Playing my PSP recently, it suddenly dawned on me that the last three titles I have played on the system have been ports. Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, Final Fantasy Tactics and Sega Rally – all ports.

Usually I try and mostly pick up fresh and new games on the handheld systems as I believe that these dinky systems harbour some of the most unique and fun games available – if you wade through the crap. 16-bit games? I usually already own them on the original system. Downscaled versions of bigger games? Again, I will try and play them on bigger systems.

So how did I end up playing three ports in a row? Sega Rally was cheap, I was going away and hadn’t played the grown up version. As for the other two, they were both games I had missed the first time around.

I often hear the PSP criticised for mainly offering ports and ‘dumbed down’ versions of PS2 games. The list of games I put together with fellow NZGamer staffites unfortunately does little to dismiss this. Only three of the games out of ten are exclusive to the system. Two of these are again ‘Playstation franchises’ remade for the small screen. How is it then that God of War especially, is at least as much fun as the PlayStation 2 games - despite being on the small screen?

Lumines and Every Extend Extra are both downloadable on XBOX LIVE. However, I really do think of these as PSP games. Both of these games are more intimate on a handheld being a great fit for the PSP (and a really good set of headphones).

I also can’t make up my mind on the recently announced Chrono Trigger for Nintendo DS. I recently got the actual Super Nintendo cart (US) and as good as the game is I can’t fork out full retail for a game I already own. Maybe if the game was completely remade instead of ported, but that could be a tragedy as I hold the artwork of the original in very high regard.

What do you, fellow NZG bloggers think of ports? Would you pay for a portable version of your favourite game? Or would you prefer to play the original?