Load time from HELL! PSP game takes its sweet time
by Christopher Grant 
{ Feb 24th 2006 at 8:30PM }
A warning to curious Joystiq'ers: the video presented above is long... very, very long. It's a (presumably) undoctored video detailing the time to get from menu to gameplay in THQ's WWE SmackDown! Vs. RAW 2006 for the PSP. The following sites had this to say about the loads:
- Gamespot: "You will need to suffer through some lengthy loads prior to wrestler entrances, and then another lengthy load prior to the match. Thankfully, the in-game action doesn't suffer from any slowness or technical issues, but getting into a match does take a touch longer than it ought to."
- 1UP: "...being a PSP game, you should expect some ridiculous load times, which thankfully can be shortened by simply turning off those entrances that you've already seen a million times over."
- Yahoo! Games: "The load times may annoy you, but they're pretty much on par with the rest of the PSP library."
[Thanks, Joe]
UPDATE: Updated the video link after the earlier one stopped working.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dan Choi @ Feb 24th 2006 8:22PM
Wow... those were six minutes of my life I'll never get back. At least there were scenes (albeit brief ones) interspersed between the loading--that is, if you can count simple menu selections among those scenes. At least the video had some entertaining commentary! ;)
Pyronite @ Feb 24th 2006 8:39PM
This reminds me of NFL Blitz: The League. God, I wanted to destroy that game.
Einhanderkiller @ Feb 24th 2006 8:39PM
OMGWTF?
Holy Crap Balls @ Feb 24th 2006 8:45PM
And IGN actually gave that an 8.7?!? Flush some more credibility right down the toilet why don'tcha.
I'll stick to my 2 second ds load times, thank you very much.
MikeSkiX @ Feb 24th 2006 8:49PM
Man that was too funny...ROTFLMAO...OMFG...WTF was sony and thq thinking..
on a side Note...The benny hill song made my night..
m3mnoch @ Feb 24th 2006 8:52PM
whatever. that was totally the owner's fault it took so damn long. he could have shaved at least 5 or 10 seconds off it by clicking through the menus faster....
m3mnoch.
Neko Tsukimi @ Feb 24th 2006 8:54PM
Sorry... I gave up two loading screens after the loading screen that had to be loaded with the hot chick... I guess they're giving guys long enough to "enjoy" her...
With that said, I would have totally tossed my PSP into a dusty corner and actually went outside to play with nuts if I had to be tortured with that IRL.
Seroth @ Feb 24th 2006 9:00PM
Can someone with the game actually confirm this? This seems too ridiculous to be real...
Jago @ Feb 24th 2006 9:00PM
HAHA!!! The Benny Hill and FF Victory music additions were hilarious!
"And IGN actually gave that an 8.7?!? Flush some more credibility right down the toilet why don'tcha."
Talk about being biased...Gamespot, 1up.com and Yahoo! games all gave nearly identical scores. But then again you wouldn't know that b/c you didn't click the links.
I wonder what is worse...this game or the EA titles? The EA PSP titles have some pretty pathetic load times as well.
I wonder how long it would actually be if you actually watched each cinematic completely.
crummy @ Feb 24th 2006 9:02PM
"Finally, my lunch break! Now to break out my PSP with that wrestling game - if I turn it on now, it'll be loaded in time for my bus ride home!"
obo @ Feb 24th 2006 9:16PM
Man, I can't wait for a Final Fantasy to get onto PSP. Then we can be faced with, "Please plug in your AC adaptor to load the game. Your internal battery's capacity is not enough to last through the loading period."
Case @ Feb 24th 2006 9:17PM
#2: Yeah, that was a disgrace. I rented Blitz: The League for the PS2 a while ago. The saving takes so long that I literally thought the game was frozen. It must take 2 minutes if not more to save a damn file.
The ZeroCorpse @ Feb 24th 2006 9:21PM
This is for real. The PS2 version is similar, but quite a but faster than this.
Now, of course, this was SEASON MODE. If you wanted to play an exhibition game, you'd get there in half the time.
robotplague @ Feb 24th 2006 9:24PM
I had a PSP for a while, I later sold it on ebay. One of the main reasons was because I was never able to with any game just pick up and play, it always took so god damn long to load that it would discourage me from playing in the first place.
PsyClerk @ Feb 24th 2006 9:24PM
I remembered the PS2 version being slow to load (and save) as well. So I did a little time test of my own. The PS2 version of Smackdown vs Raw 2006 takes just a hair under three and a half minutes to go from boot up to in-ring action in the Season mode. And I started timing from the PS2 logo and sound mark, not actually powering on the system (figured that would be comparable to what was done in the video).
