Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention (+)
I freaking love Disgaea. It's a SRPG series with the usual grid movement, turn-based battles, and standard RPG elements. But IMO, other SRPGs tend to feel tedious, while Disgaea is fun, fast-paced, easy to dive into, and it's just as deep and expansive. The series also features a few unique gameplay elements like lifting/throwing and geo blocks, which allows for map designs that are creative and puzzle-like. Oh, and it has a quirky sense of humor, and is chock full of references and parodies.
This game is mostly a straight port of the PS3 game, but with all the DLC content included, plus some new content, and some gameplay tweaks. So it's absolutely worth the $40 price tag if you're new to D3.
The biggest improvement to me is actually that post-game grinding is now way easier. You can obtain one of the best pieces of equipment pretty early in the post-game, and maxing out the item's stats is really straightforward. Disgaea is known for its intricate gameplay systems and endless grinding possibilities, but this game is much simpler to grasp and faster to reach stat caps.
If you're new to Disgaea, don't worry. Beating the main story doesn't require that much grinding or understanding of how things work. Afterwards, you can start to explore at your own pace and figure things out from there.
If you've played the PS3 game, I think you'll have to decide for yourself whether you want more of it. But if you haven't played the PS3 game, I would highly recommend D3:AoD. It'll probably be the best SRPG the Vita ever has.
Gravity Rush (-)
After playing the demo I was skeptical, but gave GR a chance anyways since it received such warm reviews. Unfortunately, the final product was underwhelming too.
There's basically two aspects to the gameplay: platforming and combat. Platforming works alright: just point to where you want to fall to. I actually ended up flying through the air most of the time, instead of just running/jumping on a surface. It's really cool when you're just relaxing and exploring the town.
But there are some problems. You can only fly in straight lines, and you have to stop to readjust. The camera also tends to rotate in weird directions while you're in the air, instead of just staying still. To maintain a sense of orientation, I tapped D-pad down quite often, which resets the camera to align with normal gravity.
Combat, on the other hand, is terrible, and there's lots of it. The combat is what really drags down the experience. Every enemy encounter just felt more and more tedious. Plus you have to fight with the clunky controls and weird camera. Evade should've been mapped to a face button instead of a touchscreen swipe. Probably would've made the combat less annoying.
Thankfully the game only took 10 hours to plow through. The ending wasn't even worth it though.
I don't recommend this game at all. The idea of gravity control makes sense for a platformer, but just doesn't lend itself well to combat. Hopefully the sequel will have heavier emphasis on puzzles and platforming.
Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational (+)
Don't be deceived by the cutesy graphics, this game is really deep, challenging, and has lots of content. There are six golf courses in total. The main challenge mode consists of six ranks, each with five normal events and one VS event. Then the seventh rank has one final VS event. Oh, and every VS event has a harder version you can unlock by collecting crowns.
This was my first HSG game, so I was overwhelmed at first because the game basically leaves you to learn to play on your own. But there's plenty of explanations and advice on the internet. It's very much a skill-based game, and it was very satisfying to feel my skills improving after hours and hours of practice.
The difficulty curve is pretty steady, but I did chicken out and started using easy mode in the middle of the fourth rank. (I've since gone back and beat everything on normal difficulty.) Accidentally hitting the ball out of bounds or in the water can completely destroy your chances of winning, which is frustrating, but such is the game of golf.
My other gripe is the shop. As you play you earn points, which are used to buy things at the shop. I focused on buying only things I really needed, but the prices rapidly outpaced the rate I was earning points. I just felt like it took too long to unlock stuff.
Overall HSG:WI is great. Deep skill-based gameplay, tight controls, extensive content, pretty much everything I wanted of it. I would definitely recommend this game, it's well worth the asking price.
Lumines: Electronic Symphony (+-)
I played the first Lumines alot, so I felt right at home with this game. It's a block-clearing puzzle game with groovy music, vibrant graphics, and stylish presentation.
There's a few new gameplay elements here. Shuffle blocks: at first these seemed annoying, but after they saved me a few times from the dreaded checkerboard pattern, I started to really appreciate them. Avatar abilities: I rarely used these, mainly because I forgot about them. Experience system: as you play you gain XP and level up, which unlocks new skins and avatars. IMO this was a pretty useless addition.
There are some different modes of play, such as voyage (the main mode), master mode (extra challenging), stopwatch mode (fixed time intervals), playlist (custom tracklist), and duel. Unfortunately duel mode is versus CPU or local multiplayer only. No online multiplayer is kind of a disappointment, just online leaderboards.
Overall Lumines ES a decent entry in the series. Gameplay is solid as usual, but I was left wanting more from it. If you're looking for a fun puzzle game, this is it, but try to find it at a lower price.
