Portable gaming/Santa question

A quick question for anyone who may know: what’s the best of the handheld game systems for an eight- — nearly nine- — year old boy?

For values of “best” that include robustness, flexibility and the ability to stop playing it when you’re told.

I realise the last requirement may not have been implemented on any platform yet.

Oh, and preferably in a sub-stratospheric price bracket, too.

This entry was written by Martin McCallion, posted on 2005-12-09 at 10:48:00, filed under Uncategorized and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

8 Comments

  1. mr_snips
    Posted 2005-12-09 at 11:07:22 | Permalink

    Gameboy Advance?

    The Nintendo DS is newer (more powerful / more exciting / blah blah blah), but somewhat more expensive and possibly harder to get hold of.

  2. Martin McCallion
    Posted 2005-12-09 at 11:25:07 | Permalink

    Thanks. Those are the sort of directions we’re looking in, certainly. Is Nintendo considered better (in whatever sense) than Sony, generally? Or is the PSP a whole different kind of beast? From the prices Frances saw, the PSP is a lot more expensive?

  3. mr_snips
    Posted 2005-12-09 at 11:59:14 | Permalink

    The PSP is much more for grown ups than the GBA or the DS, i.e. it’s twice as expensive and has games like GTA: Liberty City Stories, while the GBA tends more towards Charlie and the Chocolate Factory territory.

  4. Martin McCallion
    Posted 2005-12-09 at 12:07:57 | Permalink

    Thanks. That’s the impression Frances has been getting in the shops, too, and also what I infer from Paul B’s comments on the B50 list (are you on that, BTW?)

  5. asajeffrey
    Posted 2005-12-09 at 12:10:35 | Permalink

    Seconded. GBA still appears to rule the pre-teen market. The PSP you buy for yourself.

  6. Martin McCallion
    Posted 2005-12-09 at 12:21:38 | Permalink

    Thanks. Though I’m not really moved by computer games any more. But if I could have a vintage Asteroids machine… ;-)

  7. mr_snips
    Posted 2005-12-09 at 15:38:47 | Permalink

    are you on that, BTW?

    Yes - though curiously I only seem to be getting half the messages at the moment:-) (I imagaine more will trickle through eventually…)

  8. mr_snips
    Posted 2005-12-09 at 15:40:51 | Permalink

    The solution is clear - buy a GBA (or a DS, which I think is supposed to play GBA games as well), and then get this :-)

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