There was a lot of optimism leading up to the release of the PlayStation Vita. After the highly successful PlayStation Portable, many were eager to see how Sony would follow up the classic handheld device. Sony's primary objective with the Vita was to bring a full console experience on the go boasting an OLED touchscreen and dual analog sticks. The Vita would quickly bring with it heavy hitters in Sony's catalog of exclusives with games in the Uncharted, MLB: The Show, and Resistance franchises with Killzone and LittleBigPlanet games on the way.
The PlayStation Vita would release in late 2011 in Japan and early 2012 elsewhere but would end up a commercial failure. Reasons for this vary from the high price point for memory cards, preference toward the Nintendo 3DS, and the underwhelming initial library of games. Despite the Vita's lack of commercial success, the system would establish a very passionate fanbase, which allowed the Vita to continue seeing games released nearly a decade later. While many of the system's major titles, such as Persona 4 Golden, have seen rereleases elsewhere, there are still some great games that are only playable on the Vita.
10 Soul Sacrifice Was One Of Many Attempts To Fill A Monster Hunter Sized Void
Some of the most successful games on handheld systems have come from the Monster Hunter series. The Nintendo DS, 3DS, Switch, and PSP have each had entries in the addicting hunting series. While the Vita can download the PSP Monster Hunter games, the Vita didn't get its own until Monster Hunter: Frontier G, which was released exclusively in Japan in 2014. Sony attempted to pick this slack by releasing a series of hunting games with the most prominent being 2013's Soul Sacrifice.
The macabre Soul Sacrifice tells the story of an unnamed character who, while trapped in a prison cage, finds a talking book that allows the player to relive stories written within it. This gives the players combat experience in hopes to make their escape. An expanded version in Soul Sacrifice Delta was released the following year.
9 Unit 13 Was The Final Game Made By The Developers Of SOCOM
One of the Sony's many great franchises that have gone dormant in recent years is the SOCOM franchise. This is in most part due to the closure of SOCOM's develop Zipper Interactive. Before their closure, Zipper Interactive would release one final game: Unit 13.
Unit 13 is a military-themed third-person shooter. The game has no story as players are simply tasked with completing a series of missions. These missions could be set to Dynamic Mode, which randomizes placements of items and targets. Unit 13 is more action-focused compared to the SOCOM franchise, but it's worth a play for fans of the series and military-themed shooters alike.
8 Smart As… Is A Smart Buy
Few genres better fit handheld systems like brain training games. They're very easy to play in short bursts and can help develop and grow one's brain. The genre seamlessly fits into the daily routine for anyone who plays them. The Vita's premier brain training game is Smart As... by Climax Studios.
Smart As... divides up its series of brain games into four categories: Arithmetic, Logic, Observation, and Language. Each of these games has Easy, Medium, Hard, and Genius difficulties. While the online servers are closed, locking players out of the game's social elements, Smart As... is still playable offline for those seeking to give their brain a workout.
7 Murasaki Baby Asks Players To Do The Hand-Holding For Once
One of the biggest draws of the Vita is its vast library of independent games. Most of the indie classics from the 2010s, such a Rogue Legacy and Undertale, also got a Vita version. While most of these are playable elsewhere, Murasaki Baby is one of the few remaining indie games exclusive to the Vita.
Murasaki Baby is a puzzle-platformer where the player, with their finger, must guide a child (referred to as "Baby") through a bizarre world of fantasies and fears. The game has a beautiful Tim Burton-esque art style, a personal story, and challenging levels making it a worthwhile play to anyone curious.
6 LittleBigPlanet PS Vita Was A Perfect Fit For The Handheld Platform
The Vita gave developers numerous built-in mechanics that they can utilize to maximize the potential of their game. Most developers, however, elected to ignore features such as the gyroscope and back touchpad. This was not the case for LittleBigPlanet PS Vita, the Vita entry in the series known for maxing out creative potential.
LittleBigPlanet PS Vita was not developed by Media Molecule, as they were working on their own Vita game in Tearaway, but the game still has the same level of charm the classic platformer series brings with it. LittleBigPlanet PS Vita builds each of its levels around the Vita's hardware while allowing players to create (but sadly no longer share) their own levels.
5 Lumines: Electronic Symphony Brings The Classic Puzzle Series To The Vita
Much like brain training games, puzzle games are a perfect fit for a handheld system such as the Vita. Q Entertainment did not wait long to bring their tile-matching puzzle series Lumines to the Vita in 2012. The Lumines series found quick critical and commercial success when the original, Lumines: Puzzle Fusion, was released on the PSP in 2004.
Lumines: Electric Symphony continued the series' tradition with its addicting puzzle gameplay with beautiful visuals and electric music, which led to the game receiving positive reviews upon release.
4 Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines Is One Of The Best RPGs On A System Full Of Great RPGs
Throughout its history, the Vita amassed a quality collection of RPGs ranging from series such as Final Fantasy, Persona, Tales Of, Ys, and so on. One of the best RPGs on the Vita, however, actually comes from none of those classic series. Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines, set 100 years after the original game but has minimal ties to it, tells the tale of a clan cursed with a short lifespan.
Characters can marry deities, and pass on traits to their children, slowly building up a generation powerful enough to overcome this curse. The game features many traditional RPG elements such as turn-based battles and a job system.
3 Freedom Wars Could Keep Players Invested For A Million Years
One of the Vita's other attempts at a Monster Hunter-style hunting game comes from 2014's Freedom Wars. Freedom Wars, developed by Sony's Japan Studio who also helped develop Soul Sacrifice, is set in a dystopian prison city-state known as Panopticons. People are imprisoned in each of these Panopticons.
Their crime? Living. The prisoners are forced to fight each other, and complete missions such as rescuing civilians, in hopes of reducing their million-year sentence. Each completed mission slowly whittles down that max sentence giving characters, and players themselves, the incentive to keep going.
2 Uncharted: Golden Abyss Was An Absolute Treasure
When Sony promised to bring the console experience on the go, many were still a bit skeptical. However, that skepticism waned when Sony announced Uncharted: Golden Abyss as a launch title for the system. Few series at the time epitomized the console experience like the Uncharted series with its top-of-the-line visuals, expert voicing and motion acting, and its thrilling, explosive, stories. Golden Abyss brings all of that to the Vita.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss is a prequel set before the original game. Nathan Drake is tasked with finding the lost city of Quivira. The game does take advantage of the Vita's mechanics such as gyro aiming and the touchscreen. Golden Abyss also boasts one of the longest stories in the series. All of this makes the game a full-fledged Uncharted experience that fans can't miss.
1 Killzone: Mercenary Realized The Vita's FPS Potential
Another aspect of Sony's intentions to bring console-like experiences on the go centers around the system's inclusion of a right analog stick. This inclusion means that shooters from popular series, particularly first-person, could soon be played wherever. However, the Vita's history with FPS games was a bit rough. Resistance: Burning Skies and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified showed off the potential of the genre on the Vita, but failed to meet critical expectations. It wasn't until 2013's Killzone: Mercenary that the genre's handheld potential was realized on the Vita.
Killzone: Mercenary centers around making money. Everything the player does, in any mode, makes money. This gives players an incentive to keep playing even after the relatively short story mode. Killzone: Mercenary also brings with it some of the best visuals on the Vita to this day with an addicting multiplayer mode to boot. Sadly for the Vita, however, Killzone: Mercenary may have released a year too late. Had it been a launch title, the Vita's story may have been very different than the one we know now.