I am a gamer, and believe I will never stop being one. So now, all grown up and parent of two beautiful kids, I am influencing the lives of my kids to be gamers as well, and as I got older, I also believe I became more objective when deciding what to buy and what not. Well when I was a teenager I had not enough money to buy a Nintendo NES, a Super NES, Sega Genesis, Play Station, N64 and a PS2 or all the other I forgot to mention. I was a Nintendo Fan Boy because I only had a Nintendo console and had little money when trying to buy games. But hey, work finally paid off and had enough to afford a DS and a PSP, and now a days a Wii and a PS3, so why is History repeating itself. I will dish out my opinion.

The previous time it was DS versus PSP. I certainly remember my eyes watering trying to get the super tech loaded PSP while the DS was already out with higher then anybody expected sales and really fun games like Mario Kart DS. I also remember how "Shoe" editor in chief at EGM pointed out how technologically superior the PSP was over the DS. But then again, time has written the story, and a more diverse audience picked up the DS over the PSP, for crying out loud, even one of my older sisters, a grandma is playing the DS, DS Lite or DSi even today.

When I got my PSP, my wife gave it to me a Fathers day present. I was eternally thankful. I carried the thing around, showed it to all my non-gamer friends, loaded videos and music to the memory card, played some games, participated in a Beta Test of a FPS, and gess what. I left my DS fat to carry this high tech device, that after a month or two was just to cumbersome to carry, the battery life was terrible, battery packs expensive. The movie disks as expensive as a full dvd version, I mean all wrong. And just to add some icing on the cake, the game of the year was Lumines, "Lumines" a puzzle game with great music was the best of the PSP for a very long time. The controls never felt good for a shooting game, even today.

So a few months later a went back to my DS, portable with great battery life, touch screen with Metroid and Zelda and all the goodies I had enjoyed in my wonder years. The DS Lite came out, I bougth one, DSi I bougth one. Te PSP lite came out, I did not care, bundle packs came and went, PSP Go, actually went...

Time went by and portability never has been better then the DS, even with clunkier graphics. But Nintendo has kept fun and entertaining games moving along their consoles, with some inovation on avery cycle. Not the PSP not Sony, even though I love my PS3, high res and all that is cool but not for my kids.

So now here we are again, watching the two giants of portable console gaming attempting a new generational face off. The 3DS with no glasses 3D graphics a bigger screen and some bells and whistles, against the yet to be mass produced PSP2. 3DS again first to hit the market. PSP2 maybe until november. Sony CEOs CFOs and all the Os tend to lie about their plans and change the schedules. 3DS only one to really innovate with the "no glasses 3D graphics", PSP2 again with more of what we already know, motion sensors and touchscreens (one in the back that will get scratched and all, what's up?), 3DS again with lower resolutions than the PSP2, 3DS kinda lower tech, PSP2 super high tech, so high you are afraid to carry it because you might break it.

After seeing these two companies, Nintendo and Sony, face off again, I really would like to see less copying from Sony and more true innovation. Sony is a great company, but I feel they are only packing stuff in a small container with technologies that are already out there, and they are too slow to copy. If the new motion sensor control for the PS3 is not resemblant of a copied Wiimote, I do not what it is. All devices now have motion sensors even the 3DS, common Sony I expected more of a electronic giant.

So i believe my conclusion is very obvious. The 3DS will lead again the new generation of portable consoles, and maybe there will be a real contender very soon for both companies, because the iPhone is catching up very fast, and guess what even my sister plays with it.

Little N.