24 hours on the road what handheld to buy?

Like I said, 24 hours on the road. i will not be driving at all. what should i go and buy. a 3DS or a VITA? i had thoughts of playing diablo on my laptop, but i guess that will not work because of the DRM.

edit: i was thinking about ocarina or uncharted + another game.

edit #2 - i will have access to a charger so battery life is not a problem. i will be traveling with my in-laws...so conversation will not be a problem.

I think i am leaning more towards the VITA - i really want to play Golden Abyss - what are some good things to download from PSN?

i'd say just go for a regular old DS

Virtual Boy

3DS has a few games that could sustain a long road trip. Mario Kart, Super Mario 3D Land, and the upcoming Mario Tennis game are all games that I could easily play for a few hours each. There are also a bunch of great downloadable games that you could buy for the 3DS.

If you actually mean that you have a period of 24 hours in the car and not just a day trip, then good luck and have Batman because I've done the same thing (going across Canada) and it was super boring at times. You never truly appreciate how long 24 hours is until you have to sit still in an enclosed space for that long...

To this day I do not know which handhelds are great and which aren't, or what great handheld games are out there. 
 
All hanhelds are to me is this: Endless Mario spinoffs/weird mindfucking games on Nintendo's handhelds, or basic versions of the Playstation's best games on SONY's handhelds. None of which sounds independent or interesting enough to pick up.

Neither. Spend quality time with the company you're with. I kinda regret the times I just buried my face in a handheld when I could have gotten to know my parents better or doing something more appreciative with my free time outside. But if you must choose, I'd suggest the 3DS because it has more of a fleshed out game library at the moment.

Personally I could see the 3D of the 3DS making people really nauseous when they are in a moving car...

Laptop and Torchlight or Titan Quest would be my suggestion if you want to play an ARPG on the road.

I say 3ds. But I personally never enjoy games when I travel.

get a psp and some rad jrpg's! everybody wins!

Vita/PSP and any Lumines game

@AhmadMetallic said:

To this day I do not know which handhelds are great and which aren't, or what great handheld games are out there. All hanhelds are to me is this: Endless Mario spinoffs/weird mindfucking games on Nintendo's handhelds, or basic versions of the Playstation's best games on SONY's handhelds. None of which sounds independent or interesting enough to pick up.

The PSP had some interesting games here and there on it, and the DS has a pretty good number of games on it. The Game Boy Advance, though, is almost undeniably the best handheld ever.

Personally? I recommend a 3DS with Ocarina of Time and Super Mario Land 3D, and then for the DS I would pick up the Mega Man Zero collection and a JRPG or two. If that doesn't fill 24 hours with good gaming variety, then I couldn't tell you what would. Just make sure you have a car charger or five extra, fully-charged batteries.

Or just an iPod Touch and Peggle.

Pick up a few books. No handheld will last you 24 hours without recharge. Also you are more then likely never going to touch that handheld again after the trip, don't make the same mistake I did.

VITA. Has persona 1 2 and 3 on store and some rad fighting games. Had a 3ds but dont use it in car, 3d will suck so hard with all the moving

buying a handheld just for a single roadtrip is a massive waste of money.

Depends what games you like. I had PSP and NDS with me on really long trip. The second one had longer battery life but I have spent much more time with Kingdom Hearts than other games I had with me.

You'll need a battery thingy anyway because the 3DS and the Vita only last 3-4 hours. I'd say 3DS though and a copy of Mario Kart + Super 3D Land.

Both of the new handhelds do not really have any extensive length games on them yet. So if you get a 3DS, you'll probably be better off playing DS games(with a Castlevania or a Layton), and with the Vita, you'll be better off playing PSP games (like a Disgaea, ZHP, or Jeanne D'Arc)

In both of these cases you'll probably need a portable battery charger as their battery life isn't great.

You're likely to be better off getting an original DS/Lite, or a PSP. Both have somewhat better battery lives, and DS games look slightly junky on 3DS. While PSP games look slightly better on a Vita, not sure that it's beneficial enough to justify the price difference.

I would say go with a 3DS. The 3DS has some solid games out now, plus it's backwards compatible with DS games. Sadly the 3DS's battery life isn't the best. If you want it to last a little longer, put the Brightness on 1 and Power Save mode On.

I would suggest looking at the backlog of PSP and DS games and seeing what interests you more. Both handhelds have a handful of good current gen games but, I haven't touched one of my handhelds in forever after i beat P3P. If you tend to like RPG's though the PSP's backlog has dozens of good ones. The Vita also has the benefit of having digital software which i find invaluable when on the move.

This one:

@Harkat said:

This one:

No. This one:

Um..

Sleep.

Neo Geo Pocket Color

@believer258 said:

@Harkat said:

This one:

No. This one:

You want war? OK. Get this one:

The 3DS has pretty great battery life when you turn wireless off. If you're not going to be on the internet, and you're not concerned with streetpassing (I have never streetpassed in a car) then it's a pretty solid choice. You can also turn the 3D off if it bothers you, but I use it almost every morning on the subway with the 3D on.

