Back in July, we gave you our initial impressions after a quick hands on session with Sony’s new Playstation Vita. At TGS we got another chance to play around with it. Here’s what we thought:

Graphics

Once again we were highly impressed by the 5-inch multi-touch OLED screen. Sony weren’t kidding when they said the graphics are on par with the PS3:

On par...

The Right Controls for the Right Game

With about a million different input combinations available – touch screen, rear touch pad, dual analog sticks, D-pad, face buttons, shoulder buttons, three-axis gyroscope and three-axis accelerometer – the Vita really excels at using the right control for the right game.

Little Deviants uses the touchscreen and rear touch pad.

Casual games like Little Deviants, which is made up of about 30 or so mini games, utilize the screen and touch pad, while more hardcore games such as Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 strictly use buttons. Many games, like Wipeout Vita, support multiple control options.

The Rear Touch Pad

One of the Sony booth girls stroking the rear touch pad

Last time we played the Vita, the rear touch pad wasn’t working yet – this time we got a chance to try it out. For some games, such as Dynasty Warriors it merely serves as an extra button, conveniently located right where your fingers rest (double tapping the touch pad in Dynasty Warriors activates your super musou mode).

Other games, such as LittleBigPlanet use it to increase immersion (tapping the touch pad in LBP will knock your sackboy forward as if you had hit him from behind).

For some games, it actually serves as the primary control method. One of the mini games in Little Deviants is sort of a Super Monkey Ball clone. The aim is to guide a little balled up caterpillar to a glowing golden patch on the level. You do this by tapping the touch pad to raise the scenery, causing the caterpillar ball to roll down the hill in that direction:

Super Monkey Ball - Vita style!

The rear touch pad was responsive and added a nice extra dimension to games like LittleBigPlanet and Little Deviants. While it seems aimed at more casual gameplay, unlike motion controls, it didn’t distract from whatever else you were doing at the time and, as such, we could see it being used for more hardcore games too.