Celebrating the Vita in 2021

As the Vita feistily scraps its way into a 10th year as a handheld powerhouse, things are still happening for the console that Sony forgot. In small groups, people seem increasingly enamored with the little beauty and the gaming community around it. 

Years have passed since the sales-failure, over-priced memory, perception took hold. Yet gamers are still picking up a Vita to play the Danganronpa series, Persona 4 Golden, Tearaway, endless indies and their choice of jailbroken/homebrew retro fun. 

If you're new to the Vita, here's the list of games you should be playing! 

The real battle for most people is to find a good quality-second-hand model, or one with early enough firmware to be able to homebrew. There were still plenty of gamers snapping them up, often imported from Japan, over the festive season, and prices remain high and will likely go higher as the pool of quality units inevitably shrinks. 

More games on the way

And the ride isn't over yet, with a decent raft of quality games on the way for 2021, even as Sony taps its watch and moans about last orders at the bar as it wants to shut down the old PSN. Check out the release list for the full line-up, but my magnificent seven most-awaited releases are:

• Lazr (Garrick Campsey)
• Habroxia 2 (Lillymo) 
• Aqua Kitty 2 (TikiPod)
• Unmetal (Unepic)
• Pixel Noir (SWDTech) 
• Hearth Forth Alicia (Alonso Martin) 
• Drifter (Celcius) 

A couple might not make it as the clock ticks down, but there are plenty others in development, along with full-on homebrew releases bringing a new generation of developers to the Vita. And with that near-decade backlog, there's plenty for collectors and newcomers to enjoy.

The Vita that launched many ships

As time runs out for the Vita in terms of new releases. Now is a good time to remind us all of the huge amount of good it has done for the wider gaming community. It helped get Limited Run Games started with a physical release of Breach and Clear on the Vita, which in turn saw a several niche publishers jump on board. Eastasiasoft, Strictly Limited and RedArt among them helped keep Vita ticking along, and made many developers' dreams come true by getting their games on physical media. 

Limited Run game #1, where it all started

On the media side, Vita Lounge gave us our own print magazine, for 26 fun-packed issues, and helped set the platform for successful several Switch publications that can keep gamers in the art of reading as newsagent magazine sales continue to slide. 

While 2 Old For Gaming's Vita books are treasured reads, and the author is keeping going with a top 100 games zine, and will hopefully provide much more insight on other platforms to come. Along with them there are a few successful Vita YouTube channels, plenty of streaming activity and players gathering together to keep multiplayer alive. 

And art, don't forget about the creatives some superb Vita-related creations like Alchemist Candy's range of badges/pins. There's more to come after a hugely successful Kickstarter and such craft deserves our support. 

But, the best thing that has built up around a finely-crafted piece of silicon and plastic is a fantastic community of gaming lovers that somehow skates by the vitriol and hate-posting that goes on across most other platforms. To this day, #VitaIsland remains a useful and friendly source of advice and encouragement for new and old players, alerts about delisted games or spare parts, finding bargains online and helping share games and news. 

Welcome to the new Vita owners, those who have dusted down a long-forgotten unit, or those who have been here since the start! We're all on this island for a good few years yet.