New Toys, Old Toys

Unfortunately Blogger picture upload is playing up so I can't show the photo of my lovely, shiny and, so far, uncracked DS Lite. The touch-screen and actively imaginitive game design (plus the unstoppable power of mario kart) places this leagues above the somewhat clonky PSP, even though Sony's portable beast has the edge in multimedia support. The DS concentrates on providing an enjoyable portable experience that, crucially, feels like a portable experience - the worry is that Sony falls into the same macho trap with PS3, in simply trying to stuff in features without much thought as to how they work together. Microsoft have integrated multimedia functionality into their console (as anyone whose witnessed my Battlefield 2 'War is Hell' playlist in operation will testify) - it feels natural and the interface design is pretty much flawless for gaming. With blu-ray, online stuff and motion-sensing controllers the impression is that Sony is simply trying to be a jack of all trades - with associated failings.

Continuing on a Nintendo tip, have salvaged my NES. Still seems to be working and the chunky 80s design really has got classic status written all over it. Remains to be seen if the games are still playable though - a trial run with Super Mario 3 was rather encouraging.