Unfortunately, these miniatures are non-functioning. So while you may have wanted your pet ant or beetle to have some good old fashioned fun playing some PaRappa the Rapper, that won’t be happening anytime soon.

However, it’s still cool how detailed these miniatures are. The Japanese are probably going nutty for these right about now.

For more pics, check out Sebastian’s full Flickr set that he calls Mini World or his Tumblr.

[Insanely Gaming via Thaeger]

The Angry Birds PSP Game Console not only craps all over Rovio’s trademarked birds and pigs, but also wants to get Sony’s lawyers into the mix as well, aping the style of their PSP handheld, and even using “PSP” on their packaging.

Ffrom everything I can tell, this thing is like one of those old LCD Nintendo Game & Watch games from the 1970s and 1980s, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that this one sucks.

Now I suppose that with a price of just about $7 (USD), you can’t expect much, but when you think about the fact that Angry Birds can be downloaded for free to 99 cents, and is available on just about every platform out there, it’s a bit of a stretch to figure out why you’d ever buy one of these things. I suppose if you’re one of the three people left in the civilized world without a smartphone or a web browser, you can pick one of these up over at Focalprice for $7.44(USD).

But I’m being too harsh; it’s simply too much to expect anyone to fit the Gamecube’s guts into the PSP Slim’s original case. The truth is that the Fusion Micro is an awesome mod. It has two analog sticks, a Z button (it’s that small black button behind the R bumper), a toggle to switch the X and O buttons into A-B or B-A configuration and a battery, although it can only power the console for 2 hours. Here’s a closer look at the mod. It’s thickness will shock you. Or not. I just spoiled it. Dammit.

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And here it is doing what it does best:

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Awesome mod. I wonder if legal and publishing concerns really make it impossible for Nintendo and Sony to make their portable offerings play games from their older systems, because I’d rather have this than some 3D gimmick.

[via GoNintendo via Dvice]

That’s right, you can download the same games to both portables and play in Ad-Hoc mode. The problem right now is that there just aren’t many Ad-Hoc games available to us Yankees compared to what they have in Japan. Hopefully that will change.

However with the PS Vita being region free, we can probably expect more games that we can play worldwide. Hopefully those will be good for your PSP toting friends as well.

[via Siliconera via Geeky-Gadgets]

For those unfamiliar with the feature, Remote Play lets users interact with the PS3 and access some of its content on the PSP. I’m no tech expert but I think it works a lot like OnLive’s system – the PS3 (wirelessly) streams video output to the PSP, and the PSP uploads button input on the same connection.

Above is a screenshot from the video recording below, which shows YouTuber hackyourbabies playing Blur – a game that does not have official support for Remote Play – on a PSP. You can easily find several other videos online showing the hack in action if this one example doesn’t give sufficient proof for you.

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I’ll leave it to you and Google to figure out how you can enjoy this ability. If you can’t search for the instructions and the necessary files on your own then you probably shouldn’t mess with your PS3 and your games anyway.

The real question here is this – why isn’t this an official feature for more PS3 games? Obviously it’s not going to be feasible on games that make use of the right analog stick and the L2 and R2 buttons. But I honestly don’t see why Remote Play, which Sony itself hyped at the beginning, isn’t being pushed more aggressively by the company and by PS3 game developers, especially given the PSP’s less-than-stellar sales.

[via Techappz32]

As we learned back in January, the PS Vita (NGP) will offer both front and rear touchpads, a high-res OLED Screen, SIXAXIS motion sensor technology, dual analog sticks, and both front and rear cameras – providing support for augmented reality gaming.

The Vita will come in both WiFi and 3G/WiFi models, and Sony also announced an exclusive partnership with AT&T as the 3G carrier for PS Vita (which brought along with it substantial groans from the audience). They also showed off a demo of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, running on the portable, and it not only looks damned impressive, it takes full advantage of the front and rear touch controls, along with the motion sensors and both thumbsticks.

Another nifty feature that was shown was the ability to start a game on your PS Vita, then resume it on your PS3, using cloud-based saves. Sony also announced a feature called “Cross-play” which will offer games which can be played between players on both PlayStation Vita and PS3 consoles. Also revealed was an awesome looking new PS Vita version of Little Big Planet, which takes full advantage of the handheld’s unique control capabilities, as well as a cool touch-based level editor. This could be one of the Vita’s killer apps, IMHO.

There are more than 80 titles in development, with titles mentioned during the presentation including Street Fighter X Tekken, Wipeout, and ModNation Racers, among others.

