PSP was a great handheld. Do you think the VITA surpassed it?

[asmith906]

PSP wasn't as powerful as the PS2 so devs for forced to make games that played to it's strength. Sony wanted Vita to be a portable PS3 but the problem is that it simply wasn't powerful enough. That's why a lot of the big games they pushed on it simply didn't work. I still love my Vita though.

To me Switch is the fully realized vision of what the Vita was supposed to be.

 

[Foffy]

No. I think it was better hardware, but it has a pretty poor software lineup. To me, it only ever got as far as what the PSP started as, a home of definitive editions that were ports. Many of those are on other platforms now.

 

[StrangeRoboMemory]

Vita hardware was truly godly.

 

[spman2099]

The Vita hardware was incredible. It is absolutely one of the best feeling (and best looking) handhelds ever. Software wise, I think the PSP crushes it. Thankfully PSP games look amazing on a Vita (and it is backward compatible), so you get the best of both worlds with that one.

 

[Vito]

The Vita played everything the PSP could and more (technically, since it could only play digital releases) which in my eyes makes it a better system than the PSP

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It can't play Crisis Core so it loses by default.

 

[SpaceBridge]

Last year I sold my Vita to cover some bills between pay checks. I miss it. Mostly due to playing PSX & PSP games. Miss Vagrant Story and Peace Walker.

 

[BasilZero]

No. PSP was legit one of my favorite handhelds of all time, probably second only to the GBA. The Vita was good for how short lived it was, but it never got to the PSP's level.

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This pretty much.

 

[FinFunnels]

I LOVED the PSP. I bought one when the 2000 ("Slim") series was released and it blew me away. It felt like something from the future with its big screen, high res graphics (compared to GBA and DS) and multimedia capabilities. And it had so many good Japanese games! It almost felt like a portable PS2 with its array of JRPGs, SRPGs, and even music games like Project Diva and Gitaroo Man. And then there was stuff like Monster Hunter, Metal Gear Peace Walker, the God of War PSP games (which were actually decent). Also, I used the web browser on it A LOT since I didn't have my own computer at the time.

Vita was a decent handheld and I was super hyped for it before it came out, but it ended up being kind of a disappointment. It was big and bulky, so playing it for long hours was kind of uncomfortable. The games and memory cards were too expensive. The game library was no where near as good. No Monster Hunter. Very few original games (most of them were inferior ports of PS2 or PS3 games). It did have a few stand out titles like Gravity Rush, Soul Sacrifice, Persona 4 Golden and Hot Shots Gold: World Invitational. But all of those games except for Soul Sacrifice have superior ports on other systems now.

 

[GamerJM]

I think they're roughly of the same quality in terms of library, but the Vita's hardware is going to age much better. Additionally, the Vita is my preferred way to play two of my favorite games ever (Persona 4 Golden and Virtue's Last Reward), while the PSP just has a bunch of really solid stuff that doesn't approach being one of my favorites. So, it's a rough choice between same and better. My heart says better but logically I probably value them about the same.

 

[HotHamBoy]

I don't think people give Vita enough credit for being the incredible indie machine it was.

if we we're just comparing retail games I'd give the library to PSP but with PSN factored in the Vita takes it.

hardware-wise the Vita also wins.

personally, I don't really care about whether a game is exclusive when rating the library

It can't play Crisis Core so it loses by default.

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Having played some Crisis Core I don't really think it's that big of a loss
Now, Gitaroo Man, on the other hand...

 

[Kindekuma]

For me, the Vita was just a Persona 4 and MGS2/3-on-the-go machine for me. I do however REALLY loved Gravity Rush.
Other than that? Not a whole lot going for it for me. PSP was a monster in terms of output. You had Dissidia FF, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, MGS Peace Walker, Persona 3 Portable, etc.

 

[Squarehard]

Yes and no.

The device itself is a masterful piece of work, and an awesome handheld at its core.

The library really didn't quite get as much quality as it could've had, as it started to turn into quantity more than quality towards the middle and the end.

The overall support for the device from Sony is really what just ruined the system itself too as it's early on stifling of the progression in the device was apparent.

It could have been, but the Vita really was just too short lived for what its potential could've been, which is a shame.

At least the PSP lived out its full life, while the Vita never had a chance to from the very beginning, so we would never really know.

 

[OhSatan]

No but Yes

It was cut short by a lot of things but its high were as high or higher than the PSP and it could do everything that the great PSP could do.

 

[Noisepurge]

Vita has most PSP games so obviously it's superior :D indie games are also it's best offering

 

[Hibiki]

I would say Vita, due to remote play, Vita library, plus digital PSP library, but the PSP is the only one of the two that you could play Metal Gear Acid 2 on it so it has the edge there.

