The Evolution of Handheld Consoles: A Review of Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita, and Nvidia Shield

The world of handheld gaming has come a long way since its inception. From the early days of the Game Boy to the latest generation of consoles, each device has brought new innovations and features that have shaped the industry. In this article, we'll take a closer look at three iconic handheld consoles: the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita, and Nvidia Shield.

The Nintendo 3DS is widely regarded as one of the most impressive handheld consoles ever made. Its release in 2011 marked a significant milestone for Nintendo, offering new enhanced gameplay capabilities that set it apart from its predecessors. The 3DS boasts improved hardware, including stereo speakers, a 3D display, and better buttons, making it a major upgrade over the original DS. Additionally, the console's powerful front camera and rear dual cameras provide an unparalleled gaming experience. With the introduction of 3D gaming, Nintendo has taken a massive step forward in terms of immersion, going beyond just a gimmick to create a truly immersive experience.

The Nintendo 3DS is more than just a technological upgrade; it also offers new gameplay capabilities that have transformed the industry. Games from this era are richer and more complex than their predecessors, with deeper storylines and characters that draw players into the world of gaming. With the increased power of the console, artists now have more room to express themselves, resulting in games that feel like a lifestyle rather than just a quick distraction.

Fast-forwarding to the PlayStation Vita, another iconic handheld console that has garnered significant attention from gamers worldwide. As an enthusiast of this device, I can attest to its impressive capabilities. The Vita boasts a beautiful OLED display that matches the quality of modern smartphones, with crisp and vibrant visuals that are simply stunning. But what truly sets it apart is its raw power – playing games like Mercenary on the Vita leaves one wondering how a console from a few years ago managed to produce graphics that would have received a standing ovation on home consoles.

However, there are some drawbacks to the PlayStation Vita. Its gimmicky features, such as the gyroscope and back touch panel, have yet to be fully utilized by developers. While I appreciate the idea behind these features, they often feel like unnecessary bells and whistles that detract from the gaming experience. Furthermore, the cost of the console is a significant issue – memory cards are still outrageously priced, with no logical reason for their proprietary nature.

One of the most exciting aspects of the PlayStation Vita is its potential as an open platform. While it may not be specifically designed to run games like the 3DS or Nvidia Shield, developers can optimize their titles to work seamlessly on this device. This opens up a world of possibilities, from running Android apps to emulating consoles and streaming PC games.

The final console on our list is the Nvidia Shield, an open-platform handheld device that has been making waves in the gaming community. As an enthusiast of this device, I can attest to its incredible capabilities. Not only does it play Android games exceptionally well, but it also runs them with super-smooth performance. The Shield's power is unmatched among other Android devices, and it's capable of emulating every console up to the current generation of handheld consoles.

One of the most significant advantages of the Nvidia Shield is its ability to stream PC games using G-Stream technology. This feature allows gamers to play their favorite titles on any device with a compatible controller, as long as they have Wi-Fi connectivity. Additionally, the Shield has access to the Google Play Store, giving developers and gamers alike an unparalleled degree of freedom and flexibility.

