Vita Means Life

by Sandeep Rai

The PlayStation Vita was labelled a failure within weeks of its launch - even before it was released, the gaming media’s expectation was doom and gloom for Sony’s second handheld system.

Despite this, the system significantly exceeded lifespan expectations and found a dedicated audience of fans. This book explores the history of the Vita, including retrospectives of the games that defined the system and interviews with developers of major third parties.

Genres: Video Games

440 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[P.J. Benney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was the first and only thing I've backed on Kickstarter and I would consider the project an overwhelming success. The book is really a celebration of all the creativity and innovation that went into the games for this console. The printing is high quality, the writing style is simplistic but authoritative, and the photography and overall design are clean, fitting and mostly high-quality.

The book is mainly split into three sections. The history and development of the console takes up about 100 pages of the book and it's a very interesting read. The interviews with certain devs take up about 100 pages as well. This content was presumably provided over email and the original text simply dumped into the book "authentically" without any interference - I'm afraid there are a lot of typos and spelling mistakes in this section. It could have done with some editing and proofreading. (examples include lower case i for I, missing apostrophes in "cant" etc., apostrophes in the wrong place, double spaces, and some typos and wrong words e.g. using out instead of our.) Whether you're interested in the ten or so games that have been covered here will vary depending on your tastes. If you're interested in game development it'll all surely be of interest.

Then you've got 200 pages of retrospectives about some of the most popular and/or acclaimed games on the system, many written by other contributors. Here the excellent quality resumes, and each double-page spread is colour-coordinated to the individual game, for a really authentic look.

Overall it's a really cool coffee table book with all the stops pulled out. There's a collector's checklist in the back, plus my edition came with the Collector's Handbook (an even bigger... checklist, I guess?) and a very nice bookmark. Nice work. If you're a gamer, developer or any kind of creative you will find the struggles of devs itching to put their work on the Vita quite inspiring - especially those that did it knowing that they were actually making a loss (hats off to Ratalaika) and were working for the absolute love of it. The only downside of reading this book is... you'll be left with an overwhelming urge to pick up your Vita again. As if you needed an excuse!

[Vaughn Highfield · Rating 1 out of 5]

Backed this and I'm incredibly disappointed. The interviews with developers are really interesting and the highlight of the book, but everything else is in dire need of an editor. Endless repetition within the same sections, unstructured articles with thoughts scattered across the page. Much of it reads like it was bullet pointed and then turned into paragraphs, it also makes many claims about how people perceived Vita without any real evidence or sourcing to back up claims. Reads very much like a vita fanzine vs preservation journalism. Comparing this next to the likes of the Dreamcast retrospective or Britsoft/Japansoft and it's seriously amateurish.

[Andy Jerrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s designed like a magazine with pictures taking up entire pages and multiple columns of text on the same page. The concept is great and it’s pleasing to look at, but the “history” is a slog to get through.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a massive Vita fan, which is why i read this in the first place. Regrettably, it is littered with mistakes and it was clear to see where the author lost interest in the project towards the end of the book. Still a nice wee history of an iconic console.

[Nayef · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must have only for vita fans as to capture history
But could have done better with interviews.