 

[HylianMaster2020]

One of the things when you play a handheld is that the clock is ticking on your hands...

 

[fiendcode]

Vita was less impressive for it's time and has a far far far weaker library.

 

[hanshen]

Kinda?

It delivered on the hardware and had some really amazing games. With that said, the genre variety wasn't as good as the PSP. We never got GTA or many AAA games on it.

At the end of the day, the psp library and the PS1 games being on it was good. So were all the indies on it.

The Vita truely shines when you hack it. That's when it becomes magical.

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There's an open-source port of GTA3 on vita. It runs perfectly.

 

[Pein]

No because sony put some real muscle behind psp, you had heavy hitter god of war, MGS, final fantasy and kingdom hearts titles.

PSP was so good.

 

[mute]

PSP had the better library. And if we exclude hacks, the Vita could only play a subset of it.

 

[brambles13]

For exclusives PSP wins in a complete blowout and it's not remotely close. PSP is a top 3 system ever period imo.

I still love the Vita for having many good PS2-era ports (MGS, FFX, Sly, God of War, Rachet, Odin Sphere, Ninja Gaiden, etc...), the best MonHun genre games, most of the best indies of the past decade pre-Switch, and a litany of Falcom greatness along with much much more. Being an exclusively portable gamer, the Vita was my console of choice last gen and I still play it regularly. It also introduced me to genres like visual novels.

Still overall counting ports PSP wins too but not by as much. The litany of classic game collections on PSP (especially Sega and SNK) were a huge boon to a relatively poor me back in high school and college. Beyond that it is the GOAT system for SRPGs by a mile. It also has (uniquely for a portable) a large amount of great western developed games like Pursuit Force and GTA. Ultimately PSP has a really deep library, there is a reason I have more PSP physical games than any other system (although Vita is third).

 

[Clive]

I'm not that big on handhelds and I feel the PSP gave me more reasons to force me to use one thanks to big games in franchises I love plus some neat new IPs. I don't regret buying a Vita but there's probably about a handful of games I care about on the console which aren't just downgraded ports. Many of these later got ported to home consoles/PC too like Gravity Rush and Tearaway.

Don't really care about hacks either since anything a hacked Vita can do can be done on a system better suited for my needs.

 

[Yasumi]

I enjoyed the Vita library far more, since a lot of the much more niche stuff actually got localized.

 

[AmFreak]

PSP = device from the future
Vita = device from the past

 

[ZeroX]

Absolutely not. Vita was a disaster and flopped for good reason. Abandoned by Sony after a year and the best exclusive it ever had was Lumines at launch.

PSP was a beast with a dramatically better library. Like barely comparable lmao

 

[evrythngwastakn]

PSP = device from the future
Vita = device from the past

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this. Getting the psp and playing hot shots golf and lumines was mind blowing.

 

[Valkerion]

I like my vita more as a machine even if I have not used it as much. I used it like a PSP2 personally to finish PSP and PS1 games mostly while also dipping into the occasional vita only title. Especially after getting a PSTV/Vita TV whatever it is called for SUPER cheap, its an amazing device. Like I said though I rarely use my Vita despite loving it. Maybe once every other year I start it up and play for maybe 2 months straight.

Sony undoubtedly made all the wrong moves with Vita from launch but I think among owners its a well received piece of tech but I'd give the edge to PSP overall it has terrible control schemes but some real hidden gems.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

Vita will forever be the GOAT handheld.

PSP did have better AAA content though. Damn near every third party franchise was on the PSP in some form. It's thanks to indies that Vita's software lineup is so good.

 

[Deleted member 16876]

There's an open-source port of GTA3 on vita. It runs perfectly.

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Yeah and Vice City coming soon. (Possibly this month which sounds awesome).

The dream is San Andreas showing up... (If this happen...)

 

[Theswweet]

I have to say, I've been really impressed with the Vita homebrew/hacking scene. It really took a while to take off, but the last few years have been *fantastic* with software support.

 

[Manmademan]

Hardware? Yes. Not even close. Vita was a much better designed system.

Software? Other way around.

 

[Deleted member 16876]

I have to say, I've been really impressed with the Vita homebrew/hacking scene. It really took a while to take off, but the last few years have been *fantastic* with software support.

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It is one of the best homebrew scenes ever.

Someone is even working on making Dreamcast emulation work. There are a bunch of games that are playable with it.

If someone gets Saturn emulation working on it then it would be the GOAT.

 

[RealDealRusty]

I loved my Vita so much. What an incredible system and the indie support was great, but I don't think it surpasses the PSP. The first and 3rd party support on PSP was great. Patapon, FF, God of War, etc.. Tons of unique first-party games that felt made for the handheld.

 

[Jon God]

In every angle besides high cost support.

