The PlayStation Vita has officially been on the market for more than a year now and it seems it has quickly been written off by most of the media and gaming community. The once powerful and promising handheld who was heralded in news outlets as a definite “Nintendo DS killer” has now been long and forgotten in the seamless sea of smartphones and tablets. The library of games, pricing, and Sony’s cut throat business tactics can be to blame for the handhelds lack of momentum.
As I write this review I can distinctly remember launch day, the excitement of getting out of work to head to the nearest local GameStop. The waiting line was steep and quite exhausting, I waited for all of one hour to reach the register with an 8 gigabyte memory card bundled console unit and game in hand. My first title purchase was the launch day must have, Uncharted Golden Abyss. My angst to fire up the Vita was so great, I paid cab fare from the store to my home which was just two city blocks away. Upon unboxing the system, I was thoroughly impressed with the design build of the Vita. Examining all of its ports and reading the manuals briefly before turning it on. The systems new UI was a bit kiddy for my taste, I automatically though this would be something out of Nintendo's playbook. It was quickly forgiven, as I slipped in the Golden Abyss game card and took my first swing at the game.
I was immediately impressed with the sharp and crisp images, the initial presentation of the game stunned me as I felt I literally had a portable PS3 in my hand. Navigating the titular hero in the Uncharted franchise was nothing short of a blast. The control design and addition of analog game sticks felt gloriously comfortable. All in all I played a third of the way the first night, and eventually finished off the game within in a week’s time. Through the following months I acquired titles such as MLB The Show 12’, Unit 13, Gravity Rush and Wipeout 2048. Sony kept updating the machine, and eventually released the PlayStation plus services update which added tremendous value to the system. Giving me the chance to not only download full Vita, PSP and PSOne titles for free but also heavy discounts for purchase as well.
The Vita in many ways is success, powerful hardware, a strengthening game library and a manufacturer with tenacity behind it. Sony is quickly learning about its mistakes on the pricing of the handheld, as they have declared price cuts on the Vita in Japan, the US and other territories will undoubtedly follow. Developers will soon realize the true potential of the Vita once its big brother is released this holiday season. All I hope for is some solid titles between now and the release of the PlayStation 4. I can happily say that my purchase as a first adapter of the PlayStation Vita would not be swayed if given the chance to relive launch day all over again.
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