Sony confirms that the PSP (Sony’s big foray into portable gaming) is graphically a rough equivalent to the Playstation 2, opening up the possibility of transferring saved games from home console for play on the portable system. While console and handheld interactivity isn’t new (the Nintendo Game Boy Advance and Gamecube have been doing it for years), this is the first time since NEC’s TurboGraphix that a handheld should roughly match the power of its set-top equivalent.
Of course, the PSP can keep up because it has new, shiny hardware running against the PS2s (as of yesterday) four year old insides (happy birthday, you ugly bastard!). With Sony planning on releasing the Playstation 3 fairly soon, the window for making these ‘take anywhere’ titles is small, made smaller by Sony’s proclamation that they won’t allow any ‘shovelware’ quick-ports from the PS2 for the first six months of the PSP’s life.
Still, Playstation 2-quality graphics on a portable? I won’t complain. And with a screen that small, you’ll hardly make out the polygons’ jagged edges.
