Emulation on PS Vita

[noiseredux]

it's odd. I love my phone (Droid) and use it ALL the time, but I have zero interest in gaming on it. I just don't enjoy touch controls. I downloaded Angry Birds on it months ago, and I tried it once. I've spent more time playing Angry Birds on my PSP.

[Niode]

it's odd. I love my phone (Droid) and use it ALL the time, but I have zero interest in gaming on it. I just don't enjoy touch controls. I downloaded Angry Birds on it months ago, and I tried it once. I've spent more time playing Angry Birds on my PSP.

That could be partially due to the lack of truly interesting games available on the Android marketplace compared to iOS. I'm talking about games that were MADE for these devices and not ports. It's quite easy to make a game feel seamless when you don't suffer the pitfalls of 'traditional' controls. Gesture based games are king on iOS and when a developer gets it right it will have you wondering why it's never been done before. Look at Zen Bound, Infinity Blade, Fruit Ninja, Dodonpachi: R (and the rest of the Cave shmups on iOS), New Tetris, Edge, Trism, Rage HD, Tiny Wings I could go on.

Like Dave, I can quite easily play my iPhone for hours on end, especially if a game grips me as well as Infinity Blade did last year.

Regarding whether Apple is in competition with Nintendo and Sony I think that depends on how you view the devices. Real Racing HD 2 could quite easily be sold at full price on 3DS or Vita and be very successful. It's a fully functional racing sim, any feature you can think of (upgrades, tweaking, buying/selling cars, a proper career mode, multiplayer, time trials, you name it). For £2.99, that's some serious competition to the £35 RRP on full price 3DS games. It really does make you question just why games are so expensive when Firemint can make games as huge as RRHD2 and sell them for the price of a coffee.

I honestly do think that Apple is a serious contender now in the gaming industry, you just cannot ignore the sales. Yes quite a few are teatime mini games sold at a pittance, they are a distraction at best, but there are some full on quality games that will last you a good 10 hours. Hell, I've played Fruit Ninja for a good 10 hours in total, just to get all the achievements and even then I still haven't quite managed it. When you factor in bang for buck it's hands down the cheapest platform out there.

[noiseredux]

That could be partially due to the lack of truly interesting games available on the Android marketplace compared to iOS.

it has nothing to do with selection since I've never taken a moment to explore the selection. I just don't like games on phones. My sister's boyfriend is always making me try to play games on his stupid iPhone. Mega Man 2 and Crash Team Racing, etc. I hate trying to use the little onscreen controller. And I hate tilting the phone for control. I'm just not really interested in a phone for gaming.

[swiftzx]

I play games on my iOS devices all the time, sometimes for hours at a time. I think mobile devices will continue to take a bite out of the handheld market, but they are still viable. For one thing, it is hard to wrap up a bunch of .99 cent apps in a birthday/christmas present for a kid.

Just give them an iTunes card

[Niode]

That could be partially due to the lack of truly interesting games available on the Android marketplace compared to iOS.

it has nothing to do with selection since I've never taken a moment to explore the selection. I just don't like games on phones. My sister's boyfriend is always making me try to play games on his stupid iPhone. Mega Man 2 and Crash Team Racing, etc. I hate trying to use the little onscreen controller. And I hate tilting the phone for control. I'm just not really interested in a phone for gaming.

You missed my point entirely. You just named 2 games which fall into the trap of wrapping traditional controls around a touch screen interface. Go play Zen Bound and you'll know what I mean. Perfect synergy of interface and control, it's effortless to play. I hate 'on-screen' controls as well, and as such, avoid games with such a lacklustre control method.

[noiseredux]

You missed my point entirely. You just named 2 games which fall into the trap of wrapping traditional controls around a touch screen interface.

no I didn't. I mentioned Crash Team Racing, which relied solely on moving/tilting the phone itself. No touch controls at all. I purposely mentioned 2 games that utilized 2 different control schemes.

[swiftzx]

I have to go with dsheinem and Niode on iOS gaming. Several developers have left their mark and gained name recognition. Halfbrick, Ponos, and Donut games are some developers that I have enjoyed most of their games and I recognize their games now. Several other pc to iOS ports have gone well like Solipskier, Canabalt, and Robot unicorn Attack. What I'm trying to say is iPhone gaming isn't going anywhere and phones could double for gaming but can't replace handheld gaming (n-gage).

[dsheinem]

You missed my point entirely. You just named 2 games which fall into the trap of wrapping traditional controls around a touch screen interface.

no I didn't. I mentioned Crash Team Racing, which relied solely on moving/tilting the phone itself. No touch controls at all. I purposely mentioned 2 games that utilized 2 different control schemes.

But both are games that control better with other forms of input. The games Niode are talking about are DESIGNED with a touch interface first and foremost, they are "new genres" of a sort that are built around a different kind of control scheme, not gamepad games shoehorned into a touchscreen/tilt interface.

As an analogy, think about games that work well on the DS because they utilize the stylus and wouldn't work at all on another platform without serious compromises. That's the kind of games he's referring to.

[noiseredux]

yeah, I guess I can see that. I'm still not too interested. And for the record I hated DS games that forced me to use the stylus as well.

[swiftzx]

yeah, I guess I can see that. I'm still not too interested. And for the record I hated DS games that forced me to use the stylus as well.

Are you going to hate Vita games that force you to use any control scheme besides buttons?