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (+)
If you've never played MGS2 or MGS3, you need to buy this collection ASAP, for any of the platforms it's on (PS3, 360, Vita). They're the two best MGS games ever. Hell, even if you own the PS2 games, I'd still recommend buying the HD Collection, it's just that amazing. The console versions include Peace Walker, but the Vita version is portable.
I'm really impressed by how great the game looks on Vita while running at a smooth 30 fps, and sometimes 60 fps in certain areas. Controls are tight, and mapping the L2/R2 buttons to the touch screen works perfectly. There are some other optional controls using the touch screen and rear touch pad, but I never really used them.
Gameplay-wise, both games have held up perfectly fine. Lots of action games these days have stealth elements. MGS does it just right, and there's no need to mess with the classics. The layouts, puzzles, and boss battles are all really well designed.
Story-wise, MGS2 is ... entertaining, and MGS3 is beautiful and memorable. I'd suggest playing MGS1 first if you can, preferably the Twin Snakes versions since the PS1 controls are clunky and outdated. You can do without it, but it'll maximize the experience.
There's plenty of content in this package too. The main games have good replay value, since you can approach each situation in a number of ways. Outside of that, there's VR missions (lots of them), Snake Tales (which are extra challenging), and the original MG and MG2 on MSX.
MGS HD Collection is my favorite Vita title so far. It's got two awesome games that look great and run smoothly on the Vita. Can't go wrong with picking up this title.
Rayman Origins (+)
Easily one of the best 2D platformers in recent years. Play it on whatever platform you like. Just play it.
It's a fairly standard platformer in terms of gameplay and structure. You can run, jump, attack, glide, swim, wall jump, and wall run. The controls are spot-on, and the physics feel good. Level design is solid, pacing is smooth, and the boss fights are excellent.
There's 10 worlds with several levels each. To break things up, there's boss fights, side-scrolling shooter levels, and treasure chest levels, which require quick reflexes to chase down a treasure chest. There's also a final uber-difficult challenge level. To unlock all that, you have to find all the hidden secrets in each level. So there's an ample amount of content.
Graphically, the backgrounds and animations are fun, bright, and gorgeous, especially on an OLED screen. The creativity is just oozing out of this game.
I really can't think of anything negative to say about RO. It's everything I want from a 2D platformer, and it's probably my 2nd favourite Vita game.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss (+-)
I'm quite impressed by what Sony Bend was able to accomplish for launch. I was cautiously optimistic about the game, but I'm pleased with the results. It's a strong, enjoyable launch title with a few flaws.
First off, the touch control features are kind of hit and miss. Some of the ideas are pretty neat, most are annoying or useless. It's not really that bad, just something you have to deal with.
The real problem is that analog stick aiming is sluggish. There's a slight lag between when you push the stick and when the cursor moves, because for some reason, the cursor has to accelerate first. Increasing the sensitivity doesn't help, because then it's harder to make fine adjustments. Gyroscope aiming works better IMO, though you really have to turn alot to move the cursor a large distance.
On the positive side, the story is interesting, the graphics are beautiful, and the voice acting is solid. The production values are very, very impressive, especially for a handheld. And the gameplay is alright too. The gunfights were sometimes frustrating, but the platforming was fine, just totally linear. The bite-sized chapters kept me going with "just one more chapter".
Overall I'd say this game was the perfect launch title to showcase the system, and is worthy of the Uncharted name. It was a satisfying experience and I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested.
Unit 13 (+)
I was pleasantly surprised by Unit 13. It's an arcade-style third-person shooter with fairly typical action/shooter elements like cover, blind fire, grenades, stealth, sniping, etc, which are all implemented appropriately. The controls are intuitive and responsive, and the touchscreen controls fit perfectly.
The environments are open, non-linear, and well-designed, so you can approach each situation in a variety of different ways. You also get to choose from six operatives and edit their weapon loadout. So you can go pure stealth, or guns ablazing, or whatever play style you like. Unit 13 isn't a story-driven game (there is no story), but a high-score driven game. I found myself replaying some of the missions dozens of times, in order to figure out the best route to take, and to execute it perfectly.
There are 36 normal missions, categorized into 4 types of missions and 9 different maps (do the math). So the maps do get recycled, but it's not a big deal. Some changes are made from mission to mission. Some routes are blocked or opened, your starting position is different, and of course enemy positions/patterns are different. To add to that, there are also 9 high value target missions, which are extra challenges. Plenty of content for the asking price.
The biggest issue is that the enemy AI is hilariously dumb. Predictability is sort of a good thing when you're repeating a mission for a high score. But sometimes they run and find cover in such a way that completely exposes themselves to you. Whatever, just makes them easier to kill.
If you're in the mood for a shooter, I definitely recommend Unit 13. It's not a complex sophisticated game, it's just pure fun. Try the demo if you're not sure. It's the final product, but only the first mission is available.
