five-excellent-playstation-mobile-games

The PlayStation Mobile platform is slowly growing into a nice bonus for PlayStation Vita owners. iOS-style cheap games with button controls? A perfect complement for the more full-fledged Vita games.

Buy a couple of these and your Vita home screen will quickly fill up with icons. Of course, the nature of the platform means there is going to be a whole lot of really bad games that no one should ever play, and just like the iOS app store discoverability is a bit of an issue.

And so we’ve created a little list of games (five, to be exact) that represent the best of what the PlayStation Mobile platform offers for Vita owners. Considering that combined these games cost less around $20, you can hardly fault value for money here:

Cubixx

A 3D take on Qix, Cubixx is a challenging, hugely engaging take on the classic formula. With six square faces to navigate around spacial awareness is brought right to the forefront with this game. Once you get the hang of that, racing around the faces of the cube, slicing away big portions of them at a time and scoring massive multipliers becomes compulsive.

There’s no real goal to the game other than the leaderboard, but then it does not need more than that.

Aqua Kitty

One of the many retro throwback games that are already on the PlayStation Mobile platform, Aqua Kitty is a take on the classic Defender formula. Rather than in space, this game takes place under the sea, but you’ll be doing the same thing as that classic game – fighting off hordes of enemies while protecting the defenceless folks on the sea bed (miners, in this game).

It controls tightly and has a charming art style as well. There’s a surprisingly large number of levels too, making this game one that will last.

Haunt The House: Terrortown

This has got to be the most creative game on the PlayStation Mobile platform, and with any luck it will be expanded out into a “full” game. With one of the most striking art styles of any game on the Vita, let alone the PlayStation Mobile platform, Haunt The House tasks players with taking control of a ghost, possessing various objects throughout a range of buildings, and scaring the inhabitants out.

Needless to say, this game is laugh-out-loud fun, and the best $5 I have spent on a game in a very long time.

Lemmings

Mobile platforms have been a brilliant outlet for classic game revivals, and Lemmings is one well worth revisiting. This game offers up a classic action-puzzle experience that has barely aged at all – like Tetris, the basic game is as good now as it was back when it was originally released.

Best of all, if you want to test for yourself whether this game still holds your attention, it’s a free download with microtransactions to fund the rest of the game if you find yourself hooked. Which you will.

Frederic – Resurrection of Music

It’s rare that a music game really pushes boundaries with creativity, so leave it to a tiny indie outfit to come up with a unique game in the genre. See, this game takes the music of Chopin, and remixes it across various modern music styles (rock, reggae, and so forth). The gameplay itself is standard, but the remixes have to be heard to be believed.

This game is proof that a music game doesn’t need popular tracks to be effective. Resurrection of Music has an insane (but entertaining plot), interesting mechanics, and one of the best music game soundtracks ever. It’s premium priced by PlayStation Mobile standards, but nonetheless essential.