Sony Playstation Vita Review

Sony Playstation Vita Review
Sony Playstation Vita

Will you ditch your Nintendo 3DS for the Sony Playstation Vita?
Written by: Melanie Hick
Sony Playstation Vita Review
Date published: 01/31/2012
5 / 5 stars

The Sony Playstation Vita could have you ditching your Nintendo 3DS and leaving your smart phone in your pocket, as it launches in the UK on February 22, 2012.

The nicely designed piece of kit has an astoundingly rich five inch OLED touch screen which makes trial games like Uncharted Golden Abyss look phenomenally detailed.

Its minimal grey and black look with translucent grey buttons right and left makes it at equally at home in the hands of men, women and very lucky kids - there's no gender play here, unlike in some colourful handhelds.

The machine is heavier than your smart phone, which makes it feel worth the extra dosh (compared to Nintendo 3DS).

Though the size means it won't fit in any but a large coat pocket, which on a positive note means your pen protector and smart phone will have uninterrupted pocket space.

Beyond looks and dimensions, the fact that this kind of power can be contained in a handheld is astonishing. There's a quad core processor back there, along with the now standard accelerometer and gyroscope, 3G mobile and Wi-Fi connectivity, front and back cameras and Bluetooth®.

The cross-play stuff with the PS3 is also very PHWOAR, and something we now come to expect with TV. Start playing on your PS3, and pick up where you left off on the PS Vita. Clever.

Some say the design forgets to be fun. And indeed, the grey and black make it look like a serious gaming device to be fun. But it's hard not to love it when the screen and power of the machine give you so much.

The detail in the test kit of Uncharted Golden Abyss and Reality Fighters were impressive. Since you can use the Vita to play your PS3 games remotely, that should make playing majorly detailed games like Skyrim rewarding rather than frustrating.

The Vita will live and die by its games. Nintendo, which recently forecast record losses has failed to keep up with releases on Wii, and has had to slash prices on 3DS to keep sales up.

Playstation should work with developers to build a steady supply of games that make full use of the rear touch pads, the hyper-rich screen and remote play.

We weren't supplied with Fifa, Skyrim or Modern Warfare for Vita, but these games could all be exciting on Vita. The Playstation store was also not available in our region.

Pre-order Sony Playstation Vita at £219 from Amazon for 22 February delivery.

Check out how to play Reality Fighters at life size, the F1 2011 PS Vita gameplay and what American gamers think of the Vita below.

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