Panasonic Jungle: New handheld to compete against PSP and DS

It's a jungle in the... handheld market?

Panasonic has announced its portable platform: the Jungle, signaling the return of Panasonic to the gaming market since the much loved and much despised 3DO. Looking like a cross between a Nintendo DS and a netbook, the Jungle will have a full QWERTY keyboard and twin touch pads for control with.

Not willing to take on the DS or PSP battle just yet, Panasonic is promoting the Jungle as a machine for MMO players with their first title being a Battlestar Galactica MMO.

Bring on the emulators

But since the Jungle is also Linux-based, much like the Sony PlayStation 3 and the amazingly awesome GP2X. Let’s hope it sports the same level of modifications to allow homebrew games and emulators as well as video support for DivX, Xvid, and MP4.

The timing couldn’t be better though, since the Jungle is treading on ground that’s been fought over for decades. With a 3D Nintendo DS, a Sony gaming cell phone, iPhones and Androids getting excellent games for free, Panasonic sure knows how to pick their fights.

This might be the strangest decision that Panasonic has made since they released the Q. Or the smartest.