The Sony PlayStation Vita will be available in time for the 2011 holiday season, and will sell for $249 (USD) / €249 (EUR)/ ¥24,980 (JPY), with the 3G/WiFi model selling for $299 (USD) / €299 (EUR) / ¥29,980 (JPY). No word yet on an AT&T subsidy, or costs for a 3G data plan. Both models can be pre-ordered now over at Amazon.

There’s no question that the hardware in the PlayStation Vita looks impressive. The real question is whether or not handheld gaming systems can compete with smartphones and tablets now that they’re so pervasive. Personally, I bought a Nintendo 3DS, and it’s frequently gathering dust in favor of playing games on my iPad 2. That said, the PS Vita’s hardware and control capabilities are arguably more advanced than the iPad, and the inclusion of tactile controllers might be enough to convince me to buy one anyhow. Now if only Sony could keep their PlayStation Network alive and secure.

More details can be found over at Sony’s NGP/Vita website and on the PlayStation Blog in the near future.

The pack contains a total of 30 highly detailed icons. deleket made them a couple of years ago though, so there are no icons of more recent tech like the DS or the Move.

You can preview all of the icons here. If you like what you see, go ahead and download the icons on deleket’s deviantART page. Want more console love on your PC? Check out the Console Font.

Yeah, I don’t get it either, but the guys at Taito are making three towel designs including a white one with the PlayStation logo and button designs, a blue one featuring the soon-to-be-extinct current-gen PSP, and a third one with a black background and triangle, circle, X, square designs. Each towel measures about 28″ long, so you might be able to dry off with one, but you won’t be able to wrap one all the way around your body unless your skinnier than Abe from Oddworld.

NCSX is taking pre-orders for the towels for $23.90 (USD) each, and they ship starting in March – just in time to hit the beach for Spring Break.

I’m not sure why Intel is touting their AppUp store as only for “netbooks and laptops”, but since the only system requirements they mentioned are Windows 7 or Windows XP, I think it’s safe to assume that Windows desktop users will be able to download and play Angry Birds as well. I’m also not sure why Rovio chose the relatively obscure AppUp instead of Steam to distribute their game.

As for PlayStation users, the game will be packaged as a PlayStation Mini, so you’ll be able to play it on both the PS3 and PSP. No word on how much Angry Birds will cost as a PlayStation Mini; on the AppUp it’s regular price will be $10 (USD), £6 or €7 depending on your market, but for a limited time it’s being sold at a special introductory price of $5.

I’m still waiting for Epic Games to port Infinity Blade for the PlayStation Move and the Kinect.

[via Rovio's Blog & Mashable]

Sony makes up for the lack of analog input by including a wide touchpad. The phone also has a touchscreen, although that’s to be expected these days. The gadget is said to be powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 processor. That’s as powerful as the Apple A4 chip on the iPhone and iPad, three times more powerful than the current PSP and more than twice as powerful as the 3DS; then again Nintendo isn’t a cutting edge tech sort of company nowadays. The PlayStation Phone is also said to have 512MB RAM, 1GB of ROM and eschews Memory Stick support for MicroSD cards.

There’s a decent chance that the phone will be running the upcoming Android 3.0, and have an online store for games. No word on price and release date yet, but if I were a betting man I’d say that it’s going to be released in 2011 and it’s going to be expensive. It is a phone too, don’t forget that.

Are you liking what you’re seeing so far? Bear in mind that these are pictures of a prototype. Personally both of my fears unfortunately came true – this is most likely a download-only platform, and its dual nature means it’s going to be pricey. Still, I’m interested in seeing how Sony handles the software side of things, even if I’m probably not going to get this device.

[via Engadget]

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While I agree to a certain extent, there is also a definite counterpoint. For example, the new Madden 11 on PSP sells for $7.99 in the App Store while its physical PSP counterpart sells for $39.99.

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I don’t know, I’d rather stick to my Xbox 360 to be honest.

[via Toucharcade]

Meh. This feels off, especially since E3 just came and went and Sony didn’t mention anything about a new PSP, which would have stolen some of the attention that the 3DS got. We’ll know sooner or later. Whatever the case, I’m pretty sure it looks nothing like this monstrosity:

While we’re still free to imagine, what would you like to see in a new PSP? I’d like support for more video and audio files, and re-released PS2 games, kinda like what Sony is doing with PS1 games now. I want to play Front Mission 5 dammit.

[via The Sixth Axis]

Below is Atlus’ first video walkthrough for the game. If you’ve played the PS2 version before you’ll barely see anything new in the video, but you will see what I think is one of the best features in the PSP version. If you’ve played any Persona game you know that there’s a lot of running to and fro involved in the series, and that’s a bit tiring even in the console versions, but if you look closely at the video you’ll notice the streamlined travel interface in the PSP version. Instead of having to manually control your characters on the field map, people, objects and places that you can interact with are marked on the map. All you have to do is “mouse” over the markers to interact.

