Owners of Sony’s PSP handheld wonder have been clamoring for software throughout the summer doldrums. And that has been largely warranted, with less than a few new releases since E3 (MVP Baseball, Midnight Club, and Coded Arms are the only notables). For a system that was so hyped, and showed so much potential, even the upcoming lineup of titles shown at E3 was a little underwhelming.

And Nintendo, which lost a little steam when the PSP hype machine had its way with the DS, is now looking like a champ. To borrow a page from Sony, Nintendo is smartly releasing quirky Japanese titles for the DS and creating a catalog of which many PSPers are envious. Games such as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Trauma Center: Under the Knife, and, of course, that killer app that has Sony more nervous than the Master Chief himself, Nintendogs.

So my open letter to Sony is this: Stop putting out press releases bragging about how many UMD movies you’ve sold, and start giving us games to play on our game console. After all, that’s why we bought the PSP, right?

But I hear the hordes of people out there saying, “oh, how easier said than done.” After all, how can you create games out of, well, nothing? It is quite easy, and here’s my suggestion: Beat Nintendo at their own game. Get a localization group together and bring some Japanese titles over to the US tout de suite.

I can peruse the list of import titles currently available in Japan from sites such as PlayAsia.com and National Console Support and find more than a handful of titles I’d be interested in playing stateside. One of which is Adventure Player from From Software, where you can create your own adventure game or digital novel by importing your own digital photos. Heck, it even comes with the original Echo Night, so you can’t complain that it isn’t a “game”. Also as homebrew apps are probably the best thing available for the PSP, wouldn’t it be nice to create a community of aspiring game designers to share their creations among the console’s user base.

Bleach is another one that would appeal to the gaming crowd. After all, it’s a game based on an anime based on a manga. Or how about finally giving us some of those dating sim titles which are so popular in Japan? And while you’re at it, why not try the market by finally releasing Sakura Taisen stateside (which was just announced to be released sometime in 2006 ).

The RPG genere is a little light to put it kindly, so why not give us some titles like Legend of Heroes, which is a port of an RPG trilogy, or Tales of Eternia? I know a lot of people complain that the PSP has too many PS2 ports, but can you classify a title as a port if the original title never came out in the US to begin with?

A couple classic series are seing pint-size installments in the Land of the Rising Sun. Tenchu Shinobi Taizen hasn’t been announced for the US yet but is already proving itself as a worthy successor to the series. And then there’s my personal favorite, Shutokou Battle, another in the great racing series from Genki.

So as we US PSP owners stock up on UMD video titles and stare enviously at those Nintendo DS owners who are thinking they have the last laugh in the portable console race, we can also point the finger at Sony for not filling the PSP software void with import niche titles. Well at least we can watch movies and listen to MP3s…oh wait, the DS can do that too.