Friday Freebie: MySims Racing and Mazes of Fate DS demos appear...
...along with something for the PSP you'll barely even be able to pronounce
Remember what it was like before the PSP came out? How excited we all were?
The PSP was going to be the next glorious chapter in Sony's near flawless gaming dynasty. 'The iPod of the 21st century,' one device to rule them all. Cut to five years later and it turns out the iPod is the iPod of the 21st century. Ah well.
Meanwhile some would say the PSP is getting uglier, more expensive and less relevant by the day. All Sony needs to do to sort this, say the critics, is offer more free/budget downloads on the PSP Store.
Why does it seem Sony is content to let the PSP Store die of thirst and its users flatline with apathy before it puts any real effort into reviving it, then?
Come on Sony, we've been told this was coming for over a year now and the wait is getting tedious. If we can't have regular demos, can't we at least have one free PSone classic game a month?
A prelude/rant like this can only mean one thing. Yep, you might as well get your Spoken Japanese dictionaries out and create a Japanese PSP Store account now, because it's the only way you're going to enjoy anything free from Sony this week.
The demo in question has the rather long-winded title, Hayarigami 2 Portable: Keishichou Kaijiken File and it's a Japanese horror adventure sound novel. That basically means it is an interactive comic book, involving limited gameplay.
Could be interesting to a select few but it's certainly not the sort of freebie that's going to get anyone in this hemisphere excited about the PSP Store anytime soon. Sony: must do better. Please.
The DS fares considerably better this week than it has in a while. Recently added to the Wii's Nintendo Channel are DS demos of MySims Racing and Mazes of Fate DS.
Both are free to try (provided you have a Wii that's connected to the internet) and are available on the European Nintendo Channel now. Hurrah!
As for the iPhone, you're absolutely spoilt this week. Not only is there The Trawler Report and the weekly audio iPhone gaming podcast, but there's also the chance to win a £5 iTunes voucher every week.
All you have to do is listen to the podcast, then write to us with the name the game that the tune or sound effect comes from that we play at the end of each show. Get in first with the correct answer and the voucher is yours. Easy.
Remember, we're also running a competition to find our 1000th Twitter follower. The winner gets themselves a £20 Amazon gift voucher and a hearty mention, both on our podcast and on the main site.
Our follower count is sitting pretty at 785 at the time of writing, so if we keep climbing at this speed, there's only about a week to go until we reach our target – don't miss out.
Last of all, there is of course the Freebie Archive to tide you over until next week's Friday Freebie. Until then, click 'Track It!' to be sure not to miss it and enjoy this week's haul.