Looking Into Portable Gaming? Look No Further

Over the past twenty years, video games have become more and more popular. Thus causing them to become extremely high-tech. I mean, there is a tiny difference in shooting one of those bad little aliens in Space Invaders, and picking off a Locust’s head with a sniper in Gears of War. But with the increasing demand for the most graphically enhanced, fast paced, most realistic game, also brings along the demand for people to bring their games wherever they go. I will talk about 3 portable systems and which ones accommodate the casual gamer, and which ones accommodate the hardcore gamer.

Nintendo DS

For anyone that doesn’t know, the DS stands for Dual-Screen. Mainly because the bottom screen is a touch screen that is used to play games and such. This one is for the casual gamer. If you want something that you can just turn on and play for 5 minutes without any commitment, this is for you. Games are mainly just leisure games for playing while your watching television or something else like that. The consoles themselves come in a variety of colors. Now for the price. Looking on-line, I found DS Lites anywhere from about $100-$150, and the newer, DSi, from about $150-$170. Of course that also doesn’t factor in the price of games. From a personal stand point (and from someone who had the original DS and the DS Lite), if you are looking to play games with a lot of action and violence, this is probably not for you.

PSP

If you’ve ever wondered what the PSP stands for, its PlayStation Portable. Mainly due to the fact that its exactly like the PlayStation gaming system, just playable on the go (hence the portable part). Anyway, the PSP is definitely one for the hardcore gamers. The choice of action games and violent games outweigh the leisure games greatly. The PSP has choices of 2 different Grand Theft Auto games, for example. The PSP even looks like more of a hardcore game console. There are 2 things that make the PSP different, though. The first would be the fact the games are on little discs inside these plastic cases. The other thing being that all of your information (your game saves, movies, music, pictures) is stored on memory sticks. Just like the ones you would use for a digital camera. When the PSP is purchased, though, a 32 megabyte stick is included. But that won’t get you too far if you want to use your PSP for more than just games. Of course you can buy extra memory sticks with various different memory amounts. Now how much does this cost, you say? Well I found the PSP Slims anywhere from $115 and up, and the Value ones from $190 and up. Now I still have my PSP that i bought when it first came out and I do find myself playing it from time to time but mainly because of the next (and last) piece of technology I’m going to talk about.

IPhone/IPod Touch

Now before you say to yourself, “What the….? This is a music device and a phone and everything but where do games come into play?” let me explain. The IPhone is quickly breaking through as a powerful gaming device for many reasons. One reason is the look of the games. All of the popular games on the IPhone (and there is A LOT) are beautifully crafted pieces of art. Most games event look and feel better than the DS and PSP. Second is convenience. People are always going to have their phones with them so they will always have their gaming library with them. Third reason is because the games are for both casual and hardcore gamers. Whether you’re looking for a nice little fun puzzle game or  a fast-paced, action, shoot-em-up game, you won’t leave the app store unsatisfied. And the last reason is definitely price. There are thousands of 99 cent games in the App Store that will not disappoint you. Game prices can go from 99 cents, to the most expensive ones being $10. Which still is not bad considering you would have to slap down 40 or 50 bucks for a new PSP or DS game. In fact, there are even some games in the App Store that were once DS and PSP games but you can snag them for 4 or 5 dollars. Now, the price of the system itself. A new IPhone 3G S is $199 for the 16 GB and $299 for the 32 GB. But you can also get the IPhone 3G’s starting at $99. Now if you are looking for an IPod Touch, they start around $200.

Well that’s it. Those are the 3 portable gaming devices and my 2 cents on each. I hope this helped and I hope you read some of my other articles and my articles to come. Thanks.