Launch Station: PlayStation Vita

After a lot of anticipation and hype, the PlayStation Vita has finally been released for the public.  On this Vita Wednesday, those who pre-ordered the Vita First Edition Bundle will be able to pick up their new handheld.  For those who did not pre-order will have to wait until next Wednesday when Sony releases the Vita on its own.  The First Edition Bundle comes with the Vita, a 4 GB memory stick, a hard carrying case and Little Deviants for 300 dollars.  When the system drops next week, the Wi-Fi Vita (the only one available in Canada) will run you 250 dollars and the games will run you as low as 30 dollars to as high as 50 dollars.

The PlayStation Vita serves as Sony's successor to the ultimately failed PSP.  The Vita addresses many of the complaints gamers had with the PSP.  The biggest complaint was the PSP's lack of a second analog, which made certain action and first-person games cumbersome to play on the handheld.  After a good seven years, Sony finally listened and made the dual analog sticks one of the main features of the PS Vita.  While the Vita has the more traditional tactile controls, Sony has added other control options to the machine in a front and rear touch screens and tilt controls.  These controls are made to make the Vita appeal to more casual gamers and to directly compete with Apple.  The Vita also sports the best graphics a handheld can pump out.  They are not PS3 or Xbox 360 quality, but they are pretty close.  Sony has ditched the UMD format for games, going for cartridges for retail games.  That means you will not be able to play any of your PSP games on the Vita unless you download them off of the PSN Store.  You are able to purchase games at retail or like old PSP games you can download them from the PSN Store.  I order to play games or download games, you will need one of Sony's proprietary memory sticks, which is not included with the base model of the Vita.  Included with the Vita are some applications such as Near, Sony's equivalent the the StreetPass, and Welcome Park, a tutorial for the Vita, you can also download apps to the system.  At launch, Facebook, Twitter and foursquare apps will be available to download.

Having grown up playing handhelds, I have a more invested interest in handheld gaming than most gamers.  Having played the PS Vita myself, I will say it is an incredible piece of technology and a great achievement for Sony.  The system is a little bigger than the PSP, but deceptively light.  The touch screens are responsive, but it is hard to judge exactly where your fingers are on the rear touch, which did hurt games that need you to hit the rear touch screen at a precise point.  The dual analog sticks nicely fit your thumbs, but they are just a little close to the other buttons that it feels a little cramped.  While my issues with the machine itself are very minor, I still think Sony did throw too much into this one machine.  It is nice to have multiple control schemes, but when they are made to be optional rather than work together that can confuse certain people especially newcomers or casual gamers.  It will ultimately depend on how developers use the system.  My biggest problem with the Vita is it's memory storage.  While the less powerful 3DS has 2 GB of internal memory and comes with a 2 GB SD Card, the more powerful PS Vita has no internal memory and the base model does not even come with memory stick, which is needed to play games.  This decision alone is one of the dumbest Sony has made ever.  You will have to pay another 20 to possibly 100 dollars on top of the 250 dollars for the Vita, to actually play games on the machine.  While the blinded fans just overlook it, Sony's refusal to include a memory stick is just unacceptable is this day and age where every game includes some sort of save system.  Other than that we will just have to wait and see if Sony will support the PS Vita through thick and thin.  Looking at Japan and lack of regular consumer interest, it might be sooner than Sony thinks.