PlayStation Mini – Surprising or out of ideas?
And while I initially jumped on the HYPE bandwagon, now that I’ve slept on it, I’m less and less enthused.
Disappointing lineup announced so far
It is exactly that. Jumping Flash, while groundbreaking at the time (pun intended), has aged poorly and never seems to make the PlayStation top 20 lists. Wild Arms is a solid RPG that was quickly usurped in 1997 by the incredible Final Fantasy VII (the only standout game in these initial five, in my opinion). Ridge Racer Type 4 is a fun but limited racing game that pales in comparison to Gran Turismo, TOCA, Colin McRae, etc. Tekken 3 is a good game, but my gut is that its predecessor should have gotten a thumbs up (more fun, and I don’t much care for Tekken Force).
The other thing to note is that the developers here are Namco, what was Squaresoft (now Square Enix of course) and Sony Computer Entertainment. This suggests minimal third party involvement in the total lineup, will there be any of the big titles made by Capcom or Konami? Only time will tell.
no double shock
Oh really. And the inclusion of the Ridge Racer Type 4 (which, as many have pointed out, was designed with analog in mind) is perplexing to add to the mix with this in mind. The reasoning behind this could be more covert than we anticipated. Of course, less plastic equals less cost, that’s a no-brainer, but it’s not like the Dual Shock was a last-minute introduction to the lifecycle of the original PlayStation. By removing the analog capability, the unit has drivers that are not compatible with any other device (they seem to have a custom accessory instead of USB). Imagine if you bought this for £89.99 and it came with two controllers that used USB connectivity and were compatible with PS4. I don’t think Sony’s finance department is particularly happy about that.
£89.99 and does not include adapter
Minor compared to my other points, and we all have hundreds of Android adapters lying around the house, but another corner cut to ensure the product’s RRP doesn’t exceed £100.
Less chance to hack and include as many games as you want
Nintendo, on purpose or not, has made their mini NES and SNES easy to hack and there seem to be multiple ways to hack each unit. Clarification on each drive’s internal memory would be helpful here, but even with a standard 16 or 32GB SD, this allows for adding entire NES and SNES libraries. The PlayStation is a CD-based system, of course, with CD-quality sound. Any emulation fan will tell you that even one-disc PS games will set you back 400-700MB, and my recent download of FF7 from the PS Store was just over 1GB. Therefore, there is a real possibility that the storage of the unit will be completely occupied by the 20 anticipated titles.
The drive has no USB plugs (to my knowledge), unlike the C64 Mini, which removes the ability to store and play ROMs from an external flash drive or the like. The only way in seems to be the power outlet, which is more of a problem, but I’m sure it’s not impossible for some of you.
Why have they done this?
Why not! Christmas is coming up and we retrogamers need things to put on our lists. It’s an official collectible product of a much-loved console and it would be foolish not to jump on the bandwagon, which Sony is used to (hard?).
What else could they have done with this console?
Many of the announced improvements would be solved by buying a Vita or a slimline PSP… Jokes aside, one key issue is the addition of HDMI-only output. True fans will point out that this was not how the original console was enjoyed, and it will also lift the fog from many of the console’s 3D titles, thus exposing how many of them have aged poorly over the years.
Will I get one?
Maybe. The fact is that PS titles are available to buy for free for Sony handheld devices and if you were to buy a second hand PSOne and those five titles mentioned, they would probably cost you less than £90.
It’s clear that tba’s remaining 15 titles will have a big impact on those sitting nearby like me, but given the likely shallow net when it comes to third-party involvement, I don’t hold out much hope. Will Sony take a chance on putting some of the rarer console titles on there? Or stick with the bread and butter of popular titles? Roll in December.