Lifestyle

Portable game consoles in vogue

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Meanwhile, some students say they will not cut back on their spending even if a GST is introduced while some others do not consider the impact will be great.

“I don’t think it would have a big impact on young people as they don’t really think before they consume, especially if they really want to buy an item,” said Chan Shun-lai, an economics and finance student at the University of Hong Kong .

By the end of September, Nintendo had sold 26.82 million units of its DS and the Lite version together worldwide since their release respectively in November 2004 and early this year.

The number of PSP machines sold worldwide for the previous fiscal year ended March 31 was 14 million, according to Sony Corporation. The company forecast just nine million units would be sold in the current fiscal year, as it would launch its new PlayStation 3 game console in November in Japan , North America , Europe and Australasia .

Game analyst Chan said the two companies would have to design more interesting and fun games to satisfy customers’ demand. Their portable function such as the wireless system is also expected to be further improved and upgraded.
“The portable gaming world has already got a group of diehard fans. Now it attracts more fresh blood. This culture will never die,” he said.

Fans like Chow and Li, who have been playing video games for more than 10 years, said the PSP and Nintendo DS were part of their life. “Playing with the PSP and DS has become our daily habit. We will definitely stick to it,” Li said.

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Hot-selling games

Game fans and experts interviewed by Varsity named the following games as big hits:

Monster Hunter Portable

Monster Hunter Portable is the only PSP game that has been sold for more than a million copies.
In the game, a player fights in many quests to kill the monsters and then collects the dead bodies for creating new weapons to slay stronger monsters. The player may choose and change a game character, deciding on the character’s name, sex, face, voice, hairstyle and even hair colour.

The game has two modes: “town” for multiple players and “village” for single player. In the “town” mode, the player can go online and join other players worldwide to complete various tasks with the link system function.
A sequel, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd, is scheduled to be released in February 2007.

Nintendogs

Nintendogs remains high up on fans’ shopping list although it is not the latest DS game.
The virtual pet training game makes full use of different unique functions of the DS, and players can feed or play with virtual dogs by simply touching the screen with a stylus.
The most exciting part of the game is that players can feel like they are raising a dog in real life. The dogs can be trained to do different tricks to take part in a competition.

Players can even “talk” to their dogs or give them instructions through the microphone system of the DS.
The Wi-Fi connection allows fans to exchange information and even dog types with other players