Poll: My phone is my mobile gaming device

[AugustFall]

I have owned just about every Gameboy released. The original gameboy to the pocket to the color to the advance. The DS lite was my last purchase and it recently gained new life with my purchases of DQ9 and Pokemon Black. However it has since become unplayable as the screen become lighter and lighter as I play to the point that it is unplayable. There is a joke in there but I won't make it.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/8/1/

This comic made me think about why I haven't picked up a 3DS and why I most likely won't. I think it's a cool piece of kit but it was too expensive when it came out and honestly now that it's imo pretty well priced I probably won't get it because I recently got an iPhone.
My first mobile game was a free tower defence game which was fine for short trips on public transport or whenever I had 5 minutes to burn. My second game Zenonia 3 however blew it out of the water. It's a straight up grindfest koreon mmo style but in the guise of a Zelda clone. And honestly it hands down beats most games I played on the DS in terms of mobile gaming.
Zenonia has incredibly fast save times and if you press the home button it does a sort of quicksave and you can immediately go back to where you were. This is what I want from mobile gaming, the pick up and playability is far superior to anything I got on the DS.

This made me wonder whether there were two branches of mobile gaming. The "I want a console in my hands" and the "I want to burn 5-15 minutes and play and drop as fast possible". The more powerful handhelds have become the more they have delved down the former however phones are kind of restricted to the latter. At the end of the day no matter what I play on my phone I have to be able to take a call at any time.

What do you think? Have hand held consoles lost their mobility in attempting to emulate home consoles? Is this fine?

 

[AyreonMaiden]

Nope. Not for me, anyway, cause it's easy for me to remember where I'm at in a big game.

I have an iPhone, and my favorite game is Galaxy on Fire 2...an Elite/Wing Commander: Privateer- style space sim.

The DS is sorely lacking a PSP-esque "turn off the system, turn it on, and find your game right where you left it" feature, which is why it's a bigger pain for me to play that instead of my PSP or iPhone.

 

[Worgen]

Nope. Not for me, anyway, cause it's easy for me to remember where I'm at in a big game.

I have an iPhone, and my favorite game is Galaxy on Fire 2...an Elite/Wing Commander: Privateer- style space sim.

The DS is sorely lacking a PSP-esque "turn off the system, turn it on, and find your game right where you left it" feature, which is why it's a bigger pain for me to play that instead of my PSP or iPhone.

actually its got a really good one, just flip it and it goes into sleep while keeping your game paused

 

[AyreonMaiden]

Nope. Not for me, anyway, cause it's easy for me to remember where I'm at in a big game.

I have an iPhone, and my favorite game is Galaxy on Fire 2...an Elite/Wing Commander: Privateer- style space sim.

The DS is sorely lacking a PSP-esque "turn off the system, turn it on, and find your game right where you left it" feature, which is why it's a bigger pain for me to play that instead of my PSP or iPhone.

actually its got a really good one, just flip it and it goes into sleep while keeping your game paused

You know, I always hesitate to do that because when I flip open the system, I immediately reach for the power switch, so I tend to turn it off when I try to come back from Sleep Mode!

What's the battery life while on Sleep Mode, anyway? Cause if it's like the PSP's, then I could get used to that very easily...

 

[Worgen]

Nope. Not for me, anyway, cause it's easy for me to remember where I'm at in a big game.

I have an iPhone, and my favorite game is Galaxy on Fire 2...an Elite/Wing Commander: Privateer- style space sim.

The DS is sorely lacking a PSP-esque "turn off the system, turn it on, and find your game right where you left it" feature, which is why it's a bigger pain for me to play that instead of my PSP or iPhone.

actually its got a really good one, just flip it and it goes into sleep while keeping your game paused

You know, I always hesitate to do that because when I flip open the system, I immediately reach for the power switch, so I tend to turn it off when I try to come back from Sleep Mode!

What's the battery life while on Sleep Mode, anyway? Cause if it's like the PSP's, then I could get used to that very easily...

I forget what it is in the ds but the 3ds has pretty good life in sleep mode, Id say like 6 or 7 hours or more

 

[mireko]

I don't use my PSP on the bus, 5-15 minutes are easily spent daydreaming or listening to music (or both). When I bring mine along it's usually for flights or long train rides. There's also the comfort of being able to move the console and play wherever you want when at home. Obviously a pause/autosave/sleep function is necessary to make it practical, but all the handhelds have those.

