Gp2x Vs Psp Vs Nds

[wipeout2000]

WARNING: Long Post

Ok so I'm sure people are always wondering "which system should I get?" since they are all very different systems. So I will try to be as unbiased as possible. I recently purchased a psp so I officially have all 3 handhelds , as I'm sure many people here do to. So I am here to share my experiences about each system so that maybe people can have an easier time comparing.

PSP
=============================
Good
--------------------------------------------
- Looks very sleek
- D-pad is decent.
- Has a varied library of games.
- Has a lot of very advanced homebrew programs and emulators
- Snes plays pretty well (couldn't run megaman x3 at full speed though )
- Has a lot of usefull buttons (such as Home, screen dim, music, hold)
- Headphones plug is in bottom
- USB connection to pc works flawlessly
- Media player is simple yet powerful.
- Mp3 player is decent.
- Wireless browser works well (but it can become difficult to navigate pages on your psp)
- Pretty good battery life -- comparable to gp2x (but ofcourse that depends on your gp2x battery and the graphics of the psp game)
- Loading is not too too bad but that really depends on the manufacturer.
- Many iso games are surprisingly small (can be ~200 to 800 mb)
- Nice array of extra features such as flash player, rss feed, etc...
- Overall professional presentation

Bad
--------------------------------------------
- Although varied, I feel many of the games are missing the fun factor.
- Analog stinks... period.
- Getting homebrew to work is getting increasingly difficult (The newer motherboards don't allow downgrades) therefore developers are making multiple versions of homebrew programs to work in newer and older firmwares... :angry:
- There are many corrupt files in the memory card menu that can be hard to manage when you install homebrew.
- Graphics are surprisingly jagged and "choppy" in many, many 3d games. (Tekken DR looks like Tekken 2).
- Cheap screens (I already have 3 stuck pixels, hope my gamestop warranty covers it )
- Most umd games require you to upgrade in order to play them (better use a firmware emulator if you want to play your real games)
- Many iso's are hard to get a hold of and are missing important things like music (a game w/o music... come on....)
- Some of the games feel way too scaled down for the sake of avoiding long loading time (eg. dynasty warriors)
- Although the system is very sleek and looks sexier than gp2x in my opinion, the buttons need more durability (easily wear out).



NDS (Original not DS Lite)
===============================
Good
-------------------------------------
- Games are cartridges
- Games are very small
- Impressive 3d for such an underpowered system
- Touch screen can be surprisingly fun
- Dual screen is actually very useful in a lot of games (castlevania)
- Free online play (very cool feature, although not used very well in all games)
- Semi durable because of the clam shell design
- Backwards compatability
- Damn long battery life (No seriously freaking long battery life)
- Good nintendo warranty (Nintendo said they would replace if it had just 1 dead pixel)
- Decently priced games
- It has a good number of killer apps (ie. really good games that are addicting)
- Game sharing
- No strict limitations on homebrew
- Unique games

Bad
-------------------------------------------
- Limitations in graphics can get disappointing at times
- Some ports and games can be horrible quality.
- Very fat and ugly design (fixed with DS lite but what about all of us that bought it before ds lite...)
- Screens can be small
- No analog
- No way to connect directly to pc
- Lack of media features (without homebrew apps ofcourse)
- Online play can be very very limited
- Touch screen isn't always properly implemented and can even become annoying.
- Although it has a unique game library, it is still missing some high quality classic genre games (like a good fighting game, sports game, or rpg [although ff3 is coming out])
- Like with most of their systems, nintendo seems to make the best games out of all the developers using the same mascots (mario kart, mario 64 ds, metroid prime hunters, zelda, kirby canvas curse, etc.)


