Do you own both consoles? Which do you play more? I actually think that both of these handhelds are pretty great and I play both pretty regularly, but both have different functions for me.
The PS Vita operates as something of a ‘in-case-you-missed-it’ machine. I use it to play all of the indie games I never got round to playing. I played Hotline Miami like this, Spelunky. I went back to games like Fez on the PS Vita. It’s actually a gorgeous device, with a beautiful screen and a growing library of brilliant, sexy games.
The 3DS? It’s a beast. It has so many legitimately incredible games. My top two favourite games of last year were on the 3DS: Luigi’s Mansion 2 and A Link Between Worlds.
I’d say if I had to choose one of the two, I would choose the 3DS. But the PS Vita? Man. I love that console and it needs way, way more love.
Comments
47 responses to “The Big Question: 3DS Or Vita?”
Ninty ThreeeeeDEEEEEssssssssss.
Threeds, man.
Just like the DS vs PSP last gen: Vita is a really cool piece of tech that costs too much and has a bunch of stuff that isn’t terribly useful to me as a player. That sucks because there are some cool games I’d love to play. The 3DS does everything I like, gives me interesting new game experiences and costs a lot less.
I’ll likely pick up a Vita at the end of the cycle, just like I did with the PSP, but if I have to choose one or the other, I want my streetpasses!
I only have a 3DS but have been considering the Vita because I have been ‘buying’ all the free PS+ games for it so I could essentially buy the handheld and not bother buying games for it very often.
Plus I want remote PS4 play.
ERMAGERD WEEPIN ANGEL
Have both, but really only play the 3DS.
I should join PS+ and get some more games for it that way and see if I play it more often, but the 3DS always seems to win-out in our house.
I have both, and as much as I love my 3DS and the library of games, I’m finding more and more that i’m enjoying my VIta far more than my 3DS. The main reason being that i can import games from japan and america for my Vita, which has made up 3/4 of my vita library, while I can’t on my 3DS. (I want Rune Factory 4 Damnit!!!!)
I get that the vita looks pretty and plays cross platform games well, but if youre talking exclusive titles then I dont think there’s much of a question as to which is more impressive.
The Vita is a great little handheld, but all of the games I really enjoy on it are not Vita exclusives, they’re just portable version of games I own elsewhere. PS+ help’s a lot.
The 3DS on the other hand has a strong library of great exclusive titles that I can’t wait to get back to.
If I could only have one I would choose the 3DS, because I wouldn’t really miss out on many must play titles by not having a Vita.
I voted 3DS, but honestly, why would I play games on either of them when I can instead stare at my steam library, or play some awful free game on my phone?
This guy knows what’s up.
Vita is so appealing to me. It’s heaven for people who like jrpgs and indies (like me!) and it’s got some great stuff outside those two genres, and PS+ sweetens the deal. It’s also sleek and pretty and oh-so-good to hold.
But there’s a reason I haven’t bought it yet (and might never will), and that is solely because I am a cheap, cheap bastard. Never mind the cost for admission, I will always be turned off by those memory card prices. Meanwhile, I netted my 3ds for $99 in a new year’s sale and picked up a flashcard so I can play the 30+ DS games I didn’t get to pick up.
That being said, I am certainly fond of the 3DS. It has a good, varied lineup, It’s first-party offers are as good as ninty makes em, streetpass is always amusing, and I found it much more portable than a vita when I hung unto a friend’s for a while.
We got a wifi model today for 179 from EB and an 8gb card for 29. Not a bad deal. Considering we can redownload the games we want fairly quickly, or keep them on the ps3 hdd and copy them over as needs be for now (until we get another higher capacity mem card) it suits us fine, the fact we’re using it in conjunction with the ps4 doesnt hurt either, but I do get what you’re saying. We have a 3DS as well. The 16gb memcard my son has for that, only cost me like, 15 bucks I think it was? For the Vita for a 32 it’s almost offensive the price. So I’m just gonna have to stick I guess with buying 2 or 3 16gb cards over a period of time *sigh*.
that’s the thing. 8 gig? guy, that ain’t shit. between ps+ and the fuckton of digital content I can possibly buy for the vita…
179 tho, that’s a half-decent price.
Yep *exactly*. 8 gig allows like, 2 games, maybe 3. If I get 3 16gb cards, then I’m ok. But the problem is its a pain in the arse swapping around. *sigh*. That being said I do love the Vita.
