effervescence

I've gotta admit that I've been a Transformers fan for as long as I can remember, probably longer. But I'll also agree that the majority of Transformers games released have been pretty lackluster. I like hearing that the PS2 Minicon Wars title was received somewhat well, though I skipped that title on principle. I wasn't a fan of the offshoot that was Armada; I'm more of a G1 continuity guy. That said, the movie looks somewhat promising, and though it definitely won't compare to the memories of my childhood, I'm sure it'll be excellent popcorn fodder. And taking the franchise to a sandbox game format sounds awesome. I'm definitely getting this game on at least one platform, probably PSP... the only question is whether or not I'll also get it for Wii or PS2 or something. Hrmmm....

@Robbie - Thank you! These are the sort of numbers that we really need to be showing off here. I was actually thinking about looking up these figures myself, but you beat me to it. Yeah, the DS has a huge huge library, but how many of those games are really worth playing? Apparently - 26. PSP has almost twice as many games worth playing (by that standard), with a more limited library to start with. Good stuff.

I'm a little confused, Jeff. Are you complaining because theres 50+ childrens titles out for the DS (which is true, I'm not going to argue that there are a great deal of ) or because they share similar names? I realize that when "Mature" titles share similar names, it implies the game play is going to be nearly identical along the series, making purchasing one or more redundant. If you've run through one city in GTA, you know what you're in for in the others. But you can't seriously believe that's the case in the majority of these DS titles. I've already admitted that Nintendogs and the Core Pokemon RPGs are near identical titles, and shouldn't count multiple times, and while I don't know much about Japanese titles, I think even a Sony fanboy would have a hard time saying that any one of the games from the Mario list, or the Final Fantasy list, or the Pokemon list (excluding the Japanese-only RPGs).... I think you'd have a hard time telling anyone that one game on those lists was identical to the others simply because they share a name.

Like I said before "Does he think NSMB and Mario 64 DS are "clones" of each other? Are Mariokart DS and Mario vs Donkey Kong similar titles for containing the same characters? Does he think Pokemon Trozei and Pokemon Ranger should count as the same title?" You expanded on the list a bit, and looking at it now, I'm impressed by the sheer variety of games available. Not one of the Mario games is a repeat of another DS Mario title. Can GTA or Metal Gear Solid say that?

So really, the problem you see isn't Nintendo putting out the same game with a new name. It's just the opposite. Nintendo is putting out new games with the same name, because people recognize Mario as a sign of Nintendo's overall quality in game making.

I'm a little confused by Jeff Cossey's comments about the "clones" on the system. Is he referring to how there are multiple versions of Nintendogs, with each title having the same basic game and only differing in the dogs included? In that case, yes, Nintendogs should only count as one title for the DS, not 3 or 4, just as I've always thought it somewhat odd that Pokemon Red and Blue (and Silver/Gold, Ruby/Sapphire, etc) would each count as two seperate titles on many sales charts, when really they're basically the same game. But when he mentions that there are several "incarnations" of Mario and Pokemon on the DS, I've got to wonder what he's considering an "incarnation" Does he think NSMB and Mario 64 DS are "clones" of each other? Are Mariokart DS and Mario vs Donkey Kong similar titles for containing the same characters? Does he think Pokemon Trozei and Pokemon Ranger should count as the same title? Or is he merely upset because Nintendo has knack for including its characters in games that are generally considered high quality? In the games industry, success generally means an expansion of the franchise, much like Grand Theft Auto and Metal Gear Solid have enjoyed repeated successes on the PSP.

Or, to borrow Jeff's syntax, "How many incarnations of Grand Theft Auto, Solid Snake, Lumines, Final Fantasy are there?"

I wish you guys would do RSS this more than once a week. If you're looking for a suggestion, I've gotta recommend the Onion Radio News Podcast (http://www.theonion.com/content/feeds/radionews) and Penny-Arcades erratically posted Downloadable Content (http://www.penny-arcade.com/padlc.xml). I've got both of them subscribed on my PSP, just for starters. Also, if you dig up any good video podcasts that work on the PSP (I enjoy the Homestar Runner podcast), pass those along, please.

