Upcoming Handheld Titles for 2014 - PART TWO: PS Vita 2014 Releases..

Hello! Welcome to the second of our Mini Gamers posts about the exciting new handheld games that we can expect to see throughout the coming year. Last time we had a look at the some of the best new 3DS titles on offer in 2014, and today we examine some of the best titles that Sony will be offering us on their PS Vita console in 2014. Indeed, we have unearthed a few surprises...

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z is the first Dragon Ball Z game in over two years. It will launch on January 28th 2014 for PS3 and as a digital download for PS Vita. The game will feature battle and co-op missions. It also allows players to create their own team of up to four players, and it will be the first game of its kind to feature Online Multiplayer.

Characters can now be heavily customized via 'unlockable cards', and players can team up any of the characters that they wish from those available. Players can also alter their battle style by changing Regulations in the online team battle settings.

This game also delves deeper into the historical backstory of Dragon Ball Z. If you were a fan of the original game or indeed a fan of the TV series, then this is definitely a worthy new title for your collection.

Danganronpa:

Trigger Happy Havoc

Essentially, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a murder mystery game. Exclusive to the PS Vita, the game plays like an interactive novel. Gameplay is similar in style to the Ace Attorney series, revolving around investigating different areas of the main location, and finding contradictions in witness accounts, but this time, the main action takes place in a High School where one of the students has been murdered.

The game has several different elements that can be enjoyed. For example, Class Trials allow players to discuss who they think the culprit is with the other 'classmates.' Class Trials consist of  four main styles of gameplay: Nonstop Debate, Epiphany Anagram, Machinegun Talk Battle and Climax Logic. The most common of these is the Nonstop Debate, where characters will automatically discuss their thoughts on the case, with potential 'weak points' highlighted in yellow.  In order to break the debate, the player must find a lie or contradiction from the displayed weak points and shoot it with a  special 'truth' bullet, which contains evidence that a statement is false.

If you like murder mysteries, then Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is likely to provide you with hours of engrossing entertainment. The game is scheduled for European and North American release on the 11th of February 2014, with a follow-up title Danganronpa: Another Episode being released later on in the year.

Toukiden: The Age of Demons

Toukiden is a third-person monster hunting game. Groups of up to four players (Via wi-fi or Online Multiplayer) or a single player with three other Non-Playable Characters fight together against various monsters during quests. 

 Players can customize their choice of weapons, armor and skills. Special abilities can be obtained through special 'souls' known as mitama, which can be collected during the progress of the game. These mitama can level up by gaining experience from battles, or by paying a certain sum of haku, which is the in-game currency.

At first glance, Toukiden: Age of Demons could be mistaken for a copy of Monster Hunter, but the games emphasis on co-op play gives it a great advantage. The game was released in Japan last year and it became the second single biggest-selling game in the country in 2013. 

If you fancy a bit of monster-slaying with your mates, then you should not have too long to wait as Toukiden: Age of Demons is expected to be released on the 11th February 2014.

Playstation Vita Pets

At first, Playstation Vita Pets could be mistaken for being an ordinary pet simulation game but we have to say, that this game does offer a lot more than the usual care, feed, wash, train and play format of most simulation games currently on the market to date.

Players can choose from one of four different breeds of puppy, each with his or her own personality. This is where the game immediately makes its own distinction from other games in the same genre, because your puppy can actually talk to you and share its thoughts.

It sounds mad - and it is! it is also strangely appealing as rather than having to guess at what your puppy is thinking, they can simply tell you. Players will of course be expected to complete the standard 'care' tasks of looking after their pet, cleaning it up and playing with it, but the game then goes one stage further, and adds an almost action-adventure element to the game.

Players and their chosen puppy can explore outside environments where you can work together to find clues and hidden objects that can help uncover the secrets of the mysterious Castlewood Island. There has also been hints of some special Augmented Reality elements, but no further details have emerged about this yet.

