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Retro What were your experiences with Sony's handhelds? (PSP and Vita)

lemonfresh

lemonfresh

#Team2024
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I remember getting my psp since launch year back in 2005 and I absolulty loved it so many great games (crisis core, metal gear peace walker, kh birth by sleep etc.) I remember playing it every day back then. When the psvita came out though I wasent really interested in it that much also it was a bit too expensive at the time including the memory card so I missed out on all the great games on there. But I have great memories with the psp and its games and I heard from my friends who owned the vita that they loved it. With the new portal device dosent seem like they are going to dedicated handhelds at least for now.
 
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I absolutely loved them both. PSP had stacks of great games. Vita I used more for PSOne and PSP games but it still had a few oddities I enjoyed, mostly rpgs and hunting games, particularly Freedom Wars and various Ys games. I mostly credit the Vita with getting me hooked on exploring indies through PS+, I used to download them and play them on the train to work.

I didn’t really use any of the multimedia functions on either though, I just liked them as portable games consoles.
 
I was hyped as heck for the PSP. I was in eighth grade when it came out, and I was firmly in the PSP camp when it came to the PSP vs DS warz. I got it at launch and loved it for years. I eventually got a DS and loved it too, but the PSP was special. I still love that thing.

I never had a Vita, but I actually just bought one a couple weeks ago. The build quality of this thing is off the charts, and the screen is gorgeous. I’m really looking forward to diving in to the library the Vita has.
 
Psp had good games, Ps Vita had great hardware
But at the end if the day, I used them the most to stream PS3/4 games on the portable devices, similar to what I am experiencing (way better) with the Switch when I play with it in the bed lol
 
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Never had them. I honestly was never a big handheld gamer outside of Pokemon. DS/3DS changed that a bit as I started to branch out more but it was still pretty minimal outside of Pokemon.

PSP and Vita were definitely enticing but I just never committed.
 
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Never owned either one, sadly, but I remember eating a shitload of Taco Bell trying to win a Vita.
 
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The PSP holds a very special place in my heart! I got the PSP 2000 in high school and took that thing EVERYWHERE. I would always load it up with a batch of TV episodes, music, podcasts, and of course, games, and I never left home without it. That thing was a revelation. Being able to watch TV shows on a nice (at the time) big screen wherever I went? That was around the time I was getting into Tokusatsu (Super Sentai and Kamen Rider) and I remember I’d download the latest episodes of Engine Sentai Go-Onger, load em up onto my PSP, and watch it at school. Some of my absolute fondest memories were finishing my school work as quickly as possible so I could fit a few minutes of Go-Onger in before class was over.

The games were no slouch, either! Honestly the PSP was the last time I truly loved Sony’s first party output. Locoroco and Patapon were what originally made me want the system, and there was always something cool for me to pick up and play for that thing.

Oh you know, there was one feature of the PSP I ended up really loving. I don’t even remember what the feature was called, but there was some app or something that installed itself via firmware update that allowed me to tune into Internet Radio stations. I ended up discovering a LOT of incredible music through that!!! Again, don’t even remember what the feature was called, but I remember I’d be up late listening to all sorts of Internet Radio stations through that thing.

I never owned a Vita, but I have a LOT of love in my heart for the PSP. Honestly, probably one of my favourite systems of all time.
 
Vita is still arguably the best handheld gaming piece of hardware to this day. It was so far ahead of it's time in many regards that it could come out today and not feel out of place.

Never owned a PSP growing up because I was into the DS, and not really much point in owning one these days when you can just get a Vita, but they seem cool.
 
I love them both. I still think PSP had the better line-up, but both handhelds are great pieces of hardware. I really hop Sony will one day return to the handheld space.
 
Raysu Delight said:
Vita is still arguably the best handheld gaming piece of hardware to this day. It was so far ahead of it's time in many regards that it could come out today and not seem out of place.

Never owned a PSP growing up because I was into the DS, and not really much point in owning one these days when you can just get a Vita, but they seem cool.
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Yeah, it’s still my favourite portable hardware to this day. It’s sleek and just the right size and weight. I hope
eventually portables manage to get back to being a little smaller again.
 
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Never owned the PSP. I knew people who had it and used it to emulate N64 games and such, but I was never interested myself. The system also came out at a time when I wasn't old enough to make my own gaming purchases anyway, and had become jaded about even buying handhelds because people kept stealing my stuff (you can only replace a stolen GBA or copy of Pokémon so many times before everyone in the family unanimously decides it isn't worth it).

