Yeah I know handhelds have been around for ages, but...
I play my DS on the tube (when I can get a seat) on the way to and from work everyday. In the past I've been sat holding the console very still, skilfully jabbing away at the touch screen, a respectful, focused centre of calm. Now I don't know if it was the motion of the carriage that set me off or the excitement of making it past the middle section of Mokuzu Depths where I always lose a ship, but this morning I was very animated to say the least. Headphones in and screen a couple inches from my face, oblivious to the reactions of my fellow travellers I started jerking, twitching, convulsing my way through bullet patterns, flinching as my ears picked up the sound of a collision and cussing under my breath as my ship finally exploded. It had been my most successful Nanostray run so far (score now up in the 340,000s) but only after I had left the tube did it dawn on me how weird it is playing a shootemup in this environment. A place where to show any emotion, make eye contact with let alone talk to fellow travellers is strangely frowned upon I was a complete freak show, elbows flapping as I rocked, face contorting, eyes bulging...
There's the fat mad religious woman, the homeless guy with the dog, the man nodding off on your shoulder and me.
I will no doubt behave the exact same way as I travel home tonight, 'twitch' gaming demands this type of physical reaction from its players. Hopefully the DS and the PSP will be host to some amazing shootemups in the future and these types of fits will become more common.
From the arcade to the bedroom to the London Underground, it seems my hobby has found a way to follow me where I go (not to mention the toilet), this is the place to share your handheld gaming experiences!
I play my DS on the tube (when I can get a seat) on the way to and from work everyday. In the past I've been sat holding the console very still, skilfully jabbing away at the touch screen, a respectful, focused centre of calm. Now I don't know if it was the motion of the carriage that set me off or the excitement of making it past the middle section of Mokuzu Depths where I always lose a ship, but this morning I was very animated to say the least. Headphones in and screen a couple inches from my face, oblivious to the reactions of my fellow travellers I started jerking, twitching, convulsing my way through bullet patterns, flinching as my ears picked up the sound of a collision and cussing under my breath as my ship finally exploded. It had been my most successful Nanostray run so far (score now up in the 340,000s) but only after I had left the tube did it dawn on me how weird it is playing a shootemup in this environment. A place where to show any emotion, make eye contact with let alone talk to fellow travellers is strangely frowned upon I was a complete freak show, elbows flapping as I rocked, face contorting, eyes bulging...
There's the fat mad religious woman, the homeless guy with the dog, the man nodding off on your shoulder and me.
I will no doubt behave the exact same way as I travel home tonight, 'twitch' gaming demands this type of physical reaction from its players. Hopefully the DS and the PSP will be host to some amazing shootemups in the future and these types of fits will become more common.
From the arcade to the bedroom to the London Underground, it seems my hobby has found a way to follow me where I go (not to mention the toilet), this is the place to share your handheld gaming experiences!
She even asked me about Nanostray, something that I found really hard to sum up her never playing a shooter before. She wanted to know what the story was 
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