Every so often I get curious enough about something, I throw some money at it and give it a try.

A few years ago, I bought two game console systems and experimented with console gaming.

Recently, I decided to give mobile gaming a try.

iPhone

Since I already had an iPhone, I started with iPhone games. Good grief there is a lot of buzz about iPhone games! I dont think a day goes by without hearing another iPhone game rant or rave. Since the attention was coming from mainstream gaming media and not Apple fan boys, I finally bought a few to see for myself.

I tried Monkey Island. I tried an RPG. I tried a few arcade games. It did not take long before I realized that I hated it.

Since the screen is also the control panel, I found it way too small. I did not like the touch screen. I found it hard to see the screen when I was using it. I have the first iPhone and my battery life was really poor; playing a game meant losing my phone. And switching apps or taking a call meant losing my game and starting over. Overall, feh...

On the other hand, we bought some learning games for our 3-year old and she loves them.

PSP 3000

Next, I decided to try the PSP.

I got really excited about the PSP, probably more than I should have. Although the hardware seemed nice, there were not actually any games on it that I really wanted to play. Unlike the iPhone there is almost no buzz for the PSP and the list of games is pretty small after five years of release.

I found a used PSP-3000 (the third model) on Craigslist a few weeks ago. Since then I have spent several hours playing an RPG and plan to pick up a few more games for my vacation next week.

It is not a smashing success, but I am much happier with the PSP than the iPhone for games. The PSP screen is nice and wide but it is not very tall which is a little annoying. But the controls are on the side, not on the screen, and I really enjoy that. It is a little small in my hands which makes some of the buttons hard to use but overall I like it. The thing I like most about it is that I can use it anywhere in the house and if my daughter interrupts me, I can pause the game and resume it anytime I want. The hardware has a great suspend/resume feature.

I will write some PSP game reviews after I try a few more games.