Quick Vita Hits

The Vita is my darling. Even though the world didn't accept her, I love her.

She gave me access to dozens of PS1 games that I earn to play on the go, some of my favorite PSP games digitally, and introduced me to missed gems like Persona 4. Despite what most message boards say, the Vita also has a quality library of exclusives.

I'm locked in a hotel room for the next two months. I'll admit, the Wii-U took a lot of my couch playing time away from the Vita, but bringing the Wii-U with me wasn't an option. So I'm back to my old girlfriend.

Here's some of the more recent games I've been playing.

Severed

Release Date: April 26, 2016

I'm roughly two hours into this game... and dammit, someone figured out how to use the Vita touch

screen in a clever way. It's too bad that the Vita is mostly relying on phone ports at this point. I guess Severed would work on a nicer phone, but I'm glad the Vita is getting a good send off.

This is an old school style dungeon crawler. You move one room at a time, take a quick look around to see if there are any treasures and then pick which room you advance to next.

When an enemy attacks you, you swipe across the screen. Short swipes are sort of sword jabs, long swipes are heavy attacks, and you can counter the enemies attacks by swiping into their move.

The art direction, the mystery of what happened to your parents, and the level designs all come together to make an adventure that I cannot wait to come back to nightly.

Mortal Kombat

Release Date: 2011

I'm not a fighting game guy, but when I needed to add a few more dollars for free shipping with

Amazon, I checked the Vita games and this was only $6.

I didn't expect the game to work well on a portable. To pull off incredible combos on it's console cousin requires the tactile feel of the joysticks to get the timing down. Surprisingly enough, Mortal Kombat feels really good on the Vita.

Yes, there are some times where your move doesn't fire off like you expect and I'm sure making the quick quarter turns isn't good for the small Vita sticks, but it works, looks, and sounds like a console Mortal Kombat.

Killzone: Mercenary

Release Date: September 4, 2013

I'm not the biggest fan of the Killzone franchise. I find the world really dead and boring. The story is one that I should be a sucker for, but it just doesn't land. But, I had really high hopes for this. My favorite Killzone game was Killzone Liberation for the PSP. It was a top down more strategy driven game than it's run and gun counterparts on the consoles. It opened parts of my brain that I hadn't used since Age of Empires.

Well, since Sony promised AAA first person shooters, they delivered.

Mercenary is a really good game. It taxes the Vita to the limit of it's graphical capabilities, the shooting feels fantastic, and being a mercenary instead of random soldier gives the game a more personal feel.

The problem is, I guess I didn't actually want a portable FPS. I get fatigued quickly and each level is about 30-45 minutes long. It usually takes me several sessions to make any real progress.

Touch My Katamari

Release Date: December 17, 2011

I'm a sucker for the Katamari games. I love the stiff controls, the blocky models, the quirky humor, and the satisfaction of rolling up larger objects like buildings.

I'll admit, Touch My Katamari doesn't exactly reach the scope of other Katamari games, but can we

expect that anymore? Especially when in the PS3 Katamari game you had to buy DLC for the largest levels.

The side objectives aren't well explained. I can't exactly figure out the "give candy" system for rewards. But it's still addictive.

Even though it doesn't feel as large, and even though I beat it, I still find myself booting it up every now and then and playing a few levels.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Release Date: February 5, 2013

I missed the Sly Cooper boat. I was in college for most of the PS2's life and I just didn't have the time to keep up with all the mascot platformers. The one I did really enjoy was Jak and Daxter.

Well, I had a craving for these sorts of platformers not too long ago. My finger hovered over the Jak collection and this. Luckily for Sly, it had much better ratings.

It looks great, plays great, has some pretty decent comedy... but I'm just not into it. When I can't figure out where to go or how to get to a platform, I get frustrated and turn the game off rather than try to figure it out. This is probably a symptom of being an adult and not having the time to beat my head against a puzzle like I used to.