Today I finally broke down and bought the import Namco Museum for PSP because I just had to experience a vert game on the handheld. I got home and immediately started up Galaga and after an hour of trying to get a hang of playing it in vert mode I had to give up and go back to holding the system the normal way. There are several problems with this idea. First is simply the design of the system. Using the analog nub to fire is not only awkward as it's much too close to the d-pad to not "bump thumbs" as you're playing, but it's also far too slow to keep up with the fire rate that Galaga requires. At some point I found myself jamming on the little thing (still not getting the speed I wanted) and I started worrying that I would start breaking it if I kept up. Switching to using the "X" button helped somewhat, but it was really hard to keep the system level when I was constantly pounding on the button, resulting in a feeling of nausea as the screen rocked back and forth with each press--not to mention how sore my wrist was getting from the angle.
The second major issue is the half-assed design of Namco's port. The game gives the option to rotate the screen and then to scale the ratio in and out from a small box to the full length of the screen. The problem is that they only programmed the game to run in the original "small box in the center of the screen" ratio, and anything else is simply stretched out. It's not really a true vert display, but rather just the original display stretched out to fill up the screen. This is true for all the games on the collection. This gives the games a soft/blurry look and the colors get somewhat muted.
So, I'm wondering if anyone can post some opinions on Space Invaders Pocket. I still want the game, but a major part of my interest was in the vertical play and I'm curious if Taito did a better job on the display.
This worry extends also to the forth-coming Star Soldier. I have to say that at this point I am about to call bullshit on the PSP as a viable platform for vertically-scrolling games.
Yes, tate is a no-no with handhelds, especially the PSP. A friend of mine has this game, he has the same problems, I played, I had the same problems. He's going to buy Space Invaders reguardless - I'll try that to.
the only handheld that ever did tate properly is the Wonderswan, but that system had some of the worst screen blurring I've ever seen Too bad the PSP doesn't have a design like that
Space Invaders for the PSP looks perfectly fine non-tate (the aspect difference is pretty much unnoticable imho) and controls much, much better. I tried playing it tate but ... it's a complete pain. Screw it. Non-tate it is.
but no autofire on handelds is garbage no matter what.
i always play my gradius advance with autofire, you just cant do otherwise, screen shakes.
im more concerned with this than with tate.
It's not really an issue in Space Invaders (you don't need to fire all that fast...) but lack of autofire would definitely hurt others. Lack of autofire makes my thumb hurt like hell in Metal Slug Advance too...
Cthulhu wrote:It's not really an issue in Space Invaders (you don't need to fire all that fast...) but lack of autofire would definitely hurt others. Lack of autofire makes my thumb hurt like hell in Metal Slug Advance too...
Too bad the PSP doesn't have a design like that
