I hope your favorite console isn’t the PSP, because if E3 and the post-E3 barrage of press releases is any indication, your beloved handheld has become a persona non grata in the world of videogames. I saw exactly the same number of marching band sims as I did PSP titles on the floor at E3. That’s not a good thing for fans of either of marching band sims or of Sony’s handheld. I’m amazed at the lack of props given to what I consider one of the greatest achievements of the still-young 21st century.

After a couple of years of being the home to a zillion arcade racers and just as many crappy UMD movies, the PSP finally seemed to be firing on more than one cylinder last summer when it became the console of choice for RPG fans. Last summer and fall brought gamers Disgaea, Tales of the World, Jeanne D’Arc, and Brave Story. And this spring, PSP owners got to go all Kratos on the world with God of War: Chain of Olympus. The console, which also offers internet radio — a dozen-plus channels of reggae, alone! — looked poised to take on the DS for the thumbs of commuters and those that look to do their gaming on the fly.

Sadly, though, the only PSP title I saw on the floor at E3 was EA Sports’ NBA Live 09. And it wasn’t even on EA’s chunk of the floor — it was on Sony’s. It was like Sony needed to remind folks that the thing still existed and just grabbed whatever game they could to pop into it. There was no one around to explain what was going to be new in Live 09 or anything like that. It seemed like it was there solely to show that the console could still fog a mirror.

I was really looking to come away from LA with some cool news about upcoming titles for the PSP, but I left instead with a question mark over my head like I was a World of Warcraft quest-giver. I totally dug checking out Eidos’ and Crystal Dynamics’ upcoming Tomb Raider: Underworld, but when I asked one of the developers about a PSP release, he said it wasn’t sure if it would happen. Last year’s TR: Anniversary was a strong PSP title, so I’m not sure what all the apprehension is all about. Apparently, though, Crystal Dynamics isn’t alone in its development strategies.

But as long as I’m delivering what may be the first of many eulogies for the handheld, here’s my favorite PSP story: I was on the high-speed Acela train from New York to Boston last year and was watching Ed Wood — kinda like Rocky for oddballs — on DVD on my laptop when the guy sitting next to me started watching some other Johnny Depp movie on a slightly smaller stand-alone DVD player. I decided to trump him in our Johnny-Depp-Off by firing up Once Upon a Time in Mexico on my PSP. Not only did I get him to ask me just what the hell piece of technology I was watching the movie on, I got to hear one of my favorite best-worst movie lines of all-time. Depp’s character tosses out this question to motivate one of his new charges: “Are you a Mexican…or a Mexican’t?”

Yanking out the obviously offensive aspects of that question, someone should be asking the same thing to Sony.

Tags: Depp, E3, pogs, pointiness, PSP, Sony