Handheld Gaming Fevor, Part 1

My fascination with hand held game systems stems from my childhood, when the very first video game system I ever owned–in all its monochromatic glory–was the original Gameboy. I treasured the two hours a day that my parents allowed me to spend on it, and my adoration clouded my judgment of the mostly crappy games I played on it.

Fast forward eight years, and now I have enough disposable income to actually buy these things on my own.

Insightful commentary after the jump! I bought the DS around six months ago new, and I bought the PSP a month ago used. I purchased the PSP after hearing that Final Fantasy 7 had a prequel coming out on the PSP. I’ll admit, it was an impulse buy.

I did have other motivations though. I bought the DS with the thought that I would have this unlimited library of games available for my perusal, just like I did with my old Gameboy. Well, as it turned out age made me a whole lot more picky with my game selection.

As best as I can remember, here’s the list of game’s I’ve played on the DS.

• Mario Kart DS
• New Super Mario Bros
• Final Fantasy III
• Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
• Pokemon: Diamond
• Advance Wars: Duel Strike
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
• Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

All great games. Problem being, those are pretty much the cream of the crop. With a few exceptions, I can’t see myself buying any more games that have been released thus far for the DS. I’ve heard good things about Lunar Knights and the upcoming Ninja Gaiden DS ;I’ll probably play the rest of the Phoenix Wright series if they live up to the quality of the first game, and I’ll definitely be picking up Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Other then that, I can’t see myself playing anything else that I’ve heard about this year.

My PSP purchase is supposed to be the answer to that, but in the interests of brevity I’ll save my dissertation on PSP games for another post. Stay tuned for Handheld Gaming Fevor, Part 2!