This sounds like a fun and original concept of a well-loved gaming genre, and Mini Gamers cannot wait to see how the game develops in the next few months. No specific release date has been announced yet, but the game is definitely expected to be released before the end of 2014.  A Youtube trailer showing the game's major elements can be viewed below:

So, that marks the end of our special look at some of the best PS Vita games on offer in 2014. Be sure to keep checking in with the Mini Gamers blogsite for more new releases. We look forward to bringing you all the updated information on these games as it occurs.

Affordable "TuneIn" App Brings Radio To The PS Vita and PS3

The PS Vita can often be considered as more of a media centre rather than just a handheld games console, and a new affordable application called 'TuneIn' is now set to extend the media offerings of the PS Vita to the medium of radio.

TuneIn allows users to stream over 70,000 AM, FM, and Internet radio stations, podcasts and shows from all over the world instantly. The application (which can be downloaded from the games section of the PS Store) also allows users to search for specific radio stations or genres of music, and even allows users to search for radio interviews and song selections from their favourite artists, although Mini Gamers did find this portion of the application a bit limited.

The TuneIn application is set to be released for PS3 this week and for the PS Vita early next week. Moreover, it is expected to be FREE to download for PlayStation Plus customers.

Nevertheless, even users who haven't signed up to PlayStation Plus yet will be pleasantly surprised at the applications price tag as the PS Vita version is expected to cost as little as £0.79 to download!

3G Vita users will gain maximum benefit from the TuneIn radio application, as they will be able to turn their PS Vita into a handy portable radio device everywhere they go. Not bad for such a reasonable price tag.

If you enjoy listening to the radio, then this is definitely the application for you. Overall rating: 10/10.

PS Vita Review: What's So Good about the Playstation Vita?

It has been a bit of a sombre launch for Sony's latest console, with only two of GAME's stores choosing to open at midnight last night for those a hundred or so gamers who were desperate to get their hands on a PS Vita before the official UK launch.

Nevertheless, despite an apparent lack of interest,  Mini Gamers was determined to get to grips with, what could potentially be a very interesting piece of gaming technology. So, what's so good about the PS Vita?

First Impressions:

The PS Vita is definitely a lot thinner and lighter than its predecessor, with a sleek finish on the outside. We immediately notice several new additions to the usual PSP-type design. Small, round silver power and volume buttons at the top of the console, add to the stylish feel of the console, and a lit up 'Home' button, featuring the Playstation logo is found on the left hand side.

Furthermore, the usual UMD-slot has now been replaced by a nifty cartridge slot. However, unlike the 3DS, whose cartridge slot is open and easily accessible, the PSV's new slot is covered (a bit like a mobile phone's charge slot) and proved quite tricky when we eventually placed our first game cartridge into it. However, after a bit of practice, we were fine.

The initial menu screen seems a lot sharper and brighter than ever before, and features many items which were not available on the PSP. Many of these new features (such as 'Near' and 'Party') are to do with the concept of multiplayer and social online interactions, which is also a heavily-promoted feature in many of the PSV's software titles.

PS Vita Home Screen: LiveArea

The main screen of the PS Vita interface is called: Live Area. From this menu, players can interact in online social forums, check the progress of any current downloads and access games and game information.

The best thing about this area is that it is entirely controlled via touch. For example, to select a game, players only need to tap on any icon with their fingers. To close an open Live Area application, simply peel the displayed 'page' away from the screen. This is both stylishly accomplished and very futuristic.

Welcome Park:

Our first introduction to the new features of the PSV were via the console's Welcome Park, this interactive tutorial proved very useful in showing us all the varied touchscreen or tilt aspects of the new console, and also gave us an opportunity to earn some interesting trophies.

Trophies:

For those of you who haven't got a PS3 console at home, the concept of trophies will be brand new to you. Basically, for every game that you play on the PSV, you will be awarded certain trophies for different achievements. For example, in Everybody's Golf, you can unlock a trophy by simply competing in the Daily International Tournament just once.

This gives added incentive to play PSV games, furthermore, the details of your latest Trophies can then be shared with your fellow PSV gamers via the 'Near' social interaction application if you wish.

AR Cards:

When the Nintendo 3DS first came bundled with its own set of Augmented Reality Cards, we were totally bowled over by the sheer quality of them, that was until we managed to have a look at Sony's PS Vita collection of wide-angled AR Cards.

