I picked up a PSP from a friend. For free. With DJ Max Portable, Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and LocoRoco. I’m impressed. It’s fun stuff. And I love the X Media Bar interface. Pure brilliance in interface design. I’m an experienced interface designer and as a result, an interface whore.

I’ve got it homebrewed so I can do emulator stuff and all that, but haven’t tried it a whole hell of a lot yet. But it seems promising and awesome.

My only problem with it so far is all the games I’ve played are very, very console-oriented. Nothing that screams “portable game!” I dig the DS cause it’s full of portable-friendly games which couldn’t work on a home console, but work brilliantly on a portable device. It’s for this reason I’m looking forward to Disgaea portable. Disgaea is one of my favorite franchises _ever_. I just haven’t played the PS2 versions a hell of a lot, cause really, these types of games scream “PORTABLE!” I expect to spend the next several years of my life bombing through Disgaea portable (whenever it comes out) leveling up my characters to whatever obscene levels Disgaea allows you to rock.

The PSP really needs to focus more on the portable games. Who has time on their commutes to have a meaningful game of Metal Gear or Ratchet? Not many. As far as portables go, in my opinion, casual, rewarding, short-spurt games win the intertubes. The PSP needs these. But they have a rockass release schedule for 2007 and it should help matters quite a lot.

Views aside, I’m absolutely loving the new installments of Ratchet (my favorite platformer franchise of all time, Sly Cooper in close second) and Daxter (I enjoyed the first Jak game, wasn’t too hot on the others). Daxter seems, so far, to return to a simpler, more light-hearted take on the franchise. It’s great stuff. LocoRoco is also great, dumb, portable fun.

Sexy device. I don’t know why it gets so much flack. Other than the price point and lameass packins.

And the display quality? Christ. I wanna have its babies.

I love it. Sony did something right since the PS2. It doesn’t make me want to get a PS3. Nothing ever will. It’s a N64-caliber slap in the face to gamers. But hey. More faith in Sony from a newly-initiated Sony hater is a step in the right direction. My love is likely pushed along heavily by the fact that the PSP was totally free to me. But hey. If I actually bought it, I wouldn’t be too pissed.