{"id":15231,"date":"2016-07-15T00:01:30","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T00:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=15231"},"modified":"2016-07-09T23:44:52","modified_gmt":"2016-07-09T23:44:52","slug":"ps-vita-we-hardly-knew-ya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/15\/ps-vita-we-hardly-knew-ya\/","title":{"rendered":"PS Vita, We Hardly Knew Ya!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TEARAWAY\"<\/a>For the longest time, I didn\u2019t own Sony\u2019s newest handheld, the PS Vita.\u00a0 Which may seem strange at first, because I loved the PSP, Sony prior handheld.\u00a0 In fact, other than the Neo Geo Pocket Color, the PSP was the only other handheld I bought that wasn\u2019t made by Nintendo!\u00a0 There were lots of PSP games I loved to play: Loco Roco and its sequel, Ys Seven, Half-Minute Hero, Gurumin, Mega Man Powered Up, and many more.\u00a0 But the Vita just didn\u2019t have as many games that I wanted to play, or at least not enough to warrant purchasing one.\u00a0 But after a few years they\u2019ve built up enough games that interest me, and since I couldn\u2019t think of anything to ask my family to get me for Christmas, I just threw a Vita on my list and to my surprise I got one late last year as a present!\u00a0 So here\u2019s my impressions on the Vita and some games I got for it (probably a little too late, but hey, better later than never).<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s kind of sad that the Vita bombed, because it seems like a pretty decent follow-up to the PSP.\u00a0 The touch screens on the front and back work great, and I love the big, bright screen.\u00a0 That\u2019s one cool thing the PSP had over the DS and 3DS was its bright screen, and what I think helped it separate itself from Nintendo\u2019s handheld juggernaut.\u00a0 And the Vita is very inviting.\u00a0 They even included some mini-games to help you get used to the system, in the form of the in-game Welcome Park (which also has trophies).\u00a0 I also think it\u2019s neat how you can see your Vita trophies on the PS3.\u00a0 Yeah, I know, I\u2019m easily amused.\u00a0 And ever since I\u2019ve gotten my Vita, I\u2019ve been able to review a good number of games on it, at least five.\u00a0 That\u2019s pretty good for a system I\u2019ve only had for about six months.\u00a0 Because of that, in a way I kind of wish I had gotten a Vita earlier!<\/span><\/p>\n

But like I said, for the longest time there just wasn\u2019t enough games I wanted to play on the Vita.\u00a0 And for a while it was pretty pricey as a handheld.\u00a0 Plus, the memory cards you have to use for it are Sony\u2019s brand, and they can be pretty expensive, too.\u00a0 And the cards were not included with the Vita so you had to buy them separately.\u00a0 That may be why the Vita ultimately bombed, but I\u2019m not 100 percent sure.\u00a0 But the Vita isn\u2019t totally dead yet.\u00a0 Many smaller indie and niche game companies are still making games for the system, which is probably how I\u2019ve been able to review some Vita games still.\u00a0 Most of the ones I\u2019ve reviewed weren\u2019t worth keeping, but the last two I\u2019ve played were pretty decent. \u00a0I recently reviewed Grand Kingdom, which is a strategy action-RPG that turned out better than what I thought it would.\u00a0 And Adventures of Mana (review up soon) is a nifty little remake of the old Game Boy Final Fantasy Adventure game.<\/span><\/p>\n

But when I got my Vita, there were five physical copy games I wanted to get.\u00a0 Luckily since they were older titles, I didn\u2019t have to spend more than 20 bucks for any of them.\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s one advantage of not being an early adopter of a game system.\u00a0 Rather than have the games be on those weird UMD discs like the PSP had, Vita games come on a little cartridge.\u00a0 It\u2019s like half the size of a 3DS card, and you can fit several up your nose (I don\u2019t recommend doing that, by the way).\u00a0 So here are some quick impressions of the five games I got for my Vita.<\/span><\/p>\n

