3DS vs. Vita Review -> Help me write it

[yuenadan]

Hey everyone,

As the proud owner of a new Playstation Vita, I want to do a nice, detailed comparison for my YouTube channel. So I want to ask for your help to determine the criteria for comparison.

What is important to you in a handheld? Game library? Controls? Interface? Battery life? Price? Region coding (or lack thereof)? Storage options?

I just don't want to overlook anything, so let me know your thoughts, thanks!

[Opa Opa]

I had a really long post but it got deleted when my browser messed up.
I'm kinda mad now so I'll just retype it later.

[Jontendo]

They're mostly what you mentioned, but I think these are the most important things...

* Software quality (are there more than just one or two decent games?)
* Hardware quality & reliability (no excessive 'dead pixels', hinge, or media reader failures)
* Battery life (will I be spending half the time searching for outlets?)
* Control/button layout & responsiveness. (has playability been compromised for the sake of portability?)

[Anayo]

Which one do you catch yourself wanting to play more often?

[yuenadan]

Thanks, this helps! Both seem like solid machines but I'll mention about this in the review. Right now I want to play the Vita more but to be fair, I've had my 3DS for months whereas I've had the Vita literally less than 72 hours, so it still has that 'new' factor. As great as the Vita is (I'm playing Uncharted on it now and it's awesome) I'm sure my thirst for Mario Kart will bring me back to the 3DS sooner rather than later. (Mario Kart 7 is my favorite version of the game yet. Nearly everything that's good about the amazing DS version plus analog steering - fantastic!)

[Not_a_sockpuppet]

I would appreciate a rundown through the early library each console has, noting which games are a good pick.

[yuenadan]

Well I don't need YouTube to do that, here you go:

Tobidasu! Puzzle Bobble 3D: Not bad, but not great. IMHO not as good as some previous incarnations of the series.

Mario Kart 7: Awesome! Aside from the random vs. feature on the DS version (I liked to set VS. to 1P mode and just play random track after random track) it's everything I could ask for in a Mario Kart game and then some. Huge thumbs up! 3D looks great, especially the hand glider segments.

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D: The 3D doesn't add as much as you might think. I've never been a big Zelda fan and this game didn't to much to change my opinion. I gave up because it's too much work to slog through all the Japanese text.

BioHazard The Mercenaries 3D: Not a big fan of this game. Awkward clunky controls work well in an atmospheric survival-horror setting, but not in a 'run and shoot the zombies as fast as you can' setting. Big thumbs down.

Super Monkey Ball 3D: Not bad but IMO not worth the price. This would be better as a small downloadable title. The 3D effect is waaaay overdone, even with the slider up a little bit everything looks too far sunk into the screen.

Starfox 3D: Pretty good! Simple blasting away at enemies works well in a portable setting.

Blazblue Continuum Shift II: WTF they FORCE you to use the D-Pad, you can't use the analog slider! Makes the controls awkward. A great game but a poor implementation. Get it for your 360 instead, if you have one.

Nintendogs & Cats: The dogs are all on the widescreen, not the touchscreen, so you can't touch the dogs directly. It completely breaks the visceral feel from the DS games. Big thumbs down.

Pac Man & Galaga Dimensions: Pac-Man CE and Galaga Legions are great, the rest of this game is crap. Galaga Legions looks GREAT in 3D, holy crap. The Pac-Man tilt game is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE and possibly the worst Pac-Man game I've played, and that's saying a lot!

Super Street Fighter IV: Not as graphically impressive as the 360 version but close. It's a lot of fun but I have one unanswered question. The game lets you use 'simple controls' for mapping combos to the touchscreen. Now if I play online and I'm NOT using simple controls, are other players still allowed to use them? Since I'm not sure, I always choose simple controls over fear that my opponent may have an advantage.

Super Mario Land 3D: My favorite 3D Mario game to date. Some things I don't like (they give you that white tanooki suit too early IMO), but overall the game is terrific and tremendous fun to play.


For the Vita, I only have Uncharted: Gold Abyss, which is fantastic. It's my first Uncharted game but I think I'll go and get one of the PS3 games after I finish it, because this is great stuff. The dual-analog controls are silky-smooth. There are some touch and gyro controls that can be turned off, but even when they're on most are optional and not all of them are gimmicky. See a rope you want to grab or ledge you want to climb up on? Just touch it and and you grab on (assuming you can reach it). The game has shooting combat in it but it's not all shooting. There's climbing, exploring, hunting for items, taking pictures, reassembling or examining old artifacts, etc. The voice acting is top-notch and the story and characters (so far) are interesting as well. Clearly this game was designed to be a 'showcase' game, to show you why you should buy a Vita, and I'd say on that level it's a resounding success. Big thumbs up!

I played the demo for Little Deviants on Vita and I wasn't impressed. I thought I would enjoy pushing a ball around with the bottom touchscreen but turns out I was very wrong, and it's just frustrating and awkward to control. I was wishing I could use the analog stick.

[AznKhmerBoi]

Just remember graphics doesnt make the game and im sure most already know the ps vita is a powerhouse. Personally i think its too early to review the 3ds vs vita, considering the vita barely have any games to put the up the fight with 3ds library.

[yuenadan]

While the graphics on Vita are stunning, IMO the OLED screen is what really makes it look gorgeous. The screens on my iPad and iPhone 4 are great but I like the Vita screen better. Even though the screen is smaller than my iPad, Vita has now become my preferred device for watching videos.

And I have to say that the 3DS is no slouch in the graphics department either. Like I said, SFIV is pretty close to 360-level graphics. Sure there aren't any background animations but it's possible that the game was rushed for launch. The resolution is low on that small screen (400x240) but in terms of frame rate and number of polygons, etc. it's all there. Also considering it's rendering two sets of pixels - one for each eye - I'd say that's pretty damn impressive.

[retrosportsgamer]

Which one do you catch yourself wanting to play more often?

There's a lot of inherent bias with this question given that he just got the Vita. Too early to tell with this one.