THQ and/or Jakk's just need to learn how to manage the PS2 and PSP memory better. Actually strike the word "better" and replace it with "period."
It's also worth pointing out that for both the video time and the PS2 time, two cut scenes were skipped. Yes, it's not interaction, but they are there for a reason. Skipping them just makes you stare at loading screens with less interruption.
Vexorg @ Feb 24th 2006 9:33PM
And I thought Animal Crossing had some annoyingly long load times (for a cartridge based system, at least.)
Myles @ Feb 24th 2006 9:37PM
I'm glad I have a DS. Good 'ole carts.
Hoffy @ Feb 24th 2006 9:43PM
This video was clearly edited. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the PSP have a widescreen format? I'm pretty sure the screen takes up nearly the entire face of my PSP... maybe whoever made this video had a special 4:3 formatted PSP. Come on Joystiq, you're better than that.
Jago @ Feb 24th 2006 9:52PM
I could be wrong but I think there is a 3rd party TV-out accessory (check Lik-sang.com) that outputs it to 4:3 or 16:9 format.
dynamius @ Feb 24th 2006 9:53PM
of course it was edited to add the commentary... it's the length that remains intact. omg psp is a sad gaming device... no wonder they try to market it for its multimedia functionalities... or lack thereof
Anticrawl @ Feb 24th 2006 10:01PM
Nintendo, "... and that's why we are sticking to flash for handheld devices. You need to be able to pick it up and play on the GO and save without any tie-ups."
Sony, "U R teh poo-head, we big dumb gorrilaz put big fast wisbang umd n movin parts in thing, thing make pretty, hold lot of pretty."
Nintendo, "You do what you gotta do, but I know what I'm doing. Been doing it for 20 years.. but of course that means nothing to you."
*Sony torques the psp and launches a umd in Nintendo's face*
Jesus what do you expect. It's not a portable device, it's an hot little brick that has battery life the length of a firecracker fuse. It's a device you play at home, after you just destroyed your TV from launching the controller through it.
Moving parts? Discs? Power? These things not the handhelds crave. Leave the juice and discs at home with your consoles.
That said I do own a psp, ahahahaha, but that doesn't mean I don't agree with the poor decisions Sony has made regarding their handheld platform. Gonna be gettin me a DS Lite soon so I can play new games on the go.
Pixels for my people,
Anticrawl
kris @ Feb 24th 2006 10:13PM
Dang I love my DS...I'm sorry Animal Crossing:WW I thought your loads were long...
Matthew @ Feb 24th 2006 10:14PM
Long load times can absolutely kill a game. Anyone play Resident Evil Outbreak for PS2. I tried so hard to play through that game, single-player, not online. I just couldn't do it. Everytime you walk through a door or go to a different area, you know, the typical Resident Evil stuff, the load times I think were 20 seconds "a pop." It was bad, really bad. This was on a console. Honestly, load times should not exist on portables. One of the reasons I did not get a PSP. I have a DS, there's virtually no loading times. Someone said 2 seconds. I wouldn't even say that much.
melloncollie @ Feb 24th 2006 10:15PM
"thing make pretty, hold lot of pretty."
That is one of the most funniest things I've ever read.
Kudos to you Anticrawl.
Outlander @ Feb 24th 2006 10:17PM
I can't believe I sat through that whole video-that was torture. I just decided I love my DS even more now.
David @ Feb 24th 2006 10:17PM
OMFG I so called that final fantasy music at the end.
Ben @ Feb 24th 2006 10:23PM
It's easy to bash the game for having extremely long load times but the fact that they managed to take an entire PS2 game and port it over to PSP with every feature intact PLUS bonus modes that weren't even on PS2 is pretty impressive. That's what the high review scores represent. The same thing happened with Midnight Club 3 and the 70 second loads it took for every race. It was a port from PS2 too. Personally, I'd rather have a quality game with every feature and long load times than another half-assed PS1 port with the same graphics and nothing added to it. And all of this ignores the fact that no one is forcing you to buy and play the game. I read the reviews of Smackdown VS Raw when it came out and every one of them said something about the load times. That was a pretty big enough clue that maybe they had long load times. But that's just me. Don't blame Sony and THQ for putting out the game. They didn't have to release it at all and I'm sure there are many people enjoying it because they did, so who cares?
chudgoo @ Feb 24th 2006 10:26PM
-- m3mnoch
Shaving 5-10 seconds off by clicking through faster? Real players would likely read the screens first and take longer.
