SB Recommends PlayStation Vita Games

You own a Vita? That was a mistake. Now you're stuck with a gorgeous fantastic piece of hardware with almost nothing on it. You could get some forms of current console hits in portable form. You could play slightly upresed PSP games. You can play some PS1 games looking better than they have ever looked on that delicious screen. You'll mostly use the device for playing little bitsized phone style games with an actual game pad. Apologizes for that.

If you're wondering about the 2000 versus 1000 debate, don't. You will not notice a difference if you don't have them side by side.

• Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
  • Rudie: A worse written Phoenix Wright set in Murder Anime High School.

• Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space (also on: PS2, PSP)
  • bug: You could get EDF2 if you haven't already played it to death, they added the Air Raider from EDF4

• Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (also on: PS3, PS4)
  • Ni Go Zero Ichi: Pretty much exactly what it sounds like: FF10, HD-ified on your Vita, with International Edition content included. Looks and runs smooth as silk; as far as I'm aware it's the best “HD edition” port available on the system from a technical standpoint. The PS3 version looks better but you can't play it on the bus/toilet. Nitpicks: the rearranged soundtrack is hit-or-miss, and inexplicably mandatory; and in the Year of Our Lord 2014, Final Fantasy X still does not give you the ability to skip cutscenes. These complaints shouldn't keep you from playing it.

• Gravity Rush (also on: PS4) - forum thread
  • notbov: I got a Vita because Gravity Rush looked just so damned intriguing. It's an absolute joy to move around, either by sliding or falling through the air. However, when it needs to be about something other than the joy of movement, it shows that Japan Studio lost sight of whatever they were trying to achieve. The combat tries to be interesting, but the enemies aren't up to even the limited moveset you have. It's especially telling that they have to remove the gravity powers to try to provide some interesting level design.
    It should have been better, but if they ever come around to doing a sequel, I'll gladly buy it.
  • Rudie: Fantastic just for a game to move around in. Gorgeous art direction. I heavily abused the screenshot function on my Vita.

• Persona 4 GOLDEN (also on: PS2)
  • Rudie: I happily sunk 90 hours into Persona 4. I have The Golden as my one single physical Vita purchase. I am afraid to start it because I know it will consume me again. One of the best RPGs of the last 10 years.

• Uncharted: Golden Abyss
  • Ni Go Zero Ichi: It's Uncharted, on your Vita. As unfortunately is to be expected from a handheld spinoff of a console series, all of its assets - controls, graphics, level design, writing - are slightly diminished, likely as a result of being developed by Sony's Syphon Filter team rather than the creators at Naughty Dog. But it's still Uncharted. On your Vita.

• Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (also on: 3DS)
  • Rudie: Ultimately this game is a story so that they can tell you the story of the sequel that may never come. It is thirty hours long and they really really stretch that content to take exactly thirty hours. Anyone that played it could give you a twenty minute conversation about the game that is everything the game is.

• SB Recommends Playstation Network Games
• SB Recommends PSP Games - Most titles that can be bought digitally are backwards compatible on Vita. Don't get excited about transferring save data, though.
• aqua vita - 2015-17 forum thread.
• VITA BEGINS - 2012-15 forum thread.
• The Playstation Vita is Six Years Old - 2017 thread.