Why Did I Buy A Playstation Vita?

At the time, it seemed like such a great idea. Back in February of last year, when the Vita was first released, it was a brilliant piece of technology. Graphic capabilities and processing was much better than the PSP, it had touch screen capability, cameras out the ying-yang, and dual analog sticks for control. Did I mention it's backwards compatible with most PSP titles? Even before it was released, I knew I wanted one.

But DAMN was it expensive! I'm not exactly rolling in dough, and I already have a PS3 and a PSP, and because I didn't have a ton of free time on my hands, I just couldn't justify spending the money. So I kept my eye on it, biding my time until some great deal came along. I should have just stopped there and let the dream die. I should have asked myself, "Why do I even want a Vita?"

My justification at the time was that I would be getting a much better gaming device than the PSP. Nevermind that there didn't seem to be any exclusive titles that interested me. Even if there were NO games I would play on the Vita, I would still have a cool piece of hardware that could do a hundred things the PSP couldn't. And the marketing for the Vita was phenomenal. "You mean I can transfer some games from the PS3 to the Vita and back again!" Unbelievable! Again, I should have just quit it.

Along came Black Friday 2012, and with it, a slew of Playstation Vita deals that got my mouth watering. This was it! I'm finally getting a Vita! After patiently searching, I found a bundle that was priced right, and I bought one without a second thought. It came bundled with a game (Assassin's Creed: Liberation) and a Memory Card...the two things that I was going to have to fork out extra cash for. I was so stoked! The device came a few days later, and I hastily set it up.

I was blown away immediately. The touch screen and networking was responsive, the graphics and sound capabilities from AC:Liberation was awesome, and I was even surprised by a couple things like the front-mounted camera and the touchpad on the back of the device. Absolutely amazing. But after about a week, I started to realize something...maybe the Vita wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be. I started to realize that the Vita was really similar to the PSP. Obviously, there was a technical difference that made the Vita slightly better, but on the whole, the Vita could only do a couple more tricks. And besides, what's the point of those tricks anyway? I mean, my Droid Incredible 2 can do everything the Vita can do and then some. Sure, it can't connect to the PSN, but who cares? I have a PSP for that...Oh god...

I realized I'd made a huge mistake. It was right around the time I was finishing up with AC:Liberation, completely bored out of my mind with it. I'd also downloaded Playstation Battle Royale, and that, too, left much to be desired. I scrambled online to check out what titles might be coming up that would pique my interest, but nothing sparked my attention except a few titles that would be on PS3 anyway. I kept trying to justify the Vita's hardware capabilities, but the more I did that, the more I realized how redundant it was. I'm not going to boot up my Vita to Skype, or watch movies, or *gasp* play games. I couldn't even play my old PSP games on it because I came to find out the backwards compatibility was for downloaded games only...and everything I own is on a UMD.

So the Vita is on eBay now, heading off to someone else's life. I hope they are happier with it than I was. Many of you might think that this is simply a case of an uninformed  buyer not listening or doing his research well enough. There is plenty of truth in that, but I will say, that I bought the PSP doing the same amount of research and really just wanting it because I wanted it, and I am a thousand times happier with my PSP. The Vita, I think, just isn't badass enough for the times. It needed to do something greater than any other handheld device could do, and sadly, it just kinda...didn't. 

Oh well, maybe I'll buy a Nintendo 3ds.