PS Vita game recommendations?

[NinjaRabbit]

After a very long time as a non-customer (I haven't bought any Sony products since the original PlayStation, as the direction the PS2 took put me off), I've found to my surprise that the PS Vita has a good number of games (current and upcoming) that interest me, so I've got a Slim one winging its way to me from Japan at present.

I do have a fairly sizeable list of games I plan on picking up (Lemmings Touch is a big one for obvious reasons, I like the looks of the Ratchet & Clank and Sly Cooper games, and the PS Vita version of Minecraft looks to be right up my alley, for example), but I've been out of this part of the gaming "ecosystem" for such a long time that I'm not very familiar with what's worth a look and what isn't...

So, I figured I'd ask here - what's worth getting for the PS Vita? (For what it's worth, I'm a big fan of platformers, puzzlers, quirky oddities, racers, and, more generally, just about anything arcade-styled. I *hate* RPGs, though, as I just don't find them fun.)

I'm planning on buying digital releases from the PS Store because the pricing seems to be very good indeed, so whether the recommendations are for native PS Vita titles, PSP ones, or even from the PSX and PlayStation Mobile selections, it doesn't really matter - as long as they're available on the UK store, that's fine.

Of course, if anyone has any suggestions for what to avoid, that'd be good, too!

Thanks in advance to anyone who answers - I really appreciate the input.

 

[Magnox]

Hi matey I can highly recommend Velocity Ultra if your into quirky shooters, lost a fair bit of time in that game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5Q7haR9mxo

Also the Alien breed "remake" is nice to have on the go if your a fan of the old amiga games

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wrx_wuc70c

Castlevania Symphony of the Night is on the Psone section also, one of my all time favourite platformer games, although it does have rpg elements in it e.g. Levelling up and some stats (nothing too heavy going)

 

[slk486]

Stardust is a must-have and I second Velocity. Gravity Rush is another excellent Vita exclusive, with a very interesting concept.

 

[SkydivinGirl]

I like Assassin's Creed III: Liberation on the Vita. However, it does suffer low frame rates a lot more than I would like. Uncharted is also an excellent game. It plays just like the large console Uncharted games.

Heather

 

[moijk]

After a very long time as a non-customer (I haven't bought any Sony products since the original PlayStation, as the direction the PS2 took put me off)

out of curiosity, which direction was that? my first playstation was ps2. I never had ps1 until i bought one here. not that i see that now either.

 

[Harrison]

I'm also interested in knowing that about the direction. The PS2 is the most successful console of all time and it has an amazing library of games that will be hard to match on any future console (I think only the PC and Steam can really match it), plus for anyone into RPGs is has an amazing list of games totally in the 100's.

Regarding the PS1. I think anyone trying one out now for the first time would be quite disappointed. At the time it was a great console, but these days the limitations of its 3D graphical abilities really stick out and the games haven't aged at all well. These impacts negatively on what are otherwise some amazing releases. The PSX games do however lend themselves perfectly to handheld small screens and scale really nicely, especially on the PSP and Vita, so it is worth playing some on there too.

 

[NinjaRabbit]

out of curiosity, which direction was that? my first playstation was ps2. I never had ps1 until i bought one here. not that i see that now either.

I'm also interested in knowing that about the direction.

Believe it or not, it didn't have very many games that interested me, since that was gaming's dire era of "trying to pretend to be Hollywood" and of using "X Hours of Gameplay!" as a bullet-point without, to my mind, much consideration as to whether those "X Hours" were actually fun or not (and if I want to watch a movie, I'll buy one of those instead of a video game ). I also didn't like how Sony had begun conducting themselves and their business at around that time, both gaming-wise and not - it just didn't feel right at all to support such behaviour.

This all appears to have changed a great deal, now, and I'm looking forward to catching up and playing a lot of new (or at least, new-to-me) stuff.

The PS2 is the most successful console of all time and it has an amazing library of games that will be hard to match on any future console (I think only the PC and Steam can really match it), plus for anyone into RPGs is has an amazing list of games totally in the 100's.

True enough, though the Nintendo DS actually beat it out in being the most successful console of all time around a year or so ago, if memory serves. But that's neither here nor there, I know...

Regarding the PS1. I think anyone trying one out now for the first time would be quite disappointed. At the time it was a great console, but these days the limitations of its 3D graphical abilities really stick out and the games haven't aged at all well. These impacts negatively on what are otherwise some amazing releases. The PSX games do however lend themselves perfectly to handheld small screens and scale really nicely, especially on the PSP and Vita, so it is worth playing some on there too.

