THE HARDWARE: Gizmondo is powered by Microsoft Windows CE advanced real-time operating system, boasting a 2.8-inch TFT colour screen with a Samsung ARM9 400Mhz processor and incorporates the GoForce 3D 4500 NVIDIA graphics accelerator. It provides cutting-edge gaming, multimedia messaging, an MP3 music player, Mpeg4 movie playing capability, a digital camera and a GPRS network link to allow wide-area network gaming. Additionally, it contains a GPS chip for location-based services, is equipped with Bluetooth for use in multi-player gaming and accepts SD and MMC card accessories.
Gizmondo has a comfortable rubber covering. After a long period of playing the rubber cover can feel a bit slick. Another great feature is the screen. It is beautiful but too small. The thing that blew gamers away about the PSP was the screen quality and there is no comparison between the PSP and Gizmondo. The PSP size is better and the screen is brilliant and widescreen to boot.
Movies are easy to watch and set up. The quality is decent—not great. You don’t have to do any encoding because the Gizmondo automatically resizes video. As impressive as the screen can be the sound is terrible—without headphones. The tiny speaker has to be cranked to hear anything. And when the game is played your hand covers the speaker.
Gizmondo’s shoulder buttons are placed nicely and are a cinch to click. Had they been placed further into the body the Gizmondo would have been even more portable when put into a jacket pocket and easier to reach. The D pad is slick and easy to maneuver. The action buttons are marked with the universal labels for stop, rewind, forward, and play for use when playing video or music. The problem is that the buttons seem high up on the Gizmondo making them less than comfortable.
The back of the Gizmondo shows the small hole with the lens to the VGA camera sits. The quality is equal to average mobile phones. It’s a nice addition. The problem is that you can’t simply press a button and take a picture no matter if you are playing a game or not. Seems petty I agree but if you wanted to snap an incredible moment you better hope it can wait a few minute or two for you to get into the menu. Also, you have to be in a lit room or outdoors to get a decent picture. If you are in a darker area the pictures are impossible to sort out. No matter where you take the pictures they are very pixilated. The camera is a really cheap addition that is more of a waste than a great selling point.
The best aspect and coolest extra is the GPS. We were unable to test this with the navigator software as it has yet to be released in the U.S. From what we know you can track other players or put it on the dash of your car as a turn-by-turn navigator. Most navigation systems run $600+ alone. That makes this one spectacular deal!
The games on the Gizmondo may play as well as the PSP but to be fair none of the games we reviewed are nearly as good. The DS is a much fairer comparison for the Gizmondo. Unfair however again when comparing the quality of games. The DS’s release had much better quality games. The Gizmondo has little more than generic releases that look as if they were designed ten years ago or for a mobile phone.
THE GAMES: We received thirteen games to review. We will add reviews when we have more time with each.
– “Richard Burns Rally” – This is one hard game. Perhaps it’s so hard to win because they want gamers to keep at it. In all honesty it’s more frustrating than it is addicting. It’s impossible not to compare Gizmondo games to the PSP. Looking at the jagged graphics in the Gizmondo compared to the silky smooth ones on the PSP brings a bit of aggravation. So many of the environments showcase polygons and plain ugly jagged edges. Nothing looks smooth. The cars have no rounded edges. Everything looks like it was made with Lego blocks. The sound effects aren’t too bad. The soundtrack is decent and gets you through. Rating: 6/10
– “Point of Destruction” – Graphically it’s like the original GameBoy. The animation is decent. It’s really easy to say the graphics are fun. It’s not so easy to go from the PSP to the Gizmondo however. The sound effects are simple and that is about the nicest thing one can say. Think of Space Invaders and you will get the idea. Certainly POD is addictive. And still that addiction will only last so long. One gets bored doing the same thing over and over again on similar levels. Rating: 5/10
– “Pocket Ping Pong 2005” – Hot women in bikinis playing table tennis at the beach sounds enticing. Right? Wrong. Visually it’s extremely disappointing. Even more disappointing is the controls. If you want to play in the first person you will want to through Gizmondo out the window. It’s nearly impossible to judge when to hit the ball. There isn’t a moment of fun with this intensely frustrating mess. Rating: 2/10
– “Trailblazer” – This is as simple as it gets. It’s the kind of game you’d expect to see on a mobile phone that has limited capacity for both games and graphics. You are little more than a wheel rolling around and trying to avoid barriers and holes. You may wonder how the graphics look. The biggest issue is what to compare them to. Perhaps the Super Nintendo or the GameBoy Advance. There is nothing great visually. It’s a spruced up 1980s game. Rating: 6.5/10
– “Hockey Rage 2005” – In other countries it might be cool to play as Germany or the Czech team. However in the U.S. and Canada we want to be NHL teams and since there are no licenses it’s an instant turn off. It’s so hard to care about any of these teams even if it is the U.S. I just want to Jagr or Lindros. The players are so full of polygons that it’s hard to even enjoy. The rink looks terrible. The ice has a nice sheen but the ring itself looks like a Lego rink. The controls are as simple as it gets. That is a good thing. I remember on the Super Nintendo when you only had to hit a few buttons to pass and shoot. Sometimes nothing fancy means a lot more fun. Not here. Rating: 5/10
– “Toy Golf” – Playing golf is usually a lot of fun. Tiger Woods golf on the DS and PSP are a great way to waste the day away. This game on the other hand can be extremely frustrating. It is very unique to say the least, like Mario Golf, just not nearly as much fun to play.
– “FIFA 2005” – You can play head-to-head with friends using wireless Bluetooth technology—but this is available for the DS and PSP. The graphics leave a lot to be desired. The DS graphics are more fluid for FIFA than Gizmondo. The gameplay is more simplistic than the PSP but again here is one instance where simple gameplay comes in handy—particularly for little kids. It’s fun to be able to push a button to pass, shoot, tackle, etc. Sometimes all the fancy moves just get into the way and over complicate matters.
More game reviews to come!
THE EXTRAS: A review of the Navigator 2006 coming soon!
FRANKLY: The fact that you cannot play the Gizmondo while charging the battery is unforgivable. You have to unplug the game and then turn it on and then charge it. That makes no sense. Every handheld allows you to charge and play at any time. Another major issue is how long it takes to load the system. Gizmondo takes a good minute to turn on and get ready to play. Most games take just as long.
We were unable to test the GPS or GPRS to get online to check email. This is a very attractive addition and might have really tipped the scales in our favor for Gizmondo. The GPS is the biggest attraction, particularly the car navigation that costs a total of $399 (Gizmondo, navigator and the hardware to mount it). Most navigation systems cost a minimum of $600! Another plus is the ability to use SD and MMC card accessories.
Gizmondo has roughly a four hour battery life making it very comparable to current handhelds. Being that the screen is so small however you’d assume that it would last much longer.
Regarding the games; one can only hope the second wave of games is better than the first. It’s extremely frustrating to be fed games that look as if they have been out for ten years. Gizmondo should be state of the art release like the PSP and not like the Gameboy Advance. Gizmondo’s graphic ability might be equal to the DS but the problem is the games are nowhere near being as high a quality. It is extremely frustrating in 2005 to play a game thatl looks ten years old on the verge of the release of a next generation video game system like the Xbox 360.
Gizmondo offers a lot of cool extras but in the end if you are buying this for games alone either wait for the second wave of games or you might regret it. However if you want something to pass the time, can forgive the weak games, and want cheap navigation hardware for your car this is the ticket!
+ Richie Wright
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