The Vita, on the other hand, was a system I seriously thought about purchasing after I got to try one out in a store kisok with a copy of Gravity Rush and Tearaway. And it was college, so I now had the money to buy my own games and consoles... but this was also the period where I really wanted to play catch up with everything I missed during my "gaming sabbatical" when I skipped the Nintendo DS, so I naturally went with a 3DS when it came time to pick a portable (was waiting on a XL revision, and it happened). A friend recently gave me their PS4 after they upgraded to a PS5 though, so it looks like I will get to play those games after all these years.
 
Back in high school I borrowed a friend's PSP to play a little bit of Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins, Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX and the Prinny games (Disgaea spinoffs);

It was neat, albeit a tad uncomfortable.. granted, I was never much of a handheld player myself. Years later I'd get a 3DS, but wouldn't stop wishing a way to play on the TV instead;

Only ever saw a Vita in person in a gaming convention and in stores lol
 
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Mostly playing hacked games on my PSP, which was incredibly fun and a big reason why I became so into portable gaming later on and prefer it to this day

I got a Vita very late and although I enjoy using it mostly to play PS1 games it's largely redundant nowadays with most of the third party on other systems
 
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They were two amazing little machines with very unique and excellent libraries.

The PlayStation Vita was my favorite portable games machine...until the Nintendo Switch. The implementation of the OLED screen was ahead of its time, and I have to say that the build quality outdoes the Switch by a large margin, still. Premium quality.

Have fond memories of playing Gravity Rush, Soul Sacrifice, Persona 4 Golden, Tearaway, Wipeout 2048, Dragon's Crown, Muramasa Rebirth, Ys: Memories of Celceta, Ninja Gaiden Sigma +, etc. I'm happy to see that the Switch got some of these games, while being superior, but there's still some I want to see appear.
 
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Traded my Wii Fit Balance Board to put toward a PSP. I played a few games like Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta. My brother bricked it trying to hack it. Whomp. I didn’t take it with me when I moved out so it probably got thrown out which is a shame because I believe there’s a way to reverse it using a battery or something.

I bought a gently used Aqua Blue PS Vita Slim last year. A hacked Vita is one of the best handhelds ever. There’s apparently a way to get a decent version of Another Metroid 2 Remake on there. It involves YoYo Loader. I followed the guide forever an a day ago so I need to poke around to refresh my memory before I break everything.

For anyone who has the 2000 (Slim) model, I highly recommend the Hori Remote Play Assist Attachment. It’s a little pricey, but it’s so great for PS1 games.
 
I didn't get a PSP back then because I already had a DS. My friend had one and it looked like it came out of the future. Ended up getting a pretty light blue unit some years ago, and it still is a great piece of hardware. Feels very solid and it's a timeless design.

The PS Vita I got a few years after launch but when games were still coming out for it. Brilliant device. It's got a great library, feels incredible to play on thanks to the great screen (even the LCD), perfect D-pad and premium build quality. I've spent countless hours on it, including lots of classics and backwards compatible games.

Catsylvania said:
For anyone who has the 2000 (Slim) model, I highly recommend the Hori Remote Play Assist Attachment. It’s a little pricey, but it’s so great for PS1 games.
Click to expand...

That's an understatement! Last I checked they went for almost as much as the console.
 
The Vita is the only one I ever owned. It played second fiddle to the 3DS, but it got a bunch of good games that I had a great time with.

Most of those games have now been ported to the Switch lol, but a few like Oreshika and Freedom Wars are trapped forever.
 
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I loved the PSP and liked the Vita.

Never bought a PSP myself but a hacked one found a semi-permanent home with me until I gave it back to my friend years later. Loved playing RPGs, Sony's quirky stuff and emulated games on it and even the occasional title you'd usually only find on home consoles: God of War, Peace Walker, obviously Monster Hunter... good shit. It was amazing how right Sony got it on their first try and for someone who has always been into handhelds it was great to have both the PSP and the DS compliment each other.

The Vita fared somewhat worse. I own both models though the 2000 is currently with my brother. Dope hardware with some cool games (especially indies) that was sadly quickly abandoned by Sony. Obviously made sense from a financial perspective but it ensured that the system never even stood a chance and never reached its full potential.
 
I brought my PSP with me in high school and played Disgaea during math class. Nobody stopped me even though they probably should have
 
I got a cheap PSP from a friend and mostly used it for multimedia rather than gaming since I had the DS already. Still enjoyd some of the games but really didn't have a budget to split. Still was a very good machine and nice to hold.

