The PlayStation Vita was an… interesting system, to say the least. Essentially a PlayStation 3 on the go, the handheld device was part of Sony’s master plan to misread the market and believe that handheld titles need to be on the level of high-budget AAA console games. As a result, it turned out to be one of PlayStation’s biggest commercial failures, and it now lives firmly in the “what could’ve been” boat.
It was a funny little system, though, and these days, a lot of its appeal comes from the rediscovery of the platform’s forgotten titles. One Twitter user, @hvg_core, reminded the world of one of the Vita’s strangest games; they brought us back to 2014 and the world of PlayStation Vita Pets.
Exactly as you’d expect, this was essentially Sony’s answer to the Nintendogs craze… almost a decade later. It had many of the same hallmarks of that game, but it had one thing Nintendogs lacked: voice acting. Though, based on @hvg_core’s video, maybe it’s for the better:
Of course, this is merely one isolated moment in the game, but it definitely paints an awkward light on it. While this writer is quite a dog lover (and probably loves his dog more than most people), after having to watch a dog talk about how much they like being, erm, stroked…maybe it’s for the best that real-life dogs don’t talk.
Sadly, it sounds like this is the most newsworthy part of the game, as it appears to be little more than a Sony-licensed rip-off of Nintendo’s cultural phenomenon from the Nintendo DS era. But hey, if you have a PS Vita laying around (and very little better to do), maybe it’ll be worth giving the game a look. After all, the PS Store is still open for now, and it’s only $20…you could probably do worse.
Published: Apr 28, 2023 12:03 pm