Let's talk about the Playstation Vita

Recently, the Wall Street Journal named the Playstation Vita the 8th greatest product flop of 2012. With the Playstation Vita having been out for almost a year now, I'm curious to know what people's opinions are about it around here.

First off, let me say that I myself absolutely love this system. I never got a PSP, so when I got one at launch I had access to a solid library of games right off the bat, and when PSx classics came this summer I could download and play many of my favorite games on the go. The joysticks are a delight to use, and the OLED screen produces a great image and is perfectly sized.

Funnily enough I didn't actually own a Vita game until November, when the new and improved edition of my favorite JRPG in a LONG time, Persona 4, entered the scene. For me, this game more than makes up for the lack of Vita-exclusive games so far, but I hope there's more great games down the line.

It seems like bashing the Vita is a hip thing to do nowadays too, whenever I reveal to someone that I'm a Vita owner the first thing I'm usually asked is "I bet you regret that decision, huh?" or something similar. I just hope the public's negative view of the system doesn't spell its doom, because the Vita is already shaping up to be one of my favorite things ever, and I usually carry it around wherever I go. :)

Honestly, I know nothing about this system and didn't even realize it existed until a couple months after it was released.

I think it was very poorly marketed.

I've also never heard of it but then again, I don't really keep up with gaming consoles these days.

I've heard of it, but I didn't find it very revolutionary. It's too similar to the PSP if you ask me. And the games that are on it are basically just ports or slightly different games from the main console.

Black Ops II: Declassified
Assassin's Creed III: Liberation
Fifa 13

Probably others, but you get the picture. What made the DS so great was that you had game series exclusively for it; Professor Layton, Brain Training, Pokemon to a degree... while on the PSP Vita, sure, you could play Black Ops II: Declassified but you could play it's bigger brother on the PS3 or Xbox instead. Same deal with Fifa.

I bought it for Persona 4 Golden, and that's basically all I've played on it.

Best 260 dollars I've ever spent on a game.

The capabilities are incredible (though the touch screen obsession needs to die, notice P4G didn't use it at all), but underutilized.

It has junk for a library with the exception of the PSP games, PSX classics, and P4G.

Get FFXHD, Type-0, and just more good games in general and we'll talk. The PSP did brilliantly as a portable PSX. The Vita is almost a portable PS3. So start porting the games already!

I would totally get one if the kool peepz at GameStop didn't laugh and point at my crotch for looking at one on the shelf.

I've been a PlayStation gamer since I left the Sega Genesis and never looked back. I've even been more indoctrinated in line with their brand over the last few years whereas I used to only play third party titles on their consoles. The last vestiges of my Nintendo loyalism fled when I received my PSP Go in 2009 and found it immensely superior to my beloved DS on all fronts from hardware and functionality to its library of original titles and ports. I've hardly turned on my DS since.

But I just can't get behind the PlayStation Vita and I don't see myself following it in the future.

I finally got my hands on one a few months ago and I'm really underwhelmed by the physical controls. I don't see the sticks as being satisfactory and I believe the buttons are small and digital (non-analog/non-pressure-sensitive). The GUI was not immediately intuitive. It's not bad, per se. But it makes you have to settle for less. Half-assed. It's been Sony's curse this generation - from PSN to the Xperia Play and now with the PlayStation Vita, it's not bad, but why would they put all this R&D and marketing money behind a concept if you weren't going to put all your passion and hard work behind it? If I were an investor, I would have no confidence in the company's ability to execute. But I'm just a gamer, and I'm incredibly frustrated.

The software side of the sword is just as dull as the hardware edge. Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified looks like crap. The thing runs like crap. Call of Duty's hallmark is that it's the sleekest, smoothest running FPS title on the market. It makes the graphics look as good as they possibly can at the time so long as they can still run at the full 60 frames per second. That's the whole reason why it's the most popular video game right now. And the Vita bombed on it. Rather, Activision and n-space, nihilism or whatever they want to call themselves now failed. But if I was Sony I would have prevented them from releasing the title, because to the entire CoD community it sends a message that the PSVita cannot handle the console experience.

Because that's the entire marketing message, isn't it? It's the console experience on handheld. I know there's a lot of people who complain at that notion by itself. I happen to think it's a great idea. It would be great to have my console experience on the handheld. But they didn't deliver, it's just not true, and you have to ask, again, why spend all that money if you're not going to actually do it???

When it's all said and done, I think the Vita is a very sexy platform, I regret that I won't be taking part in it; I'm not the typical Sony hater looking for a few laughs now that the console war's over and you can't predict PS3 failure anymore, I'm genuinely a fan who's been let down.

I still have yet to play Persona 4 Golden, but it looks fantastic. The last Vita game I played on there was Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which was a fantastic addition to the Uncharted franchise if you are into those games. I've only played Uncharted 2 before this game, but I Golden Abyss is actually my favorite so far. Some of the controls can be annoying just because they were trying to have you use everything (such as the back touch pad thing), but those were only minor annoyances.

I pretty much got the Vita for Gravity Rush though, which was the most fun I had playing a game in quite a long time. The way you travel around in the game is just plain fun, and the characters are all well characterized and interesting.

There isn't much released for it right now, but it has some gems.

I'd love to have a Vita but it's true that there aren't a whole lot of great games for it. I do love my PSP though.