Although the cards are quite plain in appearence and certainly less colourful then the yellow and black 3DS cards, they can be used with standard PS Vita games such as Reality Fighters (see screenshot above) and also come with its own set of AR Mini Games, which can be downloaded for FREE from the PSN Store.

The first set of  PS Vita AR games are Table Football, Cliff Diving and Fireworks, which is not actually an AR game in and of itself, but can utilise the AR technology to create stunning real-life backdrops for the virtual firework displays.

Sony also intends to create more free AR software for PSV users in the future. This brilliant Youtube trailer shows the range of AR Mini Games which should become available over the next few months:

Downloading:

Our next stop was to check out some PS Vita goodies from the PSN store. Here we also noticed that Sony's promise to have EVERY PS Vita core title available for download was being fulfilled. Every launch title was definitely available for download, as well as some PSN exclusive PS Vita titles like Escape Plan, which was available for download at the stunning price of £9.99!

Nevertheless, Mini Gamers wanted to really test the PS Vita's downloading prowess, so we opted to download a couple of films instead. Normally this would have taken around two hours on a standard
PSP console, so we were pleasantly surprised that it only took around twenty minutes on the PS Vita!

The best thing about the PS Vita's downloading process though, was that we could check the progress of the download in the main LiveArea, but were able to continue playing our new games and exploring the console while the download was taking place. This was never possible on the original PSP console as was a really refreshing aspect of the new handheld.

Software:

Mini Gamers will be looking at some of games available for the PS Vita more closely in the coming days, so we won't dwell on any specifics here, but we do feel the need to mention how sharp and clear the graphics were in the games which we tried. The games appeared to be of Home Console quality rather than that of a mere handheld.

Furthermore, some of the finely-tuned Vita only controls really led to some quality gameplay, such as the ability to trace a pathway for Nathan Drake with our fingers in Uncharted: Golden Abyss, but that's another story...

Conclusions:

The debate over whether the PS Vita is a good or bad console continues, but our first impressions of the device is that it is both gaming-centred and socially-orientated meaning that it creates its own exclusive community where people can now play their favourite handheld games not in isolation, or with a sparse collection of friends,  but together, through a solid worldwide network, online.

The PSV has a lot of good aspects to it, such as a touch screen interface, sharp, quality graphics, fast downloads and multimedia functionality, which are all fantastic qualities for such a tiny handheld to possess, but which are somewhat shared by other handhelds (3DS) and gaming tablets (iPad 3) in the current entertainment market, which may help explain why the PS Vita has not yet managed to achieve dominance in this field.

However, the PSV has been able to offer some great gaming titles during its initial launch, and this has also been enhanced by a fully-working download service and Internet Browser, which was something that the Nintendo 3DS was unable to do for several months after its initial launch.

All in all, the PS Vita is most definitely a next-generation handheld, and it offers a range of fun and interactive ways for PSP fans to play the latest range of top-quality Sony games, without needing to fork out for an expensive PS3 console.  This handheld definitely deserves some respect. Overall rating: 10/10.

Panasonic Scraps Jungle Device

Japanese Electronics corporation, Panasonic , has reportedly scrapped plans to release its portable MMO device, (called Jungle,) just four months after its official announcement.

According to various sources of publicity material, the Jungle handheld device was intended to be a small, portable console with a QWERTY style keyboard, which would allow users to download and play Massively Multiplayer Online games whilst on the move.

Mini Gamers first reported that the new handheld was in development back in October 2010. At that time, Panasonic had created the official Jungle website, and were in the process of developing a Battlestar Galactica MMO for the device.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly, but according to a recent article by GameIndustry.Biz, Panasonic has axed the device due to undisclosed shifts in the current gaming market. This seems unusual, as the Jungle's style of Downloadable Content would seem to fit neatly with the rising social gaming trends that we have seen over the past year or so.

This is Panasonic's second failed attempt at entering the handheld gaming market. Their 3DO multiplayer device also failed to attract enough positive attention when it launched in 1993, and the product was quickly abandoned. Now, sadly, it seems that the Jungle MMO device is fated to fade into same obscurity as its counterpart.