Pushing the Playstation Portable (PSP) to its Absolute Limit!

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PSP versus Nintendo DS was one of those nasty, no holds barred console wars that turned brother against brother back in the day. I don't know why, but it was the most vicious consumer spat in recent memory. Sony fans really loved their PSPs* and Nintendo fans really loved the DS.

I remember saving screenshots of posts confidently predicting the DS would flop, dominated by the PSP, and that Nintendo would become a third party developer for other consoles as a result. In the end they were wrong, but enough years passed before that was proven that I matured to the point where I no longer cared what gaming handheld sold the most units.

To be fair, PSP was an impressive technological leap forward when it came out in 2004. The huge widescreen display, texture filtering (which the DS lacked), built in optical disc drive (which the DS also lacked, but was right to) it was truly a marvel by 2004 standards with capabilities that wouldn't be seen in any other portable device until the first iPhone came out 3 years later.

So it's understandable how some could compare it to the DS, which had much more modest hardware, and conclude the PSP would easily win. Most of them too young to have witnessed the various iterations of the Gameboy curb stomping technologically superior competing handhelds like the Game Gear, Lynx and TurboExpress one at a time.

Success was never mainly down to the power of a games machine, but to the quality of its exclusive titles. That's what really compels consumers to buy one machine over another. Especially in a portable, advanced graphics comes at various costs like diminished battery life and a price tag that will turn away parents buying gifts for their children in favor of a cheaper competitor.

Nevertheless, the PSP still has a following today along with its successor, the Vita. Whether Sony continues making handhelds or not remains to be seen, as neither the PSP nor the Vita competed favorably with the Nintendo DS or 3DS. But PSP devotees just keep coding for it, producing astonishing demos like 'Suicide Barbie', by The Black Lotus:

When you don't need to run game logic, a lot of cycles are freed up to improve the visuals. Even moreso when it's non-interactive, so you know exactly where the camera will be pointing throughout the demo and can fine tune how much is onscreen at any given point to optimize framerate.

The fruits of these techniques can be seen in the fantastic "Lick It!" by Titan, Tristar and Red Sector Inc:

The same demo scene wizards also brought us "Bloody Memories", once again busting straight through the limits of what's supposed to be possible on this platform. That's the demo scene spirit, and what demos are all about:

But what about games? The PSP had a great many graphically stunning games that far exceeded what could be done on the Nintendo DS. That wasn't enough to grant it the edge in sales, but it doesn't diminish the wonder of seeing actual real time stencil shadows in Silent Hill: Origins on PSP:

Resistance: Retribution was the handheld companion to Resistance: Fall of Man for PS3, yet another "Halo killer" that never lived up to that promise. Very impressive to look at however, with bloom lighting and what looks to be legit shaders on the occasional body of water.

God of War, which also made my list of impressive PS2 games recently, makes this list as well. It proves that the PSP in fact slightly exceeded the power of the PS2, boasting comparable polycounts but shaders and lighting effects that were only seen on Xbox at the time.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is notable not for lighting effects or shaders, but the size of the maps and absence of any discernible pop-in despite the relatively high polygon count of the environment:

Soul Calibur has always been a stunner, in every iteration and on every machine it's ever been ported to. From the first home version on Dreamcast, to the obscure PSP version, it never failed to wow from a visual standpoint. It's up in the air whether this or Tekken 6 is prettier:

Having mentioned Tekken 6 I can hardly leave it out. Fighting games are kind of cheating when it comes to graphics though. All they have to render is two combatants and a background environment, so they tend to be the best looking titles for any system they're found on. Tekken 6 is no exception:

That's it for this edition. Did you own a PSP? What made you choose it over the DS? If it was the graphics, which game impressed you the most in that respect? Are there any stunners that I've overlooked? Sound off in the comments, and stay tuned for subsequent issues in this series!

^{Stay Cozy!}