Why should I buy a PS Vita? Exploring what it has for me.
By Contrarian 16 Comments
After reading the thread asking if the Vita had tanked, I thought to myself, "has it really?" and "am I even slightly interested yet?" So I thought I would investigate what it had and what conclusions I would draw as to adding it to my collection.
A little background first. I have a PS3 and I have 3 PSP consoles, with about 60+ UMD games. That makes me far from being a Sony or Sony handheld hater, but I assume my conclusion intuitively will be, it is not for me - yet.
The console itself:
I have held it and played it in a department store and to be honest, I didn't like how it looked, nor how it felt in my hand. My biggest criicism of the PSP all along was that I really disliked how it felt, so the Vita just continues that feeling. I am sure it is a high quality piece of equipment, with loads of power, nut I did find using the interface a bit of a pain, but with limited exposure, it may be a harsh judgement. The real problem is the price. Locally, it is $350, which is about $360US. That is a fair bit more than Americans are required to pay. Then there is the memory cards. That just exacerbates the problem.
Conclusion: Not at the current price. It is at the very least, $100 too much for me to get interested, A local price drop to $200-250 appears to be a long time coming.
Digital games:
I read a lot of people saying that they will get one when they have all the PS1 and PS2 games available for download. I ask myself why. Don't get me wrong, I like old games, but PS1 games have dated horribly and they tend to be too expensive. I have nearly 100 PS2 games and very few of them would intrest me enough to buy them again to play on a Vita. I didn't download any PS1 games for the PSP, so I am not starting now with the Vita. Also, with 60+ PSP games, there will be no buying any of those games again, I can keep playing them on the PSP, plus some of the prices for games are still as much as $60 to download locally. Also, digital only games are not normally of interest to me, so I don't really care what they have available.
Conclusion: Not interested in PS1, PS2, PSP or new digital only games. This area has no interest to me at all.
Retail Games available now:
So often I read about how awesome the launch titles of the Vita was. I don't recall a single game I was interested in. To be fair, I felt the same way about the 3DS, but I had greater confidence in what was coming, leading me to buy one within 3 months of launch. So what about the games available? I will look at the best games, according to Metacritic rating (from highest down) and give them an "Interest" score (out of 5):
Rayman Origins: Never been a fan and would rather get a console version if I did. Interest - 2/5
Mortal Kombat: Don't care for fighting games. Interest - 1/5
Gravity Rush: Don't care for it. Interest - 0/5
Lumines Electronic Symphony: Not my thing. Interest - 0/5
BazBlue Continuum Shift Extended: Have a PS3 game, that is enough for me. Interest - 1/5
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection: Tried Metal Gear, hated it. Interest - 1/5
Unchartered Golden Abyss: Tried 1 and 2, found them boring. Interest - 1/5
Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3: Not even interested in the PS3 games. Interest - 1/5
FIFA Football: Yawn. Interest - 0/5
WipeOut 2038: Didn't play much of my PSP one. Interest - 1/5
Disgaea 3 Absence of Detention: I have the PSP version and I love the series a lot. Willing to own it again. Interest - 3/5
Virtua Tennis 4 World Tour Edition: I don't mind a tennis game, but not excited. Interest - 2/5
MLB 12 The Show: Better than Football, but still not interesting. Interest - 1/5
Hot Shots Golf World Invitational: I enjoy arcade style golf. Interest - 2/5
Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus: Never enjoyed the series. Interest - 1/5
Unit 13: A very average shooter .... yay! Interest - 0/5
Touch My Katamari: I do enjoy this quirky series. Interest - 3/5
Dynasty Warriors Next: No interest in the series. Interest - 1/5
F1 2011 - Love car racing, not F1 though. Interest - 1/5
LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7: A few years back maybe, now, not so much. Interest - 2/5
ModNation Racers Race Trip: I didn't much like my PSP one, so no. Interest - 1/5
LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes: I am a Marvel man, so not really. Interest - 1/5
Resistance Burning Skies: Absolutely not. Interest - 0/5
Then they fall away under a score of 60/100 and nothing there even remotely interests me.
Conclusion: I can only see 2 games that managed to make a interest score of 3/5, so for that is pretty grimm. On that basis, I couldn't even remotely justify becoming a Vita owner.
Upcoming Games:
LittleBigPlanet: I have the first PS3 one, plus the PSP version. I think I am done unless it does something decidedly more. Interest - 2/5
Ragnarok Odyssey: I could see me playing that. Interest - 3/5
Silent Hill Book of Memories: I like the series, but it depends what it brings that is good and different. Interest - 2/5
Assassin's Creed III Liberation: Didn't enjoy 1 and 2, so I can't be excited for this. Interest - 2/5
Streetfighter X Tekken: Not another fighting game ..... no. Interest - 1/5
Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale: I am not excited for the roster of characters at all, Smash Bros is where I want to be, Maybe the PS3 version, cheap. Interest - 2/5
LEGO Lord of the Rings: Where will the LEGO series end? Love LotR though. Interest - 2/5
Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz: I am over this series. Interest - 1/5
Need For Speed Most Wanted: The Vita will always be a superior car racing console, as was the PSP. Prefer home console racing games though. Interest - 2/5
Zero Escape Virtue's Last Reward: Could be mildly interesting. Interest -2/5
Spy Hunter: No high expectations on this. Interest - 1/5
Persona 4 Golden: Now here we have something that excites me, even if I have the pS2 version. Interest - 4/5
Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified: Not even remotely. Interest - 0/5
Sly Cooper Thieves In Time: Never wanted to play this series, nothing has changed. Interest - 1/5
Soul Sacrifice: This sounds like it has potential. Interest - 3/5
Dragon's Crown: From Vanillaware ..... count me interested. One to watch. Interest - 4/5
Conclusion: With Persona 4 and Dragon's Crown on the list, I am still a long way shy of having enough good games to bring me in, especially at the current console price, but at least there is a small ray of light at the end of a very uninteresting tunnel for me to wander down.
What do I really want to get me to buy a Vita?
This is really where it is at. We are all different and it is the games that really interest us at a deep personal level that cause us to buy in. For me, this is what I really want if I am going to buy a Vita:
Monster Hunter: I love this series. It will happen.
Final Fantasy: Be it full remakes or new chapters in existing stories, I want some FF. More than anything, give me a new Tactics.
Valkyria Chronicles: I really loved this series, but I am not optimistic of any western release.
Kingdom Hearts: I still enjoy the series a lot.
Dragon Quest: All the great games are on Nintendo now, but any the series would be appreciated.
Tales of ..... : Any Tales games would be snapped up by me.
Star Ocean: Some new games in the series would be nice.
JRPG in general: Y's, Phantasy Star, Blue Dragon, Breath of Fire et cetera. I think you get what I like.
Summary:
I am all for owning a Vita, depsite my misgivings about how it feels and looks. The games are all that matters and to that end, it truly under delivers for me presently and in the near future. Plus, the price of the console and memory cards is a massive roadblock that no game can overcome. It has to drop at least $100 locally to get me in. It was the same for the PS3 - I wasn't buying it at $1000, I still wasn't at $700, nor $500, but when I saw it at $300 I was on board and I think it is a terrific machine, whilst still lacking a great library, in my view. I am figuring it may be Christmas 2013 before I realistically see it happening.
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