Sony's PSP is handheld entertainment

Tom Loftus Columnist • E-mail

Capable of commanding the eyeballs of the user no matter how long the family car trip,  handheld gaming devices are the BlackBerry of the younger generation. 

That's where the comparison ends. The handhelds stuffed in kiddie backpacks worldwide make their parents beloved BlackBerry look like a toy.  

Take Sony's PlayStation Portable -- a regular Swiss Army Knife of handheld entertainment that supports crisply rendered 3-D graphics, wireless game play, movie, music and photo playback and, starting next week, web browsability.  

Its adaptability and its sexy black techno-design has allowed the Sony PSP to shift public perception of handheld gaming since its April debut from mere child's play to another excuse for dad to head off to the electronics store.

But make no mistake; playing games is the Sony PSP's meat and potatoes which it often does quite well due to its ability to display 16.77 million colors at a resolution of 480-by-272 pixels.

The Sony PSP uses a 333MHz processor and includes 32MB of built-in memory translating into in-game graphics that are almost PlayStation 2 in quality.

The flat LCD 4.3 inch-wide screen sounds small to the uninitiated, but its 16:9 resolution provides Grand Canyon type views -- ok, a tiny Grand Canyon.  Certain games are able to translate that resolution into an illusion of depth and openness never seen with handhelds.

In "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" a flying camera perspective allows players to literally share the ball's flight from tee to green.  Fairways look and feel massive.

Baseball on handhelds usually translates into tiny pixels on on a diamond-shaped splash of green.  But the Sony PSP's wide screen adds the required oomph -- provided game developers know how to work it to their advantage as they do in "MVP Baseball" where, through a series of quick cut shots that capture both the massiveness of a baseball stadium and facial characteristics of the batter.

Racing games? Parents are advised to bring along a travel sickness bag for their PSP-strapping kids on those long car trips.  "Wipeout Pure," a popular PSP title, features dips, loops and quick turns through a futuristic urban landscape. Look too long and some players may reach for the Dramamine.

Controls on the Sony PSP mimic those on a Sony PlayStation 2 controller: Shoulder buttons, nicely done in clear plastic, straddle the top of the PSP; directional buttons and a small joystick sit to the left of the screen while standard PlayStation 2 buttons the right. 

The six-and-half inch wide Sony PSP fits nicely when held by two hands.  Index fingers naturally hover over the should buttons just like with a PS2 controller.  But smaller hands may have difficulty straddling buttons.

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