When the PlayStation Vita hit store shelves in 2011, it contained some incredibly non-conventional design choices that made it stand out. It attempted to bridge the handheld and mobile markets by having both traditional controls as well as a front touch screen, but the designers at Sony also added things like a rear touch pad, front and rear cameras, a microphone and gyroscope – with the hope being that developers would use these in unique ways to create new kinds of gaming experiences.

Things didn’t quite pan out like that as – just as with Nintendo’s Wii-U – third-parties didn’t quite know how to make the most of the hardware’s bespoke design and instead either just developed games like normal or ignored it altogether (and in some cases used in in hilarious ways (warning, NSFW) that surely wasn’t what Sony intended).

Yet there are examples out there of games being developed for Vita that truly make the most of its inputs, coming up with unique ways of interacting with the hardware to make for a memorable gaming experience. It’s these titles I’m looking at in this article – what they are and how they worked on Vita, both in terms of what they did right and what they could have done better.

Escape Plan

Perhaps at the behest of Sony themselves, most of the Vita’s launch titles were heavily focused around these new inputs which saw mixed results – but one game that truly stood out was Escape Plan from Fun Bits Interactive. In it, you help two characters (Lil and Laarg) through a series of puzzle rooms, disarming the traps that threaten to end their lives along the way.

To do this, you’ll be interacting with just about everything – one minute you might be tilting the handheld left and right to move them as they float around a room, the next you might be pressing the rear touch pad to push blocks out of walls to make a platform for the duo. It basically acted as a manual for the newly-launched hardware but thanks to the creative methods it uses for its puzzles, it never gets frustrating or tiresome.

Frobisher Says!

Mini-game collections are often a good way to show off new, unique hardware – you’ll see others in this list and plenty of other companies have attempted it (i.e. Kinect Adventures for Xbox 360, Nintendo Land for Wii-U). Frobisher Says! is slightly different in that it seems to take its inspiration from the micro-games that were popularised by Warioware, but is taken to new heights here.

You’ll do various things using the Vita’s inputs – smile for the front camera, use the rear touch pad to scratch Frobisher’s back, plug leaks on the touch screen with your fingers etc. All quirky things, but all things that are enhanced by using the console’s new control methods which is the most important part – it’s easy to make a bog-standard collection of micro-games, but it’s something else to make them fit so well with a piece of hardware.

Invizimals: The Alliance/Invizimals: The Resistance

Invizimals is one of Sony’s most unique ideas in recent years – an IP born on the PSP where you hunt invisible animals in the real world. Yet it felt out-of-place on the hardware it was created for, requiring a camera add-on to even function – which is where Vita comes in with its built-in cameras, feeling like a natural home for the series going forward.

Both The Alliance and The Resistance make full use of the handheld’s hardware – you start out by following a sensor which leads you around the real world (while holding up your Vita) until you find the Invizimal (which will invariably be hiding) and then play a mini-game to capture it. These mini-games will usually have you pressing the front or rear touch, moving the console or even blowing into the microphone to capture the creature, which you can then use to fight other Invizimals using augmented reality effects. They’re the perfect examples of how to build games around unique hardware.

Killzone Mercenary

Sometimes a game doesn’t have to be built around the console it’s made for to be good, but simply needs to make smart use of inputs where it’s appropriate to do so. That’s definitely what the team at Guerrilla Cambridge did with Killzone Mercenary, their brilliant handheld FPS that managed to add a host of smart ideas into the gameplay mix without ever feeling gimmicky.

Much of the Killzone series has relied on seeing actions in a first-person view to add to immersion and that’s exactly what was taken to the next level here – need to pull a lever up to open a door? Then you’ll have to swipe up on the touchscreen. Want to stab a Helgan in the head from above? Then you’ll need to swipe down. Other mini-games such as matching up symbols to hack a door are integrated in and they all manage to fully enhance the experience, rather than feeling tacked on (although the best of all is being able to use the accelerometer to fine-tune your sniper shots!)

LittleBigPlanet

Since it first appeared on PS3, LittleBigPlanet has been the Sony franchise which best demonstrates their creativity and zaniness – casting you as a customisable sack-person who must save his arts-and-crafts inspired world from invaders and collect materials along the way, which can then be used in the robust editor to make new levels to share with other users online.

While the series always worked well on home consoles, it feels like it found a true home on Vita where the creativity could be combined with unique inputs to make something truly special. Lots of new mechanics were introduced – guiding missiles with the front touch, pushing platforms with the back touch etc. Best of all was the ability to create levels with the touch screen – which allows you to build things so much faster and more smoothly than ever before.

