PlayStation All-Star/Mortal Man – Emmett Watkins Jr

Spongebob Squarepants: The Yellow Avenger (PlayStation Portable)

Video Games might have been a part of my life for many, many years, but there was a time in which my life wasn’t centered around it. And while that transition didn’t happen until well into the PS3 generation, handheld consoles are where I did the bulk of my gaming. And while I, like everyone else in the country, did own a Game Boy Advance at the turn of the century, the PlayStation Portable is the console that gave me so many more formative experiences

In fact, I remember that Christmas where I got my PSP being a defining moment in my tastes. That day back in 2005, I got both Death Jr and Spongebob Squarepants: The Yellow Avenger. I had had the Walmart store pages for both titles booked marked on our computer for several months beforehand, so the joy I felt when I finally got them was palpable. The few games I did play on my PS2 before this were exclusively action games and licensed platformers, so this pair of games was exactly up my alley.

Well, something changed that day. I set up my system, with my parent’s help, and immediately got to downloading demos, redeeming the PSN card I also got, and trying out my new games. I used that PSN card to get Beats, and even without using its flagship feature of MP3 importing, it was a vibrant and fun rhythm game. Death Jr. proved to be a solid game, with satisfying combat, some creative art design, and twisted humor. But after the first few hours, I began to lust after the other main title I received.

Spongebob Squarepants: The Yellow Avenger, my most anticipated game, was less impressive. Having played Nicktoons Unite and Battle for Bikini Bottom, I expected this to be another 3D platformer, but it barely even hit that expectation. It was 2D, but all of the art was 3D, and it funneled you through different linear planes to fight brain-dead enemies. And while Death Jr wasn’t necessarily a graphical showcase for the PSP, The Yellow Avenger still managed to look hideous and bland in comparison. I could assume that this lack of polish was due to the platform’s constraints, but games like GTA: Liberty City Stories, which I had seen run on the system, proved that to be false. But still, no matter the reason, that game single-handedly kept me away from licensed games for the rest of my gaming life.

We eventually ended up trading that game back to our local Gamestop, and I got Burnout Legends. Burnout was everything I wanted from, as it felt like a near-direct port of Burnout 3: Takedown, one of my favorite PS2 games of all time. The slow-motion crashes, the high-speed traffic dodging, and the wealth of events and cars all flooded my 10-year-old mind with serotonin. Despite my hesitation to make the trade, as I didn’t want to seem appreciative of my gift, I was glad I made the switch. At the time, I saw it as my first step into maturity in some way, but in actuality, it was the first time I began to care about the quality of the games I played. Just because a game shared the name of a favorite show or character, I now needed to be convinced that it was fun to play despite all of that. And my desire for satisfying gameplay has stayed with me all these years and will be the case going onto this next generation.

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So, these were our first games played on a new console/handheld. With the ninth-generation of consoles launching this week, what will your first game on the Series X, S, or PlayStation 5?