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[Theslammer]

Previous threads:

Super NES (1991)
Sega Dreamcast (1999)
Microsoft Xbox 360 (2005)
Sony Playstation 4 (2013)

From the pre-orders, long lines on launch day, surprise Christmas presents, and anticipation for new technology, console/handheld launches can be some of the most times as a gamer.

Some launches produce classic games. Some launches produce a lot of good games. Some launches, you look back and think, "There really wasn't much, was there?" I've put together the launches at the bottom of the post for the US, Europe and Asia.


My experience:

I drove with my friend who had pre-ordered one and remembered marveling at how slick it looked. The Nintendo handhelds never looked this good, and that's not a knock on their quality since they've been home to tons of terrific games. But there was definitely a difference between how the GBA looked and how the PSP looked.

The UI was also different than what I was used to seeing, and I really love the analog stick. I don't mean it's the best for playing, but I just liked how it felt =P. I think I spent a lot of time fiddling with it when we opened it.

I forget what exactly we tested, but I remember we tested out things that were promised at launch and it all worked, so it was pretty exciting. Alas, I never bought a PSP, though I did eventually get a DS.

What about you?

Ape Escape: On the Loose
Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower

Dynasty Warriors
Gretzky NHL

Lumines
Metal Gear Acid
NBA
Need for Speed Underground: Rivals
NFL Street 2: Unleashed

Ridge Racer
Spider-Man 2
Tony Hawk's Underground 2: Remix

Twisted Metal: Head-On
Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade

Wipeout Pure
World Tour Soccer: Challenge Edition

Japanese launch: December 12, 2004

Armored Core: Formula Front
Mahjong Fight Club
Minna no Golf Portable
Lumines
Ridge Racers
Vampire Chronicle: The Chaos Tower

European launch: September 1, 2005

Ape Academy
Archer Maclean's Mercury
Colin McRae Rally 2005 Plus
Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower
Dynasty Warriors
Everybody's Golf Portable
F1 Grand Prix
Fired Up
Lumines
MediEvil: Resurrection
Metal Gear Acid
Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition
NBA Street Showdown
Need for Speed Underground: Rivals
NFL Street 2: Unleashed
Ridge Racer
Spider-Man 2
TOCA Race Driver 2: The Ultimate Racing Simulator
Tony Hawk's Underground 2: Remix
Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade
Wipeout Pure
World Championship Snooker 2005
World Tour Soccer: Challenge Edition
Virtua Tennis: World Tour

 

[T.O.P]

Such a greate piece of hardware, Virtua Tennis, Blazblue CT and Lumines kept me busy for months

But above all, one of the best emulation machine around

 

[watershed]

I really liked Metal Gear Acid for what it was. I thought it was a refreshing take on an established franchise that made sense for a portable game.

 

[Theslammer]

Such a greate piece of hardware, Virtua Tennis, Blazblue CT and Lumines kept me busy for months

But above all, one of the best emulation machine around

I've never looked into it, but my gut tells me that's part of why the PSP lasted so long (people were buying it for emulation and not necessarily games at a certain point, even though many good games came to the system).

 

[tanooki27]

my pal had one and let me borrow it. played a lotta need for speed

 

[Usobuko]

PSP was revolutionary when it debuted. Has about the same buzz as PS1 equivalent.

I played a lot of Need for Speed too.

 

[Vyse The Legend]

I camped outside a Circuit City for one, and took home Lumines, Twisted Metal and MG Acid.

Back then, I was firmly Team PSP and thought the DS was garbage...

Spoiler

By the end of the generation, I had over 100 DS games. Haha.

 

[Dr. Feel Good]

Lumines was a new generations Tetris.

What an amazing launch lineup with Twisted Metal online out of the gate, Lumines, Metal Gear, Ape Escapse, Wipeout... Sony went all out. Nintendo had completely botched the DS up until that point and it was crazy that until Nintendogs dropped that following August it wasn't clear who would win the market.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Lumines was that digital crack

 

[lyrick]

I kind of wanted one at launch for Lumines, but held off due to no other desirable software. I ended up picking one up while on a business trip and playing the Final Fantasy remake.

Other than Fanboy DS vs PSP wars on the Net, I'm pretty sure nobody gave a flying fuck about the systems launch.

 

[Blam]

PSP was revolutionary when it debuted. Has about the same buzz as PS1 equivalent.

I played a lot of Need for Speed too.

PSP was a beast when it launched and the lineup it had was great.

 

[BiggNife]

The PSP's launch lineup blew the DS' out of the water. I remember genuinely regretting buying a DS and strongly considering spending all of my expendable cash on a PSP before eventually deciding against it.

