Vita was dang good

Started by Legend, Apr 11, 2021, 07:20 PM

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Legend

I pull it out every few years just to keep the battery healthy. Man do I miss this system.

Uncharted Golden Abyss, Killzone Mercenary, and LBP Vita are some of my top games to this day. The system also had tons of games I sunk dozens of hours into like Super Stardust, Mutant Blobs Attack, Gravity Rush, Escape Plan, Wipeout, Tearaway, PSASBR, etc. There are games for it that are still on my backlog even.

If I didn't have modern responsibilities I'd probably love modern systems just as much, but Vita was nothing but a success story as an owner. A former Sony employee did an AMA about Vita the other day: I Am a Former Sony Employee. AMA! : vita



Also fun fact. Vita was the first game system to have a screenshot feature.

Another fun fact. I'm a registered Vita dev. I was planning on porting VizionEck way back when before I had a breakdown and went into development hell.

darkknightkryta

I'll always say the Vita had a great library.  There just was too much venom against it.  "There are no games", yet, you just said a bunch and it was well supported for about 3 years.  After that point it just became passive income for Sony, can't say I really blame them.  

I'll say though, the ergonomics of the thing is amazing.  I'll be playing my Switch, thinking it's alright to hold and use.  Then I'll grab my Vita and it's like heaven in my hands.  It fits so well, the buttons press so nice, it's not too big and not too small, I don't have to deal with that god awful drift (That started drifting up now).  If they had a good solution for L2 and R2, that would have been amazing.  

I have a GPD Win 3 coming in, hopefully that will fill the void left by the Vita.

the-pi-guy

Great hardware.  

I feel like it's one of the best example of a self fulfilled prophecy in the gaming industry.  They didn't invest much in it, because they thought it'd fail and it failed big time because they didn't invest in it.  

There was a time when I had thought that Vita would outsell the 3DS.  It was the same price point at one point.  Then Nintendo dropped the price substantially. $249 -> $169.  
Which you could say the 3DS still failed, but it did respectably and way outsold the Wii U.  

I think the biggest problem it had was that it didn't have many games that appealed to the wider audience.  It had one very bad Call of Duty game.  The peak for mainstream on the Vita was probably this Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, which got a 70 MC.
Uncharted was big, but not huge yet.  

And it never got the God of War, Gran Turismo, Grand Theft Autos that PSP got.  

darkknightkryta

Great hardware.  

I feel like it's one of the best example of a self fulfilled prophecy in the gaming industry.  They didn't invest much in it, because they thought it'd fail and it failed big time because they didn't invest in it.  

There was a time when I had thought that Vita would outsell the 3DS.  It was the same price point at one point.  Then Nintendo dropped the price substantially. $249 -> $169.  
Which you could say the 3DS still failed, but it did respectably and way outsold the Wii U.  

I think the biggest problem it had was that it didn't have many games that appealed to the wider audience.  It had one very bad Call of Duty game.  The peak for mainstream on the Vita was probably this Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, which got a 70 MC.
Uncharted was big, but not huge yet.  

And it never got the God of War, Gran Turismo, Grand Theft Autos that PSP got.  
God of War was on ice at that point since Ascensions underperformed.  They ported 1 and 2 to it and the psp ones were on there via BC.  Gran Turisimo was also having developmental issues since 5 and I doubt they had the resources to make one for the Vita.  Sony doesn't own Grand Theft Auto.  Nor did they own Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed.  Who knows what those cost Sony, despite how they came out.  Uncharted wasn't huge by that point?  Uncharted 3 released a month before Golden Abyss.  Was Uncharted 4 the only huge title?

Even after Sony decided to put Vita on the backburner and used it for passive income, they were porting titles to the thing themselves.  Epic Mickey 2, Resident Evil Revelations 2, Borderlands 2, Injustice: Gods Among Us (Can be wrong about this one).  They also ported a few of their PS2 remasters (God of War 1 and 2, Jak and Daxter, etc).

the-pi-guy

God of War was on ice at that point since Ascensions underperformed.  They ported 1 and 2 to it and the psp ones were on there via BC.  Gran Turisimo was also having developmental issues since 5 and I doubt they had the resources to make one for the Vita.  Sony doesn't own Grand Theft Auto.  Nor did they own Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed.  Who knows what those cost Sony, despite how they came out.  Uncharted wasn't huge by that point?  Uncharted 3 released a month before Golden Abyss.  Was Uncharted 4 the only huge title?
It wasn't "save a console by itself huge".  It wasn't a 10-20 million seller like the other games I mentioned were.  It was still in the 5-7 million range at the time.  