In conclusion, each of these handheld consoles offers something unique and special in the world of gaming. From the Nintendo 3DS's groundbreaking 3D technology to the PlayStation Vita's incredible power and versatility, there's something for every type of gamer. Whether you're a fan of closed-platform consoles or open systems like the Nvidia Shield, one thing is clear: the future of handheld gaming is brighter than ever.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enokay hi YouTube Mr Boss here in this video I'm going to be showing you all of the handheld consoles that I own so this video is requested by adash asok and I mean if any of you guys have any suggestions just put them in the comments below and you know if I like them then I'll do that video and give you a shout out so I compiled gameplay footage from each of the consoles and I've put them in chronological order so hopefully you'll be able to see the progression that has been made as it happens and in this video I sort of want to answer the question you know what is nextg I mean you know right now NextGen is what we see as the future but you know it's really hard to believe but at some point that will be retro uh just like this Game Boy Color is right now you know when we saw this this was the future this thing was absolutely incredible the fact that this was actually a full games console that you could take on the go was just you know was unheard of at the time you know it has a color display that was totally revolutionary I mean the Game Boy Color caused that absolute havoc in the market it sold ridiculously well worldwide because you know it was an incredible machine this thing was as powerful as it got in handheld devices and you know the graphics It produced were just fantastic for the time so the gameplay you're seeing here is from Pokémon red and that was by far my favorite game on the Game Boy Color and I mean hopefully you can tell by the level of my Pokémon I sunk a fair few hours into this game and enjoyed every last bit of it so now we jumped to the Game Boy Advance now this was a vast leap forward in terms of processing power screen technology and controls so first of all you may notice we've got lnr buttons now this was again something totally new at the time and it allowed us to do so many new things the GBA screen was a huge leap forward it could display 512 colors simultaneously compared to the Game Boy Color which could only display 52 shades of one the Game Boy Advance also had a 16.78% but back then it was enough to you know make people really get excited about this thing one of the best thing about both of the Game Boy Color and The Game Boy Advance which is soon to be ditched was that they used AA batteries you know it's kind of strange because I switched on my Game Boy Color for the first time in 2 years today and it was still working I hadn't I didn't need to charge it I didn't need to do anything and those AA batteries while I suppose they end up costing a bit more than charging it yourself you know they really do last another of the incredible features of the Game Boy Advance was the ability to do multiplayer games now this was done by an incredibly awesome cable as you can see or if you're really lucky you could actually get the limited edition wireless connection now this was really Hightech at the time and I was just blown away when I saw it working so one step above the Game Boy Advance came the Game Boy Advance SP now this is more of a revised model of the Game Boy Advance but you know it brought us closer to where we are today for two main reasons firstly was the form factor this this was the first time Nintendo had actually done a clam shaped form factor and this is the one they seem to have stuck with for most of their consoles on top of that you know this is where they actually first introduced the back lit display and this was really really awesome I mean I remember I used to actually use a a light a special lamp that I had attached to my Game Boy Advance just so I could see it when it was dark because frankly it was unusable otherwise um and this you know this was a real godsend so in 2004 Nintendo wow us all this was their first ever Venture in into the dual screen sort of Realm and you know no one had ever done it before but I mean once people saw it in action with games like Mario Kart you know there was no questioning how Innovative the idea was and how much it added to the gaming experience and the immersion the Nintendo DS was you know no doubt it was revolutionary um you know never before had anyone seen a console quite like this you know it had stereo speakers it had a beautiful You Know Rich sharp display it had a touchcreen on it I mean this had never been done before either I mean touchcreen on a you know dedicated console that was pretty much unheard of and this was one of the first touch screens available to Consumers worldwide and it was games like Mario Kart and you know Dr kashima's Brain Training that really got a large majority of people who weren't previously into gaming into gaming and the 3DS was really really powerful I mean it was probably the most powerful mainstream portable device when it was released and you know this allowed it to create for the first time really 3D graphics on a portable console and you know they looked absolutely fantastic and as you can see Mario Kart here this looks really good even today it looks pretty decent and that was the launch title so imagine the reaction back then so then came the PlayStation Portable and this is by far the console I've played the most on altogether I mean this thing had so many awesome games I