It's got some brilliant sleeper-hits and games that are now sadly almost-unknown, and plenty of stuff that has aged well, though (I've posted before about the Lemming-series platform game, Lomax - man, that is one tragically unrecognised game...). I still discover new stuff for it every now and then.

Anyhow, thanks for the recommendations so far, everyone - much-appreciated.

 

[Frederic_Freakazoid]

Dragon's Crown, Vanillaware ftw!

I own very few Vita games as it seems the game selection for a good year+ on all new systems since the 3DS (which finally has a decent selection) has been awful.

Hot Shots (a Sony standard)
Little Deviants (kind of the tech demo for the system)
Modnation Racers (Sony's Mario Kart)

None of which I'm particularly enthused with, nor do I hate them.

 

[slk486]

Minters new Tempest evolution - TxK - is now the BEST Vita game out there. Get it!

 

[moijk]

do you guys prefer retail or download games?

 

[RED IMPACT]

Tearaway is very cool

 

[fatbob_gb]

Minters new Tempest evolution - TxK - is now the BEST Vita game out there. Get it!

This is possibly the most accurate comment I have ever seen.

I never got to bed til half three last night because of TxK. I even sent a donation to Jeff & Giles because I thought that the game was worth much more than the asking price.

If you get one game, make it TxK.

 

[NinjaRabbit]

do you guys prefer retail or download games?

Retail, myself, where possible.

High memory card prices (I have a 64GB card now, but I have no desire to buy a bigger one in the future - it'll cost more than the console!) plus large game sizes don't make digital the better option for me.

 

[moijk]

do you guys prefer retail or download games?

Retail, myself, where possible.

High memory card prices (I have a 64GB card now, but I have no desire to buy a bigger one in the future - it'll cost more than the console!) plus large game sizes don't make digital the better option for me.

While one could redownload etc, it just feels nicer to have them in the shelf. I just got a 16GB one, and i plan to make that last. Only download when it is a game i want that is not available retail. like this temptest doesn't seem to be.

 

[slk486]

I never got to bed til half three last night because of TxK. I even sent a donation to Jeff & Giles because I thought that the game was worth much more than the asking price.

If you get one game, make it TxK.

---------- Post added at 09:48 ---------- Previous post was at 09:47 ----------

While one could redownload etc, it just feels nicer to have them in the shelf. I just got a 16GB one, and i plan to make that last. Only download when it is a game i want that is not available retail. like this temptest doesn't seem to be.

+ much!

 

[NinjaRabbit]

While one could redownload etc, it just feels nicer to have them in the shelf. I just got a 16GB one, and i plan to make that last. Only download when it is a game i want that is not available retail. like this temptest doesn't seem to be.

+ much!

Precisely!

I only really have one big upcoming non-retail game right now, and that's Lemmings Touch. It's a real shame that I just plain won't be able to buy a physical copy of that.

 

[Harrison]

So far I've only purchased download based games but with a 16GB card it's already full. So I might get a few retail so I don't need to keep freeing up card space.

It is really annoying how expensive the larger capacity cards are. I wish Sony would just use SD cards and ditch their propriety cards. Although I know why they do it. It guarantees them more revenue from the platform because their cards are generally unique to each new system, plus it reduces the piracy and hacking a bit.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

[moijk]

Not to mention that by controlling the cards used, you set the standard on the experience. Imagine someone using some slow kingston sd cards on this. load times would be somewhere between some animals lifetime and yours.

 

[Harrison]

That is true, and I hadn't considered that. Being able to guarantee the data-rate the the Vita can obtain from a specific card means the game developers can develop games optimised much more for a fixed platform and guarantee performance.

I suppose for that reason it is worth having to pay more. I personally would never buy a cheap slow card for my DSLR, and I always by SD cards for each item I will be using them with at a rating that is good enough for that device, but I'm sure a lot of consumers do just buy the cheapest cards they can and then moan about slowdown, waiting, dips in performance, or a loss of data.

 

[slk486]

I suppose if Sony really wanted to, they could test a potential SD card for access capabilities, before formatting, but considering the security issue you mentioned, Harrison, I can see why they gone the way of the proprietarian.

At least they're not as expensive as they used to be.