I've got to come in against the gist of this article. The argument that "our games have more M's and T's and therefore we are more diverse" just doesn't hold water with me. E does not mean "suitable for children." It's E for EVERYONE. Why does making games that are more suitable for a larger percentage of the population, coupled with the stated idea of reaching out to an audience of diverse ages, seem to be lost on everyone as they denounce the DS as just for kids?

And really, the key argument here should be about the quality of games, along with their ratings. You shouldn't be looking at the ratings of the games available so much as the ratings of the games that are being played. For myself, the only games I've found for the PSP worth buying and keeping have been Lumines I and II. I've also been eying Ace Combat and Loco Roco, but so far it's just the music puzzlers that I've decided to keep. The average rating for my PSP games - E10+. My DS library, about 6 times the size, keeps about the same average, with titles varying between the E of NSMB, Tetris, and Pokemon Ranger, to the E10+ of Contact and FFIII, and the T for Metroid and both Phoenix Wrights. Frankly, I've found more titles I feel happy with spending my money on.

Why does ratings seem to matter? Do people go out of their way looking for that Big Black M on games? Since when is staring at tits and massacring AI targets a more mature activity than saving princesses from a villainous dinosaur tyrant? More adult maybe, but hardly more mature.

I'll admit, my tastes differ somewhat from the "mainstream" PSP audience. It seems many want to feel that their sleek black handheld is edgy and cool, and therefore plays games that would be approved by the local football team. Interestingly, I'll bet in 10 years that no one on the football team will remember the name of the guy from Grand Theft Auto (any of them). But they'll all recognize Mario from a mile away.

It's not dead! It's in the top 5! (out of seven *cough*).

Seriously, who did it beat out?
-Game Boy Advance, which has been out for quite a while, is seriously underpowered compared even to the weakling hardware of the DS, and in any case is nearly entirely overshadowed by the DS which can play all GBA games (if you had GBC or Original Game Boy games you wanted to play, you would have already bought a Game Boy Advance. I'm frankly surprised the GBA isn't dead. Is there a GBAfanboy.com?

-Nintendo Wii, which just launched not 2 months ago. As near as I can tell, its sales numbers are merely limited by how fast the system could get on the shelf, because they were snatched up just as fast. Good job PSP, you beat out... manufacturing rates.

-Sony Playstation 3, Good heavens that tiny thing is beating out the cell-powered awesomeness that is the PS3?! Why could that be? Could it be the out-of-most-folk's-reach 5-600 dollar price tag, or the lack of any real launch titles besides Resistance? I'd blame it on the manufacturing rates again, but didn't the PS3 manage to fall short of Sony's own projected numbers? By at least half, if I remember right? And STILL I can go into my EBGames or Best Buy and find the store clerks pushing the system, with no buyers. So here's a system that managed to undersell its own limited production rates. Is beating that something to be proud of?

Granted, I don't think the PSP is dead. There ARE still games to be had on it (though personally I rarely take Lumines out of the UMD slot), and I'm sure that there could be better ones on the way. I'll be the first to sign up for PSP ports for Disgaea or FFVII, two games which I managed to miss the first time out.

But these aren't really numbers to brag about. Beating the GBA's technical fallings and age, the Wii's launch and manufacturing strains, and the PS3's numerous issues is about the same as racing with an invalid, a newborn, and a malformed newborn. Congrats, you came in ahead of them, but did you really WIN?

re: Conspiracy Theories

The game is obviously set up to release a shot of heroin into your hands every time you catch one of the nearly-500 buggers. But the trick is it only works once per Pokemon per cartridge, so the poke`addics are buying repeat copies. Duh.

Also, the trick only works on Japanese Pink DS Lites, so don't try to just import one and test it for yourself. ;)

Actually, I was surprised to find that Target has started selling a few UMD movies again. Looks like they threw them out there when they redid their video games department to handle the Wii and PS3.

Oh gee, I hope I'm not too late. I could use one of these... ^_^