Vita

Another Reason To Break Out The Vita The Vita, despite being probably the best portable gaming unit currently available, is having a rough time of it. The technology is impressive to be sure, and some games, like Gravity Rush and Persona 4 Golden are great games to play regardless of platform, but those games are few and far between. The rest of the time, Vita owners have...

The Indies Keep Coming Sony continues its mandate to bring unique, independent games to the PS3 and Vita (one of the reasons probably being the Vita is in dire need of titles) and Thomas Was Alone is the latest addition to the parade. Like quite a few of these indie titles, this isn’t actually a new game, having originally debuted last year on the PC and Mac....

Guacamelee — a game in which a Mexican wrestler can transform into a chicken to reach hidden areas, where he might learn from his mystical goat master how to suplex skeletons in sombreros. Sure, it may sound like someone drank too much tequila out in the hot sun, but it’s also one of the best indie experiences on your Playstation 3 or PS Vita. The creation of...

Now that it’s March once again, that means it’s time for yet another installment of Sony’s venerable baseball franchise, MLB The Show. When I reviewed last year’s installment, I waxed philosophic about how each installment of a sports franchise is scrutinized closely for being worth another investment, to justify its existence as more than just a series of updated rosters and players. MLB 12 was a fantastic game, which...

I'm conflicted. On one hand Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable is, technically, not a very good game — it has, as will be discussed below, terrible art direction and seemingly unfinished mechanics. On the other, though, it's nearly impossible to put down and is packed with an almost inexplicable level of charm. The first few missions of the game are exasperating. An ugly opening cinematic, complete with...

A Surprising Vita Must Have The JRPG hasn’t had a great run this console generation. Even former stalwarts like Square-Enix failed to live up to the greatness they were once known for. But even if the consoles are experiencing a dearth of quality JRPG titles, the same can’t be said for the portable gaming scene. Both the DS and PSP established themselves as new venues for fantastic...

Sackboy is back in a race around LittleBigPlanet. Get ready for a karting adventure featuring everyone’s favourite burlap personality. Build your own kart and bring it to the tracks of the LittleBigPlanet universe where players face off against other sack people to save items from being stolen by The Hoard. While trying to be the next “to own” karting title LBP Karting doesn’t live up to the...

Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. may have been the first game to capitalize on gamer nostalgia by pitting the Big N’s most famous faces against each other for rounds of fisticuffs that would answer schoolyard arguments about the relative awesomeness and ass-kickery between characters like Mario, Link, and Samus once and for all. An instant hit, the franchise has become a staple for every Nintendo console from the N64 on...

Assassin's Creed is one of the biggest AAA franchises out there but while consoles enjoy the robust, full featured entries, more often than not handheld platforms get the shaft. Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation has ambitions to convey a similar experience to its console counterpart, but ultimately fails in its execution of key mechanics, a well-crafted story, or even a fun experience. A Complicated Lady There...

Completely Non-Ironic High Speed Robot Action While Zone of the Enders is not high on the list of all time PS2 classics, the fast paced, mecha combat game helmed by Hideo Kojima has a devoted following. It reviewed well, and provided a unique experience comparable to something like Bayonetta or its contemporary Devil May Cry, but with giant robots. Of course, being a...

Prepare For Disappointment After past experiments with the Silent Hill franchise such as the PSP’s Silent Hill: Origins and the Wii’s Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, there were certain expectations in place for the Vita debut of America’s Most Messed Up Town. Now, with Silent Hill: Book of Memories the mighty Vita finally gets its turn to visit Konami’s infamous town. Only it doesn’t, really. And fans of...

Once anything is around for 20 years or so, a sense of nostalgia tends to kick in. Over the last decade classic videogames from the 8-bit era have become cherished relics for everyone of a certain age, from ironic Mario T-shirt wearing hipsters to sincere Mario T-shirt wearing nerds (which became a not-so-dirty word in the process, as well as a delicious candy). As a result, a new genre...

Sackboy Returns Sackboy has been busy these last few years. First, in 2008, he battled The Collector and saved the residents of Little Big Planet. In 2009 he trotted the globe recruiting curators for a grand carnival. In 2011 Little Big Planet was again threatened, this time by the nefarious Negativitron and with the help of The Alliance, Sackboy was victorious once again. By now you'd figure...

Mobile Physics Gravity Rush was one of the more interesting titles previewed for the Vita when the hardware was first announced. It was one of the few completely original games, and one of the very few that were created by a Japanese studio. As a result, most people will be expecting something weird, different and off kilter. That’s exactly what they get when play Gravity Rush. They...

Round 2 So here we are again with the Metal Gear Solid collection, the classic series that started on the PS2 (if you only go by available games on this particular collection) and has moved on to the PS3, Xbox 360 and, to some extent, the 3DS. Now it’s on the Vita, and while it’s not fair to say that it’s the “crippled” version of the collection,...

Back In Your HandIt’s a twisty, looping path that Dungeon Hunter: Alliance has walked on its way to the Vita. What started out as a functional—if obvious—Diablo clone on the iPhone got a sequel on Playstation Network that has now been ported back to a mobile platform. Along the way it lost some Move functionality in exchange for a little touch-screen interactivity. Not that it makes much of a...

The Stars My DestinationStarDrone Extreme is the kind of game that needs little explanation. It’s a casual, puzzled based game designed to while away the minutes on a commute to work or school. It might not be the sort of thing that’s going to push the Vita to it the edge of its performance envelope, but in many ways, it’s the kind of game that portables were meant to...

When a semi-rebooted version of Mortal Kombat was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 last year it was a bit surprising to see just how good it was. Without completely ignoring the series’ dated 90s action movie trappings and increasingly dull sequels, developer NetherRealm still managed to wipe the slate clean and push their arcade classic into fresh new territory. The end result was a fighting game...

PlayStation gamers had a wealth of serviceable stealth action titles that they could pore through when the mood hit. Most notably, the Tenchu series offered a delectable mixture of stylish kills, addictive mechanics, and stories you wanted to see through to the end. Unfortunately, after the PlayStation age and the eventual shift of development duties to the team at From Software, the Tenchu series has been hit-or-miss. Reeling from...

Katamari Damacy is a video game delicacy. You either love it or hate it. Sometimes you have absolutely no idea how to approach it. And while that may repulse and repel some players, that's always been the reason I've been drawn to it. The Prince's zany missions to roll up as many items as possible to replace the planets his father, the King of All Cosmos, destroyed were delectable,...