least the ones that they do have, are pretty decent. I actually play games that are not big developers like NIS or XSEED (NIS comes to mind since Disgaea was the last game I played).
Disgaea AoD is better than FFTA2 and dare I say it, the original FFT...minus the epic storyline.

I hope this is the coup de grace of NDS or PSP comments because I really don't want to explain it all again.
My fingers are killing me.

 

Whoa. Most of the DS games are rubbish, that's why there's so many of them, and heaps more to come until DS development dies. More PSP games are actually decent enough to go buy them in-stores with money. Remember Pokemon doesn't use 16bit sprites, it doesn't need to, it's basic 2D sprites. It would probably be 256colours.

That's why screen protectors (came with R4) are useful, for intense touch games such as Pokemon Ranger, that will bloody wear it out eventually. Most of my friends own PSPs, none of them use it for Videos/Movies and Music. I don't use my Nintendo DS for Music, only when my iPod runs out of battery, which is never. The reason why you can't grip a DS Lite as well as a regular, is because it's too "blocky", while the regular has proper curves and gripping areas. That on a Lite wouldn't work well. 256x192 is plenty big enough, I watch Family Guy on my new iPod Nano 3rd Gen, which is about half the size, and videos look great and play great.

Old retro emulators such as GB, NES, SNES would run better (not necessarily faster) on DS, same structure of hardware used, easier, old buttons still used. Common size for a DS game would be 64MB. Basically, no new ideas are really implemented, use graphics that could be used on GBA hardware, but development for GBA has nearly died out, and nearly every game uses Stylus to control something, so that makes it supposedly "different".

The touchscreen is very good, pinpoint targeting and accuracy are a letdown, as it has been configured to be used by the default stylus's size of it's point, so it is not pixel based touching, so when you touch some games with it, it is a few pixels below or above etc., than where you are touching.

The NDS's hardware isn't powerful enough to run N64, if it had 2 better processors, or even one main processor, and if it had more RAM than it's measly 4MB(main RAM, not server or temporary RAM, which hold about 32kb-64kb), then it would be possible. It would be possible to run N64 games, but the main source of it would have to be changed to reduce it's RAM usage (or better yet, get more RAM for the DS), and change the quality and rendering of all it's graphics, which would make a huge increase in it's compiled size.

The decibels in the speakers are decent, the output quality is quite bad on some games. That is why special music files aren't usually used, if so, they'd be exported as a raw sound, taking up more space, but better quality, and the redundant space used to fit it on a different sized cartridge would be used a bit more anyway.

 

I have no problems holding my DS lite, save my one complaint that my left arm gets a little tired of holding the device up with no support from the right arm when it's being used to control the stylus.

About the smudge magnet thing, I wasn't speaking about the screens on the DS, I was speaking about the aesthetic factor. I really can't stand walking around with a device that's covered in fingerprints. It just looks bad. The entire front panel of the PSP is a smudge magnet. The only surface on my DS lite that attracts fingerprints and smudges is the back of the top screen, which doesn't affect me at all when it's open, so when I'm done playing, I just wipe it off before sticking it in my pocket, etc.

My Zune is so ridiculously small, most times I forget it's in my pocket, and same thing goes for my cell phonel
My main reason for lashing out at the memory card based mp3 player is the fact that you have to carry around multiple memory cards for your music library. My old hard drive based Zune (which I opted to trade in for a 4gb flash Zune which is plenty of space for me) was able to hold my entire music library: no swapping memory cards.
My other beef with the PSP as a media player is also mainly because of its lack of proper support for id3 tags.

I've never bothered putting movies on mine either, but I have moonshell, so I don't need to convert anything. I can play wmv or mp4 videos (natively supported by my Zune, so no conversion needed) right off my memory card if I desire to do so.

Since this all seems to be about emulation, let's take emulation out of the picture for a second:
PSP (minus) Emulation = none of the PSP fanboys who spend all their time emulating Nintendo software on their device have any ammo left against the DS
DS (minus) Emulation = A system people didn't buy for emulation in the first place that can no longer emulate a few old school nintendo roms anymore.
For the record, I don't need my DS to be powerful enough to emulate N64 games
I never really was much of a fan of the N64 though, and if I want to play N64 games, I have emulators for that, and I don't think that a screen the size of the DS's (or the PSP's...) would do it justice.

The speakers on my DS get way louder than any PSP I've ever played before, and I don't even need them to be that loud. Also, since when did the PSP come with a subwoofer for all that "bass"? The psp only sounds better because it's not cartridge based.

The PSP has a TON of games. How many of those games are spectacular though?
It's all the same. The PSP and the DS both have a ridiculous sum of games, but most are crap. They're all either games made of kids movies (seriously...the bee movie game?...why?) or new ports of old games.
I agree with you that the DS doesn't have a LOT of good games, but even you yourself said that the PSP only had a few good games.
98% of everything out there is crap. There's a really good 2% for the DS though, as I'm sure there is for the PSP.

