It’s already December! One more month left to enjoy myself.

It’s amazing. The last time I checked, the spam count you can see on the right hand side bar was somewhere in the nine thousands. Looks like some spam bots decided to strike and it’s now over ten thousand. What horror.

SAT II was pretty okay though there were some questions that were just weird and I made a careless mistake.

I went for an overnight gaming session at Kian Yong’s place last night with our handy dandy DS. It was pretty fun though the number of players were a little lacking and he couldn’t stay up too late as he had to work at Sitex today.

Singaporeans seem to prefer the Sony PSP over the DS but global sales speaks otherwise.

Why is this not seen in Singapore?

Firstly, I think there is a common perception that Nintendo only publishes “kiddish” games like Pokémon and Mario though I would have to question if Mario is really that childish. I’ll be the first one to admit I play both these games and well you can call me childish. But look again, the DS has three Final Fantasy games as well: III, XII sequel just for DS and Tactics A2. Need for speed? Surely, these games are not that “kiddish”?

Secondly, Singaporeans probably go for the PSP for its better hardware in terms of graphics. Though I admit the DS does have inferior specs, you don’t need good graphics for a game to be good. Hmm, veterans could probably think of some examples but I’ll just spare my brain from this.

Thirdly, this is purely speaking from my family: Singaporeans seem to have a preference for things that come from the brand “Sony”. Well, I would rather get a Sony Bravia TV than an Aquos.

Fourthly, the PSP can play videos/music built in. I think this is a pretty valid point to get the PSP if you just prefer to listen/watch some entertainment on the go. (Also, it seems like Sony and Nintendo have stated they are targeting different markets: the portable entertainment and gaming markets respectively.) Well, the DS can do that as well, albeit with some illegal flash carts. This might change in the future when Nintendo decides to release something “legal” for video playback.

As for my reason for getting the DS, it basically runs down to it having most of the games I want to play. Nothing related to being a fanboy of Nintendo.

Well, these are just my observations and purely anecdotal. I am not bashing the PSP in any way. It’s a matter of preference and I thought I would just dispel some of the misconceptions about the DS.

P.S.: Initially, Kian Yong wanted to get a PSP but it seems like he changed his mind for the same reason as I did for getting the DS.

Tags: nintendo ds