What is the best portable system EVER?

[o.pwuaioc]

don't get me wrong..I had a regular Gameboy and I loved it..but that was before the advent of the gaming explosion.

How old are you again? I had ton of friends who had a Game Boy when I was a kid.

[Aussie2B]

Practically every kid had a Game Boy in the 90s. I mean, they were marked down to $49.95 as early as 1993, which was less than the typical SNES game, so they were really affordable. And when Pokemon came along, they were all the more ubiquitous. Portable gaming was definitely mainstream LONG before the Game Boy Advance, and the "gaming explosion" happened long before that too. So kids these days think gaming didn't take off until past 2000?

[Satoshi_Matrix]

A fully modded PSP 2000 or 3000. Full library of PSP games, PS1 games, Gameboy, GBC, GBA, SNES, Genesis, mame NeoGeo Pocket Color, etc etc.

But if that's cheating I gotta go with the GBA SP 2.0. It's still the sexiest handheld ever.

[goatdan]

I'm a portable system fan. Like, I have to catch myself to not buy every different one out there, and I really don't know why that is. A *lot* of portable systems I couldn't give two rips about for the longest time, and then probably about 10 years ago, I kinda started just acquiring them. I'll admit that my taste is weird, but here we go, ranked from favorite to not so much...

1) Nintendo DSiXL - I wish it had the cartridge slot for GBA games, but beyond that this thing is great -- with a screen that is large and bright enough to really see what is going on, and a layout that is the right size for my big ol' hands, this thing just nailed everything. I didn't like and never got a DS Lite or DSi after my original DS because they didn't feel right, this thing does -- and there is a heck of a lot of great DS games to play for it.
2) Game Boy Micro - Okay, so I love the GIANT DS because it fits my hands right, but something about the Micro just fits me right too. I love the fact that I can drop it into a pocket and carry it around with no issues -- perhaps the only portable that is truly really easily portable -- and the screen is just right too. I never owned another GBA because I hated the original's screen and I hated the form factor of the GBASP, but the Micro just works... and by all means, it really shouldn't.
3) PSP - The knock on it has always been that the games are like full sized PS2 games, just fit on a small screen. And that knock is fair, but since you can suspend the game at any point, I don't see what the big deal is. I would rank it higher if there was more to the library, but it seems like it was a flash in the pan for releases, and while it has some really great ones, it simply doesn't have enough to justify ranking it above the GBA or DS.
4) Neo Geo Pocket Color - This was probably the handheld that really got me into handhelds, I bought it right after they announced they would be pulling the inventory. I had been saving up for one (it had nothing to do with collecting and everything to do with really wanting one) and the library has the highest rating of great games to console that I think I have found. The original Card Fighters Clash is amazing, and the clickly stick is simply perfect tech for a portable.
5) Game Boy Color - I got this after I bought my first DS to experience some of the games with. It fits nice, it has a lot of decent games for it (in particular, Super Mario Bros is AMAZING what they did with it), and that's about that.
6) Original Game Boy - I liked the size of this for playing with, although the games drove me nuts. I played the heck out of the one that I had as a kid, but if I had the choice between a real console or the Game Boy, it was the real console every time.
7) Atari Lynx - I love a bunch of the games for the Lynx, and the hardware is cool. Robotron is great. I wish it wasn't so much of a battery guzzler, or it would be higher on the list.
8) 3DS - Give me a game that I am interested in that I don't feel like is a tech demo, please, and I'll rate this one higher. So far, my 3DS has been used to play through the Professor Layton games (not 3DS titles), and I bought Pilotwings and Steel Diver for it, both which feel like they should have been $5.00 downloadable titles from the online store, not cartridge releases. I'm very interested in some upcoming titles, although hardware design issues will probably never move this beyond #3 for me right now, unless a new revision comes calling.
9) Sega Game Gear - I hate hate hate the screen blurring crap this thing does, but I really like a bunch of the games that it has. It's a weird relationship I have with that console... I guess I would put the portable "Coleco" thing I got a couple years ago with a bunch of GG games in it higher than this... THAT thing is cool.
10) Game.Com - I don't really have much nice to say about the Game.Com. But I own a few of them, because they are portable, and I go to portables like a bee to honey, I guess.

I didn't mention the different console revisions, or else I'd have another 10 or so. I also purposely avoided mentioning anything that is really a console game made portable too, as although I have some of those, to me it's a big difference. Gameplay in portables is different than gameplay in consoles, and I really find that I like the differences that make portables... well, portable!

[Flashback2012]

I'm going with the GBA SP. GB, GBC, and GBA all on one system. The back-lit screen makes up for the non form fitting design (it would hurt my hands after playing for a while). That said, the simplicity of the clamshell design made it ideal for dropping in a pocket or bag with no worry of the screen getting scratched up. If the original DS could play GB/GBC games, it would have easily taken the cake.


My top 5 favorites in terms of collecting for are...

1. Game Boy Advance
2. Nintendo DS
3. Neo Geo Pocket Color
4. Playstation Portable
5. Game Boy Color

[hamburglar]

This is my favorite portable...


Attachment 4477


As far as best, I always loved the Turbo Express, since you could use the actual home system cards, and the thing looked like a portable, unlike the Nomad...
Then the PSP came out, great LCD, great battery life, great control layout.
And as far as the Gameboy systems, they were all very difficult for me to play with because of the poor screens, until the GBA SP backlit model came out.

[o.pwuaioc]

This is my favorite portable...


Attachment 4477

What have you done to that thing?

[Genesaturn]

How old are you again? I had ton of friends who had a Game Boy when I was a kid.

Growing up I had no other friends with a Gameboy other than my cousin. And if you look at the numbers...between the Gameboys launch in 89 including the color - all the way up to the launch of GBA it sold 118 million units...GBA/SP from 2001-2004 sold 125 million in almost a quarter of that period. And I will be 28 this year.

[kupomogli]

In order, going by only the games released on the system, rerelease or otherwise.

PSP
Gameboy Advance
Nintendo DS
Gameboy

There are games for other portable systems that I like, but there's few games on those systems that make it worth it.

[The 1 2 P]

Best portable ever? The Game.com. Oh wait, you were being serious. In that case, I'm going to have to give it to either the Neo Geo Pocket Color or the GBA. I play my NGPC more than any other handheld but the GBA has so many good games for it that it probably deserves the nod.

[Lerxstnj]

The Sega VMU.

[MachineGex]

Game.com


Seriously, I like the Lynx. Great games and it is ATARI! The Turbo Express always seemed like a top-of-the-line system. It was very well built with an excellent screen and great sound. Sadly, mine needs the sound fixed. It still works with headphones.