Better hardware, more ergonomic, better backwards compatbility out of the gate, better launch lineup, better online play, better online store, so many quality of life improvements, better indie support, lots of lower budget Japanese support, etc. Also best mobile place to play fighting games ever.

While we got Gravity Rush and Tearaway (both some of my favorites of all time), the higher budget support dried up too fast. Such a shame.

 

[thepenguin55]

PSP over the Vita? Y'all love UMDs that much huh?

 

[EdgeXL]

The PSP had more support from western third party publishers than the Vita. Games like GTA never appeared on Vita and I feel that hurt the system

One thing that fascinates me about the PSP is how it had features that were ahead of its time. It had a photo viewer, an mp3 player and it could play movies. You could even make Skype calls on a PSP. All of these features came to smartphones but it really shows how Sony was ahead of the the with the PSP and behind the times with the Vita.

 

[Giga Man]

The PSP was a great MP3 player.
That's about it.
Oh, those two Mega Man games were dope.

 

[yyr]

Who are these 188 messed up people who voted no?

The PSP was great for its time, but the Vita is objectively better in every way: amazing screen, more horsepower, better battery life, better controls including one of the best D-Pads ever, Internet capability, and best of all, its amazing game library WHICH INCLUDES most of the PSP's library (or all of it if you hack). It also features a slew of newer JRPGs and indie games that run wonderfully on it.

I don't *think* the Vita surpassed it...I *know* it did. Except in popularity, I guess.

 

[ghibli99]

Admittedly, I put way more time into playing my PSP. Both systems had great games, but I just enjoyed the former more. Probably because I put so much more time into the 3DS library than I did the Vita. Plus, I was bitter for a long time about those memory card prices.

 

[Tokyo_Funk]

PSP had an amazing library, and devs were surprisingly ok with trying to get the most out of it or at least trying to get lots of home console like experiences. The only thing that let it down was the UMD format and lack of second control stick, though to be honest they were probably going for cost over function with the UMDs.

The Vita hardware wise is superior in every way, clearly but also the functions and design. This is peak Sony cramming everything they can into a package. The library had potential, unlike Nintendo with their DS, the things that separated it from the competition were not used as much as they should have. There was lots that could be done with both the front and back touch pad, but I also suppose people were probably a bit tired of gimmicks also at this point. When the Vita shined, it shined bright. KillZone Mercenaries, WipeOut, Gravity Rush, Uncharted, they're all amazing software and showed what the console could do. Then games like Call of Duty: Declassified come out and you wonder why they bothered to treat the license that way, or ports like Borderlands 2 that should not have happened at all. You give devs all this power and then they half arse it. You give devs the weaker and more limited PSP and they managed to get amazing stuff out of it. It's so weird.

 

[DealWithIt]

By itself no, but I love that it still played digital PSP and PS1 games

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This is the correct answer.

 

[TheThirstyPrisoner]

The Vita is one of my favorite systems of all time (and I started with NES in 1989). I still play it almost weekly, and have an extensive backlog on the system.

That said, games make the system, and as amazing as the hardware is, it most definitely did not have the support that the PSP did. Going by dedicated library alone, Vita doesn't even come close to PSP.

Still, if I could play the same games on either piece of hardware (which I do) I would definitely choose Vita.

 

[Shizuka]

While it wasn't as "iconic" as the PSP was and didn't get as many high-profile exclusives, I do think the Vita surpassed the PSP in the Vita's strongest niches.

 

[bombermouse]

Vita is my favorite handheld of all time, but part of it is its backwards compatibility. If judging native libraries then I guess psp wins. I still like my vita more.

 

[Necromanti]

Not even close, personally. I could probably count the number of exclusive titles worth playing on one hand. Many downports had notable performance issues as well. Probably the most disappointing system I've ever owned.

The most baffling thing was probably the fact that my PSP Go had Bluetooth controller support (so I could use the DualShock 3), and the Vita didn't.

 

[ZeoVGM]

Not even close.

Sony basically abandoned their own console after it released.

 

[Ladomania]

I hacked my vita the other day, so it's it's pretty much the psp2 for me.

 

[Lothars]

I think they were pretty similar and I still feel that the vita and psp are two of the best portable systems ever made up there with the gba.

 

[zoodoo]

The Vita played everything the PSP could and more (technically, since it could only play digital releases) which in my eyes makes it a better system than the PSP

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This is not true. Even when hacked some psp games have problems they did not have on psp hardware.

On topic, I prefer the psp. It was revolutionary when it came out and I prefer the psp buttons.

 

[Watershed]

The PSP had an incredible library with production values you could not find on any other portable.

The Vita was a dream that doomed itself by offering near-console quality gaming on the go. No developer was going to invest the necessary resources into Vita game development, not even Sony itself. Still, I loved what the Vita could have been. It was an amazing dream.