just you know I just didn't have enough time for them I mean just to name a few there was Ratchet and Clank there was God of War there was patapon there was locao there was Monster Hunter it was just vast and I enjoyed every last bit of it uh the PSP was a bit of a weird console because it actually used umds it's the first ever handheld console to use like a dis based medium and this meant a few things firstly as you can probably tell really really long load times longer than any other system secondly there's this constant woring sound as the game's discs need to actually be read by the console seriously though like quirks aside the PSP was the like must have Med device of that generation I mean you know this screen this 4.3 in screen was absolutely luscious I mean it was the sharpest screen it was the ultimate media device you know it had stereo speakers this thing had buttons which are really nice even today when it launched the PSP was so far ahead of the competition in terms of specs I mean you know people were just drooling literally I mean imagine seeing God of War running on the first time on a handheld when you know the most graphically impressive game you'd seen before that was like Mario Kart or Pokémon and next up is the 3DS so you know this is really really something quite special cuz I mean if you compare this to original DS it's way way better some of the actual improvements include stereo speakers instead of mono speakers 3D display versus 2D display better buttons bigger displays ridiculously more powerful front camera rear dual cameras Joy stick and the list goes on so I mean to sum up the 3DS is a really really big step forward it offers new enhanced gameplay capabilities it's a lot more powerful than the PlayStation Portable and it's just totally unique I mean it's a totally fresh take on everything I mean although it is still a two- screen clamshell design like the original DS the DSi and all the other sort of dssh sort of consoles that Nintendo's had this time they really have taken it a step further the 3D adds a lot to the immersion and is definitely more than just a gimmick in my opinion on top of that the games are actually much richer than they were you know 10 years ago and they seem to offer a lot more depth I mean a lot of games you know back in the day they were created just you know for a bus ride or that kind of thing you know just when you had a bit of time to kill whereas now games are almost like a lifestyle uh so I suppose games have gotten deeper they've gotten stronger story lines and the more powerful consoles gives the artists more you know room to express themselves so you know we can really get immersed in these experiences and feel like we are the characters in the games and then came the PlayStation Vita now I mean as you probably already know I love this thing to bits it's everything I wanted in a sort of Next Generation handheld and it's you know it's powerful it's got a great beautiful OLED display which even matches today's smartphones maybe not on the resolution front but it's still crisp enough but you know the color reproduction is just still beautiful on top of that it's really powerful and as you can see I mean playing kills in Mercenary you can't even tell it's not a Home console I mean this thing produces Graphics that would have got a standing ovation on home consoles a few years ago okay yes I'll admit the Vita does have some flaws I mean it's got lots of gimmicky features you know things like gyroscope accelerometer the back touch panel they've not really been used to their full extent and to be honest I still think that c would be better off ditching it in their next model just to keep the cost down on top of that bringing up costs it's the memory cards they're still ridiculous highly priced and they have no reason to be proprietary it makes no sense and I'm sure Sony could have done without having said that I mean I would have happily paid twice the price of the Vita to get what this thing is and I just think not enough people know about it and what it does for it to reach Mass Appeal now the last one on my list is a little bit of a different one and this is the Nvidia Shield so as you all may know I'm a really big fan of this thing and it's not a typical handheld console like the others in that you know it's an open platform so generally speaking and there have been some exceptions for this but generally speaking developers do not make games specifically for the Nvidia Shield but they will optimize their game so that it runs with it and is compatible with the controller but I mean Shield does a lot more than just play Android games firstly it plays Android games very very well I mean it's got still probably the most powerful internals of any you know Android device today and you know it can run pretty much everything super super smooth on top of that it's got G stream now game stream means that if you've got a GTX based PC you can stream your PC games and play them anywhere in the world providing you have Wi-Fi then we have emulators this thing can emulate every single console up to the current generation of handheld consoles and you know it runs them flawlessly and in some case even upscales them to the native resolution so they look even better than they originally did so that's a massive Plus for this and you know it's not something that any other console can say they do also being an Android device the Nvidia Shield has full access to the Google Play store so I mean that alone just gives it so many possibilities I mean there's so much you can do with the Nvidia Shield that you just cannot do with other closed