I currently own: 360, PS3, Wii and a decent gaming PC. I also own a Vita and PSP, when it comes to the portables. My son owns a 3DS, and my other son has a DS and a Ipod Touch. Pretty much the only thing we don't have is an Ipad (we do have an HP TouchPad), DSi XL and PSP Go.
Anyways, here is my take on the Vita:
I think the Vita is an absolutely outstanding piece of hardware. The price however, is too high for the general gaming public. The crazy thing is, when the price was first announced at last years e3 (before the 3DS price drop), I thought it was an amazing price. However, once the 3DS dropped it's price to $169.99, the Vita started to seem MUCH more expensive. Then, when we found out about the whole memory card thing, it became even MORE expensive. It's amazing how the perspective on something can change so quickly. What once seemed almost like a bargain, now seems very much overpriced. I don't blame people for not being interested in the Vita, when you pretty much have to spend about 3 big ones, to walk away with a brand new Vita, memory card, and a game or two. 300 clams is a lot to ask for a portable device that isn't an Ipad. (Don't get me started on the whole Apple thing)
I didn't pay retail for my Vita, and I admit that is part of the reason why I love it so much. I was bumping around on Craigslist one day, and noticed a bunch of Vita systems for sale. I decided to shoot a lowball offer to one guy on Craigslist, and was shocked that the dude accepted my lowball offer. Thus, I'm now a Vita owner. The thing is, I paid less than $200 for the hardware, and I've only paid about $18 or so per game that I have (currently have 6 Vita games). I got an amazing travel case for only $10, and I've been able to get memory cards for about half their retail price.
I absolutely love the Vita, but a big part of it, is the fact that I've been able to get all my Vita stuff at a pretty hefty discount. It's hard for me to blame the general public for not supporting the Vita, when most of the general public is not going on craigslist lowballing people for deals, lol. Most of the general public just wants to go into Best Buy or GameStop, and just pick up a Vita, but they start looking at the wall of Vita games, and notice that 99 percent of the games have a $39.99 price tag on them. So, they walk out of the store without a Vita. Not surprising, because I would behave in the exact same manner. It's truly a shame though, because the Vita is really an absolutely amazing handheld. Every time I'm playing Fifa Soccer or MLB 12 The Show, I have to pinch myself to convince myself that I'm not playing some magically shrunken portable PS3 system. I mean, seriously, Fifa Soccer and MLB Baseball are so close to the PS3 versions in visual fidelity that it's a bit scary. Same thing with Uncharted and Wipeout and Hot Shots golf. All of these games have absolutely blown me away with their quality. That 5 inch OLED screen is truly breathtaking. The amount of detail that you're able to see in a game like Hot Shots Golf is truly extraordinary.
My only complaint with the Vita at this point, is the pricing of the PSP games for download on Vita. I guess I must have been out of my mind to think that I would find a plethora of PSP games for about 5 bucks that I could download to the Vita. To my amazment, I couldn't find a single PSP game for 5 bucks. I did find some TG-16 and Neo-Geo games for $5.99. Now, if those TG-16 and Neo-Geo games were $1.99 or maybe even $2.99, I might actually consider a few of them, but no way on God's green Earth am I paying 6 bucks for those games. I would have loved to buy Daxter for PSP for like 5 bucks, or maybe even 6 or 7 bucks, but for 15 bucks? Are you kidding me? That's my biggest beef with the Vita at the moment. Other than that, I'm in absolute 7th heaven with my Vita. I can't wait for May 29th and the release of Resistance on the Vita.
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