I also agree with you when you say that the touch screen could stand to be a bit more responsive (TWEWY, I'm looking at you)

I'm tired of typing now though, so we'll agree to disagree for a while, I guess.

 

I don't emulate nintendo stuff on a PSP, except for the SNES TYL++ or whatever and that is only there to play Super Mario RPG, because the DS can't.

I don't know very many people personally who DO NOT have their PSP cracked with custom firmware.
one of the reasons I got a PSP was to crack it.
I will agree with you that a PSP with official firmware on it isn't that much fun.
I hate UMDs. there's nothing universal about them.

I hate the fact that I actually have to use my Cyclo to play homebrew or even use it as a medium between my DS and my PC. Without the Cyclo, I wouldn't be able to transfer files because the Cyclo has the microSD in it.

A DS without a flashcart is pretty much useless to me.
I loaded up the Deoxys distribution rom and walked around in a mall with it emitting the mystery gift.
I wonder if anyone was smart enough to go to mystery gift that day...

I used to be impressed that the DS could fit a game on such a small cartridge. Then I realized that my microSD card has a bigger capacity and is 8x smaller.

As far as loudness is concerned, I actually like playing my games in a quiet non-blaring manner.
I'm very picky when it comes to sound quality. Whenever I buy a new car, the first things that go are the stock speakers and sub (if there is one).
It's one thing to be just loud. It's another to have a good sound quality, even if it isn't as loud as the other.
quality>quantity.

Songs on my iPod would never last on my PSP or NDS simply because the bit rate is 320 kbs. 20 songs later and I wouldn't have much space left.
I remember having to rip out the soundtrack on Test Drive Unlimited for the PSP because it took up too much space. Having already listened to the soundtrack several times on the PC and PS2 version, I don't really miss it. But it did free up a good 350-400 MB, more than twice the size of an average DS cartridge.
The PSP sounds better because it actually devotes quite a bit of space just for sound.
I really wish the DS cartridges used the padding space for improving the sound like anand said...or just bump up the capacity and work from there.
I play my DS with as little sound as possible, just enough so only I can hear it, because any louder and it sounds like crap.
My $300 earbuds are a waste on the DS. I thought it would make the sound a little better, but it doesn't.
It's like trying to watch a regular DVD on a HD setup. It doesn't improve it all that much.

 

It can emulate Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Remember, cards like MicroSDs only store the data needed, the actual flashcart has the hardware similar to a Real Cartridge to run it and play it. You still have to convert movies in .dpg to use moonshell. Headphones with DS are quite horrible on some games, sounds are just screeching and scratching. The only good thing is that you can hear all the little sound effects and whatnot in the background, which your ear can't pick up without headphones, as it is too far away.

 

I read on several forums that it isn't playable like that.

I even tried it on my DS and I don't even think I could walk around without some random error or skipping.

 

NDS for me. I've tried the PSP, but the controls for shooters is gimmicky (Circle, cross, triangle, and square buttons to look around?), and the so called analog stick thing feels like gets stuck and it's against my will. Sure it has internet and better graphics, but those are the only pros that I can think of.

 

I like the Nds better because it has the better games, like the final fantasy games and remakes. For the PsP i wouldn't
even use those extra stuff.

 

the controls for fps on the ds is gimmicky as well and they're just as uncomfortable.

 

As much as I hate to say it, I am agreeing with insanecrazy07. And actually, the psp's controls for shooters are amazing, easy use, and very natural, instead of aiming with the analog and running with the digital controls (directional buttons). The face buttons having the controls of vision/look is easier than switching from digital to analog or vice-versa.

 

if only the psp had two joysticks.

it would be just like a ps2 controller without the L2 and R2.

 

Two mini joysticks at the bottom would be good. Some FPS style games for DS come with peripheral devices, but you'd have to buy them when they first came out of course. It just doesn't work on DS.

 

Nds is really original thats why i think its better.
psp is exactly like a ps2.
if yoiu want something portable go for a ds there smaller and are very fun
Ps: i got 1 2 :]

 

DS hasnt got a GBA Emulator. Unless your Counting the Second Slot as an Emulator ?

 

DS has the slot-2 so instead of emulating, it just plays GBA games.

 

Ye i did say if thats what he ment by Emulation but to me that doesnt realy count as an Emulation becuase it comes with the console. PC Emulation doesnt come with the PC does it ? and the same with DS Nes Emulation. Doesnt Emulation mean somthing that Isnt ment to be with it ?

Like the DS isnt ment to play NES or SNES roms but it does (Thanks to those Notrious Hackers and Programs. Love you All)

 

well i guess it is capable of emulating GBA games because of the slot-2 devices.

 

It is not emulation, it is simply using the GBA's hardware on the DS. As DS games use the DS hardware.