platforms so that's it from me guys I really hope you enjoyed this video and I'd love to hear what your opinions are on your favorite hand hod consoles thanks for watching guys if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe for moreokay hi YouTube Mr Boss here in this video I'm going to be showing you all of the handheld consoles that I own so this video is requested by adash asok and I mean if any of you guys have any suggestions just put them in the comments below and you know if I like them then I'll do that video and give you a shout out so I compiled gameplay footage from each of the consoles and I've put them in chronological order so hopefully you'll be able to see the progression that has been made as it happens and in this video I sort of want to answer the question you know what is nextg I mean you know right now NextGen is what we see as the future but you know it's really hard to believe but at some point that will be retro uh just like this Game Boy Color is right now you know when we saw this this was the future this thing was absolutely incredible the fact that this was actually a full games console that you could take on the go was just you know was unheard of at the time you know it has a color display that was totally revolutionary I mean the Game Boy Color caused that absolute havoc in the market it sold ridiculously well worldwide because you know it was an incredible machine this thing was as powerful as it got in handheld devices and you know the graphics It produced were just fantastic for the time so the gameplay you're seeing here is from Pokémon red and that was by far my favorite game on the Game Boy Color and I mean hopefully you can tell by the level of my Pokémon I sunk a fair few hours into this game and enjoyed every last bit of it so now we jumped to the Game Boy Advance now this was a vast leap forward in terms of processing power screen technology and controls so first of all you may notice we've got lnr buttons now this was again something totally new at the time and it allowed us to do so many new things the GBA screen was a huge leap forward it could display 512 colors simultaneously compared to the Game Boy Color which could only display 52 shades of one the Game Boy Advance also had a 16.78% but back then it was enough to you know make people really get excited about this thing one of the best thing about both of the Game Boy Color and The Game Boy Advance which is soon to be ditched was that they used AA batteries you know it's kind of strange because I switched on my Game Boy Color for the first time in 2 years today and it was still working I hadn't I didn't need to charge it I didn't need to do anything and those AA batteries while I suppose they end up costing a bit more than charging it yourself you know they really do last another of the incredible features of the Game Boy Advance was the ability to do multiplayer games now this was done by an incredibly awesome cable as you can see or if you're really lucky you could actually get the limited edition wireless connection now this was really Hightech at the time and I was just blown away when I saw it working so one step above the Game Boy Advance came the Game Boy Advance SP now this is more of a revised model of the Game Boy Advance but you know it brought us closer to where we are today for two main reasons firstly was the form factor this this was the first time Nintendo had actually done a clam shaped form factor and this is the one they seem to have stuck with for most of their consoles on top of that you know this is where they actually first introduced the back lit display and this was really really awesome I mean I remember I used to actually use a a light a special lamp that I had attached to my Game Boy Advance just so I could see it when it was dark because frankly it was unusable otherwise um and this you know this was a real godsend so in 2004 Nintendo wow us all this was their first ever Venture in into the dual screen sort of Realm and you know no one had ever done it before but I mean once people saw it in action with games like Mario Kart you know there was no questioning how Innovative the idea was and how much it added to the gaming experience and the immersion the Nintendo DS was you know no doubt it was revolutionary um you know never before had anyone seen a console quite like this you know it had stereo speakers it had a beautiful You Know Rich sharp display it had a touchcreen on it I mean this had never been done before either I mean touchcreen on a you know dedicated console that was pretty much unheard of and this was one of the first touch screens available to Consumers worldwide and it was games like Mario Kart and you know Dr kashima's Brain Training that really got a large majority of people who weren't previously into gaming into gaming and the 3DS was really really powerful I mean it was probably the most powerful mainstream portable device when it was released and you know this allowed it to create for the first time really 3D graphics on a portable console and you know they looked absolutely fantastic and as you can see Mario Kart here this looks really good even today it looks pretty decent and that was the launch title so imagine the reaction back then so then came the PlayStation Portable and this is by far the console I've played the most on altogether I mean this thing had so many awesome games I just you know I just didn't have enough time for them I mean just to name a few there was Ratchet and Clank there was God of War there was patapon there was locao there was Monster Hunter it was just vast and I enjoyed every last bit of