As a PSP owner myself, I’m always looking out for interesting products or accessories to go along with it, namely protectors and accesories. Here are my personal top 10 picks for PSP products which you can easily find from Play-Asia. They provide free delivery to major countries.

Capdase Luxury Hard Case
This is by far my favourite casing for the PSP.  It’s light, covers the entire PSP and provides two slots for your memory cards. You can check out my review here.

XCM Multi-Consoles Component Cable V3
If you own a couple of the current generation game consoles along with the PSP,  you might want to consider picking this up. It is a lot cheaper compared to buying separate component cables for your game consoles and best of all it works on the Xbox360, PS3 and Wii. One cable to rule them all?

Dissidia: Final Fantasy
If you are lucky the game will be out by the time you read this post. Definitely one of the most anticipated game for 2009. You might want to check out the Asia version as they are cheaper compared to the US version. Don’t worry the game will be in full English.

Hori Full Protection Filter Portable 3
I think no PSP owner should miss this product. Think of it as something similar to screen protectors except that it covers the core areas of your PSP, preventing scratches. Couple it with the capdase casing and you will have a full-fledged protection.

Sony Traveler Case for PSP
The Sony traveler case looks very similar to Logitech’s PlayGear Pocket and provides a good overall protection. Guess it just depends whether you prefer Sony or Logitech.

Logitech’s PlayGear Pocket
PlayGear Pocket was the first PSP protector I have purchased for the Phat PSP. In terms of protection, I would say the PlayGear Pocket offers better security than Capdase but it’s a lot heavier. Regardless it’s still a good protection casing.

PSP GPS Receiver
What can I say? GPS is a must have device today, especially those on the go. Save yourself a couple of hundred bucks by purchasing this baby only at USD$60.

Hori Car Stand for PSP
If you plan to use the PSP GPS for navigation, you will probably need this car stand.

There are a lot of youtube videos showing you how to apply InvisibleShield on your game consoles or ipod/iphones but that’s about it. Just the usual spray the solution, paste it on your device and remove the excess solution. What they failed to mention are the preparations needed before, during and after the application.

Some of you might be thinking “I can just ask the shop or someone else to apply it for me.” Although i don’t disagree with you there but after my experience of having someone else apply the shield (another brand of shield but similar) for me, I have concluded it is best I do the job myself.  For the record a lot of forumers recommended him for his good and fast service.

After having gone through 5 InvisibleShields, I find that these few tips are helpful in getting a real good, clean application.

Clean Hands
Give your hands a good scrub before you start to remove any dirt, dust or oil. These things will hinder your shield from setting properly.

Remove the Battery
Make sure your electronic device is switched off and the batteries removed. I always make it a habit to let my device sit for 5 minutes to remove any static. Static attracts dust and that’s a no no.

Turn Off The Fan
Air circulation brings dust around and it might get stuck on your shield / surface / hand. Best is to work in an air-conditioned room or just turn off the fan. I usually choose the latter.

Ignore the Solution, Use Soap & Water
This was the downfall during my first application. The shield came with a tinyyyyyy solution bottle and it was barely enough for the PSP. Thinking that it would be end of the world if I used up the solution, I sprayed as minimal as possible. Bad mistake.

So what can we use as a substitute? The answer is soap with water. No really, I’m not kidding. It actually works better compared to the solution provided. Just take a small pail, filled it with some water and add a drop of hand soap.

Take Your Time
I know shops can get the whole thing done within 45 minutes but seriously, don’t rush. Apply the shield one piece at a time and make sure that piece is set before moving on to the next piece. For example the face piece for the PSP is pretty big. Therefore once the shield is pasted, I will leave it on my table for a couple of hours before continuing.

Keep Things Moist
Make sure you dunk your hands in soap water (mentioned above) regularly or when you feel its getting dry. Keeping your hands moist will prevent finger prints or dirt being left on the shield.

Also dab the shield with as much soap water as you can. It makes it easier to align and any small dirt particles will flow right out when you remove the excess water.

Let Things Settle Down for At Least 24 Hours
Why the long hours you might asked. It allows any excess water left behind in the device and the shield to be completely dried up. Friction might cause the shield to peel off if isn’t set properly. Not to mention water will cause your device to short-circuit. Optimum would be 48 hours but usually 24 hours is sufficient.

Hope you find my tips useful. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

It has been more than a year since I applied Invisible Shield on my NDS and PSP and it is time to find out how well the shield fares after that long period.

One of the most common complains I heard bout Invisible Shield is that it tends to turn yellowish after some time. Judging by the look of my NDS, that complain stands true.

You can see that the color difference between the area marked in red with the area marked in green. Even the stylus looks brighter compared to the areas covered with Invisible Shield.

Discoloration is very apparent on bright colors, especially white.

Dust & dirt is the next mutual enemy of the Invisible Shield. Take a look at the next picture.

Notice that one nice line of dust? Yeap that’s what happen when you leave your devices out in the open. My PSP on the other hand suffered less damage as it is always inside the Capdase casing.  With that I came up with this conclusion; always keep your devices inside a pouch or a bag. It really helps to reduce significant amount of dust collected.

Apart from the two issues mentioned above, the shield still looks good with no apparent ‘peeling’ after many months of usage. As long as the shield is applied properly, chances of that happening is relatively rare.

Here are a few more pictures of the shield, a year later;

Most of you hardcore God of War fans would probably knew by now that Sony had unlocked the full CPU speed of the PSP (333mhz) and God of War Chain of Olympus is taking advantage of that extra speed. Looking at the value it doesn’t seem much, but the difference between the two is pretty noticeable. In fact to me that’s a HELL lot of difference. I will let the video do the talking and you be the judge. This is definitely a must play game for the PSP.

From my opinion on classic Castlevania games, you will either love them or hate them. Don’t get me wrong, Castlevania games are great but the amount of “punishment” you need to endure is enough to make you throw your console out of the window. Okay I’m exaggerating about throwing the console but the fact remains that Castlevania games are hard, and this PSP release is no exception.

Dracula X Chronicles features the remake of Rondo of Blood, a classic Castlevania game that was never released outside Japan. A similar version came out for Super Nintendo in 1995 but due to too many changes, it was considered inferior to the original Rondo of Blood. Thankfully after more than a decade, owners of PSP now have the chance to play the real Rondo of Blood, in both remake and the original version.

The storyline is pretty straight forward. Shaft the Dark Priest has revived Count Dracula and its up to Richter Belmont to slay him and rescue his girlfriend. Richter’s main weapon is the Vampire Killer whip and along the way he can pick up sub weapons which includes knife, axe, cross, holy water etc.

As I have mention the game is indeed tough and it takes a bit of patience to get through this game. It’s common to retry the same level over and over again (I think I continued more than 5 times when fighting ‘Death’) but somehow, that game has some sort of attraction to make you keep trying until you succeed. Perhaps the feeling of completing a stage gives some form of satisfaction. Frustrating as it can be, I’m still hooked onto playing it.

Throughout the game, you can find secrets and hidden items which enables you to unlock sound tracks (You can set them onto any stage you like), the original PC-Engine Rondo of Blood and Playstation’s Symphony of the Night. I tried a bit of SotN and it plays pretty good. Smooth animation with great music. At the time of posting I have yet to unlock the original Rondo of Blood.

To sum things up, you get 3 games for the price of 1 and if that isn’t a good deal, I don’t know what is then. It’s hard, it’s stressful but the end result is great.