Are you a PSP owner that is more than concerned about the lack of quality games for your handheld? You are not alone nor are your views represented by only the gamer community. Didier Malenfant of Ready At Dawn games has broken the dawn,s silence by blasting developers who say the PSP limits their creativity. His remarks were given in an interview to GameIndustry. Malenfant said, "Everything is compromised, and it bugs the hell out of me when you hear a lot of developers saying, ‘Well, we can’t do this that way because it’s a handheld game,’ or ‘We can’t do this because it doesn’t have a second analog stick.’ Those are all excuses.” His goals are not only to make a good PSP game, but to send a message to the industry. "We really set out to prove that you can do a game that is as good, if not better, than a PS2 game and really show off the platform. If we do end up becoming the game that opens the floodgates, I’d be really really proud, because it’s such an awesome handheld." Malenfant formerly worked at Naughty Dog on the title “Jax and Daxter.
Ready at Dawn games is working on the release of their new title, “Daxter” for the PSP. He commented on his expectations of the new game being on a level of gameplay and experience equal to the PS2 console experience. "For me that’s terribly exciting, because I tend to play my PSP a lot more than any other console, simply because it’s portable. I don’t want to end up playing sub-par games just because I’m on a handheld, which up to [now] has been what we’ve had to do." His remarks are, most likely, a veiled reference to Nintendo,s handheld Game Boy consoles. While his preference for the PSP is legitimate, Malenfant cannot discount the enormous popularity of the Game Boy franchise. Evidently, there is more to this than meets the eye.
Gamers may not be looking for a full game console experience on their handhelds as much as they are looking for good experiences on their handheld game consoles. There is a difference. Daxter, for the PSP, will be released sometime in spring of 2006.