Vita was a big NOPE the moment a friend lend me his, and I couldn't select any icon in the home menu with the pad/stick. It forced me to use the touchscreen. I didn't wanted my screen filled with my hand grease. Fortunately they released the vita tv and was able to enjoy most of the games I wanted, with a better controller too. I miss the vita tv
 
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I loved the PSP, and I loved the PS Vita.

I love both of them more than the PS3, and probably, at least one of them I also love more than the PS1 (and maybe PS5 depending on how it pans out).

I was, and remain, very sad Sony stopped making those.
 
I bought a Vita 2 years ago to mod it and it has been pretty awesome. It's surprising how active the community still is
 
The PSP was the system that taught me the importance of screen protectors. It never felt pocketable to me. I got it for Crisis Core and Birth By Sleep, but ended up disappointed by the remaining lineup. (Especially when later-life titles got passed over for localization, like 7th Dragon 2020, Blaze Union, Digimon Re: Digitize, Danball Senki, and Nayuta.) I enjoyed Dissidia, Hexyz Force, Eye of Judgment Legends, and the Ys releases.

The Vita I only picked up after realizing I couldn't stand Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth on PSTV. I got the Aqua model and liked the hardware, especially the d-pad, but the rear touchpads didn't feel like a useful addition. I wish they'd doubled up the shoulder buttons so we could have proper L2/R2, but that would've made it DS phat levels of thick.

It's one of those systems the fans made better. The proprietary memory cards were awful, and made people want to hack it to use micro SDs. I had a pretty terrible time going through the convoluted account switching to jump over to my JPN library, which if I'm remembering right required backing up to PC and then doing a factory reset. On the other hand, the Bluetooth support, themes, and discrete apps made it feel more feature-complete than we normally see from handhelds. There's some sort of conceptual intersection with the Xperia Play waiting to be realized there; maybe a "Vita 2" should've been a full-on PlayStation Phone, keeping physical controls and being a media center you can make calls from.

The Vita eventually became a PS Classics machine for me. It was nice being able to get all of the PlayStation Final Fantasys on it, I think Square probably had better support for it on the Classics end than they did actual Vita games. Everybody talks about P4G, but for me the main titles were Cyber Sleuth/Hacker's Memory (JPN only for HM) World of Final Fantasy, and Digimon World Next Order, which was...well, there was good reason to skip localizing that one and do a remaster first.

I'm glad the Vita came out when it did, I still love the user interface with the glowing bubbles. Having to "peel" the screensaver open to wake it up was cute, but maybe shouldn't have been a mandatory function.
 
I had both a DS and a PSP. That was handheld gaming heaven. Their libraries had little overlap, so there was a LOT of stuff to play. Four games in particular ate up the lion’s share of my PSP gaming time: Patapon, Tekken, Dissidia and Disgaea. Especially Tekken because I wanted to beat up my friends haha.

Never ended up buying the Vita. It was a tad too expensive for me at the time, I thought the proprietary memory cards were a dumb idea, the games didn’t interest me and anyway I was so busy with other things that I was already neglecting the 3DS, let alone another handheld.
 
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Never owned any of them when they were actively being made. I've since bought a PSP but I don't think it has any stand out games and the novelty of playing PS1 games on the go is gone.
 
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The PSP seemed like a sci fi gadget when I held it on my hands for the first time. I don't quite remember what it did (only interacted with it a few more times after that), but it left me in complete awe. I think it had its own browser, a music player, the UI was appealing, you could suspend games and go to the HOME menu. That seemed crazy at the time for me.
 
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played wolverine on a kids psp once and kept seeing them in crane games at a cheap pizza place we always went to. that's the extent of my experience with them.
 
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My brother was the one with the PSP, but I borrowed it often whenever he allowed me to. I played Crisis Core (which I thought was cool as hell being a pre-teen) and Tekken 5 DR, and was astounded at how much better the graphics were than my DS. It was a cool little system. I never played or knew anyone who had a Vita.

Derachi said:
The PSP holds a very special place in my heart! I got the PSP 2000 in high school and took that thing EVERYWHERE. I would always load it up with a batch of TV episodes, music, podcasts, and of course, games, and I never left home without it. That thing was a revelation. Being able to watch TV shows on a nice (at the time) big screen wherever I went? That was around the time I was getting into Tokusatsu (Super Sentai and Kamen Rider) and I remember I’d download the latest episodes of Engine Sentai Go-Onger, load em up onto my PSP, and watch it at school. Some of my absolute fondest memories were finishing my school work as quickly as possible so I could fit a few minutes of Go-Onger in before class was over.

The games were no slouch, either! Honestly the PSP was the last time I truly loved Sony’s first party output. Locoroco and Patapon were what originally made me want the system, and there was always something cool for me to pick up and play for that thing.

