I’ll never buy a PlayStation Portable for myself (nor anyone else, I’d imagine). I had an old-style Nintendo GameBoy, with the monochrome screen, way back in the day, and that was enough.

But I’m thoroughly enjoying the “Squirrels” TV ads for the PSP. Nothing like jive-talking rodents to get me to giggling.

The spots are the work of director Monkmus of Hornet Inc., as commissioned by TBWA/Chiat/Day. There are at least two of them: One where one of the squirrels tells the other to play “Nut” outside, and another where they’re talking smack at each other about how much tail they’d get if they had the kind of graphics/firepower that a PSP had. Oh yes, hilarity abounds.

The artistic style of the spots, with their charcoal black-and-white look, combined with the frenetic voicework (reminiscent of Alvin and the Chipmunks, but slightly urbanized), really sells it for me. It’s a very unusual presentation for selling a videogame console, and thus makes it stand out amid the television commercial clutter.

Which Sony needs, because it’s still facing an uphill battle in overtaking Nintendo in the handheld gaming market. Can squirrels be saviours?