It really wasn't until Holiday 2005 before the DS library started to pick up, and the PSP's lineup slowly started to dry up — especially since with the advent of the 360/PS3, since ports of console games to PSP weren't really viable anymore.

 

[Theslammer]

The PSP's launch lineup blew the DS' out of the water. I remember genuinely regretting buying a DS and strongly considering spending all of my expendable cash on a PSP before eventually deciding against it.

It really wasn't until Holiday 2005 before the DS library started to pick up, and the PSP's lineup slowly started to dry up — especially since with the advent of the 360/PS3, since ports of console games to PSP weren't really viable anymore.

It was at that point things went in reverse: I was FINALLY able to play Twisted Metal Head-On using the PSP-to-PS2 port that also included the Twisted Metal Black sequel that was never made.

 

[Dr. Feel Good]

The PSP's launch lineup blew the DS' out of the water. I remember genuinely regretting buying a DS and strongly considering spending all of my expendable cash on a PSP before eventually deciding against it.

It really wasn't until Holiday 2005 before the DS library started to pick up, and the PSP's lineup slowly started to dry up — especially since with the advent of the 360/PS3, since ports of console games to PSP weren't really viable anymore.

I'd say turning point was August of 2005. DS got Advance Wars, Nintendogs, and Pac n Roll which started momentum. October had Castlevania. November had Mario Kart with first Nintendo online play. Then December hit with Animal Crossing. It was an insane mega punch to Sony.

Brain Age, NSMB and DS Lite in early 2006 was like putting salt in the wounds.

 

[Drackhorn]

I played an unhealthy amount of Test Drive Unlimited and Race Driver. Even though the stick gave me the cramps.

 

[thestopsign]

I'd say turning point was August of 2005. DS got Advance Wars, Nintendogs, and Pac n Roll which started momentum. October had Castlevania. November had Mario Kart with first Nintendo online play. Then December hit with Animal Crossing. It was an insane mega punch to Sony.

Brain Age, NSMB and DS Lite in early 2006 was like putting salt in the wounds.

October had Castlevania, Trauma Center: Under the Knife, and Phoenix Wright: AA. As a niche gaming monster that is when it really proved itself.

I was jealous of PSP owners at launch. I only have ever played Lumines on my brother's PSP, but I have caught ports of games from it since like The Legend of Heroes. Now as a Switch owner I can recognize the true appeal of having a good portable indie machine.

 

[Dazzler]

I was living in Europe when this launched, and the long wait for it to come here was agonizing.

Saw a guy sitting in a bar playing an import PSP with Ridge Racer and I was blown away at what this handheld was putting out graphically

I got it at European launch along with Everybody's Golf and Ridge Racer. I eventually got into the hacking scene and it became my go-to emulation machine

Nothing but fond memories of the PSP

 

[Fisty]

An amazing piece of hardware that went from great to legendary when the modders got a hold of it. Still keep mine in a drawer, just in case (even though the battery is all swelled up)

 

[Moofers]

I had the DS when the PSP came out and I was fairly into it. I've always been a big PlayStation fan though, so I knew I was going to have to check out this PSP once it hit stores.

The day it launched, I stopped into a Gamestop and the store had a demo unit ready for people to try with Wipeout Pure. As soon as I played it, I was blown away. I remember thinking I had Xbox games that didn't look this good. I told the guy behind the counter to hold one for me while I went home to get my DS so I could trade it in.

An hour later, I had my PSP along with Wipeout Pure and Lumines. That shit felt like the future had arrived. I was so impressed with it! I never regretted selling my DS for it and the PSP would go on to have some of my favorite games on it. That original PSP unit died off some years back but I have my PSP Go that I bought in 2009 and I still use the hell out of that thing. I take it with me on runs and workouts because its my MP3 player. I also bought the component cables to play it on my TV as well. Such an amazing little system.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

PSP was revolutionary when it debuted. Has about the same buzz as PS1 equivalent.

I played a lot of Need for Speed too.

I bought PSP in 2009 and it still felt surprisingly modern (to be fair it was the slim model).

 

[Chorazin]

I loved taking them back to Walmart 6 times before I FINALLY got one without dead pixels. DAT QUALITY CONTROL THO

 

[Waylon Drums]

I was still holding on to the last vestiges of my youthful Nintendo fanboyism around the time the PSP and DS released. I was so scared for Nintendo, given what was shown of the PSP vs what we knew of the DS. The PSP was an adult GameBoy! The same thing that happened during the N64/PS1 era will happen again!


