Soundwave said:
I think Sony simply failed to make the PSP a long term device for older players that they were going for. Older adults/teens simply don't like carrying around a game handheld and once the 360/PS3 came out, the PSP lost all the attention it was getting. Handheld market just skews more naturally towards Nintendo's strengths -- kid-friendly brands, no need for super high end graphics, and in general people tend not to want to play violent games on the go for whatever reason. Even adults with their smartphones tend to gravitate towards games like Angry Birds. I guess when you are on the go and only have 10 minutes to play you want something clear and clean, and darker/violent games tend to have a lot of "cutscene/story" filler that gets in the way. |
In general, if you want to make a handheld game, you need to make sure that you aren't stuck for long periods of time without being able to stop. It's one of the reasons I really like handheld games. If you really need to do something quickly, you can quickly stop and do it. If you want to play for a really long time, but you want to move somewhere else, you can. If you are getting tired or a bit bored of the game you're playing, you can stop easily. If you want to play your game somewhere like in a car, on a bus, somewhere public, or whatever, you can. This makes your gaming experience less trouble and more enjoyable (or, it does to me at least). There are also games that have console-like quality and let you save as much as you want on a handheld (like SMTIV).
Well, anyway... the DS (and by default the 3DS) offers something that the Vita and smart phones don't have. It's the fact that you can clamp down the system (rather than going through a menu or pressing a button) to stop. Quickest and easiest way. Open it back up right where you stopped.
There are a good bit of violent games on handheld systems, but I would imagine another reason they aren't as common is because stopping at any time could also break the immersion they want to force you to go through as a scary tactic. Put you on edge or something... but that's kind of a weak excuse to me. Oh, and SMTIV is easily a dark and violent game and it works well as a handheld title.
