PS Vita tale of how the wrong games break a system

The PlayStation Vita is in big trouble.

Sony’s handheld lags far behind its closest rival. The thing is, it’s not a bad system from a hardware or even a gaming perspective. The Vita’s problems don’t lie in overpriced accessories or a lack of games. Rather its entire concept is fundamentally flawed.

For years, Nintendo has been the dominant player in the handheld scene. They went  unchallenged for a decade until the PlayStation Portable rolled out  in 2005. It was the first non-Nintendo handheld to actually sell a substantial number of units. Of course, this wasn’t without an uphill battle.

It took the PSP a long time to find it’s grounding. Like the PS Vita, many predicted it would enter an early grave. However, it succeeded due to its strong appeal among Japanese and European gamers. Yet North Americans never really latched on for a variety of reasons. Notably a lack of games for the western market.

The Vita’s core design was to address some of the fundamental flaws of its predecessor. It added two analogue sticks to make it’s control layout similar to the DualShock. It also attempted to incorporate touch in order to combat the smartphone gaming market. The Vita is a powerful device that was to be everything gamers said they wanted. It’s a true console quality handheld. Yet nobody’s buying it.

A lot of people in the gaming community like to compare handhelds to consoles. In fact, console quality gaming has long been the holy grail for mobile devices. It seems like a brilliant idea on the surface. Yet this is exactly why the Vita is failing.

When building a handheld, a lot of compromises need to be made. They have to be light, portable, get good battery life, and not run too hot. By their very nature, they will always lag behind consoles. So building one that’s “console quality” will always be a bit foolish, and more marketing gimmick than anything else. Having dual analogues does not make a system worthy of that title.

Handheld and TV top gaming are entirely different beasts.

This is why a good game like Borderlands 2 has gotten so many bad reviews on the Vita. Borderlands is a chaotic first person shooter that really does its best on a big screen. The handheld version had to be stripped down to accommodate the weaker hardware. There’s only so much performance and storage capacity available. As Kotaku put it, the best thing about Borderlands on the Vita is it makes you want to play Borderlands on the PC. There in lies the rub.

Borderlands Vita sucks not because it’s a bad game, but because it doesn’t belong on a handheld. Image by PSGang

Even good games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Gravity Rush have the same problem. There just aren’t very many Vita games that wouldn’t work equally well, or better, if played on the PS4. That’s the problem. There’s zero reason to pick up the Vita, as there’s always a better system to play the same games on.

Sony’s rival Nintendo knows this, which is why they have done so well.

Some types of games just work better on handheld systems, and some don’t. Which is why you see so few of their core franchises being directly ported over to the 3DS.

Portables are supposed to be mobile, so Nintendo has made being social a key component of their systems. Yes, the Vita does have good multiplayer functionality, but it’s nowhere near the same as the 3DS. It t actually encourages you to go outside and StreetPass, to get goodies in games and meet new people to play with. This is why handheld exclusives like Pokemon have done so well over the years. A TV top Pokemon RPG would not be as enjoyable as the mobile versions. It defeats the entire point of the game, which is to get out, explore, and meet other trainers.

In order to fix the Vita, Sony is going to have to shake up the software. They have to stop shoehorning console games into their portable. What the Vita really needs is its own unique titles and franchises that truly take advantage of it being a mobile system. For that, it’s going to need serious investments in time and money from the company.

Games like Patapon and LocoRoco are great examples of how well this concept worked on the PSP. Surprisingly simple yet dangerously addictive. Games that can provide short bursts of action while you’re waiting for the bus. Long form console ports don’t work because they’re not meant to be picked up and played over brief intervals.

Sony also has a few mothballed franchises that would be good for a mobile comeback. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a Crash Bandicoot or PaRappa the Rapper. Things that haven’t been around for a long time that would tickle PlayStation fans’ nostalgia, but still seem fresh to newer gamers. This is another thing Nintendo has done very well on the 3DS.

They key here is getting exclusive games that strongly appeal to the mainstream and PS fans, yet don’t pretend to be on a console. Indies and quirky JRPGs just have too limited an appeal, and they’re more stop gap than system saver. It can be done with a little effort. The question is whether Sony will want to take the time, rather than investing it all in the PS4. If not, maybe they should consider exiting the handheld market.

Image Via PlayStation Gang. Check out their graphics comparison of Borderlands 2 on the PC, Vita, and 360.