Reviews

PS Vita Game Reviews

  • Review Papers, Please (PS Vita)

    Seal of approval

    Republished on Wednesday 28th November 2018: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of December's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Just what is Papers, Please? Four years on from ex-Naughty Dog developer Lucas Pope’s chilling debut, we’re still not sure this long-awaited...

  • Review Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms (PS Vita)

    Choose your husbando

    Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms is a visual novel otome game and a direct sequel to last year’s Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds. The main character Chizuru Yukimura is still trying to find her missing father and is still hanging out with the Shinsengumi, a military police unit made up of hunky ronin. The game tells of a time between the waning...

  • Review The Longest Five Minutes (PS Vita)

    You can pack a lot into five minutes

    Become a hero, face down the origin of all evil, and try to cope with the crippling loss of all your memories and abilities. This is the unique concept of The Longest Five Minutes – a new Vita adventure from NIS America. There's something really engaging and accessible about this old school Japanese RPG,...

  • Review Time Recoil (PS Vita)

    Ain’t nobody got time for that

    Time Recoil is a top-down, twin-stick shooter from 10tons, who's well-versed in this genre with the likes of Crimsonland, Neon Chrome, and Jydge. In Time Recoil you take on the role of a rebel member that has super powers, enabling her to slow time whenever she gets a kill. Using your powers and wormholes you...

  • Review Tokyo Tattoo Girls (PS Vita)

    Tattoo nightmares

    Tokyo Tattoo Girls is definitely a strange game. If you’ve taken a look at any of the trailers for it then you can be forgiven for assuming that it’s going to be some kind of JRPG – even the opening cutscene feels like typical JRPG territory. But ignore your initial preconceptions, Tokyo Tattoo Girls is actually a...

  • Review Semispheres (PS Vita)

    Puzzles: A Tale of Two Thumbs

    Semispheres, an indie puzzler from Vivid Helix, may have found its home on the PlayStation Vita with this recently released port. The game has been available on the PlayStation 4 since February, but the short running time and simple controls feel like a much better match for Sony’s “legacy” handheld. In...

  • Review Mary Skelter: Nightmares (PS Vita)

    Once upon a time

    Based on some of Compile Heart’s previous games we weren’t expecting a lot from Mary Skelter: Nightmares - just a simple dungeon crawler with a bit of fanservice thrown in. What we actually got, however, was something far more interesting. The opening to Mary Skelter is surprisingly dark. The game’s protagonist Jack and his...

  • Review The Caligula Effect (PS Vita)

    μ got a friend in me

    When a game features a story written by Persona veteran Tadashi Satomi it’s difficult not to get a bit hyped for it. The Caligula Effect is an ambitious sounding action role-playing game set in a high school with over 500 non-playable characters to befriend and a very unique battle system. Sadly, if you were hoping for a game...

  • Review Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy (PS Vita)

    Mission: Aborted

    Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy is the follow-up to Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy - a dungeon crawler which arrived on the PlayStation Vita in 2015 to some fairly average review scores. Experience Inc. has released some really good dungeon crawlers on Sony's handheld, so you'd hope that for Operation Babel it would take some...

  • Review Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds (PS Vita)

    Samurai lovin', had me a blast

    Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds is the latest game in the Hakuoki series, and is billed by developer Idea Factory as a “remastered telling of the beloved 2008 series”. Set in historic Japan, the game follows the protagonist as she's taken in by a group of samurai while looking for her father who has gone missing. Being an...

  • Review A Rose in the Twilight (PS Vita)

    The rose beyond the wall

    Nippon Ichi certainly knows how to tell gruesome tales featuring adorable looking young girls! The creators of Yomawari: Night Alone have returned with a brand new puzzle platformer, A Rose in the Twilight. It's a tale of innocence, friendship, and blood. A young girl with a thorn upon her back awakens in the rubble, deep...

  • Review Atelier Shallie Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea (PS Vita)

    A crafty plus size treat

    Just as Nintendo look to Switch up the handheld market, Sony give gamers a reason to dig out the trusty old PlayStation Vita in the shape of another fun and accessible Japanese role-playing game. Atelier Shallie Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is an enhanced port of the PlayStation 3 game packing all the downloadable...

  • Review Air Race Speed (PS Vita)

    Total wipeout

    Air Race Speed. It's a terrible name, but an accurate one. This low-budget end-of-life PlayStation Vita release deployed just prior to the holidays, presumably winding its way to Sony's portable after struggling to set the smartphone sales charts alight. Despite its weedy price point and miserable moniker, though, this high-octane...

  • Review Superdimension Neptune VS SEGA Hard Girls (PS Vita)

    To be this good takes AGES

    Just when you thought that the PlayStation Vita had no new games, here comes a rather lovely RPG adventure which packs a ton of fun combat and exploration into a perfect on the go package. Superdimension Neptune VS SEGA Hard Girls is a spin off from the long running Hyperdimension Neptunia RPG series which sees various...

  • Review Yomawari: Night Alone (PS Vita)

    Horror never looked so cute

    Yomawari: Night Alone tells the haunting tale of a girl, seemingly alone, trying to find her sister and lost dog Poro in her small town. As our heroine's adventure beginss, it's clear from the offset that the town is haunted, and she must go on her quest without being caught by the many ghosts that roam the streets...

