In just less than a month, the much awaited successor to Sony’s PlayStation Portable is upon us. With at least twenty five launch titles that will be available on February 15th or 22nd, there are only five that stand out.
Most people who will buy the PS Vita is surely going to budget themselves to buy a game or two. But the question is, what are the must have titles? To help players decide on what titles they should purchase on day one, five of the editors on Just Push Start will give a contribution to our list.
As always, we should have our reviews for all of the PlayStation Vita launch titles in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
UNCHARTED: GOLDEN ABYSS
By: Mark Fajardo
The Uncharted series is one of the most successful game series ever released on the PlayStation 3 by Naughty Dog. Gracing Vita owners for another Uncharted title, Golden Abyss is one of the launch titles that players shouldn’t miss out as it showcases what the PlayStation Vita can do when it comes to the visuals it can deliver, how the touch/rear panel works well with games, the use of the gyro controls and of course, the easiness in using the second analog stick. For those who enjoyed the three Uncharted titles on the PlayStation 3, you can expect the same kind of experience on the Vita.
ESCAPE PLAN
By: Phillip Price
Escape Plan is a must buy for anyone looking to pick up a PlayStation Vita on day one. It’s unique black and white art style lends itself beautifully to the quirky and amusing music, and sound as Lil and Laarg constandly die trying to escape the death traps of this title. Escape Plan brilliantly demonstrates all the features that are new to the dedicated handheld world and unique to the PlayStation Vita. From the short hands-on experieces I’ve had with this title, I feel it sets the bar for what is to be expected from the entire puzzle genre on the handheld.
REALITY FIGHTERS
By: Wilson Taylor
The Augmented Reality games of the Nintendo 3DS made for some interesting experiments, but where did the technology go? Furthermore, what could be done with it? Enter: Reality Fighters! An endlessly customizable fighting game where you take center stage. Take pictures of yourself, your friends, celebrities or even random people. Then customize their face and body to create a totally unique fighter. Fights can break out anywhere you can see them, thanks to the PS Vita’s camera and, with the right tweaking and twisting, you can finally fight your own boss inside of a giant toilet. It’s time to finally bring fantasy fights to the real world.
Little Deviants
By: Damian Anthony Seeto
Little Deviants is an arcade game featuring many mini-games that makes heavy use of all the PS Vita’s new hardware features. Developer Bigbig Studios are no strangers when it comes to developing enjoyable games on a handheld. They previously made the enjoyable Pursuit Force games on the PSP although Little Deviants is more family friendly in its approach. Although that’s not to say it isn’t fun to play. Lots of the mini-games require you to use the PS Vita’s touchscreens and gyroscope. One of my favorite mini games was using the gyroscope to aim and shoot at flying bugs much like you would in a FPS game. There are lots of other games for you to choose from that keeps the gameolay fresh and exciting. A great game that is fun for the whole family.
TOUCH MY KATAMARI
By: Grant Gaines
The Vita’s launch is delightfully varied, but Katamari is a shocker. Ever since its creation on the Playstation 2, it’s been the gold standard of weird, random, drug included dream logic and it shockingly works well. This comes from how you roll up the world around you, which may include Oni, people, giant robots, plus many more. This is all achieved by using the twin analogs that makes it a perfect introduction game like Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Finally this is an ideal portable title because it has “pick up and play” stage length (roughly 2 – 5 minutes), in addition to DLC to expand your level selection.
Myx
January 16, 2012 at 5:33 AMLOL. Thanks for your article, but the 5 titles you mentioned are to be avoided by me at all costs.
The launch lineup of the Vita is very weak, face it. There are no “must haves” among the launch-lineup for someone that doesn’t play games only since this year.
For example, there are people out there who are not going to eat the 4th installment of the Uncharted theme. I already thought part 2 and 3 were completely unnecessary.
The rest of the games are really, really uninteresting. So please, no more hyped Vita-articles or fanboyism. The Vita’s power will be seen on many occasions, but not with the launch-lineup.
James
January 16, 2012 at 6:39 AMThe fuck? Reality Fighters sucks. And wheres Gravity Rush?
Anders
January 16, 2012 at 8:47 AMNo one seems to notice the stealth action and ninja game Shinobido 2
Shivore
January 16, 2012 at 10:37 AMShinobido 2 isn’t on there because on all accounts it’s the worst looking Vita game seen yet with regards to gameplay.
Gravity Rush isn’t in there because it’s not released until March.
I don’t know how you can say the Vita launch-lineup sucks… I don’t like Uncharted either but there are many many launch games that I’m excited about, especially Escape Plan and the new Lumines, and many more games coming after launch.
Uncleniccius
January 16, 2012 at 11:12 AM@shivore: I think yuo’ll find gravity rush/ gravity daze in the EU is out on release. Or it is in the Eu anyway. confirmed by sony. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_Rush
just checked; not confirmed for US but I would assume so.
Ultim@te
January 16, 2012 at 12:31 PMPeople are really underestimating how good the launch games of the PSV are. The EU release sees some 30 (US: 26 I believe) release games with about 23 of them in my opinion being worthy of a purchase.
I’ve pre-ordered my Wi-Fi model and a 16GB memory card and getting UCGA and Gravity Rush and Escape Plan. Plus maybe ulimate Marvel vs capcom 3 as I Love a good fighting game on the go!
Uncleniccius
January 16, 2012 at 1:50 PMI’d agree with unlim@te. I have it preordered with Uncharted and some other stuff & I am more than happy with the line up.
Meniacleman
January 16, 2012 at 5:12 PM@Myx Uncharted, Escape Plan and Reality fighters are all must haves and Little Big planet should be on here to especially with how these games use the VITA.
mike
January 16, 2012 at 5:46 PMthere is only 2 good games i see –
asphalt
and hmm havent choose my 2nd haha to hard nothing else looks pleasent
Kareem
January 16, 2012 at 7:30 PMI went on the Gamestop website and it says that gravity rush will release on the 15 of February for the na release.
http://www.gamestop.com/ps-vita
John
January 17, 2012 at 2:22 AMYeah the Vita will soon be dead with those miserable titles. Thanks for the enlightening article. What a PoS.
SFA
January 20, 2012 at 3:39 AMCompare Vita’s launch to any console in the past ten years or even a bit more. It comes way out on top.
Look at the top games for any of the others at launch:
DS:I don’t even remember now, probably some crummy port.
360:Perfect Dark (An auto bargain bin title)
PS3:Resistance (Generic looking shooter)
PSP:Again, I can’t even remember. Probably Ridge Racer…
Wii:Twilight Princess. A port of a game much better to play on GameCube.
3DS:Nintendogs…and Cats.
See?!
Uncharted beats all those out. And a Katamari game at launch makes me happy too.
Grant Gaines (大将)
January 20, 2012 at 6:35 AMWasn’t SSFIV a 3DS launch game and that was pretty solid if you ask me >.>