Yeah, no. Loved the PSP, though. It was my first Playstation-branded system and even my experience with a mobile browser. It also allowed me to watch a Kylie Minogue concert on a plane via UMD, years before the iPhone, which was key.

 

[JamboGT]

Ridge Racers, WipEout Pure and Lumines, what a launch! Was delighted with it.

 

[Cess007]

Oh man, I still remember the day I bought a PSP. I went home with this:

I still have those games, even when I sold my PSP years ago. It had also a great library of RPGs for me.

 

[DarkConfidant]

I thought the launch lineup was great!
Twisted Metal, WipEout Pure, Lumines, and Metal Gear AC!D were all pretty good.

WipEout even had DLC in 2005! Way ahead of it's time.

First system I've ever got at launch.

 

[valkillmore]

WipEout Pure was amazing on it! I bought the system just for that, and man was I impressed with that release, especially coming off the incredibly weak and poorly conceived WipEout Fusion.

 

[Ogawa-san]

Coming from my trusty GBA SP, the impact of seeing Ridge Racer running in person was almost as strong as seeing the first RR on PS1 (first time I saw the console too) a decade or so before it.

Amazing little machine. No regrets being an early adopter.

 

[Theslammer]

I bought PSP in 2009 and it still felt surprisingly modern (to be fair it was the slim model).

I think even 2009 was before phones started to look uniformly slick. PSP did seem ahead of its time for me.

 

[commish]

Bought it day one. Playing Lumines was a joy, no regrets.

And honestly, Metal gear acid is criminally underrated. I hope to get an iOS port of the games so I can replay them.

 

[Fowler]

Launch day for me was a few days before official Japanese launch.

I live in Hong Kong and knew people at Lik-Sang, an old online retailer based here, and was able to get one of their first PSPs. Better yet, they called me as soon as their shipment arrived so I could pick it up from them in person -- no need to wait for shipping! I'll never forget going down to the train station late after work to meet one of the Lik-Sang guys and get a PSP.

The funniest part of it was I didn't even get a game with it!

The only game I wanted was Ridge Racer, and there were no shipments of that in yet. Lik-Sang were kind enough to lend me Darkstalkers so I had something to play... except... they forgot to put the UMD in the box. So I ended up with an empty Darkstalkers PSP case, which I never returned.

Ridge Racer came in the next night; instead of Lik-Sang, I went down to the local gadget mall, where a bunch of stores were open super late. It's normally really tight and crowded in there, so it was weird going after hours where it's almost entirely deserted other than these small pockets of excitement where everyone is trying to get their hands on the few PSP games available.

All that made the PSP launch one of the more memorable system launches for me. But one of the big factors was how damn cool the system itself was. The hype was insane -- forget Game Boy killer, some people were calling it an iPod killer. And getting your hands on the system... it was hard not to be a believer. It was gorgeous, the screen was huge (the screen alone was almost as big as an iPod classic!), it was super easy to get video running on it.

Sony knocked it out of the park with their first two PlayStations. And it was up against the original DS, which was pretty plastic-y and clunky. We all know how history ended up -- and don't get me wrong, in the end I definitely preferred the DS to the PSP -- but at the time? It was hard to hold the PSP and not think this was the future.

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

It had to be posted.

 

[The Elite]

Launch day for me was all about making sure I didn't get stuck with the Canadian Gretzky bundle that EB was forcing on some people.

 

[KalBalboa]

I skipped school to pick mine up. Grabbed Twisted Metal: Head On.

What an awesome portable.

 

[RebornYeti]

My buddy got one around launch with Untold Legends and we played the shit out of it on a camping trip. Man, that game was actually a lot of fun from what I can remember. Makes me wanna get a PSP now just to play lol

 

[chronic_archaic]

I don't remember the launch but I do remember the time it came out - I was 8 years old, moved across the state briefly and remember when school started around September I was seeing kids playing the original DS and seeing Mario 64 and being really impressed from just glancing - it was impressive to see a 3D game running on a handheld.

I was on the bus coming home and I saw a kid with a PSP. I saw him playing this futuristic racer and the graphics blew my mind, I couldn't believe that was on a handheld. I later learned this was Wipeout Pure long after. The thing just looked awesome, I only had a GBA SP at the time and seeing these new handhelds made my jealous for sure. When I moved back to my home town, I didn't see anyone with a PSP until around 2007 or so. I saw some DSs but it was mostly GBAs when I was in elementary school until around 2008 when everyone had a DS Lite. I got my own PSP finally pretty late - 2011, and it lasted a month before I was on vacation and someone shattered the screen by stepping on it, I guess. I traded a Wii for it. Shit pissed me off because I'm fairly certain someone did it intentionally. Never got another system but did get a Vita in 2014 and loved it so much... wish I still had it. I might grab a PSP one of these days simply for the rhythm games and P3P. I love Lumines and Taiko but I really want to get into DJ MAX since it's not on anything else that I own.

