PS Vita's promise for the game player is straightforward: a PlayStation 3 in your pocket. That means a ridiculously beautiful and high-resolution screen, two tiny analogue joysticks, and the rest of the buttons found on your now-obsolete PSP. It's also got smartphone standards such as touch screen, tilt control, accelerometer, cameras and microphone, as well as a Vita-exclusive touch panel on the back of the device. Alongside the gaming, few will be surprised to discover that Facebook, Twitter, foursquare, Skype, Netflix, PlayStation Video Store and Google Maps are just a few of the big-name social and shopping add-ons that are now pretty much obligatory for anything that can connect to a modern network. It's light, the battery lasts a respectable few hours' play, and the unit itself is frankly gorgeous. Whether there'll be room for it in pockets already weighed down with smartphones and iPods is debatable, but here are some of the titles it's launching with this Wednesday to further whet your appetite.
PS Vita: £229 (wi-fi only) or £279 (3G & wi-fi)
Launch titles roundup
Uncharted: Golden Abyss
Arriving mere months after big-budget console release Drake's Deception, Golden Abyss delivers a similarly polished adventure, with superb voice acting and characterisation keeping things lighthearted, even if the aiming is a little ponderous in its frequent gunfights. Still, it brings an unlikely epic grandeur to the world of handheld gaming.
SCEE, £44.99
Wipeout 2048
Wipeout has been helping Sony launch consoles since the original PlayStation and it doesn't matter – aside from appearing here in exquisite high definition – that this features essentially the same hover racing, block-rocking beats and mildly psychedelic visuals that made the series famous. It's still a thrilling game.
SCEE, £34.99
Modnation Racers: Road Trip
There's no go-kart game in the world to compete with Mario Kart 7 but Modnation Racers: Road Trip gamely has a go by throwing in endless customisation options, from track creation to accessorising your driver in innumerable amusing ways. Sadly this is missing an online multiplayer mode, which will seriously limit its long-term appeal.
SCEE, £34.99
Reality Fighters
This plays like a simplified Virtua Fighter, with staccato moves blending into combos easily triggered by button mashing. The story mode offers racially stereotypical interludes from Mr Miyagi, your caustic trainer, and the novelty of staging augmented reality fights on your own coffee table is underpinned by decent, if uninspiring, fight mechanics.
SCEE, £24.99
Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition
From the mildly unhinged mother hen mini-game to the world tour's familiar mix of training, matches and rest periods, this is everything its console big brother was, with an added Vita-only "touch vs" mode, where you play against a friend on the same screen, plus a VT cam that lets you take photos of yourself alongside your virtual player.
SEGA, £34.99
And the rest...
Other launch titles for PS Vita include Little Deviants, a set of boring mini-games to encourage exploration of its controls; Escape Plan, a monochromatic platform game with Tim Burton influences; Everybody's Golf, which does its usual grand job of making golf fun; and Ridge Racer – like Wipeout, an essential for any new Sony console.
