My flight home usually takes about 20 hours or so, including waiting times at various airports. So, at least once every year, my handheld consoles justify their existence: last year I made significant inroads into Square's The World Ends with You. I still haven't finished that game.

For me, travelling requires very particular types of games. I'm terribly fidgety on long flights. I have trouble sleeping and I can't read for very long or keep my concentration very well. So, I need two broad genres at my fingertips: arcade-style bite-sized games and RPGs.  Japanese RPGS are especially useful.  I play the arcade-style game for twenty minutes or so, fidget, settle down into an RPG for an hour or so, get restless, then break back into the arcade stuff.

This system works pretty well, and makes a ten hour flight bearable.  Not to mention the waiting times at the airports.  This year, much to my surprise, the PSP dominated the reigning champion DS.  My loyal DS Lite, who had so easily seen off the challenges of my first PSP, cowered in fear, clutching to<em> New Super Mario Bros.</em> in hope as my shiny new PSP rocked my world, and let me watch THX 1138 for the first time in years.