Handheld Funtimes: Introducing My Friend Playstation Vita

Handheld gaming devices have played a curiously limited part in my gaming history. Like practically everyone in the 90s, I had a GameBoy - first a Pocket, sadly lost to supermarket thieves, and then a Color, still mostly operational to this day. The likes of the GameBoy Advance, DS, PSP and Sega Game Gear passed me by and I never particularly felt like I was missing out. This decade-long hiatus finally ended last month when I purchased a PlayStation Vita, and seeing as I seem to be the only person alive who owns one, I thought I'd share my first impressions of it and maybe, just maybe, convince some fellow gamers to pick one up.

So which aspects of my new device impressed me?

It Has a Touch Screen

Ok, so that's hardly unique these days. As a tablet-less, smartphone-less person (no, really) I admit I'm pretty much in the vast minority in finding this impressive. Nevertheless, the Vita has a very responsive touch interface, which made the often-torturous period of setting up a new gadget an absolute breeze. From switching it on for the first time, to being ready to play a game, took no more than 15 minutes, at least 5 of which was spent trying to recall my router's password. The system's home menu is clearly designed for touch use, with each game/setting screen/app (have you heard of those??) represented by a cute little bubble. In my opinion, though, the best part of all this is that using the touch screen in these menus is optional - if you find the inevitable fingerprint smudges off-putting, the D-pad and left stick work just fine, if a little bit more clunkily than swiping and prodding. However, the slickness of the touch features means that I don't often feel tempted to go that route - closing any  game or app, and starting the Vita from sleep mode, involves peeling a virtual sticker off the screen, a simple but charming idiosyncrasy that is yet to lose its appeal on me.

It Makes My Commute Fly By

This was my primary motivation for buying the Vita, or at least what pushed me over the edge. I've been playing games on on the train at almost every opportunity in the last month, turning the tedium of public transport into video game joy in about as long as it takes to put on a pair of headphones. I'll get onto details about the games themselves shortly, but in terms of the Vita itself, I have to say it truly is ideal for a commuter. If it's in sleep mode, it turns on instantly. If it's fully turned off (which in my current Vita-addicted state is quite rare) it takes 10 seconds. The battery power usually lasts 4-6 hours, which means that stopping and starting a game is effortless, and suspending a game in the morning to be picked up later in the evening is no problem whatsoever. I did encounter a scary bug that disabled the touch screen when I woke the Vita up - the aforementioned "virtual sticker" was non-responsive, and for once there was no alternative to touch. Already considering the depressing prospect of returning a bricked handheld to Sony, I attempted a forced restart. Upon booting up, not only was everything what I believe the youth call "hunky-dory", I hadn't even lost any game progress. It's not a feature I'd really like to push my luck with, but it was certainly a pleasant discovery. Overall, playing on the go has been an overwhelmingly positive aspect of the Vita for me, to the extent that practically every morning I'm looking to forward to leaving the house, because on-the-way-to-work time is game time.

The Games I've Played Are Excellent

I've messed around with a fairly small number of games on the Vita so far, but almost without exception they've all been great. Tearaway was the first game I booted up, and right from the get-go I was all over it. Straddling the divide of "kid's game" and "fun for adults" with aplomb, this title from the makers of LittleBigPlanet is endearing, pretty, goofily self-aware and in general just a lean, mean, fun machine. Its world is made of paper, and the feel and sound of objects and surfaces evoke arts-and-craft materials in a way that I found surprisingly absorbing. The story is amusing without being overbearing, and best of all the jump physics are a huge improvement on Media Molecule's LBP series - anyone who's played one of those games will sympathise with me here, I'm sure.

A noble goal in life, if there ever was one.

The other game I've played a great deal is Persona 4 Golden. This game really needs a dedicated blog post to explain why I'm so crazy for it, but suffice to say that it is without a doubt the best Japanese RPG I have ever played. It's a genre that certainly won't appeal to everyone: like any JRPG, dungeon-grinding is a big part of the game - but if you're ok with that, P4G takes the PS2 original and improves it in some inspired ways, such as extra story content woven seamlessly into the plot, neatly implemented community features and some gameplay-specific user-friendly features that, for me at least, make this undeniably the superior version of Persona 4. The visual quality takes the cake too, and man-oh-man this opening sequence:

And that looks even better on the Vita's small screen. Oh, and one final killer point - Golden includes some easier difficulty modes, so even those who understandably loathe the grind of a JRPG are catered for here.

Touch My Katamari deserves a brief mention at the very least here - it's the first of the long-running Katamari series that I've owned, and sure enough it's as funny, addictive and enrapturing as its predecessors reportedly were. One level challenges the player to roll up as many babies as possible - I don't think any further selling points are required.

The Games I Haven't Played Yet Are (Probably) Excellent

Possibly one of the most exciting aspects of this device is the library of games I now have access to digitally from the PlayStation Store. As a long-time member of Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription - which grants access to 4-5 new games each month as long as I pay my annual gaming tithe - I had already built up a collection of a couple of dozen Vita games, not to mention a whole bunch of PS1 games. Touch My Katamari was one of these, and some highly-regarded titles such as Gravity Rush, Soul Sacrifice and Virtue's Last Reward are currently waiting in the wings to entertain me. After a bumpy start in terms of exclusives, some interesting little indie games are starting to emerge, including a 2D, ultra-challenging homage to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater called OlliOlli and the adventure game that makes other adventure games seem normal, Doki Doki Universe (also available on PS3 and PS4, so not technically an "exclusive"). I am unlikely to be able to resist the call of either.

Clearly, the ideal place to play this is in public.

Additionally, most of the PSP's catalogue is available digitally, so the likes of LocoRoco, Patapon, and various portable entries in console series' such as God of War and Metal Gear Solid also clamour for my attention. More recent downloadable games for the Vita's big brother the PS3 come in handheld form - Spelunky, Hotline Miami and Divekick just to name a few, and in most of those cases a purchase of the PS3 version comes bundled with its Vita compadre. And once I no longer feel the need to inject Persona 4 directly into my gaming veins, there's a treasure trove of acclaimed JRPG's, including Tales of Eternia, Star Ocean, countless Final Fantasy's and all the other Persona games. Naysayers and party-poopers of the internet will no doubt continue to deride the Vita for lacking games; they are living beyond the bounds of reality.

In Conclusion...

...I'm pretty satisfied with my Vita, as you may have gathered. There are some other features I haven't mentioned yet, like the "Near" app that lets you see what other Vita owners in a 5 km radius have been playing. It's a neat idea, but for the most part it just tells me, for example, that Hotline Miami has a "High Buzz Rating with 1 people playing!" - because I've been playing it. Then there's the Vita's ability to link up with a PS3 - limited to the point of uselessness - or with a PS4, which I have yet to try out. I'm also using my Vita as an alarm clock, and while I love that Wake Up Club has trophies for waking up (you heard right), in practice the "game" is a bit of a disappointment.

These occasional missteps can't sour my enjoyment of the system, though. The experiences I've had with it so far have been exemplary: Persona 4 Golden and Tearaway have formed the beginning of what I'm sure will be a beautiful friendship, and it's a friend that amuses me on my way to and from work, and isn't too shy to play with me in bed on a Saturday morning. My amigos on this blog should sit up and take note.