Ranked: Vita Games
I like the Vita a lot. It my be my favorite platform of all time. Below is a list of every game I've played on the system, ranked by fondness.
I denoted some games as "Best on Vita", which just means that I think the Vita is the best platform to play these games on. The reason will vary between:
- games you can pick up and make some progress in a short amount of time
- games that aren't served better by a dual shock or mouse and keyboard
- games that require demanding timing, but not precise controls
Games 101 and beyond:
- Rayman Legends: Even better than Origins, this was a great followup. The music-synced levels were some of the most memorable experiences I've had in games. The Platinum trophy situation is a real pain in the ass, requiring you to play for months to collect points and rank something like top 5 among all players on a speed run.
Update: After suffering through the online challenges for months to get the Platinum, I hate this game. Legends and Origins used to rank fairly high on this list, but that ordeal truly broke me and I'll never play another Rayman game again. - Rayman Origins: This was my first Vita Platinum and my first experience with Rayman. There is a ton of variety here for a platformer and the stages are so fluid and enjoyable to run through.
- ScourgeBringer: ...
- Xeodrifter: ...
- Dragon Fantasy: ...
- Dragon Fantasy: Book II: ...
- Kung Fu Rabbit: ...
- Iconoclasts: ...
- Laser Disco Defenders: ...
- Hue: A fine puzzle platformer, though not particularly well polished.
- Don't Die, Mr. Robot!: Brutal, but fairly fun twist on bullet hell.
- Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight: Burn My Dread is a banger.
- Thy Sword: A not-so-great platformer. Perfectly fine, just not great.
- Color Guardians: A non-endless runner! Middling fun.
- Devious Dungeon 2: Meh, should've stopped after the first one.
- Devious Dungeon: Meh.
- Warlock's Tower: Surprisingly wonderful! Certainly the most polished and well-running gameboy puzzle game I've ever played. It probably got a bit too hard for me in the end, but the first 80% of the game was exceptional.
- Mekorama:
- Knightin'+: A fine little Zelda clone, nothing remarkable.
- Ghoulboy: A bit of a forgettable platformer.
- Demon's Tier+: A bit of a mindless dungeon crawler.
- Habroxia: ..
- Habroxia 2: A marked improvement over the first game. It ran really well and its non-linear structure made it more interesting to progress though. It had a good challenge overall, and even came with free DLC and bonus trophies.
- Fernz Gate: A pretty boring RPG with occasional humor. The load times weren't great on Vita and the combat left a bit to be desired. The trophy grind ruined the game even more.
- Pure Chess: A fine chess game, though performance and touch controls are a little sluggish. Would've been nice if it had a mode for teaching.
- Metagal: Megaman clone, not a whole lot going for it. The trophies didn't do it any justice (you don't even have to complete the game to earn the Platinum).
- Bucket Knight: Basic platformer, nothing special. I beat the whole game w/ the pistol and then bought the extra weapons after it was over for the trophies because I'm a real bad ass.
- Gunhouse: It was OK. It was fun figuring out, but ultimately pretty shallow. I played through to day 30 enough to get a good handle on the game mechanics. I stopped there, because I didn't want to play through another 70 days to get the last trophy.
- Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken: Did not run great and controlled like hell. I ended up going for the Platinum, but it was an absolute chore.
- Foul Play: ...
- 99Vidas: I don't think I like beat-em-ups.
- Amnesia: Memories: ...
- Killzone Mercenary: ...
- Luftrausers: ...
- Paint Park: ...
- Machinarium: ...
- Chronovolt: ...
- Daggerhood: This is entirely more difficult than it should be. It's made even more difficult by the fact that it seems to run at 20 frames/second on Vita. I S-Ranked every level in the first world and damned if the last level didn't kill me. The trophies are absolutely dumb, it's a 20 minute platinum that can be achieved after beating the first 12 levels. I actually stopped playing when I got to world 2-1, sadly. Partly because of the frame rate, and partly because of the trophy system. It really seems like bad design for a developer to virtually suggest that you don't need to finish their game after the first 12 levels.