I seriously hope you're kidding.
(btw, another thing I dislike about the star rating system on joystiq...Was your comment modded to 4 stars because it was funny or did someone really find that to be insightful? (sorry for the slashdot approximations~ heh)
--Hoffy, #18...
"This video was clearly edited. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the PSP have a widescreen format? ((snip)) maybe whoever made this video had a special 4:3 formatted PSP. Come on Joystiq, you're better than that."
Of course it was edited... There is no timer or captions on the real game...or the Benny Hill song (which TOTALLY worked for this video). It is a very trivial matter to change the aspect ratio of captured video in just about any NLE software. This does nothing to ruin the authenticity of the clip and makes it a more universally accepted aspect ratio. (It was likely recorded by camcorder and then 'trimmed' to be full screen 4:3. "Joystiq you're better than that"....hmmm....how about Sony/THQ, you're better than that?
(with this said, I'm pretty happy with the load times on MG:Ac!d...the last game I bought (and kept) for my TWO PSPs...(why two? one permanently at 1.50 and one set aside for playing any forthcoming must-have games...which have yet to come along unfortunately.....which sucks, given my investment in them)
I eagerly await its sequal....MG:Ac!d 2...gimmicky glasses and all...bring it on damnit!)
Onomatopoeia @ Feb 24th 2006 10:35PM
The worst load times I've ever seen were in Finding Nemo. Thankfully I only RENTED the game, because I think I watched an ENTIRE EPISODE of Spongebob while I was waiting for the first level to load. And that was on GAMECUBE. IMAGINE IT FOR PS2!!! (or on PSP, for that matter...)
I would be interested to know if anyone actually bought Finding Nemo for PS2, because you could probably blow through the entire second season of family guy waiting for the menu screen.
Jago @ Feb 24th 2006 10:36PM
...and I'd rather have some more original games for the PSP instead of PS2 ports. I didn't pay $250+ to play games that can be done on a $150 (and overpriced) system.
If that was the case then I would just buy a PSTwo with an LCD attachment and external battery.
James @ Feb 24th 2006 10:50PM
good job game developer :)
m3mnoch @ Feb 24th 2006 10:54PM
ha! chudgoo. yeah. total sarcasm.
it was when he was moving through the menus. you know. up to easy. no wait. down to hard.
i was trying (keyword there: trying) to be funny with saving the 5-10 seconds out of a 6 and a half minute video....
oh lord... and it was so long, benny hill had to start over! twice! heh. god that was funny. um. in a sad kinda way, of course.
m3mnoch.
cotenyc @ Feb 24th 2006 10:57PM
DAMN!
I could've played myself into a sweat on my DS by the time that dumb game loaded.
Also that Benny hill music played like 5 times!!!
for portable gaming, NOTHING beats a DS.
If you want portable media players, screw the PSP, get yourself a, iriver or archos, or even a creative PMP.
Jeff @ Feb 24th 2006 11:19PM
"It's easy to bash the game for having extremely long load times but the fact that they managed to take an entire PS2 game and port it over to PSP with every feature intact PLUS bonus modes that weren't even on PS2 is pretty impressive."
Except that I'd have practically completed an entire Grand Prix in Mario Kart DS by the time this thing is done *loading*.
This is the difference between portable and home gaming. At home, you're sitting in front of your TV with a lovely beverage, you're relaxed, you're not going anywhere (literally). When you play a portable system, you may only have six minutes. You may have 10. Or 20. Or five. It's completely ridiculous for a game to take longer to *load* than the time you've got to play it.
If Sony and THQ don't understand this, then they don't understand the handheld market. (And that's a rhetorical "if", because I already know they don't.)
Hoffy @ Feb 24th 2006 11:21PM
"This video was clearly edited. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the PSP have a widescreen format? ... maybe whoever made this video had a special 4:3 formatted PSP."
And here I thought I caught something that everyone else had completely missed. Oops.
cjohnston @ Feb 24th 2006 11:28PM
If most of the reviewers were playing a beta version of the game I'm sure they *thought* the load times would be fixed (at least slightly). I've reviewed many games in the past that had similar technical problems...was assured by PR that they would be fixed in the final version...but then when a retail copy was available those issues were NOT fixed. I am glad, however, that the Internet has exposed this travesty. No sale.
Paul @ Feb 24th 2006 11:40PM
I submit that this video was made ON PURPOSE!
Joe @ Feb 24th 2006 11:42PM
#34. can you not tell the picture is squished? its obvious he just encoded the video in the wrong aspect ratio.