 

[Man God]

Awful launch. The system being cracked out of the box was fun though, I played Little Nemo more than Lumines and Darkstalkers.

The best use was as a portable video player, which it was the single best device at for a year or two.

 

[Vlaphor]

Loved the hell out of my PSP. Bought it at launch and already had a smattering of games to go with it, since the local EB games were doing a pre-launch deal where you could trade in two PS2/XBOX games from a list and get a free PSP game..and there was another game store nearby selling used copies of the games on that list really cheap. When I got my PSP, I had Wipeout Pure, Darkstalkers, Lumines, and THUG 2 Remix. Hell of a lineup to launch a console with.

Also, this isn't quite a launch story, but shortly after the system first got SNES emulators running on it, I went to San Diego Comic Con with my PSP in tow and several roms installed. I went to the Nintendo booth, where if you had a portable Nintendo system with you, they'd give you a Zelda coin (to promote Twilight Princess). I showed him my PSP running Donkey Kong Country and he gave me a coin for that...and then I almost got a picture of him playing the PSP in front of the Nintendo booth, but wasn't able to in time,

 

[tommyguns]

I still remember this launch like it was yesterday. My dad drove me to one of the local malls because I had the PSP pre ordered at an F.Y.E. Remember getting home and loving the fact that I could change the background colors on the XMB. That screen looked so damn good at the time. Played a lot of twisted metal that night

Edit: And tony hawk!

 

[Type40]

Lumines and Wipeout were the games to get. Then Maverick hunter a few months later.

 

[Kuro]

I played the hell out of my PSP in middle School. I remember how you had to press the square button a certain way because the screen underneath would block the left side of the button. I played a lot of Codes Arms and all sorts of RPGs including that Diablo clone.

 

[KalBalboa]

The PSP still looks futuristic to me.

 

[Resident_UA]

What an amazing piece of hardware! I feel like it holds up even today.

 

[Makoto-Yuki]

i loved my PSP even if i only ever did play GTA liberty city stories and Midnight Club 3.

i wish Sony would release a new handheld that was as enjoyable as the PSP. i bought a vita but it just didn't live up to the PSP for me.

 

[That1BlackGuy]

I remember the idea of playing Dynasty Warriors in 3D on a portable console pretty much guaranteed I would buy one. Absolutely love the little handheld.

 

[JustAnotherOtaku]

Got an import US system for my 21st birthday along with Ridge Racer and Metal Gear Acid. Seeing Ridge Racer in motion for the first time was an incredible experience.

Absolutely loved, and still love, the PSP. Have a huge library of games of all genres, from all regions. Was especially great for retro compilations which I really appreciated.

 

[deo]

My dad had one around that time and we were just addicted to GTA VCS and Ape escape

 

[alexbull_uk]

I loved the PSP, it was such a great device it's a real shame it (and the Vita) never did as well as they should have.

I mostly remember playing MediEvil and Everybody's Golf around launch. Oh, and listening to that one song by The Zutons on the demo disk (does anyone else remember that?).

 

[Windle Poons]

I still love my PSP, got my launch day one still alive and kicking.

I remember getting the Donnie Darko movie on UMD for free off Sony.

 

[panzone]

Took it for Christmas 2007 (for Wipeout Pulse, obviously). However, between my friends it was a sort of legend: you could play PS1 games on the go! I mean, we grew up with the PS1, the nostalgia was too strong.

However I have found some great games in the PSP lineup: especially after the 2009, when Sony tried a little harder (we had a Soul Calibur on this thing!), I played a lot of JRPGs on my PSP during my university commute and during classes I often played to Monster Hunter with colleagues.

EDIT: Oh, right, almost forgot. As an "aspiring" developer, the PSP always had some charm to me because of its relatively simple hardware. I clearly remember that I spent a weekend porting on PSP a little game engine I was writing and I was incredible happy when I was able to run it on a real PSP (even if only at 30 FPS because honestly, the code was terrible).

 

[bobawesome]

One of my favorite systems of all time. I wish I hadn't sold my 3000 after I bought a Vita. I really like my Vita, maybe more than the PSP, but I'm still kicking myself over it.