Stop me if you've heard this one before, but there was this Sony PlayStation Vita fan who wrote a three volume guide about Sony's second handheld wonder and published them via Kickstarter campaigns... oh, what? You have heard this one before? Ah, yes, here...
Sandeep Rai produced three excellent volumes on the PS Vita that provided a wonderful history of the handheld up until 2019. But the Vita continued on for another two years, with a last gasp of titles and an outpouring of grief from fans who didn't want their favourite handheld to just fade away. After positive feedback from his original work, and requests to provide them in hardback form, Rai created this hardback wonder with over 440 pages of Vita goodness.
The contents are divided into the following sections: The PS Vita story, interviews, game retrospectives, a full library list of physical and digital titles that were released on the system, a short hardware guide and a timeline of key events in the Vita's history.
There is a lot carried over from the original trilogy, which is no bad thing if you have read my review here. Four new chapters have been added to the Vita story, plus a new interview (although correct me if I am wrong, please) whilst a lot of the game retrospectives remain as before. Production quality is superb and this would not look out of place on the shelves of Waterstones.
As a benefit of being a Kickstarter backer, an additional reward was the PlayStation Vita Collector's Handbook, a small pocket book listing all of the retail, limited print run, Asian English, and rare games, alongside the various models of handheld. Each game entry contains brief details of its release date, developer, publisher, genre, Metacritic score (where applicable), whether it received a Platinum release and a tick box for you to use once you have that title in your collection. It's a nice touch to the main volume and if I ever get into collecting for the Vita (cost and space issues aside), it will be a handy reference.
Indeed, the same compliment can be given to the main volume. It is a handy reference but, more than that, it is a truly passion filled tribute to the little console that could, even if Sony themselves gave up on it far too early.
This is quite a short review, but one I felt needed writing to highlight the care and love that has been spent on this beautiful tome. If you are a PS Vita fan, you need to own a copy. You can follow the author on Twitter here, where you'll find links to his YouTube channel. If you want a copy of this fine book, pop over to Etsy here and grab a copy. You'll also find more excellent gaming goodies there as well.
Oh, one last thing. Sandeep has announced that he is to publish a book on the PlayStation 3, "It Only Did Everything." This should be launched on a Kickstarter later this year. Given the quality of Vita Means Life, that's sure to be a corker and I look forward to supporting it.
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