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I’m not an industry analyst, I’m a gamer. I have been since my brother and I used some inheritance money to buy an Intellivision back in the early ‘80s. And although I have my favorite systems (I’ve become a Nintendo fellow as of late, owning both the DS and Wii), I can appreciate the strengths of each system currently on the market. I don’t have access to the Microsoft and Sony platforms, but I find plenty of other ways to fulfill my video gaming needs. And because I review games for both Appletell and Gamertell, I probably spend more time playing games than a working man and father of two should. Productive? Perhaps not, but my broad exposure to the gaming lifestyle does make me question the logic behind articles about how the iPhone will take over the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP for handheld gaming.

You can’t mash buttons if you don’t have buttons.

The latest such article comes from Nick Winfield and Christopher Lawton of wsj.com (see Apple’s iPhone Faces Off With the Game Champs). To their credit, Nick and Christopher don’t state that the iPhone is a DS/PSP killer, rather that it’s simply “targeting” them; that big name developers and publishing houses are increasingly seeing the iPhone and iPod touch as valid gaming systems. But are these iDevices really in direct competition with the DS and PSP? Because if they are, they’re simply no match. This isn’t to say that iPhone games aren’t good. I’ve played quite a few that I enjoy, but it’s a completely different gaming experience. Games were an afterthought to the development of the iPhone and iPod touch, as evidenced mainly by the control system. Although the accelerometer is cool for some genres (racing, mostly, or the always popular moving balls), the combination of that and the touch screen make even the most basic of video games extremely awkward to control.

Take, for instance, Bomberman touch. Bomberman has appeared in some form on pretty much every computer/gaming system since the dawn of Atari. Its success has stemmed mainly from its simple, addictive gameplay, but the iPhone version is not simple because the touch screen controls are awkward and frustrating. And believe me, nothing kills “addictive” faster than “frustrating.”

So, in order to make a game that actually plays well on the iPhone, the game has to be built around the controls. Yes, gameplay in some instances is conducive to the touchscreen, the accelerometer or a combination thereof, but quick, intricate movement cannot be obtained in this method. And considering that most games require skilled movement and control, the iPhone is hampered by its own design. What we’ll end up seeing, therefore, is some fantastic games built around the iPhone’s capabilities, along with a whole slew of games dumped onto the iPhone in an effort to cash in on its popularity, but that are almost unplayable and will therefore quickly be buried and forgotten under the thousands of other apps released that month. Wii owners know what I’m talking about. Games built specifically for the Wii Remote control system can be an incredible experience. Games dumped on the Wii to take advantage of its popularity without any thought for how to implement the remote technology are generally pretty horrid and unplayable.

30 hours of gameplay! (Split nicely into iPhone-friendly 10 minute increments.)

There’s also the issue of depth. Many DS and PSP games are designed for extended periods of play. They can be epic in scale, with everything from RPGs to RTSs to first-person shooters. Many games offer dozens of hours of gameplay. This is what hard core gamers want, and it’s how they choose their system. I suppose someone may eventually release games like that on the iPhone, but I haven’t seen them yet. In fact, the games coming close to offering such hard core experiences have generally been plagued by crashes, freezes and other problems. It seems the iPhone OS isn’t built to handle such resource heavy games, at least not in its current state, and the iPhone itself isn’t built for prolonged gaming sessions, at least not comfortably.

Super Steveoid Brothers Prime: Liberty City…only on the iPhone?

In addition, the iPhone has no platform specific titles. It has no Mario or Metroid or Zelda, and I don’t believe it ever will. Many gamers chose their system because of specific titles they know they’ll want. I, for instance, picked up the Nintendo DS specifically to play “The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.” Before that, I bought a GBA specifically to play “The Legend of Zelda: The Minnish Cap.” I’m certainly not alone here, as evidenced by the amount of time and resources game system developers put into creating, marketing and maintaining their franchise titles. Will Apple set up its own internal game development division? Will it just buy one out like Microsoft did? I don’t see that happening.

The “funnest iPod ever,” yes, but not “funner” than the DS or PSP.

Don’t get me wrong, though. The ease of developing games with the iPhone SDK and the cheap App Store distribution model means the iPhone will be tremendously successful as a gaming platform. A Mac/iPhone game developer I spoke with recently confided that in a couple months they sold more copies of the iPhone version of one of their games than the Mac version sold in almost ten years. That’s absolutely crazy, and there’s no denying that there’s a huge potential for profit on the iPhone. Even better, the iPhone makes it easy for new companies to break into an industry that’s otherwise choked by the big developers with the large production/marketing budgets and dominance of the retail channels. That makes the iPhone an exciting platform with the potential for real innovation and originality (not unlike the WiiWare titles on the Wii), but it also means a glut of shovelware and “me too” game clones. Seriously, just how much better can your version of Bejeweled really be?

Even with this potential, when I’m looking to play a game—and I mean when I’m thinking, “Okay, game time,” not “How can I kill 15 minutes while I’m waiting for my kid to get out of the dentist’s office”—I’m not reaching for my iPhone. Rather, I’m picking up the DS, because that’s where games are designed for gamers, not for cell phone owners.

What’s likely to end up happening, then, is that the iPhone will be successful as a gaming platform, but completely independently of devices dedicated specifically to gaming. They have different core audiences, and always will. And although the iPhone could pull some buyers away from the DS and PSP, I anticipate it may actually drive people towards those devices. People may play Bomberman Touch on the iPhone, get a feel for what handheld gaming could be, and graduate to the better gaming experiences offered by Nintendo and Sony. And, if not—if the iPhone and iPod touch are enough to suit your gaming needs—then you weren’t likely to drop $130 to $170 on a gaming system to begin with.

So, don’t panic, DS and PSP owners. You’re not likely to see Grand Theft Auto or Castlevania on the iPhone anytime soon. You’re also not likely to see these devices disappear from store shelves…at least not until new models are released. These systems will coexist peacefully with the iPhone/iPod touch, and we’ll all be one big, happy, gaming world.

A much less productive world, granted, but a happy one.