Portables' Versions of Console Games

Well, we've all done it before. We've all, at one point, played a portable version of a console game. If you haven't, or you think you haven't, then you may actually be surprised. There are quite a few games that are either ports or sequels onto portable consoles. Star Wars: Battlefront is an example. There were the two console versions, then they made a version for the PSP. While the PSP version was deemed bad due to the terrible controls, it did show that portable consoles could do something. Similar to the Game Boy Advance ports of SNES games, like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Super Mario World. Another example that I know of would be the Trackmania Series. For those who don't know what it is, it is an arcade racer (Point "A" to point "B" in the shortest amount of time, but the cars can't affect others in this game's case), and its portable version was a great version, in which it had three of the seven environments and the famous level editor it is well known for. Then we have the Call of Duty franchise and its two additions onto the DS. They were quite good, in their own right, for a portable game. Now, the main question we all need to know is that if this activity should be encouraged. Well, what I specifically mean about having a Console game on a portable is that the console one came first, then they made the portable one based off of the console one, not like releasing them both at the same time (Such as movie games). Well, for starters, the visual capabilities of portable consoles are starting to increase significantly (speaking of the DS and PSP), and storage space for portable consoles are also starting to increase as well. Now, would it be fun to have the same exact same game on both console and portable? No. However, a lot of people are on the go, and don't always have time to be playing games. Perhaps that is one reason why The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass was put on the DS (or maybe the DS was long overdue for a Zelda game...or at least not have it on a console). Plus, production budgets are much cheaper having it on a portable than on a console, so that can also be considered another positive. Having sequels on the portable consoles is also a nice tactic that some companies use, but it may be a good thing or a bad thing in some occasions? So, is it really a good idea to have portable consoles like the DS and the PSP base or port games off of consoles? Well, like I said, it just depends on what it is and how it is executed (Phantom Hourglass used the touch screen controls, so that was a positive). So, there's no real base line in general, but there's a line for which games can be on a portable and go with us everywhere and which ones are not worth the AA batteries and are much better at home on your big screen TV (of which I don't own).