Gaming on the go.

I haven’t been paying too much attention to the last generation of portable handhelds, and I’m fairly certain I rolled my eyes to both the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP; the Nintendo DS’ use of two-screens, one of which is a touch-screen, seemed too gimmicky, and the graphics weren’t all that impressive, and yet the PSP seemed like too much of a power-whore with overpriced memory sticks and more proprietary hoopla than PCs in the early 90s.

Recently, however, I was made aware of the M3, the “GBA Movie Player”. Despite the name, I doubt that most people would use the device to play movies, though that’s certainly one of the abilities the device lets one do. Perhaps more noteworthy, however, is that the M3 is packed with oldschool console emulators, to include emulators for the NES, SNES, and Sega Master System. Naturally, the ability to play older Gameboy games is also available, all in a nice little package that works on both the Gameboy Advance (GBA) as well as the Nintendo DS.

There are two versions of the device – one for compact flash as a storage medium, and one for secure digital (SD). After copying ROMs to the respective storage medium, you just pop the device into your Gameboy and have at it. And, you can play GBA and DS ROMs also, assuming you can find them.

While one can play PSP Roms on the PSP without having to buy extra hardware, one does have to flash the firmware on the device to an older version, which isn’t as simple as the M3′s Plug’n Play. And, while one could obtain PSP titles as easy as DS titles, the fact is that DS titles are smaller, and the potential gaming library far greater given the number of legacy titles out there. Imagine having literally thousands of titles available at one’s disposal, rather than the dozens available for the PSP.

Considering one can get a DS, and M3, and a memory card for the price of the PSP, one has to wonder if the PSP’s fancier graphics are really worth it.