Touch My Katamari is a PS Vita launch title that is very strange as you may not understand what kind of game it is anyway. Main gameplay consists of rolling a stretchy ball called a Katamari which controls consists of using the touchscreen and rear touchpad to do movements of both the character and the ball. Synopsis here is King of All Cosmos demands satisfaction as the playable character Prince is tasked with bringing the King an amazingly rolled up Katamari ball of many goodies stuck to it such as blocks, cubes, pyramids, and even giant spheres for example. Stretching and squeezing the Katamari ball is like clay and actually looks and feels so real. King of All Cosmos looks like a giant and has a candy roll for a head and also has his face in front of it. The face looks photo-realistic, which is rare in a video game. The Katamri ball can be made flexible to fit through tight spaces and stretched wide to catch that big ol' giant sphere.
Touch My Katamari is a decent casual game but it can be hard to understand exactly what the story or even game is about. The gameplay does play well and the entire scenario seems appealing to artistic community. The graphics and gameplay are decent but I do feel this game can be hard to understand at times given I haven't been able to understand exactly where this game is going to go next. While quality is decent it does bring out confusion as to what to do next. Touch My Katamari gets a 7.5/10 Points being:
+Decent look
+Fun artistic flavor
+Playable and flexible gameplay/controls
-Can be Repetitive at times
-hard to understand story
Little Deviants is also a PS Vita launch title that focuses more on arcade style gameplay than an actual story. Types of gameplay will for one have you banging robots off the screen by either touching the front screen for backward facing robots and using back touchpad for banging forwards facing robots. Second is shooting targets in augmented reality with the PS Vita camera being used, projecting the real world view in front of you while you use the machine gun turret to shoot targets and move the PS Vita like a camera using motion sensing. third one to mention is a game where you use the touchpad to move the ball to the key and next portal and is done by moving your finger under touchpad to move the ball.
There are 30 mini-games to be played here. While I do comment on how good this game is done I do feel this game can be repetitive and fails to offer more. I like how most of this game works as it creatively takes advantage of PS Vita capabilities, proving the PS Vita is an impressive piece of hardware. These mini-games could be easily design for and made cheaper on iOS and Android tablets. I feel that some games could have been controlled better such as for example I didn't like poking the touchpad for the ball to move as much as I would tilting the PS Vita. Lasting appeal for this game will be short and this game could have been made cheaper by cutting it up into separate and cheaper iOS and Android apps.
Final verdict is a 6.2/10 with Points:
+Impressive Visuals
+Creative Gameplay Mechanics
-no Lasting Appeal
-Overpriced for a game of this nature
-feels repetitive
FIFA Soccer(2012) is a soccer sports game and I'm pretty disappointed at how small this game looks on handheld consoles. The players look so small that they look smaller than a tack. The game does however have variety in gameplay to it as different modes exist where you can play as either a player or coach for examples and game mechanics works just fine. There's an endless variety in teams and real players. You can choose either to create your own player or select from a real player. Sadly the player's appearance won't make much of a difference as the players look too small! Despite the ant size players, the graphics aren't grainy and qualify as being HD. Different modes such as career mode will have you playing like a pro in the good ol' soccer games. The game also takes advantage of touchscreen capabilities and has online head to head matches.
Despite FIFA Soccer's good intentions, I feel that it feels lackluster when you're playing it as you can hardly see the players due to them being so small and could have improved on making the game more understandable to go through as sometime when making selections I an bombarded with options I don't intend on. What I mean by that is menu selections aren't as simple as they should be.
Final Verdict is a 7.2/10. Points here are
+Good Intentions
+Great Gameplay Structure
-Too Small Player Size
-Complications In Selections
Ben 10: Galactic Racing is for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS & 3DS, and PlayStation Vita but the Vita version is the one I reviewed. This game is much like Mario Kart as it has you racing with other Ben 10: Omniverse characters on a variety of tracks and environments. You can collect power ups like you can in Mario Kart and Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing. The game features different types of stages and modes such as Galactic Grand Prix, Single Race, Time Trials, Showdown, and Multiplayer. What I like about this game is how the AI seems to enjoy racing and how the characters actually seem real as if they were the real Ben 10 characters. The tracks are made to resemble what you would see on the Ben 10 Omniverse show. In making a game based off a TV show, Ben 10 Galactic Racing greatly was able to resemble not only gameplay from Mario Kart but also display from what you would see from Ben 10 Omniverse. Each racer has their own vehicle and special ability. Unlike Mario Kart, Ben 10 Galactic Racing doesn't have that lasting appeal to it as while it is a decent game it falls short of being as recognizable as Mario Kart or even Sonic & Sega All Stars. For the PS Vita version, I had to use motion sensing controls instead of a D-Pad or analog stick which really handicapped me as I often over steered and failed to get far in races.
Final Verdict for this game is a 7-7.5/10. Points:
+Decent Gameplay
+Great Effort in Design
-Fails to achieve lasting appeal like Mario Kart
-motion sensing controls throw you off balance*
*= For versions using motion sensing steering
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