Nintendo DS Lite

(Handheld game consoles)

"Offers a lot of cool games, though admittedly, these days none of them are very spectacular. Games like Super Mario 64 DS, Metroid Prime Hunters, and Advance Wars early on made the DS a great game system. These days, though, many of the games are half-assed, and attempt to push the DS's hardware passed what it's capable of (and it's 3D capabilities, while surprising at times, isn't always that good). Although around 50-70% of the games released for this system are neglectable, the rest are more than enough to buy the DS, just so long as you pick the right games.

Also, there are cartridges out that allow you to compress a large amount of your games into a micro sd card and play them at will, eliminating the hassle of carrying around a bunch of separate cartridges with you all the time. There's also some fun homebrew games and apps to play, some giving the DS video and mp3 player capabilities (though its ability as a video player is pretty limited). Overall, it's worth buying if you enjoy portable games that are more on the mild side, and aren't obsessed with spectacular graphics."

Review date: 9 Jul, 2009

Sony PlayStation Portable

(Handheld game consoles)

"I got one off ebay for about 80 bucks and it does everything I want it to. Plays beautiful games like FF: Crisis Core and Monster Hunter Freedom 2, the videos play at a good resolution, and it works great as an mp3 player too. On top of that, once it's hacked, you're open to all kinds of homebrew games and apps, and have the ability to store your UMDs on the memory card, making carrying games easy. I got 6GBs of PSX games, PSP games, emulators, and a bunch of homebrew stuff and I carry this thing around with me everywhere."

Review date: 9 Jul, 2009