Its pretty hard for PSP to break this reputation at this point.

Thing is, any console which has gotten to that 20 million mark, has probably 100 "good games", in that it has 100 games that are reasonably successful from a design standpoint for what they intend to do.

The real problem is the appeal of the games, as many have said.

I can look on this site and find that there are over 40 DS games which have sold at least 250K copies in Japan alone. And people will say "not all of those are good games." But no one can say they are low-appeal games.

And the games PSP was banking on being high appeal, the games to "bring handheld gaming out of the ghetto," turn out to have mediocre appeal on handhelds, even if they're exceptional titles.

I know some of you refuse to acknowledge this, but the PSP is suffering from the same problem as the GC: there are are a lot of good games (which has more is irrelevant in this case; the fact is they both have a considerable number), but it doesn't have enough games that attract a lot of buyers. Of course 50 cent bulletproof shows that sales does not equal quality (and Okami and Ico on the other side), but as a lot of the top selling games are acclaimed.

I think you're right about the PSP now having a reputation of some sorts.  But I totally disagree about the ports comments that are banded around.

Yes, when the PSP was first introduced, there seems like a plethora of ports rather than PSP specific games, but over the course of the last few years, there are more and more PSP only games as well as universal releases across most consoles.

I think people compare the PSP with the PS2 which IMHO is unfair, they are 2 different units and should provide 2 different gaming experiences.

Anyway, from my initial list (which didn't include loads more games that are already out and are excellent) there aren't that many ports....maybe Burnout Legends, SOCOM, Virtua Tennis, Powerstone and Pirates are the only ports.  The others are made up of universally releases titles and PSP specific titles like Locoroco, Syphon Filter, Portable Ops, Pursuit Force, Daxter, Tokobot, Lumines, Mercury, Exit and Field Commander.

On top of that, there are games coming out for the PSP, that will only appear on the 360 and PS3 like Ghost Recon 2 and Rainbox 6 Vegas.  I think this will help because the PSP won't be competing with the PS2 with these games.  And it cannot compete with the 360 and PS3.  Also, Crisis Core, Monster Hunter 2 (huge in JP) and GOW Chains of Olympus should be huge games over the next 6 months for the PSP.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of this year.  And feel that the PSP will get stronger as it goes along. 

Loading times are minimal if you load the game from the memory stick.  Battery life is actually quite good if you aren't spinning a UMD disc.  You can get a nice screen cover on amazon for less than $7 and a nice case that allows you to play it and protect it from drops even.  I got the Theater case (Nyko brand perhaps? starts with an N) that has amplified sound, 2 headphone jacks if you're with someone and need to be quiet, and a nice hard case with a stand for viewing inside.  Oh, and it adds a battery that is twice as long (so you have 3 times the battery power you started with).  I want to point out you can also get a longer-lasting battery seperately, but the theater case includes one.

$100 isn't going to happen any time soon considering the DS is still $130 and the PSP does a lot more than the DS does, but I'm sure a cheaper PSP would sell better. 

I completely agree with this assessment, especially about the games coming up.  Got to play those new games.

I like having my PSP with a few hundred songs and some shows I can watch along with a few games loaded on my memory stick (custome firmware) everywhere I go, too.  That includes PS1 games that I can now exchange game saves with the PS3.  Hopefully the WiFi access with the PS3 comes soon, too, so I can stream stuff from the PS3 anywhere.

Anyway, I think the PSP will have a great year this year, even if overshadowed by the DS. 

The PSP will continually be overshadowed by the DS now because of the huge gulf in sales.  But on it's own the PSP is a great handheld.

One question, can you get PS1 games onto the PSP now without a PS3? 

Yeah, but using custom firmware, which takes awhile after the official Sony firmware to come out.   Those allow emulation from Atari to PS1 and everything inbetween.   I'm not sure if those work with official firmware.

Nothing i have played on PSP as impressed me. A friends of mine who bought it said it aws a waste of money and time

 Well thats a shame, maybe you should just stick to your Nintendo games then.

I think in part what one of the problems is, I tend to want to play quick light gameplay and also and in alot of ways the weaker hardware of the ds forces most games to keep a retro look which I find I prefer on a handheld. Personally the very well recieved Metroid and even that Lego game that's also in first person I hated them on the DS. On a handheld I tend to prefer the 2d games. And the simple 3d style like that of FFIII I also enjoyed and I'm happy to see Square coming out with more titles like that. The DS just feels simple, quick, good battery life and the touch screen definitly enhances gameplay, adds that little bit of uniquiness. I found that I take my DS everywhere to play, while I tend to play psp at home in bed. And since I got my Wii and 360 I haven't played it too much, with the exception of Jewel summoner(though I've already play Pokemon longer).

 And just to be clear, I'm not trying to bash the psp, the psp has alot to offer and I know why people love and I'd never say I regret buying one. But it clearly isn't as popular as the DS, and I'm attempting explain why through my own experience. So I find the problem is that it's not lacking good games. It's just lacking original franchise with addicting gameplay that can become a phenomenon that the DS has so many of. Monster Hunter is really the only one.