Is the PS Vita really a dead system like everyone claims? Bill Hudson takes a look and what he finds is quite surprising.



Take yourself back to 2011, E3, Sony announces the follow up to their PSP line of consoles, the Playstation Vita. It’s a rather revolutionary device in the handheld market because it is the first of its kind to have 2 analog sticks. Your mind is instantly flooded with thoughts of games suddenly possible like Call of Duty, Killzone, or even Battlefield. All these games were once thought impossible on a handheld due to their lack of a second analog stick, but no more! Now we have the chance for our dreams of taking them on the go to come true.

First Person Shooters aren’t exactly foreign to handhelds, but no one alive will tell you they’re fun to play. Some barely manage to be playable, but most fall completely flat.

Now come back to 2017, most people would tell you the Vita is a dead console, and that it should be buried and Sony has already moved on. If you frequent any game store you’ll notice the lack of just about anything Vita. If you want games for it you usually need to go the counter and ask to see the small handful that they have.

If you bring up the mere topic of the Vita they say how Sony has abandoned it, or that it has no games. Although just about everyone will tell you it had a ton of promise. But, what if I were to tell you today that is not the case, but that the Vita does still in fact have… life?

So let’s start with the biggest complaint, its “lack of games.” If we again think back, what games do we remember on the Vita? Uncharted Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, Killzone: Mercenary, and… that’s about it really. There were a few indie releases here and there but all in all, the major games released were showcase games to show your tiny device was a powerhouse of a handheld. They were just few in number when the system needed them most.

However today, the Vita has a plethora of games that are almost never talked about, nor are they really known. To name just a few of the recent titles that have launched you have The Bard’s Tale: Remastered and Resnarkled, Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers, Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth, and Undertale.

Or how about the Trails of Cold Steel series? One of the best JRPG series out there. Continuing down the line you see Binding of Isaac, Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate, Persona 4: Golden, Minecraft, and so many more incredible games. I’ll admit that one criticism many have is correct, and that if you look at the majority of games on the Vita they tend to be JRPG’s or visual novels. However, once you dig a bit deeper you realize that there’s more than you thought, the system has some fantastic hidden gems. To add to it there are tons of PS One classics and PSP games the system is capable of playing too!

But it doesn’t stop there, the system has plenty of games coming in the future too. Here’s a short list of a couple; Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Summon Night 6, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA, the recently announced Secret of Mana remake, and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory.

And yet, the Vita “has no games.” I can just hear the comments now, “Yes but those games you mentioned like Binding of Isaac and Child of Light are multi platform titles.” This is true, but that doesn’t change the fact, and they fit so well on the Vita that it only makes sense for you to want to play them there. If we hop over to the Vita Subreddit you will see there are 34 games that are highly recommended, and that’s no where near all of them.

Yes, the second analog stick didn’t quite preform the miracles we had hoped for the Vita games released and it can at times be hard to control, but what about the PS4 games? Wait… PS4 games?!

One feature that seems like it’s overlooked about the machine is its ability to play almost every PS4 games in remote play mode. A mode that was dabbled with on the PS3, but wasn’t fully implemented until the PS4 released. Does your S.O. want to play the Xbox but you’re currently going through a raid with your buddies in Destiny? Remote play. You’re nearly done this long quest in Fallout 4 but you’re needed upstairs to help pick out table cloths for your up coming wedding, Remote Play. You want to lay down and not strain your neck, Remote Play. This feature alone is so useful in so many circumstances and yet seems to have fallen off of peoples radars. While not every game supports this feature, enough massive games, Fallout 4, Skyrim, Destiny, DriveClub, Last of Us ect. do that the feature needs to be brought up in almost every conversation so people are aware. You can even play whatever games are on your PS4 if you’re at a different location over wifi! Yep, you can be half way across the world, and still play your PS4 through your vita. It’s a super handy feature.

And if you do any digging at all you will see that there are still 80, yes EIGHTY more games releasing in the US alone this year. Sure, it’s not on the same calibur of its main rival, the 3DS, but it’s not something to scoff at either.

I’m here to tell you the simple, yet possibly surprising news that the Vita is not dead, and that it’s clinging to life rather well. Big name Japanese developers, and perhaps the more inclined, indie Developers, are still very much enthusiastic about it. The majority of the sales are still in Japan, but many of those titles make their way over to the states, and if you like Japanese style games, there is plenty for you to sink some hours into.

Sony has all but given up, but there are still people out there who believe in its capabilities. It may not have exclusives pushed out by Sony left and right, but it has a hefty library of games that are dearly loved by gamers everywhere, all in a nice handheld format with 2 analog sticks. It may not be the best selling handheld, but it can play your favorite PS4 games while you’re anywhere away from your console with wifi, and they play quite nicely on the small screen. It has a loving community over on Reddit which has that handy list of games I mentioned, as well many other resources!

You can go to your local game store and pick up a Vita for about $150 dollars depending on if you go new or used. So if you’ve ever considered picking up a Vita, I highly recommend doing so. Is it a perfect console? No. Does it have its problems? Yes, of course, it does. But they don’t hold the console back enough to make it a worthless purchase. Especially if you’ve got a PS4, you’re holding yourself out from really taking advantage of the systems full capabilities if you don’t pick one up.

This opinion piece is written by Bill Hudson and doesn’t necessarily represent those at Coin-Drop.com