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2011's top five handheld games →

If you’re not tired of reading “best-of” lists for 2011 yet, I’ve picked out and written about the top five portable games of the year over at Gamasutra. You won’t find any surprises if you’ve followed our interests these last twelve months, but maybe you’ll get enjoy reading the intro, in which I talk about handheld gaming’s non-death.

I also contributed to Gamasutra’s “Top 10 Games of the Year”, offering a few spoiler-ish paragraphs on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and my honorable mentions.

Buy: Nintendo 3DS console (Flame Red, Black, & Blue)

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

[Image via Rinrin Mottiri Maroi]

tags / gamasutra / gaming / nintendo ds / ds / nintendo 3ds / 3ds / psp / ec

/ permalink / / 1 month ago / Comments (View)

Comparing the OLED/LCD screens of PS Vita, PSP, and 3DS screens with Monster Hunter Portable 3rd/3G.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the 3DS’s 400x240 3.53-inch top-screen doesn’t really compare to the PS Vita’s 960x544 5-inch display — the screens on the DS line aren’t really a match for the PSP’s either, and everyone got over that quick. Portable gaming has rarely ever been about having the highest end hardware!

Preorder: PS Vita

See also: More PS Vita coverage

tags / gaming / ps vita / display / nintendo 3ds / 3ds / psp / ec

/ permalink / / 2 months ago / Comments (View)

PS Vita releases to the West on Feb 22

Sony announced today that the PS Vita will release in North America, Latin America, Europe, Australiasia, Africa, and the Middle East on February 22, 2012.

In the U.S., you’ll have two options for the system: WiFi only for $249.99, or 3G/WiFi or $299.99. If you plan on buying one, which version will you be picking up?

Speaking of hardware coming out in February, Capcom let it slip that the 3DS Expansion Slide Pad will be out in time for Resident Evil: Revelations’ release on February 7, 2012. I have a feeling the Frankenstick accessory will launch alongside that game, what with it being one of the bigger titles boasting support for it.

Preorder: PS Vita

See also: More PS Vita coverage

tags / ps vita / psp / gaming / ec

/ permalink / / 4 months ago / Comments (View)

Mokudigi Wood Grip for PSP-3000, by Gametech. Give your PSP a touch of class with this controller grip accessory made of real mahogany for some reason. What, do you want your hand to rest on plastic? How ghastly. It just isn’t done.

With an appreciation for the finer things with which to hold your PSP, comes an appreciable price — ¥13,800 ($179). That’s almost as much as a PSP itself, but it’s a small price to pay, considering the alternative of vulgarly gripping the PSP’s own body.

Preorder: PS Vita, Buy: PSP-3000

See also: More accessories

tags / accessories / mokudigi / gametech / psp / jc / gaming

/ permalink / / 4 months ago / Comments (View)

New trailer for Time Travelers, the 3DS/PSP/Vita game coming out next year from Level-5 and 428 director Jiro Ishii. The game is said to “play out like a movie”, though it’s unclear what that means. I really like the somber tone of what I’ve seen so far here.

According to 1UP, you can hear the characters and narrator saying, “If I had kissed him”, “If that trigger hadn’t been pulled”, and “Do you think you can change fate? Would you if you could?” in the trailer. How would the future change if these events had turned out differently?

The game has five playable characters — maybe Time Travelers is Level-5’s Heavy Rain?

Buy: Nintendo 3DS (Flame Red, Black, & Blue)

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More Time Travelers posts

[Via Nintendo Everything]

tags / time travelers / gaming / level-5 / level-5 vision / imports / nintendo 3ds / 3ds / ps vita / psp / ec

/ permalink / / 4 months ago / Comments (View)

Famitsu scans for Time Travelers, that mystery Level-5 game coming to 3DS… and now PSP and PS Vita! Those of you who planned to pick this up, are you considering getting this for the Vita instead of the 3DS?

Andriasang has details on all the characters shown here (Ressentiment seems like a particularly fun/interesting guy), as well as more on the game’s story:

“Time Travelers kicks off a few years in the future as a mysterious hole called the “Lost Hole” appears in the skies above Tokyo accompanied by an explosion. Central Tokyo is destroyed, and many lives are lost.

Things jump 18 years, to 4/28/2031. Tokyo is a futuristic city, with holographic signs filling the streets, and a building called the ‘Space Elevator’ rising from Tokyo Bay. While there’s a “space” in the name, the building is only 2,000 meters high. It serves as a power source for the city.”

4/28, eh? That’s a cute nod from the game’s writer Jiro Ishii to another title he worked on called 428, which you might remember as that Wii visual novel that got a perfect 40/40 Famitsu review score but never released here.

Buy: Nintendo 3DS (Flame Red, Black, & Blue)

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More Nintendo 3DS news

[Via NintendoEverything, Andriasang; Thanks, Robert!]

tags / time travelers / imports / level-5 / gaming / nintendo 3ds / 3ds / ps vita / psp / ec

/ permalink / / 4 months ago / Comments (View)

Shuhei Yoshida reassures gamers that PS VIta is region-free. This was already sort of known, but having Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios president taking about it on Twitter is close to a sure guarantee.