Besides, long RPGs seem like they would get tedious with a touchscreen.

As for the 3DS, one thing I will not forgive in a handheld is regional lockout. It's 2011. Don't be dicks, Nintendo.

 

[theevilgenius60]

All I use when on the go is my iPhone. Plenty of good games on the AppStore and I don't have to buy a new system(yeah, I typed this on it too, otherwise the names would lack the capitalization that the phone gave automatically). I'm just waiting for gameloft to come with dungeon hunter 3, because 1&2 were pretty awesome for iPhone games.
Captcha: found ulleme, is anybody missing one?

 

[neonsword13-ops]

Look at the PSVita.

It's offering UNCHARTED FIDELITY on the handheld. That might make me get rid of my old PSP.

 

[Laser Priest]

I don't have a mobile gaming device.

I have wi-fi connections and/or books.

 

[Gaiseric]

I only tried to play my PSP and Gameboy color(way back in the day) as a mobile device once and then never again 'cause it wasn't comfortable and the screen was difficult to see.

My phone doesn't play games(not good ones anyway) and I don't use my PSP for mobile gaming. If I need entertainment on the go I grab a book and my mp3 player.

Potable systems seem too bulky for me anyway. Especially now that it is hot and I don't wear a jacket to hold my PSP in.

 

[ferd mertz]

I had a PSP and I got bored with it after a month. I just couldn't justify paying that kinda money (even old and used) for those games. A few months ago I bought an ipod touch and I love it. Nearly all of the games are $1 so I can buy a couple a week and even if the game gets old after an hour or two I got my moneys worth. Also, alot of iphone games are more arcadey and make more sense to only play for 5-15 minutes. Really, who wants to play Metal Gear for 5 minutes?

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I use an emulator on my phone to play gameboy advance games. Why? Because I barely have the goddamn pocket space to carry a wallet, car keys, cellphone, MP3 player, sunglasses, zippo lighter, and pocket knife, much less make room for a handheld game system.

 

[RUINER ACTUAL]

When I'm out and about, the last thing on my mind is gaming. I usually use my phone to check facebook and twitter, listen to music, and check the news. I have a PSP but haven't used it regularly in a long time. I don't want to carry all that stuff around. Plus I'm driving or doing a task, I don't have time to just play a game whenever. Gaming is for home. A few times a month I'll crack open Angry Birds, but that's about it mobile wise.

 

[SnowyGamester]

My phone isn't my mobile gaming device, my mobile gaming device is my phone (Xperia Play, I use it for games more than phoning)

Both styles of games can work in a portable setting, however anything other than arcade style titles need to have a quick save and load feature otherwise if you are relying on checkpoints or save stations, etc you won't get anywhere when playing for short periods...this is why emulators are good as you can immediately resume as the exact moment you left.

 

[AugustFall]

My phone isn't my mobile gaming device, my mobile gaming device is my phone (Xperia Play, I use it for games more than phoning)

Both styles of games can work in a portable setting, however anything other than arcade style titles need to have a quick save and load feature otherwise if you are relying on checkpoints or save stations, etc you won't get anywhere when playing for short periods...this is why emulators are good as you can immediately resume as the exact moment you left.

How is the xperia play? What does it play? Is it PSP games? Is there Playstation home support?

 

[SnowyGamester]

How is the xperia play? What does it play? Is it PSP games? Is there Playstation home support?

It is an android phone so it plays stuff made for android. Unfortunately this means no PSP games unless ports are made (I havn't seen any yet), but it means access to basically everything else for android such as all the pretty good clones made by gameloft (asphalt, modern combat, etc) , a few other high quality third party titles (EA has thrown a few things on there like need for speed and worms) as well as plenty of emulators (basically most games for everything up to PS1 and N64 will run smoothly) and a few PS1 classics ported by sony themselves specifically for the play (crash bandicoot, destruction derby and a few others I'm not sure of), and ofcourse minecraft is coming.

Also it's a phone and plays mp3 and video and does all the web stuff with a fairly capable browser so it's all I need on the go.

I don't think it has playstation home though, at least not yet.