Oh you know, there was one feature of the PSP I ended up really loving. I don’t even remember what the feature was called, but there was some app or something that installed itself via firmware update that allowed me to tune into Internet Radio stations. I ended up discovering a LOT of incredible music through that!!! Again, don’t even remember what the feature was called, but I remember I’d be up late listening to all sorts of Internet Radio stations through that thing.

I never owned a Vita, but I have a LOT of love in my heart for the PSP. Honestly, probably one of my favourite systems of all time.
Click to expand...
This is a really sweet post and gave me a new appreciation for the PSP reading it 👍
 
The PSP was the first gaming system I bought with my own money saved from working a job. The Vita I bought off someone for cheap who needed some cash to pay their rent. I really enjoyed both systems and have a ton of games on them. I hated their priority memory card nonsense and it's easily the element that holds them back the most for me.
 
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I didn't have a PSP myself, but borrowed and played one with friends and family a bunch. I was super impressed with the tech when it came out. It got a bunch of P21/Ps2 ports (mixed to decent quality, occasionally really good) and a big range of fairly good looking games. However, I found that a lot of the new titles felt like worse sequels to PS2 games I had already played, and when the novelty wore off I found the DS's new games much more compelling. For me the VITA it was much the same, but the cost was way too high for me to have much interest and the novelty of good looking 3d games in handheld wasn't there any more. The switch has pretty much picked up this space perfectly for me.

Personally I think its a shame Sony or another competitor couldn't stay in the market and give nintendo some more competition. The Vita really didn't justify the expense and memory cards, part of that it is hard to support two machines in the HD era, and good looking vita games were expensive to make. As much as I like the 3ds, it could really have used 360p resolution and a better joystick of somesort built in.
 
Vita- Barely any, played it a little, might get one eventually just for some exclusives, and some modding.
THE ORIGINAL PSP?
Modded it, had a glorious youth of emulation and unfettered internet access. I remember playing spyro in the backseat on my way to eat dinner with my uncles, and one being shocked it could run spyro perfectly. "I had that on my living room tv a few years ago! I don't think you get it, that's crazy!"
I even went out of my way to buy my favorite weird lil title for the PSP CiB- Work Time Fun. There's a ton of great exclusives I see no one talk about. "What did I do to deserve this my lord!?", Echochrome, the best version of FFIV to date, my favorite version of FFI, Megaman Powered Up...Okay the last one does get it's buzz, but COME ON! That game was sick.
of course i'm gonna gush about the megaman games for this thing tho, the RPGs this thing could put out...Astounding. Like, Crisis Core, AND KHBBS? Valkyria Chronicles, Disgaea [Hey, I'd argue there's enough unique content to make it count as an entirely new release], Ys...Crazy amounts of fantastic titles.
 
To say I was obsessed with Vita was an understatement. I’ve always loved handhelds since the OG GB, and the promise of the console quality games was so exciting. The Vita crawled so the Switch could walk.
 
Red Monster said:
I’m really looking forward to diving in to the library the Vita has.
Click to expand...
insert HowDoWeTellHim meme

In all seriousness, I’ve always been a Sonytendo kind of guy. I always got both home and handheld console of Sony and Nintendo. Although I got late into the Vita party, I managed to get a refurbished, OLED Vita from GameStop, since it was already the time when they started making the LCD ones
 
The PSP is one of my favourite handhelds of all time and while I did a few jabs at the amount of PlayStation ports on the system, I loved being able to play PSX games on the go. I wish I'd expanded my library in time, because some PSP games are just super expensive now, especially when talking about RPGs that never came to Europe.

The Vita though... look, I don't hate it, but quite honestly, the Switch and PC have taken its spot completely. Most of the stuff I like on that system is available elsewhere and since I finished Odin Sphere Leifthrasir all the way back I've rarely taken it out. I'm still interested in playing Brandish: The Dark Revenant on the system since it's unlikely XSEED will port it elsewhere, but that's about it.
 
ziggyrivers said:
insert HowDoWeTellHim meme

In all seriousness, I’ve always been a Sonytendo kind of guy. I always got both home and handheld console of Sony and Nintendo. Although I got late into the Vita party, I managed to get a refurbished, OLED Vita from GameStop, since it was already the time when they started making the LCD ones
Click to expand...
I know that a lot of the Vita’s games are available elsewhere now, but that doesn’t bother me all that much. A lot of that stuff I haven’t played, an I’d rather play it on the Vita.