Not to play system wars — just pointing out standards other handhelds should meet — but Vita’s promised lack of region-locking is a huge advantage, from a gamers’ perspective, over the 3DS. Though JC and I have already talked quite a bit about our loathing of this practice, I have to emphasize again how much it kills me that my American handheld won’t be able to play some of the interesting Japan-only 3DS titles that will be coming out.

Other nice Vita pluses revealed recently that Nintendo would do well to replicate: a first-party extended battery (not the most elegant solution), markerless augmented reality, and the ability to take in-game screenshots.

Preorder: PS Vita

See also: More PS Vita coverage

[Via @lonelypessimist]

tags / ps vita / psp / region-locking / gaming / nintendo 3ds / 3ds / imports / ec

/ permalink / / 5 months ago / Comments (View)

Vita: 3-5 hours of battery, 26 launch titles

Instead of watching Sony’s press event last night, I decided to catch up on some sleep last night after a marathon day of Nintendo Conference posting — it’s a good thing I did, too, as judging by the tweets that greeted me this morning, the show was a bore with little game footage shown.

There are some new details about the PS Vita, though! While the system still isn’t slated to hit the West until next year, the PSP successor will launch in Japan on December 17 at ¥24,980 (i$325) for Wi-Fi model and ¥29,980 ($390) for 3G/Wi-Fi model — the latter version will require a separate data plan there with NTT DoCoMo for 3G. Oh, and this doesn’t include a memory card.

Sony also revealed that the handheld will have around 3-5 hours of battery life, depending on the screen brightness and wireless features. It’s about on par with the 3DS’s battery life, much to the dismay of portable gamers.

Here are the 26 launch window games/apps for Japan:

Read More →

tags / ps vita / psp / gaming / imports / tgs 11 / ec

/ permalink / / 5 months ago / Comments (View)

Little AC Adapter by Gametech, for 3DS and PSP. For the next “Plus Palette” accessory, Gametech made this unexpected accessory, a small AC adapter that can be used to charge PSP, 3DS, DSi, and DSi XL, and includes a USB cable so you can charge them from a computer. I say “unexpected” because you don’t really think of the power cord as something that could be made pretty.

These were released in Japan on August 30 for ¥1,890 ($25) each. Man, the exchange rate is terrible right now. Speaking of the exchange rate, I’m flying to Japan in less than a week. I will be the brokest.

Buy: Nintendo 3DS (Flame Red, Black, & Blue)

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More accessories

tags / accessories / plus palette / gametech / nintendo 3ds / psp / gaming / jc

/ permalink / / 5 months ago / Comments (View)

PSP-playing couple gets some gaming in riding the subway. Ah, young love, when you’re inseparable to the point where you can’t even play video games without sharing an embrace. Or maybe they just wanted to use each others’ shoulders as headrests while they game.

Buy: Nintendo 3DS (Flame Red, Black, & Blue)

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More handholding posts (our series dedicated to exceptional photos of handheld gamers)

[Via @markmacd, GFF]

tags / ec / gaming / handholding / psp / subway

/ permalink / / 5 months ago / Comments (View)

A butt-load of PS Vita news, trailers

A surprising amount of PS Vita news and media came out this afternoon at Gamescom — if you think you missed anything, worry not, we’ve collected everything we could find on the console in this round-up post!

Today’s PS Vita news:

Every PS Vita game will be downloadable - Brilliant, especially if it means cheaper prices for the digital versions. The 3DS really needs this.
Contrary to rumors that system’s RAM was scaled back, it will have 512MB of main memory and 128MB of VRAM - PS Vita will have all the graphics.

Read More →

tags / ec / gaming / ps vita / psp / sony / gamescom

/ permalink / / 6 months ago / Comments (View)

Huge sale on DS, 3DS, & PSP games →

Amazon is holding a “Summer Road Trip Handheld Gaming Event”, slashing prices on nearly 150 Nintendo DS, 3DS, and PSP games/accessories for a limited time.

Some of the standout deals on offer:

BlazBlue CS II - $19.99, DOA Dimensions - $27.99
Professor Layton & the Curious Village - $13.91, Plants Vs. Zombies - $14.99, FF: The 4 Heroes of Light - $14.99, KH Re:coded - $19.99
Tactics Ogre - $14.99, Dissidia 012 [duodecim] Final Fantasy - $19.99, YS: The Oath in Felghana - $14.99, YS Seven - $14.99, GTA: Vice City - $9.99

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D is also cheaper than usual at Amazon, selling for $30.98!

Buy: Nintendo 3DS (Flame Red, Black, & Blue)

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

[Via Joystiq]

tags / deals / gaming / nintendo ds / 3ds / ds / psp / nintendo 3ds / amazon / ec

/ permalink / / 6 months ago / Comments (View)

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