But as others have mentioned, if this is mostly just for this one trip, go for a DS Lite! They have great battery life, and there are still enough exceptional games on store shelves.

Will you have access to a charger? Cause if not, Gameboy Advance. It's the only way it'll stay for any meaningful amount of time.

@Clonedzero said:

buying a handheld just for a single roadtrip is a massive waste of money.

I'm sure it'll never be used again.

@thunderball65 said:

Like I said, 24 hours on the road. i will not be driving at all. what should i go and buy. a 3DS or a VITA? i had thoughts of playing diablo on my laptop, but i guess that will not work because of the DRM.

edit: i was thinking about ocarina or uncharted + another game.

Or you could use that time to actually interact with the other human beings in the car with you, unless you can't stand them. But if you can't stand them why are you going on a road trip together with them?

The batteries on both are pretty atrocious, so truthfully I'd say get a DS if you absolutely have to play something or get some books dude!

@Harkat said:

@believer258 said:

@Harkat said:

This one:

No. This one:

You want war? OK. Get this one:

TV on the go, bitch! 1990 Style!

Go with the Virtual Boy. It's technically portable.

i posted my update #2 on the original post.

If the Vita and the 3DS are your only options, I don't know. I guess the 3DS has the bigger library (it is DS compatible isn't it?).

I'd probably go for a Game Boy Advance SP (the original GBA was fucking terrible, you can't see shit on the screen even in the best of lightning conditions, and when traveling I think lightning conditions are out of your control) or a DS Lite which is also GBA compatible (I don't think it handles older GB cartridges though), as they have massive libraries of games.

@fisk0 said:

If the Vita and the 3DS are your only options, I don't know. I guess the 3DS has the bigger library (it is DS compatible isn't it?).

It's DS compatible yeah, but the Vita is also compatible with the PSP games (provided you buy them on the PSN). I'd personally go with the Vita, it has Disgaea 3 after all.

A book, I've heard they're pretty popular.

@tithin said:

@fisk0 said:

If the Vita and the 3DS are your only options, I don't know. I guess the 3DS has the bigger library (it is DS compatible isn't it?).

It's DS compatible yeah, but the Vita is also compatible with the PSP games (provided you buy them on the PSN). I'd personally go with the Vita, it has Disgaea 3 after all.

Isn't the selection of PSP games on PSN kinda small? If the ones you want are on it, then certainly, go for the Vita, but they haven't rolled out PS1 and PS2 classics support for it yet, if I'm not mistaken, so other than the current selection of Vita games and the PSP releases that are available on PSN (some of which you need a PS3 to get to your Vita, as even though they run on the system can't be downloaded directly to it) there aren't a lot of games for it yet, while the 3DS has support for a potentially pretty damn big library of games, provided you can find physical copies of them.

@fisk0 said:

@tithin said:

@fisk0 said:

If the Vita and the 3DS are your only options, I don't know. I guess the 3DS has the bigger library (it is DS compatible isn't it?).

It's DS compatible yeah, but the Vita is also compatible with the PSP games (provided you buy them on the PSN). I'd personally go with the Vita, it has Disgaea 3 after all.

Isn't the selection of PSP games on PSN kinda small? If the ones you want are on it, then certainly, go for the Vita, but they haven't rolled out PS1 and PS2 classics support for it yet, if I'm not mistaken, so other than the current selection of Vita games and the PSP releases that are available on PSN (some of which you need a PS3 to get to your Vita, as even though they run on the system can't be downloaded directly to it) there aren't a lot of games for it yet, while the 3DS has support for a potentially pretty damn big library of games, provided you can find physical copies of them.

The PSP selection is decent but incomplete (see: here). PS1 emulation isn't rolled out for the vita yet but is due "any day now" (some have shown up on the vita store but aren't downloadable yet) while there's no real movement on PS2 support. Heck, the ps3 has nominal ps2 emulated support but not many games out for it yet.

As for requiring a PS3 to download some of those games, that's false, providing that you have a PSN account (creatable on a vita) and access to a wireless node, you can download any retail PSV game, and any downloadable PSP game.

edit; I am apparently mistaken, some PSP games do require download via a PS3

@tithin said:

As for requiring a PS3 to download some of those games, that's false, providing that you have a PSN account (creatable on a vita) and access to a wireless node, you can download any retail PSV game, and any downloadable PSP game.

I suppose they've fixed that issue then, I haven't release kept up with how it's been going for the Vita since the weeks after launch, but I remember IGN and a couple of other sites mentioning that some PSP game(s) couldn't be downloaded directly to the Vita, only giving an error about not being compatible, but if the Vita was connected to a PS3 with the game on it, it could be copied to the Vita and played without problems. I can't remember which game(s) were affected.

@fisk0: My apologies, you were correct regarding that, I was under the impression that it'd been fixed but as of February hadn't been. No real word on which ones are affected, but I do know that incompatible via straight transfer games do not show up on the vita store.