Games

One thing we never liked about the PSP was how stripped down many of its games were. Sure, you could play your favorite game, but what was the point when it was just so different from the console experience? Thankfully, games on the Vita are much closer to their console cousins. In fact, in many cases, they are direct ports. Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 in particular, held up especially well.

First of all, the game looks exactly like it does on consoles, right down to the cutscenes and hyper/team combo animations.

Second, anyone that’s ever played a fighting game on the PSP will know how bad the controls can be; the Vita seems to have fixed that, both with a far superior analog stick (that actually feels like an analog stick this time round), and with a D-pad that more closely resembles the one found on the PS3 controller.

Load times were really fast and we were also impressed by how smoothly the game ran. We also had a chance to play Dynasty Warriors:

No, those aren't my hands

While the series is no stranger to handheld gaming, previous editions suffered from distinctly sparse battlefields, something that goes completely against the series’ chaotic playstyle. Fortunately, DW on the Vita is packed with enemies. At one point our entire field of view was filled with them (in hindsight, our lighting attack style rush straight into the enemy base was, perhaps, ill-advised).

Final Thoughts

Like the PSP, the Vita will be available in a range of colors

It’s a pity Sony isn’t running that “It only does everything...” campaign anymore, because the Vita would fit into that nicely. With a strong base of core games, and a decent selection of casual games, combined with the graphics, processing power and control options to run any of them, the Vita is certainly an impressive piece of hardware.

What remains to be seen is whether gamers will fork over the same amount of cash for a handheld as they have to for a console. A number of features, such as the PS3/Vita cross-platform compatibility, are still unknowns, and until we know how they perform, and of course, Sony releases pricing for the rest of Asia, we’ll reserve our judgement. For now, let’s just say, we were suitably intrigued by the possibilities.