The PlayStation Vita is an impressive device. It’s quite a powerful device, but with as great of a device it is, it needs some games. Much like a car, take a powerful car like a, Lamborhini Murcielago LP640, it’s an impressive piece of work, but without any tires, it wouldn’t go anywhere. That’s where the games come into play. Games are like the tires, they help a fabulous device, the PlayStation Vita, move.
In 2012, it was a bit rough for the Vita, sales wise. Games wise, it took awhile, but the games finally started coming out and when it was all said and done, it was a pretty impressive list of games. Such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Unit 13, Gravity Rush, Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, LittleBigPlanet Vita, Sound Shapes, and Persona 4: Golden. Even games like the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, Mortal Kombat, and Rayman Orgins are good games on the go. Plus, you factor in the free cross play which includes MLB 12 The Show, WipEout HD, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, and Sly Cooper 4, when it comes out among others.
Overall, it’s a fantastic device, and it’s got the games, and it’s continuing to get games. With that said, let’s take a look at some of the games I’m looking forward to in 2013.
Lone Survivor– Lone Survivor is a game I’m really looking forward to, but what makes this one a bit different from the other games I’m going to mention is that it’s already available on PC. But, it was recently announced about a month ago that Lone Survivor is coming to the PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation 3 as well. Creator Jasper Byrne is a big console gamer and prefers being on the PS3. When it was announced that Lone Survivor was coming to the PS3 and Vita, Jasper Byrne had this to say:
“Anyone who follows my twitter will know that I don’t tend to play games on my PC, I really am a couch gamer, most happy on my PS3,” “Lone Survivor was designed as a console game (in my head, anyway.) In fact, all the games I work on I really imagine being on console.”
This is the game I’m really looking forward to because Jasper Byrne seems to really take a lot of pride in his work, Lone Survivor was a pretty highly rated game, and it’s a survival horror game that really captures that survival horror feeling. Personally, I’ve been really craving a really good survival horror game and Lone Survivor might be that game. There isn’t a release date yet, but hopefully it’ll be sometime around 2013, may’be even around Halloween time. That’d be perfect.
Killzone: Mercenary– It was a milestone moment for the PlayStation Vita and gaming in 2012. For the first time a First-Person Shooter came out on a handheld device that featured two analog sticks. Unfortunately, that game was Resistance: Burning Skies. It was a mediocre game with a bad story, but the controls were decent, so it was a start. The next game up was Call of Duty: Declassified, and that swung and missed as well.
Enter Killzone; Mercenary. Killzone: Mercenary will be the game that sets the bar that other First-Person Shooters on the PlayStation Vita will strive to beat. I feel this way because Guerrilla Games is the developer of the Killzone franchise. Guerrilla Games is one of the better developers in the business, and have been working on Killzone: Mercenary for awhile now. And you can tell that they’ve put in the work. With the first announced trailer at Gamescom, Killzone: Mercenary looked really good. Compared to Resistance: Buring Skies, and Call of Duty: Declassified, it was night and day. Killzone: Mercenary doesn’t have a set date yet, but it is scheduled to be out in 2013.
Soul Sacrifice– Out of all the games here, Soul Sacrifice has the highest ceiling of becoming a real system seller for the PlayStation Vita. Soul Sacrifice is an action-adventure/role-playing game developed by Marvelous AQL and Japan Studio. The creator behind Soul Sacrifice is Keiji Inafune who is a superstar in Japan and best known for co-designing Mega Man.
Soul Sacrifice will feature co-op and one of the cool modes Keiji Inafune has revealed is Ghost Mode. A co-op mode that lets you sacrifice yourself or your friends, enabling you to act as a catalyst for the game’s powerful magic. You can aid your allies with healing power, and if you sacrifice yourself or fail in battle, you can live on as a ghost and continue to aid your party. As a ghost you’ll be able to see the status of all your allies and enemies, while touching them with the PS Vita touch screen enables you to strengthen allies or weaken enemies.
That is a really cool sounding mode, and a unique mode that really utilizes that Vita’s features. Soul Sacrifice could be be really, really good, and it could be a big system seller. Soul Sacrifice will be in stores in March…in Japan. Everywhere else, it’ll be later, most likely winter of 2013.
Tearaway– Guerrilla Games is working on Killzone: Mercenary, and another one of Sony’s big guns is working on a PlayStation Vita title as well. Media Molecule is working on Tearaway, and by the way, Media Molecule is the developer team that made LittleBigPlanet, so, Tearaway is a game to keep an eye on. From the looks of it, it’s a unique game that takes full advantage of the Vita’s features. Tearaway is a paper world and you control the world. By utilizing the rear touch panel, your fingers come up through the ground and you can interact with your environment and enemies. It’s going to be an interesting game, I’m intrigued by it. No release date on Tearaway, but you can expect it sometime in 2013.
Warrior’s Lair– This will be the final game on my wishlist, and this is the one that may or may not ever come out. If this comes out in 2013, that’d be fantastic, but in the Holiday spirit of things, I’m hoping we hear more about this game. You may, or may not remember, Warrior’s Lair, mainly because that wasn’t what it was called when first announced. When it was first announced it was called Ruin, but later changed to Warrior’s Lair. This was supposed to be a game that really helped this system move units. Unfortunately, it’s been stuck in development hell and there hasn’t been much news for Warrior’s Lair. What was so exciting about Warrior’s Lair is that it was a Diablo type game. That got everybody excited because it was a Diablo-ish type game on the go. We’ll see what happens as the months roll by, hopefully, we’ll hear more about it.
That’s my list of PlayStation Vita games to watch out for in 2013 and the exciting thing is that this is only the start. These five games are all just about completely different from each other, they all possess different qualities that should make them enjoyable experiences. In the coming months of 2013 there should be more exciting announcements, and more games for the PlayStation Vita.