Touch My Katamari<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I love the games in the Katamari Damacy series, and I hated missing out on this one for the longest time since I didn\u2019t have a Vita at launch.\u00a0 For those who don\u2019t know, in the Katamari games you play as a tiny alien rolling around a sticky ball, and objects will latch to it and like a snowball, it gets bigger and bigger.\u00a0 So at the beginning of a stage you may be rolling up bits of trash on the ground, but by the end, you may be rolling up cars and buildings and even continents and planets!\u00a0 The definition of a quirky, Japanese game.\u00a0 They added a new feature in this one: using the bottom touch screen, you can stretch and squish your Katamari ball so it can fit through narrower spaces or cover more ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

But unfortunately, I\u2019d have to say that this game is the worst in the series.\u00a0 Even more so than the PSP version.\u00a0 Environments are so barren, the music isn\u2019t as memorable (Katamari games are known for their songs), and I hate how they did extra levels.\u00a0 There are levels you can download as DLC, and they\u2019re free, which is cool.\u00a0 But in order to get them, you must roll up special items in the stages, and they are very hard to get.\u00a0 I beat the whole game and only got two, and the extra stages cost ten to play. \u00a0It\u2019s a shame, too, because one of the extra stages was filled with nothing but Namco game references in a Pac-Man maze, which I always wanted to see in a Katamari game.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I also really like the Monkey Ball games, where you roll around a monkey in a hamster ball trying to navigate mazes without falling off.\u00a0 Kind of like a 3-D Marble Madness.\u00a0 This one is just more of the same, although you can design your own levels, but I never tried that part.\u00a0 Monkey Ball games also include a selection of mini-games, and I even wrote about the Vita ones in a previous blog<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 Some are good and some are not so good.\u00a0 Still a decent game, but not good enough to get a whole Vita for.\u00a0 I think the last truly good Monkey Ball games were the ones on GameCube.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gravity Rush<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This was one of those games that everyone said was a Vita \u2018system seller\u2019 and I had to try it.\u00a0 So I did!\u00a0 You play as a young woman who can manipulate gravity, and she uses her powers to fight monsters in a Steampunk world full of floating cities.\u00a0 You mostly use your gravity powers to fly around, so it\u2019s like you\u2019re Superman (or Superwoman in this case).\u00a0 While it is a creative game, it does have some problems and I didn\u2019t like it as much as I thought I would.\u00a0 The storyline is garbage and has a lot of loose ends that they didn\u2019t tie up.\u00a0 Which isn\u2019t important to me, but what is important is that flying around can be very disorienting, and I even got a little nauseated a couple of times while playing, which rarely happens to me.\u00a0 I think they could\u2019ve solved this problem by making the game more colorful, as it uses a lot of muted tones.\u00a0 A lock-on mechanism while attacking in the air would\u2019ve helped, too.\u00a0 But other than that, the game was fine.\u00a0 The main character in the game, Kat, is especially cool (and kinda cute, for a video game character anyway).\u00a0 I think she was a DLC character in the Sony All-Stars Battle Royale game, too.\u00a0 Gravity Rush is still a good game, but there are others I liked better.\u00a0 But I certainly liked Gravity Rush more than the first two games I mentioned on this list!<\/span><\/p>\n