it uh the PSP was a bit of a weird console because it actually used umds it's the first ever handheld console to use like a dis based medium and this meant a few things firstly as you can probably tell really really long load times longer than any other system secondly there's this constant woring sound as the game's discs need to actually be read by the console seriously though like quirks aside the PSP was the like must have Med device of that generation I mean you know this screen this 4.3 in screen was absolutely luscious I mean it was the sharpest screen it was the ultimate media device you know it had stereo speakers this thing had buttons which are really nice even today when it launched the PSP was so far ahead of the competition in terms of specs I mean you know people were just drooling literally I mean imagine seeing God of War running on the first time on a handheld when you know the most graphically impressive game you'd seen before that was like Mario Kart or Pokémon and next up is the 3DS so you know this is really really something quite special cuz I mean if you compare this to original DS it's way way better some of the actual improvements include stereo speakers instead of mono speakers 3D display versus 2D display better buttons bigger displays ridiculously more powerful front camera rear dual cameras Joy stick and the list goes on so I mean to sum up the 3DS is a really really big step forward it offers new enhanced gameplay capabilities it's a lot more powerful than the PlayStation Portable and it's just totally unique I mean it's a totally fresh take on everything I mean although it is still a two- screen clamshell design like the original DS the DSi and all the other sort of dssh sort of consoles that Nintendo's had this time they really have taken it a step further the 3D adds a lot to the immersion and is definitely more than just a gimmick in my opinion on top of that the games are actually much richer than they were you know 10 years ago and they seem to offer a lot more depth I mean a lot of games you know back in the day they were created just you know for a bus ride or that kind of thing you know just when you had a bit of time to kill whereas now games are almost like a lifestyle uh so I suppose games have gotten deeper they've gotten stronger story lines and the more powerful consoles gives the artists more you know room to express themselves so you know we can really get immersed in these experiences and feel like we are the characters in the games and then came the PlayStation Vita now I mean as you probably already know I love this thing to bits it's everything I wanted in a sort of Next Generation handheld and it's you know it's powerful it's got a great beautiful OLED display which even matches today's smartphones maybe not on the resolution front but it's still crisp enough but you know the color reproduction is just still beautiful on top of that it's really powerful and as you can see I mean playing kills in Mercenary you can't even tell it's not a Home console I mean this thing produces Graphics that would have got a standing ovation on home consoles a few years ago okay yes I'll admit the Vita does have some flaws I mean it's got lots of gimmicky features you know things like gyroscope accelerometer the back touch panel they've not really been used to their full extent and to be honest I still think that c would be better off ditching it in their next model just to keep the cost down on top of that bringing up costs it's the memory cards they're still ridiculous highly priced and they have no reason to be proprietary it makes no sense and I'm sure Sony could have done without having said that I mean I would have happily paid twice the price of the Vita to get what this thing is and I just think not enough people know about it and what it does for it to reach Mass Appeal now the last one on my list is a little bit of a different one and this is the Nvidia Shield so as you all may know I'm a really big fan of this thing and it's not a typical handheld console like the others in that you know it's an open platform so generally speaking and there have been some exceptions for this but generally speaking developers do not make games specifically for the Nvidia Shield but they will optimize their game so that it runs with it and is compatible with the controller but I mean Shield does a lot more than just play Android games firstly it plays Android games very very well I mean it's got still probably the most powerful internals of any you know Android device today and you know it can run pretty much everything super super smooth on top of that it's got G stream now game stream means that if you've got a GTX based PC you can stream your PC games and play them anywhere in the world providing you have Wi-Fi then we have emulators this thing can emulate every single console up to the current generation of handheld consoles and you know it runs them flawlessly and in some case even upscales them to the native resolution so they look even better than they originally did so that's a massive Plus for this and you know it's not something that any other console can say they do also being an Android device the Nvidia Shield has full access to the Google Play store so I mean that alone just gives it so many possibilities I mean there's so much you can do with the Nvidia Shield that you just cannot do with other closed platforms so that's it from me guys I really hope you enjoyed this video and I'd love to hear what your opinions are on your favorite hand hod consoles thanks for watching guys if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more\n"