GP2x
================================
Good
--------------------------------------------
- No limitations on homebrew
- Very versatile (has many uses)
- Allows you to use AA batterys (for some this is a negative, but trust me it is very very very useful)
- Supports popular and cheap SD card format
- Homebrew development is much easier for gp2x
- Supports mp3's and divx (avi) videos.
- Screen is pretty good quality
- Has a very good range of high quality emulators
- Has an amazing and supportive community (Very very important for the sake of development of homebrew and emulators).
- Allows for expansion (ie. Breakout box)
- Has TV-out
- Can have a long battery life depending on quality of batteries and charger
- A good number of high quality ports have been developed
- New features are constantly being added via firmware updates
- Manufacturer is actually responsive to consumer needs and requests (to a very very limited extent)
- Direct USB connection
- Supports high resolution videos.
- Allows for a good amount of system customization
- Does not brick like it used to

Bad
-----------------------------------------------
- No wireless
- USB connection can be unreliable
- Joystick is pretty crappy.
- Does not support all the video formats it says it would support (as of yet, possible change with firmware upgrade)
- Does not come with AC Adapter
- Has limited 3d capabilities
- System does not look as sleek as psp or ds lite.
- Does not have the professional feel of a psp or ds as it can be buggy at times (eg. It sometimes crashes or the screens gets a bunch of different colored lines when its low on battery)
- Has a limited commercial game library as of today


So in conclusion I feel that each of these systems have their strengths and weakneses. Hopefully by reading through this you can have a good idea of what you want in a system and hopefully it might help you decide. From my experiences so far this is how I place the systems, although I don't know if it might change in the future (1 being first obviously): 1) GP2x 2) NDS 3) PSP

 

[Vollgasasi]

first: great summary, covers everything that is worth mentioning, great job.
second: i cannot agree with you in one thing and that is 'nds: no analog

i think the analog implemantation via the touchscreen works pretty good. never had a problem so far with mario, etc. '

 

[BenRoshi]

You should check out an import game called Bleach for the DS if you're looking for a fighter for it. It was made by treasure, need I say more ?

 

[Ranma13]

Although pretty comprehensive, a lot of it is more opinion than facts. I myself am partial to the DS but I have to admit, I play GBA games on it a lot more than I do NDS games.

 

[andrewmc]

I'm glad you agree with me that while the PSP does have impressive graphics the games arn't really that great. Tekken seems like the only one worth buying, if you go to Gamespot.com you'll see that barely any PSP games can score above an 8.

 

[wipeout2000]

yea by no means take it as fact. its strictly opinion. im sure people can disagree with me on some points like the analog or wireless, but i hope ppl can take wat they can from it. i tried to be as fair as i could, but im sure there are a bunch of ppl that think psp games are excellent quality etc..

 

[hitbyambulance]

OGG/Vorbis support and integrated text reader were two features that drew me to the GP2X (tho the text reader does not perform as promised... but i just use 2xBook)

 

[Dzz]

yea by no means take it as fact. its strictly opinion. im sure people can disagree with me on some points like the analog or wireless, but i hope ppl can take wat they can from it. i tried to be as fair as i could, but im sure there are a bunch of ppl that think psp games are excellent quality etc..

I picked up a used PSP a month ago or so. I only have one game for it -- Wipeout Pure -- which I think is pretty amazingly good.

 

[ste_167]

Loco Roco looks very interesting, but I've not played it.

Get hold of Mercury, that's all I ever played on my PSP. It's like a gloopy Super Monkey Ball. And poisonous.

 

[piemaster]

You seem to have forgotten about one bad point for the PSP the built in speakers are rubbish if you want decent
sound from it you have to wear headphones or buy a large set of external speakers.

I have to admit there are some nice games for it but not to many I do agree with you on the analog stick it is a peace of crap i think they should of had a decent one above the D pad.
The DS seems to have more interesting games for it.

 

[ste_167]

The DS has some great games and more in the future that I'm looking forward to. Kirby Canvas Curse is my personal favourite. However, like Ranma13, I too tend to play GBA games on it more.

btw the touchscreen on the original DS is better than the Lite's. The Lite's is 'squidgier' and feels like you're doing it damage, whereas the original feels far more durable and precise.

 

[telegramguy]

I'm glad you agree with me that while the PSP does have impressive graphics the games arn't really that great. Tekken seems like the only one worth buying, if you go to Gamespot.com you'll see that barely any PSP games can score above an 8.

The PSP's Street Fighter anthology is pretty amazing. Old school but is pretty much a complete compilation. The 16:9 display ratio also makes it better than the original 4:3 IMO.

 

[DaveC]

Always the talk of "no wireless" :rolleyes:

I am glad it doesn't have it. It would just add to cost and suck power. The GP2X would make a shitty internet device anyway so no big loss, that should be in the plus column. Why does EVERY device have to go on the net? I don't get the obsession with wireless these days.