Plus I plan to mod this unit so I can use it to play my PSP games, because my PSP hasn’t worked in years.
 
Vita has my favorite D-pad ever. My go to machine for snes and gba games.

Crazy that it launched with an OLED in 2011 and Switch2 sounds like it will be reverting to LCD.
 
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I got a PSP late with the Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep bundle. I didn’t have a big library, but I enjoyed the games I played on it and two of them, Trails in the Sky and its sequel SC, are two of my all time favorite games. Sadly my battery eventually died and while I bought a third party one to play one more game on it, I’ve since completely retired it.

I adore the Vita. Got it at launch and played so much awesome stuff on there including the Trails of Cold Steel games, the Danganronpa trilogy, BlazBlue and Under Night In-Birth, Hatsune Miku Project Diva, and more. As long as my battery holds up, I have a decent pile of Vita games to enjoy still and a few PS1 and PSP games to play on it too!
 
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I remember how cool UMD videos were. I could take movies anywhere. I watched the UMD of FFVII Advent Children on a flight around then. It was the future and the future was bad
 
Can't speak about the Vita, but i wanted a PSP since launch and when i finally got one... Well, that was a disappointment.

It's an amazing piece of tech even today, the console is all screen, it looks sleek, main menu is timeless, it's chock full of features, very few games look actually outdated.

But Jesus Christ it's the most uncomfortable 3D handheld i've ever held in my hands, the stick/slider is small, awkward and hard to reach, and D-pad forces my thumb in a "too vertical" position.

I tried to love the console, i really did, i played several games on it but never managed to play longer than 1h. without my left thumb hurting.

I promised myself to get a Vita sooner or later, it looks way more comfortable than the PSP, but the rise of android based handhelds with enough power to play PSP games with ease is making me reconsider.
 
I liked the PSP and hated the Vita.

I thought it was too unconfurtable
 
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Loved both the PSP and the PSV. The latter especially was such a super nice piece of hardware, the v1 in particular with its (still flawed, but overall nice) OLED screen. P4G is one of my all-time favourites and defined the Vita as a platform for me. The PSP on the other hand delivered a very good line-up of games on the whole, but the FF Dissidia titles as well as Monster Hunter stood out and made the PSP what it was to me: a fantastic platform to play 3rd party JP games on. Very good complementary devices for the DS and 3DS, then.
Edit: Damn, I totally forgot to mention the Ys games! Great stuff on these portable PlayStations.
 
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PSP was amazing, I think combined with DS they made for a better gaming experience than the home consoles of that era. It continued the Game Boy traditions in some ways DS didn't too imo, like being loaded with fantastic ports and conversions of home console, computer and arcade games (Ridge Racers, FF Tactics WOTL, SFA3Max, Castlevania DXC, Ys Oath in Felghana, Persona 3 Portable, Outrun 2006, etc, etc) but it also had some cool and interesting new stuff too (LocoRoco, Patapon, Lumines, Jeanne d'Arc, Half Minute Hero, etc). Probably the last PlayStation I really loved after PS1/2 and maybe the last one with a thriving, unique identity, and it's capabilities felt like magic in 2004. That last point should be emphasized, playing Ridge Racer on PSP at launch felt like it should've been impossible. I've only had that sort of feeling once since (BOTW on Switch in 2017) but I imagine it's a lot like what people also felt in 1989 playing Mario Land and Tetris on their new Game Boys.

I skipped Vita, came close to grabbing one at a few points, but in retrospect that was definitely the right move. Switch almost immediately made it irrelevant and ended up with (better versions of) most of it's catalog. Kinda wound up like Dreamcast or Wii U; the end of the line and most everything of value got ported fast.
 
Great hardware undermined by bad media/storage solutions.

The PSP was a capable little beast, but UMDs were a total non starter for a portable device: discs were never going to work on a portable the same way they did for a console, and they introduced too many reliability issues and loading screens to ever be viable long term. It was Sony trying to establish a new media format all over again, except this time it backfired.

The Vita should never, ever have gone down the route of proprietary memory cards. If they needed something to subsidize the cost of the Vita specs then they should have looked elsewhere, as this memory cards helped kill the hardware dead. If it came to it, they should have got rid of the OLED for a cheaper LCD display: an LCD Vita that could use normal memory cards would have fared much better than an OLED Vita that needed expensive proprietary storage just to download games.

Sony's worst tendency was always there insistence on handcuffing new hardware to new proprietary media that they owned production for. It worked for the PS1 and PS2, but absolutely bit them hard on the PS3, PSP and Vita. Thankfully they don't seem as focused on that any more.
 
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