Games So Far: The Super Stardust and Lumines games were insanely super polished quality titles with high quality extra modes and deep replayability. Mutant Blobs was a ton of fun. But aside from that, I haven’t found many games that catered to my taste. There are tons of other high quality games: Disgaea 3, Mortal Kombat, Uncharted, Gravity Rush, and the Metal Gear Collection all look great for what they are, but they aren’t what I personally want to play.

Missing In Action Patapon. I’m completely disappointed on two fronts. Firstly, Patapon 3 is the only PSP game that I am really dying to play and I’m surprised that this simply doesn’t work on the Vita. Secondly, I figured that they would surely have a Vita sequel to this acclaimed series, but this isn’t happening either.

However, in the rest of 2012, and early 2013, there is a *ton* of great Vita content. For this list, I’m omitting Vita games that I’d prefer to play on other platforms. For example, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and Dust 514 both look amazing on Vita, but I’d simply rather play on PS3. This list is only titles that I want to experience on the Vita hardware.

• Persona 4 This is the reigning champion of the story driven JRPG. Forget Final Fantasy or the other big names, this is the best. Demon’s/Dark Souls is my favorite JRPG overall, but it’s a completely different type of game. Even though Persona 4 shipped in late 2008, it was exlcusive to last-gen PS2 hardware. The Vita is the perfect device for this games and I am happy that this game is getting such a thorough make over: higher fidelity art assets and the interface is thoroughly designed to use the touch screen when appropriate.
• New King Story This is one of the most critically acclaimed Wii games, and it’s getting an extensive makeover for the Vita. The Vita hybrid touch/stick controls seem far better suited for the game than the Wii’s motion wand. Plus, much improved graphics and fully portable!
• DJMax Technika Tune This game has somewhat proven itself as a deep, quality music games with a devoted fanbase to the arcade version in South Korea. This Vita game seems like a must play: unique, original, intensely fun, touchscreen centric music/rhythm game.
• Sound Shapes This looks an intensely creative, original, experience. Enough has been said about this, that I don’t need to say more. This is exactly the type of cross-platform game that I would expect to prefer on the Vita instead of the PS3. The PS3 doesn’t seem it would add much, and the Vita’s hybrid touch/stick controls seem perfect.
• Guacamelee Another 2D Metroid-vania type game. This game looks good enough to make it a must buy. The devs have a very strong reputation coming from straight from Mutant Blobs. I also expect this will be better suited to playing on the Vita than on the PS3.
• Orgarhythm Super original, music-based RTS. I don’t know how good this will be, but if we can’t have Patapon, I’m glad to see a serious effort at something potentially better.
• LittleBigPlanet This is the ultimate killer Vita dream game. Merely getting a super polished LBP 2 on the go would be amazing by itself (I passed on the low-tech PSP version). The PS3 LBP experience is definitely in my top three experiences of this generation. However, the Vita hardware seems like the ultimate form factor for LBP. It has all the graphics hardware needed and the hybrid touch-screen & stick/button controls are perfect for making and playing content. This is my number one.
• Soul Sacrifice There is some really prestigious Japanese talent behind this title (SCE Japan Studio + legendary Mega Man co-designer). The Action RPG preview looks original, ambitious, and phenomenal. It also looks suspiciously like Demon’s/Dark Souls. This is definitely one to watch.
• Sly Cooper Thieves in Time PS3 Ratchet & Clank and Super Mario Galaxy are generally considered “platformers” but those games have so much more variety than jumping, that label doesn’t do the genre justice. Regardless, the genre is among the best of gaming, and I’m happy to see another serious contender. The developers have expressed a variety of ambitious ideas for this game, so expectations are justifiably high.

Summary

Out of the ten Vita games listed, only two (Guacamelee and Sly Cooper) are based on (mostly) traditional console-style action game mechanics. The other eight all have a more fundamentally unique gameplay draw to them.

Out of the various devices I play games on, each has it’s role:

Android (and iOS): Some cool touch-screen stuff and a great indie scene. Extremely budget friendly, and there is sure to be explosive growth, but a majority of content is very shallow.
PS3: Out of all the action games that I want to play, I’d rather play them on PS3 than anywhere else. There are lots of great shooting, melee, and racing/karting games. Beyond Two Souls is the one must-play game that doesn’t fit that formula.
Linux PC: For games, this has great browser games, MMOs, and the best indie scene. BTW, Linux generally is very weak for games (Widows emulation is often necessary), but is amazing for productivity purposes (command line and LaTeX ftw!).
Vita: With the games on the horizon, I expect this will be my main gaming device. Most of the really deep, interesting content will be on Vita and well suited for the Vita’s form factor (hybrid controls, near PS3 graphics, full portability).