 

[DijiTao]

Always the talk of "no wireless" :rolleyes:

I am glad it doesn't have it. It would just add to cost and suck power. The GP2X would make a shitty internet device anyway so no big loss, that should be in the plus column. Why does EVERY device have to go on the net? I don't get the obsession with wireless these days.

I just wish it had a built-in powered USB host port that you could stick a wifi dongle in-- Would it have been that hard to make this:
http://sprite.student.utwente.nl/~jeroen/projects/gp2x-usb/
standard?

 

[winapa]

You never mentioned the excellent sound on the DS, Mario 64 has some superb surround effects from the DS' 2 speakers.

Personally, having played a PSP (not mine, but a mates) I found it to be lacking the pick up and play factor almost completely. There isn't anything you can just play for 5 minutes, you need to have a prolonged period on almost all games in order to get the best out of them. This is another plus for the DS and arguably the GP2x depending on what you've got on your SD card.

 

[Epicenter]

Always the talk of "no wireless" :rolleyes:

I am glad it doesn't have it. It would just add to cost and suck power. The GP2X would make a shitty internet device anyway so no big loss, that should be in the plus column. Why does EVERY device have to go on the net? I don't get the obsession with wireless these days.

Those aren't terribly valid arguments when 802.11x chipsets are so inexpensive you can buy a USB WiFi adapter for under $10-- purchased in bulk they're extremely cheap. Wiring one up to the USB connections on the MMSP2 and attaching a simple internal antenna would be very easy and cheap. Power would be addressed by the chipset and the transmitter not being powered when not in use. However, I will say that WiFi makes little sense on the GP2X since 2 AAs, even 2800MaH+, will likely not exceed 90 minutes of life if it's engaged, as a 2.4 GHz transmitter uses loads of power. The only real exception to this is short-range radio connections with a low-wattage transmitter like that in the DS which has difficulty exceeding about 30 feet, but is more convenient than a link cable. This would be feasible for multiplayer use with multiple '2xes but not terribly useful for internet access (not that the '2x, as you said, is well suited for it with no logical text entry system, touch screen or accurate pointing device.)

 

[DaveC]

Always the talk of "no wireless" :rolleyes:

I am glad it doesn't have it. It would just add to cost and suck power. The GP2X would make a shitty internet device anyway so no big loss, that should be in the plus column. Why does EVERY device have to go on the net? I don't get the obsession with wireless these days.

Those aren't terribly valid arguments when 802.11x chipsets are so inexpensive you can buy a USB WiFi adapter for under $10-- purchased in bulk they're extremely cheap. Wiring one up to the USB connections on the MMSP2 and attaching a simple internal antenna would be very easy and cheap. Power would be addressed by the chipset and the transmitter not being powered when not in use. However, I will say that WiFi makes little sense on the GP2X since 2 AAs, even 2800MaH+, will likely not exceed 90 minutes of life if it's engaged, as a 2.4 GHz transmitter uses loads of power. The only real exception to this is short-range radio connections with a low-wattage transmitter like that in the DS which has difficulty exceeding about 30 feet, but is more convenient than a link cable. This would be feasible for multiplayer use with multiple '2xes but not terribly useful for internet access (not that the '2x, as you said, is well suited for it with no logical text entry system, touch screen or accurate pointing device.)

Then there is the fact that the GP2X isn't popular enough for multiplayer anyway, and there aren't many "real" games for the system that would use it. Emulators wouldn't use it. Good luck finding anyone with a GP2X within wireless range as well.

That $10.00 would be better spent putting in a second SD slot. This way you could add the SDIO card of your choice, wireless being one of the choices, and the other slot would be for storage etc. This gives the user the choice as to what is added. You could even use both slots for memory so you could have a whopping 8 GB of storage.

 

[FQ22]

When the PSP first came out, I was really excited just to be dissapointed that almost every single game required a firmware upgrade. So I lost the homebrew apps and emulators. Now I need GTA to play them? Very Stupid, thats why I got a GP2X. If I get another PSP (i still have my other one) its gonna be homebrew freindly. Great Summary by the way.