Little Deviants

Another member of the Vita launch lineup that managed to be a showcase for all the new hardware inputs that were made for the console, Little Deviants is a mini-game collection that’s far from the best title available on the platform, but still offers a unique experience that shouldn’t be missed if you want to show off everything your newly bought handheld can do.

In fact, traditional controls aren’t used at all – to complete the mini-games you’ll need to do things like press the rear touch to create hills to roll a ball around a maze, move the Vita console to aim a hose to put out fires and using the microphone to pick up certain sounds to sing with the characters. Of course, some ideas work better than others but overall Little Deviants provides a great demonstration of what the Vita can do.

Murasaki Baby

The majority of the games on this list are published by Sony themselves, which makes sense given that they’re the ones who created the hardware. Murasaki Baby is another example of a game built specifically around the console and much like Escape Plan before it, feels like a unique adventure where you’re literally interacting with it by touching the screens of the handheld.

Just like that game, you lead someone through a world – except here, it’s a little girl with a balloon. You’ll need to hold her hand by grabbing the touch screen and lead her on her journey, avoiding obstacles on the way – you can also interact with the backgrounds by swiping the rear touchpad, which can change the weather or general mood of the level and will affect how the little girl reacts. It doesn’t all work, but what is here definitely feels creative and fun.

Sir Eatsalot

Releasing a Vita exclusive in 2018 is a very risky choice and to succeed you’d definitely need to have some kind of unique selling point for your game – which is exactly what Behind the Stone did with Sir Eatsalot, a 2D adventure/puzzle-platformer starring a gluttonous Knight who has to save the kingdom of Gluttington from the evil witch Hysterica.

To do so, you’ll interact with the Vita in incredibly smart ways – for example, you may need to tap the rear touch pad to knock a log off a wall to make a path forward, or trigger a bear trap by touching the front screen. Later areas will have you tracing the outlines of stickers or rubbing the screen to remove sticky cheese from your character – the ideas here nearly all work extremely well, the only mis-fire being a level that requires you to hold a carrot up to a (real world) light source using the rear camera, which feels clunky.

Tearaway

It would have to be Media Molecule, creators of LittleBigPlanet and the upcoming PS4-exclusive Dreams, that would come up with the smartest use of Vita’s inputs while still developing a game that was a tonne of fun to play and incredibly smart too. That game was Tearaway and despite being ported to PS4 remains an experience you’re going to want to have on the hardware it was originally developed for.

They did this by thinking outside of the box and creating a world that exists inside the Vita – Tearaway takes place in a papery dimension that you can literally reach inside when you press the rear touchpad. This is used to solve puzzles, move platforms and push enemies out of the way of Iota, whose mission is to deliver a message to the sun – which just so happens to be your face, taken using the front camera when you first start playing. The game is filled with clever and memorable ideas like this, making it an essential Vita purchase.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss

A handheld version of Sony’s premier franchise was the flagship title of Vita’s launch lineup, therefore it’s unsurprising that the team at Sony Bend added lots of features to Uncharted: Golden Abyss to make the most of all the bells and whistles Vita had.

Plenty of these ideas worked really well – for example, swiping the rear touchpad to row a canoe feels natural, while tracing your finger along a ledge to have Nate move in that direction makes climbing and traversal easy. Just as with Killzone you can move the Vita to to fine-tune your aim down a scope too which is very handy – unfortunately not all of the input methods work as swipe-based QTE fights and holding the Vita up to a light source are just awkward, but generally things are pretty good.

Conclusion

There’s a handful of games that didn’t quite make the cut here – for example FIFA Football makes smart use of the rear touchpad to aim shots (it looks just like a goal!) while Modnation Racers: Road Trip allows you to use the front screen to trace a level (just like in LittleBigPlanet, this feels extremely natural.

Yet aside from these, there are precious few examples of games which make the most of the Vita hardware and I can’t say I really blame third parties for not experimenting with it – the extra bells and whistles the console has are nice additions, but many simply do not fit into modern game design sensibilities.

Still, the titles included here buck that trend – many feeling built from the ground up to take advantage of things like the rear touchpad or dual cameras. Some can be a bit gimmicky at times, but it’s nice to see some games try and do things a little differently which has produced some of the most unique experiences available on the handheld. If you’re looking to show of your newly-bought Vita, look no further than the games on this list.