The Phil @ Feb 24th 2006 11:42PM
If you try playing A 6 Man CAW battle royal with entrances, it's like double that amount of load time, haha. I have it and can confirm that load times hinder on fun factor. I don't play it on PSP, and when I do, I only play exibition games with the in-game characters as they load faster. I admit, I would play this on my psp a lot more if loading times were not so bad. I play it on my PS2 and it's fine. Laoding times suck but aren't as disgraceful as on the psp. Knowing THQ, they'll likely do something to avoid the long loading times in the next wretling title they bring out.
2Kings @ Feb 24th 2006 11:45PM
"..."
i feel sorry for anyone who spent money to play this peice of crap
Neko Tsukimi @ Feb 25th 2006 12:01AM
I'm too late for adding my two cents on what portable gaming is supposed to be (easy to pick up and put down). But I guess the idea of a game that has a long load time is okay in places where lots of people have long public trans commutes. They're not going to be doing anything else while on an hour train ride anyhoo... But I'd rather use that 10 minutes of load time watering my flowers in AC :D
Tucker @ Feb 25th 2006 12:04AM
Actually, this is in no way on par with any PSP games I have. The longest loads border on unbearable, true, but I extremely rarely start a game up from scratch anyway. Usually I turn the unit on in the middle of a paused game or something and start immediately. What's the big deal?
Congratulations, you've found a shitty port that happens to have extra long load times. A game that came out that's sub-par? OH MY GOD SOMEONE CALL TEH CNN!
Welcome to the world of video games, for every decent game there are 100 crappy ones. I hate that the library of PSP games is painfully small just like everyone else, but it seems I'm the only person out there who enjoys the games I AM playing. Call me a fanboy if you will, but there just aren't that many games on the DS that appeal to me. I am, after all, over 10 years old.
Jago @ Feb 25th 2006 12:09AM
"but there just aren't that many games on the DS that appeal to me. I am, after all, over 10 years old."
Was that really neccessary? or were you trying to impress someone wit that comment?
Credibility = 0
Threnody @ Feb 25th 2006 12:13AM
"I am, after all, over 10 years old."
I wasn't going to call you a fanboy...until you unleashed that little gem...
Nathan @ Feb 25th 2006 12:31AM
Blitz: The League did have some "longer" loading times especially on the slow-ass PS2 that took forever to load anything in the first place. Grand Theft Auto anyone? But Blitz was understandable as it was packing some good visuals.
Now, this PSP game. That's ridiculous. Really takes the pick up and play out of what a portable device should be. Glad I opted for the DS...
The ZeroCorpse @ Feb 25th 2006 12:52AM
Note to THQ/Jakks: Put the next Smackdown/Raw engine game on the Xbox 360. I'll never forgive you for spending an entire generation putting all the good WWE games on the PS2, and giving the more-powerful Xbox the craptastic RAW/WM series. Why couldn't you port Smackdown to the Xbox with better graphics, customized entrance music, and 480p support? Is that too much to ask? Why spend MORE money developing a completely original game that isn't even 1/8 as good as the Smackdown series?
Seriously, THQ- GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME. Do not give Xbox owners that abortion called RAW again. Give us the SAME GAME you give the Sony systems.
GrandpaMario @ Feb 25th 2006 12:53AM
Ah, yes... Being a grandfather and seeing the world
get faster all the time !
I remember the days of the commodore 64
Flight Simulator was the slowest....
Totally unplayable. Yet many tried.
Probably not as slow as the PSP but..... ha ha ha
John007 @ Feb 25th 2006 1:56AM
I remember when Playstation first came out and all the nintendogs...were sayin that N64 would be better because PSX had the long load times...look where that ended up... so most of u guys are jus using this to basically bash a great system....i am playing NFS:undergroud and Socom for PSP...and the load times arent bad atall...look at the past....its the same then as it is now...nintendo fanactics used their "loading" excuse to defend and inferior system...Both PSP and DS can co-exist IMO... without all this stupid immaturity...
Cyport @ Feb 25th 2006 2:21AM
Well, I just overclock the PSP to 333mhz then it is much faster for load times. But in my opinion that game is totally rubbish so I don't really care
Paul Gale @ Feb 25th 2006 2:24AM
Wow, thank you so much for posting that. I stuck around for the whole thing and laughed my head off. I knew that WWE SmackDown! Vs. RAW 2006 for PSP had bad load times, but this thing was hilarious! More games on the PSP should have load times like this, because then we'd get more cool videos; videos that could in fact be better than the game itself. :)
Paul Gale