19 Years Later, Sony Still Hasn’t Recreated PSP’s Greatness

Today, let me take you on a trip down memory lane. As a kid, what was your preferred device for gaming? Were you a PC gamer for as long as you can remember? Or did you own some nostalgic devices like Gameboy, DS, and PlayStation?

For me, although I was primarily a PC gamer, I did own some consoles that I have very fond memories of. Among those, the PSP was a very special one, as it was the first handheld console I ever got, and thoroughly enjoyed it. As it’s been 19 years since the console’s release, let us look back at this legendary device.

PSP Released 19 Years Ago
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The PSP Was Ahead Of Its Time

Back when the PSP was first unveiled, it was a pretty big deal. It was a step away from the traditional handheld consoles we were accustomed to like the GBA, featuring a massive screen and out-of-this-world visuals. I had never seen games look so good on a small device like this. This was all possible thanks to the beefy hardware under the hood. For its time, the PSP was stronger than any other handheld console around.

Though Sony exaggerated some of the stuff like the polygon count for example, the PSP was still a pretty powerful device with a 333 Mhz CPU, 166 MHz GPU, and 32 MB RAM. An interesting little fact is how it was an overkill for many initial games, and was forced to run at a lower potential of 222 MHz for a good 3 years, before being unlocked. It truly was ahead of its time.

The PSP was revolutionary and ahead of its time. Change my mind! One of the best handhelds till date.
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It was released simultaneously with the DS, and though Nintendo’s console had it beat in the long run, I still preferred the PSP because of its versatility. Granted I did get the 3DS later and had a great time with it, but the PSP was still the OG for me. 

PlayStation Portable put its beefy hardware to use by becoming a complete entertainment system in your pocket. It could play music and movies, display comics, connect to PS2, PS3, and PCs, and use the internet, it was essentially a phone before phones were a thing. This made it a lot more valuable than just a gaming device, a perfect handheld companion.

I’ll Never Forget The Games It Introduced Me To

Being an entertainment was one of the PSP’s biggest selling points, but in the end, it was still a video game console, and that’s what I’ll be discussing next. Fortunately, it excelled in this department as well, as the PSP featured a splendid library.

I don’t know about you, but the PSP was a treasure trove of JRPGs for me, and I owe my boundless love for this genre to this beautiful device introducing me to the genre. In fact, it was the PSP that introduced me to the Final Fantasy series. I came across Crisis Core, and the rest is history. Ended up going through the entire series and enjoyed every moment of it. Original Crisis Core was one beautiful game for a PSP title.

PSP’s library was full of creative JRPGs, and it served as an entry point for me. Here’s another example. With the PSP remake of A Tear of Vermillion, I got into the Legend of Heroes series and Nihon Falcom games in general. Now, I’ve tried every last one of this series’ entries. And that’s not all. The PSP was home to Jeanne D’ Arc, Tales series, Ys series, Star Ocean, Dissidia series, and many other legendary JRPGs.

Oh, and it wasn’t just JRPGs the PlayStation Portable was home to. Many game series I’ve come to follow now were laid bare before me by the PSP. Believe it or not, I started God of War with the Ghost of Sparta (Don’t attack me, please). The first Crash game I ever played was Crash of the Titans. The Loco Roco games were a blast. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was hard to get into, but loads of fun. 

Just talking about all this fills me with extreme emotions and nostalgia.

The nostalgia is real. These games and my psp were some of the best moments of my teenage years
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PS Vita Was Great, But Portal Is A Joke

Soon, the PSP’s life came to an end, and along came the PS Vita. The Vita never even came close to the heights PSP reached, despite being essentially a better PSP. A lot of reasons came into play like the super expensive and exclusive storage options, lack of solid titles, and an overall lack of contribution and marketing on Sony’s part. However, PS Vita was still a solid device with a lot going for it and continued the PSP legacy.

Although Vita’s underperformance was a lot due to Sony’s negligence, the fact remained that the focus was shifting away from handheld devices primarily because of smartphones. As such, Sony pulled out of the handheld department, too. The PSP was one of my most beloved possessions, but after the Vita, it was the end of an era. And now, Sony has come up with a new handheld device, but unfortunately, it’s just an empty shell.

Kinda disappointed with the PS Portal
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Sony has presented the PS Portal, but it is nothing more than a glorified streaming device for the PS5. It can do absolutely nothing without Sony’s flagship console and has little to no native features.

Its only purpose is to cloud stream PS5 games, and that too only if the console is already turned on and you have decent internet. The worst thing is, all of this can be done with the phone you have in your pocket. PS Portal was more or less a slap in the face.

We Need A New PSP, Sony

When I looked at the mess which is PS Portal, it made me appreciate the PSP a whole lot more. It had everything that makes a brilliant portable console and was something revolutionary that now needs a second coming.

Wish Sony would release a new PSP.
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Plus, it’s a genuinely great time for a handheld console, considering how much the demand for portable devices has skyrocketed. Sony should take this opportunity to present a real handheld console, instead of a useless abomination like the PS Portal.