- Metrico:
- Dungeon Punks: I don't know why I played this as much as I did. I guess because the Platinum was within reach. The game is mindless and has virtually no depth. If you're playing alone, you're stuck with AI characters that aren't very good at the game--they take a lot of damage and very often grab and waste items before you're able to get them.
- Ultratron: I legit didn't like Robotron, I'm not sure why I played this. I got extra triggered with this because the right stick on my Vita had some drift, which made getting some of the trophies 10x more difficult.
- Super Crate Box: Something about the controls/graphics didn't click with me.
- Nova-111: Fun little semi-turn-based/semi-action game. Almost felt like chess at times.
- Woah Dave!: Mindless but not entirely fun unfortunately. Endless game where you run around collecting coins. Felt like a Super Crate Box knockoff without interesting weapons.
- Sigi - A Fart for Melusina: I mean... I got the Platinum, but... it wasn't very fun. It would've been OK, but the frame rate and frame drops were unreal.
- Type:Rider: I think the "lore" was more interesting than the physics-based game play. The information you unlock around more modern typefaces (starting with advent of advertising) was fascinating.
- PixelJunk Monsters: Ultimate HD: This is not an easy game that I ended up quitting. It was probably my own fault for trying to play every level perfect. I recognize that it's a quality tower defense game, however. I may get back to it some day.
Update: I ended up going back to this in 2023 and enjoyed it more than I originally did. It's not my favorite tower defense game, but is pretty decent - Pix the Cat: I never really connected with this... I don't particularly enjoy simplistic retro games (Pac-Man, Q-Bert) where it feels like there's no point (no story to be gained, no satisfying puzzles to be solved). From what I remember, there is a puzzle mode in it and I did play through that a great deal, but never completed it.
- Doki-Doki Universe: The game itself is fine, but I don't recommend it on the Vita because the frame rate is abysmal (constant 15 FPS).
- ~~~unsorted above~~~
- Axiom Verge: I waited for a long time to get this on Vita, and when I finally did, I didn't like it at all. It made me question if I even like Metroidvania games.
- Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas: This game really wanted to be Zelda, but in the end, it was pretty generic and had some rough gameplay.
- Shutshimi: I just didn't connect with this. Tried again after a year or two and got further, but eh... bullet hell with RNG isn't a good mix.
- Heroes of Loot: Just an unremarkable dungeon crawler.
- Assassin's Creed III: Liberation: The game looks incredible for Vita, there's no doubt about it, but the game play leaves a ton to be desired, and the story just didn't draw me in.
- Oh, Deer!: I picked this up for $0.49 cents before PSM shut down. It was as simple as I expected given the price and the "Alpha" subtitle, but it felt good drifting through turns on the way to grandma's house.
- Badland: This started out decent enough, but the controls got really frustrating and ultimately it's just a phone game without a lot of depth.
- Quiet, Please: Not great, but I think it was free, and at least it was cute.
- Terraria: I first played this game on PC. It's a wonderful game, don't get me wrong, but I can't play it on Vita (or any console), because it desperately needs a mouse and keyboard.
- Resogun: Resogun on PS4 was amazing, but I can't recommended it on Vita. It's just not the same game at 30 FPS.
- Flame Over: I bounced off this hard. From what I remember the difficulty was brutal... either that or I was just terrible at it. I remember going through the first few rooms either completely unable to finish them or unable to perfect them. I don't think it was the latter.
I went back sometime in 2022 and suffered greatly. The game isn't very well made but asks a lot of the player. I'm not sure I'm capable of getting the Platinum at this point. - My Name is Mayo: Let's be honest, I paid $0.99 for a load of trophies here, not a game. It's not dead last because it gave me 2 easy Platinum trophies.
- Burly Men at Sea: I bought this on sale for $3.99 and even for that price it wasn't really worth the time. It looked nice at times, but the game itself was quite boring and the story didn't draw me in very well because the writing was so quirky.
- Proteus: Super boring walking simulator with weird esoteric trophies. I ended up having to beat it something like 9 times to see all the plants for a single tophy.
- Actual Sunlight: I just didn't get it. I feel bad for not getting it. I think you might have to suffer from depression to get it.
- Lone Survivor: This had no redeemable qualities.