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My PSP is broken, and I don’t own a PS2, which is why I’m hoping that Atlus would release a bundle for the PS3 that includes this version of Persona 3 and Persona 4. I don’t think it’ll ever happen though. Persona 3 Portable will be out on July 6, but you can already pre-order it at Amazon for $40 (USD).

[via Aeropause]

Top video game producers Hideo Kojima and Patrice Desilets contracted hay fever while making this trailer for the upcoming PSP game, so you better watch this until the very end. Until the very end, you hear me?

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Now THAT’s how an assassin operates.

[via Loot Ninja]

Some of the gadgets include a reverse parachute thingy that can be used to rescue or abduct people. It looks like it takes quarry up to a chopper, and for some reason it works even indoors! Enough with the spoilers, enjoy the video!

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A freakin’ request for a brick on the head. Classic Kojima. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will be out this May.

Created by textile artist RabbitRampage, this handmade felt case ($30 USD) looks just like a PSP – if it were made out of felt and stitches. The case is just the right size for an iPhone, but can also fit other gadgets up to 5″ tall.

The case has a convenient Velcro closure that keeps your wonderphone safe and sound, and also has a handy detachable keyring, which is just what I always wanted hanging from my PSP.

Want one? Head on over to RabbitRampage’s Etsy shop. The funny part about this whole thing is that the iPhone actually has better games than the PSP.

While the PXP-2000 won’t play any of your PSP games, it will play classic games from the NES, Famicom, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Super Famicom/SNES, and SEGA Megadrive/Genesis consoles. It features a nice oversize 4.3″ LCD screen and a slide-out controller just like the PSP Go that it mimics.

In addition to playing all of those retro 8-, 16- and 32-bit games from your childhood, the PXP-2000 is a media player that can crank out your music and videos too. It can play MP3, WMA, WAV, APE, FLAC, RM-Audio, AMR, AAC+ audio formats. For video, it can handle AVI videos, but comes with transcoding software for RM, RMVB, AVI, WMV, ASF, MPG, MPEG, MPE, MP4, DAT, MOV, DAT, and even the elusive, but non-existent MP5 format (it’s really just Real Media Variable Bitrate format).

The PXP is your standard jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none media player, complete with an low resolution digital video camera, FM radio, a calculator, notepad, e-book reader and English-to-Chinese dictionary.

If you’re too cheap to drop $249 on a proper PSP Go, and you really just want to play retro games anyhow, head on over to Chinagrabber and plunk down your $83.99 (USD).

The game uses our expectations and past experience with RPGs and throws all of that – the 8-bit graphics, character portraits in dialogues, conventional plots, grinding, item buying, dialogue etc – in fast forward, which makes sense because if you’re not going to see anything new anyway, might as well zip through to the end right? And PerLee mentions repeatedly in his preview that the game is consistently funny and self-aware, and that’s a huge plus for me. Here’s a video of the gameplay from the Japanese release of the game. The video has spoilers (especially if you can read Japanese) towards the end but it also shows the 30 second system at work pretty well so… watch at least the first 3 minutes, then stop if you want.

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As you saw in the video the 30-second time limit can be extended in exchange for money, but the whole thing was still freakin frantic. Half-Minute Hero isn’t just an RPG; The RPG part is just one of the 4 gameplay modes in the game. There’s also a shmup, a survival/king of the hill mode and even an RTS (!) mode, with each mode assigned to a stereotypical character. The hero gets the RPG mode, a princess is in the shoot ‘em up, a knight defends a mage in the king of the hill mode, and an evil boss is the character in the RTS mode. Here’s a shaky and quite awkward interview by Unit of True Game Headz with Jimmy Soga of XSEED.

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This and Persona may just be the ones that will make me use my PSP again. Hopefully the humor is really present throughout the game. You can pre-order Half-Minute Hero at Amazon for $28 (USD). Check out Destructoid for the full article for more info.

The skins are easy to clean, plus the ones for the Wii and PS3 are coated with “water-proof high glossy laminate film.” PS3 skins are worth $19 (USD), Wii skins are worth $14, and DS & PSP skins sell for $8.50; you can request a custom skin for an additional $10. Browse NoveltyGallery’s shop to see the other designs.

[via geeksugar]

While the originating site is in Japanese and is thus beyond my comprehension, the story here is clear. Above the controls, there’s a touchscreen, which is being used to control a very large version of Rhythm Tengoku Gold. You can play PSP games, too, and hey! It doesn’t even matter that there’s only one joystick per person, am I right?

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[NicoVideo via TinyCartridge]