Vita Means Life by Sandeep Rai - Book Review

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.

PlayStation Vita - The 2 Old 4 Gaming Collection - Review

The PlayStation Vita was Sony's second (and so far final) portable gaming system. Released in Japan in 2011 (2012 in North America and Europe), the Vita followed in the successful footsteps of Sony's earlier PlayStation Portable (which I have covered here). Sadly, the Vita did not repeat the commercial success of its predecessor, selling somewhere in the region of one fifth of the earlier machine's total (something like 16 million units is nothing to sniff at - Sony stopped advertising sales figures - but nowhere near the 80 million of the PSP). That didn't mean it did not host some truly great games and it's the story of the console and its software that Sandeep Rai has covered in this three volume collection.

Quite the selection!

Funded by three Kickstarter campaigns, Rai's trifecta of volumes are Year One, Years Two and Three and The End respectively. An extra for the third Kickstarter was the Vitazine, detailing the top 100 Vita titles (in the humble opinion of the author) as well as a community voted list and the top twenty PSP games that were available via download. This alone has given me much guidance for starting a Vita collection. Oh, and shame on me for forgetting the three bookmarks (one per volume) included.

A nice little extra.

Year One begins with a 28 page section on the background to the Vita and a potted history of its launch in various territories. I'll not go into reasons here (as you'll have to read this yourself), but Sony did not help themselves when it came to getting the Vita into people's hands and the tale is well told. The following 75 pages are interviews, and what an interesting selection they are, from first party developers such as Evolution Studios and Sony Studio Liverpool, to smaller dev's like Honeyslug to third party publishers Limited Run Games. There is a lot to get into here. In fact, there isn't a wasted page and you get a wonderful feeling for the period immediately after the Vita's launch.

The final 75 pages are filled with retrospectives on 19 Vita titles (both good and bad) that give you a cracking selection of games to aim for if you fancy starting (or continuing) a Vita collection. There then follows a pictorial list of all European and North American physical and digital software releases in year one, plus all first party hardware and accessories, and then finally a timeline of notable events in that first year. As volume one of the set, this is a brilliant start, well written, with numerous screenshots and artwork, and an uncluttered design. 

Years Two and Three is the shortest of the volumes, but still reaches 126 pages. It covers developments like the revised 'Slim' model, the criminally under-marketed (and half-baked) PlayStation TV and the connectivity features to the PlayStation 4. There is only one interview in this volume (but it's an interview with Kinda Funny Games' Greg Miller, so it's a corker), but you get a 30 page retrospection on original PSP and PS One titles available on the Vita (via download), as well as a five page section on the limited range of PlayStation 2 remasters that graced the handheld. Original software gets a 40 page section (covering both AAA titles and indie favourites), plus there is another pictorial list of physical and digital software releases from 2013/14 as well as first party hardware and a timeline for the period.

Volume three, The End, covers 2015 to 2020 and the decline of the console. The stand outs here are the interview with Shahid Kamal Ahmad, head of Sony's PlayStation Strategic Content Division and the retrospectives, covering a diverse range of niche titles (most of which, I must admit, I had never heard of - bad Andu!). These retrospectives are a thing of beauty and show off the breadth and depth of what the Vita was capable of. Finally, you get the software list again, and this time, it's huge - as you might expect from a five year period but considering that Sony let the platform wither away... well, 103 physical games and a whopping 481 digital titles (as of 12th August 2020), well, that's just amazing. All told, these volumes list 229 physical and 661 digital game releases - no software for the console my backside!

The software catalogue is comprehensive.

As noted above, the Vitazine is a list of the 100 top games as compiled by Rai. You get a community top 100 as well as the top 20 PSP games to play on the Vita and a short "Missed the List" page. I know I'll be perusing that list in future purchases!

Hot bookshelf action!

This collection has been a labour of love for the author, that is plain to see. Getting three Kickstarter projects funded and delivered is some achievement. The content is informative and comprehensive, the design and print quality are superb and I am really pleased to have caught the third project and ordered the three physical copies. The Vitazine is icing on the cake, and all four publications will be used as references when I start my Vita collection. Yes, I don't own one yet but I shall, to sit alongside my PSP and its growing library. I'm not sure if physical copies are still available but you can buy pdf's of the whole collection at 2old4gaming.com. You'll also find some Vita videos here from the author's YouTube channel and I suggest you check out some of his other videos too. In the opinion of your humble scribe, the sum total of £13 for the digital collection is a bargain but if you can, go for the physical editions. Very highly recommended!