Interesting design - good and bad

So since we have been on break and I've been trying to catch up with some missed games I've been playing a lot of random things here lately. The Wii is getting some play so is the PS2, PS3 and the 360. Not to mention the good old standby of the DS. So I saw this system sitting over on the side and figured I would turn it on again.


So lets get this right out of the way, I'm not bashing the PSP nor am I praising the DS or vice versa. The PSP has some great games that I've been going back and really enjoying. Tekkken is always fun to go back and play and I'm starting up on Syphon Filter and Every Extend Extra. Lets not forget the PSP sold an obscene amount in the month of December - a million units I think it was in America alone.

HOWEVER - there are 2 things that baffle my mind as to why they were done in the first place. First is the volume controls. They are these 2 really small buttons that I can never find when I need them but why are they buttons in the first place? My car has the same issue when it comes to temperature controls. I hate turning the heat on and it's at like 60 and I gotta mash the up button all the way to 80. A slide control for the volume is always a much better route to go. Why Nintendo decided not to do this with the GBA Micro baffles me.

Although what annoys me more than these 2 buttons is how the volume controls are handled. When you don't have a game in you get this great on screen display of how loud/quiet the volume level is at:

This thing is super great at telling the user how loud things are. Unfortunately when you are playing a game this overlay doesn't appear when you press the volume buttons. Not sure if they felt that it was a bad move to have it interfere while playing a game or what but I hate it and wish I could somehow turn it back on. Maybe there is a way and I just haven't been able to figure it out.

The 2nd thing that drives me nuts is the power light which normally looks like this:

Yeah I'm aware of having to plug it in because the battery could be better but thats now what we are here to discuss.

So what happens due to the placement of the battery light, when I'm playing a game I NEVER see the damn thing because it gets covered up like this:

As you can see my thumb completely covers up the light. The battery has ran out many times without me realizing that it was low. I have no idea if they will ever redesign the PSP but I hope someone fixes my 2 complaints.

Enough complaining! So I'll admit I like to peruse the area of the internet known as GAF from time to time. Setting up an account seems way too hard so I've never got around to doing it so I never chime in on the conversations going on. However one that caught my eye was this guy talking about how everyone should play Kim Possible: Whats the Switch? He even included a video that he had uploaded to youtube to show off the gameplay:



As you can see it looks completely awesome! She even has a grapple hook which for some reason speaks straight to my Bionic Commando lovin' ass when I was a kid playing it in the arcade. The game is totally Viewtiful Joe but done right. Has really great level design and interesting gameplay mechanics. You have you standard enemy and he takes like 3 or 4 hits to die and you have this gum that you use to hold levers into place. If you throw the gum at the enemies it will keep them in place and only take 1 hit to finish off. She even has a divekick which stuns enemies. Not only that! But she has both of Wolverine's dive kicks - the angled one and the straight down one which you can use to break through weak floors and find hidden secrets and stuff.

Oh yeah - I wanted to comment on the pole swing that she has. When she reaches the apex of her swing she changes direction in the anim. This was a really smart move because they force the player to only jump forward not having to deal with jumping backwards and all that silly nonsense. Whoever decided this - good job. You can see what I'm babbling about in the video - like 30 seconds near the end of it.

My only real complaint about the game is that it really is too hard for what the target audience should have been. Not only that but it's probably a little too long for what it is. Some of the later levels go on for what feels like forever and you can only save once you've completed the level. I picked it up new for $30 and had a lot of fun with it. You get to find hidden tokens that give you new outfits throughout the game and the cut scenes even have you in the outfit you are wearing - was rather impressed. Thanks to the GAF forum member who suggested this game.