Retro City Rampage DX PlayStation Vita PS Vita

Assuming that your local game store even has a PlayStation Vita presence these days, if it's anything like ours, we're guessing that it looks a little like a picked over Chinese buffet, packed with scraggy, over-the-hill scraps. That's partially because the handheld's retail presence has been dwindling for some time now, as more and more games skip physical copies in favour of the PlayStation Store.

However, while even the likes of Sony have been partaking in this practice, Brian Provinciano, the one-man developer behind VBlank's brilliant Retro City Rampage DX, has decided to go in the opposite direction – announcing a retail version for his retro-inspired adventure. This will only be available from the developer's website, but is an official item, complete with a legit product code and factory sealed case.

The game will cost you $30, and has clearly been produced for collectors. It comes on a 2GB cartridge, for example, despite the title only taking up approximately 19.4MB of space. What's particularly neat is that Provinciano has designed a custom icon and LiveArea specifically for the boxed version, adding an extra air of desirability. It also has different box art to the limited edition Blu-ray version that deployed on the PS4 last year.

It raises an interesting question, too: if a one-man indie developer can release a boxed product, then surely Sony can do the same for titles like Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines? The reality, in the latter's case, is that it can – but it just isn't worth the effort. For the likes of Provinciano, seeing his game on a physical cartridge is likely motivation enough to go ahead and make the retail release; for Sony, not so much.

[source blog.us.playstation.com]