  • Review Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors (PS Vita)

    I hope that's a PS Vita in your pocket

    The original Criminal Girls: Invite Only game was a fun, turn-based JPRG dungeon crawler released on PSP and then reworked for the VITA. Lots was made of the added, er, tactical 'rubbing' of the naughty girls in your party to power them up, which formed a series of slightly dubious minigames alongside the main...

  • Review MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death (PS Vita)

    MehQ

    From Compile Heart, the developer of the reasonably popular Hyperdimension Neptunia series, comes a new game from a fresh intellectual property. MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death is the story of a world that is suffering an eternal nighttime. Legend tells the story of a chosen Machina Mage who must turn the key to restart the world and restore order...

  • Review Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS-Force (PS Vita)

    Full Bust

    The PlayStation Vita has its first Gundam game here in the West, and unfortunately, it's not that great. A spin-off from Japan's super popular Gundam VS series, Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS-Force is essentially a watered-down edition of the arcade action property with a focus on single player content. Directly comparing this portable...

  • Review Adventures of Mana (PS Vita)

    Magic moment

    If you're on the market for an old school action role-playing game that'll keep you reasonably entertained for a good few hours, you can't really go wrong with Adventures of Mana. Released on mobile devices earlier this year, it's a remake of Game Boy title Final Fantasy Adventure – or Mystic Quest as it was known in Europe. Despite...

  • Review Ray Gigant (PS Vita)

    Yorigami killer

    Another dungeon crawling role-playing game from Japanese developer Experience, Ray Gigant is a good entry point to an often complex genre, boasting streamlined mechanics, an enjoyable story, and decent cast of characters. Adding to the Vita's already crowded catalogue of Japanese titles, does this tale of teenagers and colossal...

  • Review Severed (PS Vita)

    'Armless

    The main character in Severed is missing an arm; we're going to assume that it fell off following a particularly furious session with Drinkbox Studios' latest game. This colourful PlayStation Vita exclusive has grand aspirations: it's a first-person dungeon crawler with Punch Out!!-esque combat and enough crafting to momentarily capture the...

  • Review Stranger of Sword City (PS Vita)

    Outsider art

    Stranger of Sword City does a great job of living up to its name. Trapped in a weird, rather haunting fantasy world, you're constantly made to feel like an outsider – someone that's stumbled into a series of events that they can't quite comprehend. This is a dungeon crawler with an atmospheric edge, and although it doesn't do a great...

  • Review SwapQuest (PS Vita)

    Swapsies

    SwapQuest is a re-adapted mobile game which consists of a heady mix of both puzzles and role-playing elements that go together like strawberries and cream. The story is set in a peaceful kingdom called Aventana, a realm named after a magical sword which was once used to save its people from a terrifying evil known as the Horde. This threat...

  • Review Ninja Senki DX (PS Vita)

    No-go ninja

    Tribute Games has been churning out unremarkable indie games for quite a while now. Each illuminates a finer aspect from all of those 8 and 16-bit titles we grew to know and love but always does so in a negative way. Wizorb is unique but trite in its presentation. Mercenary Kings is what Metal Slug would've looked like after a bout with...

  • Review Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee New 'N' Tasty! (PS Vita)

    You've got the Oddworld in your hands

    The Oddworld games are as beloved to PlayStation fans as MediEvil, Tomb Raider, and for some, even Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. The bizarre adventures are certainly proof positive that PlayStation is home to an immensely diverse portfolio, but what's so great about Abe is that he still manages to stand...

  • Review Atelier Escha & Logy Plus (PS Vita)

    Too much like hard work

    After a successful release on the PlayStation 3 back in 2013, Atelier Escha & Logy Plus is the latest in the hit Atelier series to be ported to the Vita, and features all of the downloadable content from the original version. Speaking of which, be sure to read our PS3 review if you're looking for more a detailed take on...

  • Review BigFest (PS Vita)

    A blastonbury

    BigFest is Theme Park with more Wellington boots and Bulmers – and it's worth buying for that fact alone. On the Metal's musical management sim was announced for the PlayStation Vita an eternity ago, but tickets are finally on sale from the PlayStation Store, and thankfully we reckon that it's more Oasis than Beady Eye. But what is...

  • Review Phineas and Ferb: Day of Doofenshmirtz (PS Vita)

    When are they going back to school?

    There's a hundred and four days of… You know the drill. Two cheeky lads try and make the best out of their seemingly eternal summer vacation by producing eccentric contraptions and inventions from thin air, only for a crazed scientist – the titular Dr. Doofenshmirtz – to get involved. Oh, and their pet...

  • Review Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires (PS Vita)

    A real strata-gem

    Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires is the first Empires spin-off game to make it West on the Vita, and it's actually a bit of a revelation. The Empires formula fits so well on Sony's handheld that we'd go as far as to recommend this version over its home console counterpart – even if the graphics have been toned down considerably in...

  • Review Superbeat: Xonic (PS Vita)

    Gotta go fast

    Those familiar with the DJ Max series back in the PlayStation Portable era will immediately recognise this rhythm game. Superbeat: Xonic is the newest addition to the rhythm game genre by developer Nurijoy. Rhythm games are no stranger to the PlayStation Vita, so how does this one fare? As with most music games, buttons get mapped to...