Legend

I think Sony kinda sucks at launching hardware. PS5, PS4, and Vita all launched with an ok selection of games but nothing amazing. People primarily buy these things for what is to come, not for what is already out. The second Vita momentum slowed and Sony lost interest, it was game over for this business model. There was no faith that bigger and better games were coming.

Switch's launch was so incredibly brilliant. The hybrid approach made portable fans feel safe about the system being supported, and BOTW was good enough to sell switchs all by itself. I think Vita could have benefited greatly if Sony embraced it as a remote play and indie machine once PS4 kicked off. A $200 controller on the go would have at least kept it relevant. Instead of Vita TV, they should have made a V2 with L2/R2 and clickable sticks.



For fun, very single game on metacritic that released in the first month and has a metascore. Vita had less heavy hitters imo but it was pretty close to PS4 and PS5 in terms of having fun things to play.


Vita

54 Reality Fighters
44 Ridge Racer
64 LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
76 MLB 12: The Show
71 Unit 13
78 MotorStorm RC
61 StarDrone Extreme
75 Hustle Kings
67 Dynasty Warriors Next
55 Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen
72 Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus
69 Touch My Katamari
57 Army Corps of Hell
77 Plants vs. Zombies
86 Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack
80 Uncharted: Golden Abyss
57 Little Deviants
79 Wipeout 2048
77 Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition
66 F1 2011
57 Michael Jackson The Experience HD
88 Rayman Origins
49 Asphalt: Injection
49 Dungeon Hunter: Alliance
83 Lumines: Electronic Symphony
80 Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
79 FIFA Soccer
82 Super Stardust Delta
71 Escape Plan
83 BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend
62 ModNation Racers: Road Trip
76 Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational


PS5

76 Puyo Puyo Tetris 2
74 FIFA 21 NXT LVL EDITION
76 Immortals Fenyx Rising
72 Haven
70 Worms Rumble
84 Warframe
64 Spirit of the North: Enhanced Edition
67 Tesla Force
88 Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate
76 Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
66 Watch Dogs: Legion
81 Planet Coaster: Console Edition
84 Assassin's Creed Valhalla
79 NBA 2K21
80 DIRT 5
61 Godfall
82 WRC 9 FIA World Rally Championship
77 Observer: System Redux
85 Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
79 Sackboy: A Big Adventure
83 Astro's Playroom
75 Bugsnax
92 Demon's Souls
77 The Pathless
67 Warhammer: Chaosbane
85 Overcooked! All You Can Eat
91 Borderlands 3
88 Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition
77 Destiny 2: Beyond Light


PS4

71 Doki-Doki Universe
64 Tiny Brains
73 Escape Plan
43 NBA Live 14
54 Knack
73 Killzone: Shadow Fall
58 Blacklight: Retribution
78 Call of Duty: Ghosts
80 Need for Speed: Rivals
75 DC Universe Online
83 LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
79 Skylanders Swap Force
59 Contrast
84 Resogun
65 Super Motherload
91 flower
84 Sound Shapes
47 Angry Birds Star Wars
84 Trine 2: Complete Story
83 Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
85 Battlefield 4
87 FIFA 14
64 Warframe
85 NBA 2K14
74 Madden NFL 25
75 Just Dance 2014
80 Injustice: Gods Among Us - Ultimate Edition

Xevross

Great hardware.  

I feel like it's one of the best example of a self fulfilled prophecy in the gaming industry.  They didn't invest much in it, because they thought it'd fail and it failed big time because they didn't invest in it.  

There was a time when I had thought that Vita would outsell the 3DS.  It was the same price point at one point.  Then Nintendo dropped the price substantially. $249 -> $169.  
Which you could say the 3DS still failed, but it did respectably and way outsold the Wii U.  

I think the biggest problem it had was that it didn't have many games that appealed to the wider audience.  It had one very bad Call of Duty game.  The peak for mainstream on the Vita was probably this Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, which got a 70 MC.
Uncharted was big, but not huge yet.  

And it never got the God of War, Gran Turismo, Grand Theft Autos that PSP got.  
The peak for mainstream on the Vita was fifa, 100%. It was a pretty good version of the games as well iirc

VIta was definitely abandoned though, I had it and liked the hardware but I barely used it at all because it had no games I was interested in.