Ys: Memories of Celceta<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ys Seven was one of my favorite games on the PSP.\u00a0 So I was excited to learn that a new Ys game that played similarly was coming out to the Vita.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I didn\u2019t like it as much as Ys Seven, but I still played it all the way through so I must\u2019ve still enjoyed it enough.\u00a0 Ys Seven just had slightly better gameplay and level design and characters and story and music.\u00a0 One thing I didn\u2019t know until recently is that the Vita game is just a remake\/reimaging of the fourth game in the Ys series.\u00a0 It would be interesting to go back and see the original and see how much has changed.\u00a0 And in case you don\u2019t know about Ys games, they are similar to Zelda titles, but focus more on action rather than puzzles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tearaway<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Out of all the games I have on my Vita, I think Tearaway is my favorite.\u00a0 It\u2019s a 3-D platformer that hearkens back to the ones found on the PSOne and PS2, so that was welcome.\u00a0 The world you play in is made out of paper.\u00a0 You may be thinking, \u201cOh, like Paper Mario.\u201d\u00a0 No, even BETTER than Paper Mario.\u00a0 And that\u2019s saying a lot, since Paper Mario does that aesthetic very well.\u00a0 In the game you play as an envelope with arms and legs (you can even pick its gender).\u00a0 Your job as an envelope is to get a message to you, the player.\u00a0 Yup, the characters in the game even call you a \u201cYou.\u201d\u00a0 And the game uses all the Vita\u2019s capabilities to try and bring you into the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, in nearly every scene in the game, they use the Vita\u2019s camera to have a picture of you peeking in through a hole in the ground or the sun in the sky.\u00a0 You can also use the camera to take pictures to use as textures for papercrafts in the game, and you can use the tilt functions to take snapshots in the levels as well.\u00a0 Sometimes you can use the bottom touch screen to \u2018poke\u2019 holes in the paper to help the envelope defeat enemies or solve puzzles.\u00a0 They even show your finger pushing though, which is why they ask your skin color at the beginning of the game!\u00a0 You can also use the stylus and touch screen to cut out and glue pieces of paper to decorate your envelope character or other objects in the world.\u00a0 My favorite was when they asked to you design snowflakes for the ice level, I made a Pac-Man shape, so all the snowflakes were little yellow bits of Pac confetti!\u00a0 The neatest idea was when you take a picture of a colorless object in the game, it\u2019ll gain colors and you can go to a special web site and log in and get instructions to print out and make a real life papercraft based on that object!\u00a0 The level of user creativity in this game is astounding, but it makes sense when you realize this game was made by the same folks who did LittleBigPlanet.\u00a0 Tearaway doesn\u2019t have as much customization as LittleBigPlanet titles do, but it does still have a lot and it\u2019s OK because Tearaway is just trying to be its own game.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tearaway does have a few problems, though.\u00a0 Like with other 3-D platformers, sometimes camera angles and play control can be a little problematic.\u00a0 Others may complain about a lack of challenge, since you start where you left off right after you die, and get unlimited lives.\u00a0 But these little snags didn\u2019t ruin my fun with the game.\u00a0 It was full of creativity and had such an inspiring ending.\u00a0 If you have a Vita, THIS is the game I recommend getting the most.\u00a0 Especially for kids. I\u2019ll end this section with a link to YouTube video with my favorite song from Tearaway<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conclusions<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s my impressions on the Vita!\u00a0 I tell you one thing, the Vita certainly has helped me make another decision.\u00a0 If I were in the market for a new console right now, either the PS4 or Xbox One, I know which one I would get: the PS4.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong.\u00a0 I have nothing against Microsoft and I loved my Xbox 360.\u00a0 But there are only 3 games on the Xbox One I\u2019d be interested in playing right now.\u00a0 One is Rare Replay, which is just a bunch of old games.\u00a0 Another is Cuphead, a 2-D action game where the graphics look like a 1930\u2019s cartoon.\u00a0 But I hear it\u2019s really hard and I think I\u2019d be just as happy watching someone else play it.\u00a0 So that just leaves Ori and the Blind Forest.\u00a0 Which I hear is really good but I\u2019m not going to buy a whole console just for one game.<\/span><\/p>\n

But because of my time with the Vita, I already know three games on the PS4 I\u2019d want to play.\u00a0 Gravity Rush has a remastered version on the PS4, as well as a sequel.\u00a0 Not to mention a new remake\/reimagining of Tearaway, which I bet looks even more amazing on the PS4.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not including some of the other PS4 games I\u2019ve been eyeing, like Dragon Quest Heroes and the new Kingdom Hearts game that may or may not come out in the next two or three years!<\/span><\/p>\n

So I\u2019d like to conclude this Vita blog with a call for help.\u00a0 In the comments section, if you know of any other Vita games that I may like, please let me know!\u00a0 And tell me your favorite Vita games, too.\u00a0 Thanks, and later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the longest time, I didn\u2019t own Sony\u2019s newest handheld, the PS Vita.\u00a0 Which may seem strange at first, because I loved the PSP, Sony prior handheld.\u00a0 In fact, other than the Neo Geo Pocket Color, the PSP was the only other handheld I bought that wasn\u2019t made by Nintendo!\u00a0 There were lots of PSP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15233,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15231\/revisions\/15233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}