The Vita hardware is a bit more expensive once you include the memory card, but with PS+ and regular Steam-level sales on PSN, makes it a way better ecosystem. IMO take the plunge, get a 32/64gb card, PS+ sub and stick to the sales and you’ll have an awesome experience, and in the long term it’s good value despite the starting costs.
It’s a good investment, but it’s a steep one- unless I dedicate a lot of time to portable gaming, it’ll be a long time until it’ll pay off for me. And if I’m going to spend upwards of $250 at the least… (and that’s if I’m really lucky, too.)
One day, though.
Well since I dont have a lot of money and a playstation plus subscription already, the vita by a mile, the cheapest ‘good’ 3DS game I could find is $50, while I got 10 great vita games from PS+ and the store (persona 4 golden for $27)
Hmmm, last hand-held I owned was just a GBA advanced, purchased just for link to the past, and to play multiplayer zelda on the game cube.
I just don’t do ‘mobile handheld gaming’, be in one of these or a smartphone, don’t really have the transport time for it (ie i live literally 2 minute drive from work), and when playing games at home it’s always the big pc or tv gaming.
Any mobile gaming device just doesn’t fit into my life.
But if they did, I’d probably go for the 3ds.
I need the absolute best experience when I game… It’s all about immersion, I want to become a part of that world and stay there as much as possible and the Vita gives that to me where the 3DS can’t. I absolutely respect the 3DS and titles like Ocarina of Time are fantastic, but when I want to be truly immersed…
Killzone Mercenary is an absolutely incredible console quality game, in my pocket. Borderlands-freaking-2 next month! God of War Collection, Golden Abyss, Wipeout, the list goes on… And yes the Indie titles, not to mention PSP, PSOne and Remote play.
Vita, hands down for me. Yes, it needs more love, but what it does produce is amazing.
Vita for me.
I don’t really need a handheld. At home I use my PS3/PS4, I don’t want to play games on the commute to/from work and I don’t travel all that often. But PS+ subscription (and PS3/4 cross-buy) means I built up a collection of Vita games which got to the point where I had so many that it was worth buying the machine to be able to play them. It is handy when I go away on holiday or the rare occasions when I travel for work, and I do use it at home more than I thought I would (mainly because of the life-devouring Persona 4 Golden).
But if I hadn’t had all those games waiting for me, I wouldn’t have bought the device, which is why I haven’t bought or thought about buying a 3DS. When I bought the Vita I wasn’t planning on actually buying any games for it and just coasting along on PS+ and cross-buy games, but I have purchased a few (Everybody’s Golf, Tearaway, Persona 4 Golden and TxK). These are all very, very good games – I’m very happy with the device itself and the games I have on it. But it fills a fairly small niche in my gaming requirements, and will always be second-fiddle to the “real” consoles plugged into the TV.
I have both but I really only use the Vita for Persona 4 Golden. The 3DS just has so many more excellent games that it’s not really a contest.
Having said that, as a piece of hardware the Vita is unstoppable.
I own both systems but my 3DS gets way more use. I’ve only played two games on my Vita and one of them was a PSP game… (Persona 4 Golden + Trails in the Sky)
I’ve owned a 3DS and currently own a vita. Vita has good hardware but there are no games for vita. It’s either older indie PC games or current indie PC/PS4 indie games. There isn’t much point of a vita when the PC/PS4 version will be better. And so much terrible PS3 ports. Why make the port of PS3 games if Vita can barely handle games like Sly 4 or Jak and Daxter. Only reason I still have it is because of PS+.
Tough call. The Vita is a clear winner for me on the hardware front. The 3DS used to win out overall because it just had more of it’s own unique titles, and it feels a little less precious than the Vita. I feel more comfortable banging it around and being rougher with it.
But the Vita’s been picking up speed significantly, and is starting to remind me of the PSP – which is a good thing. More and more Japanese titles are localising their way onto the system, and they’re the type of stuff you just can’t find anywhere else. It’s one of the things that made the PSP my favorite handheld of all time. It’s also picking some amazing momentum on the indie front.
The point being I still think the Vita is a beautiful piece of kit and superior to the 3DS on the hardware front, but for games – both systems are fantastic for entirely different reasons.
They compliment each other quite well – they suit different moods and situations for me, and are entirely unique. Love them both.
The Vita, because I don’t like Nintendo.
Also remote play, plus all the PSP & PS1 games too!
Vita, because you can easily just subscribe to PS+ and get a steady trickle of great games to play. Honestly, until the Vita I pirated the shit out of handhelds because I couldn’t stand carrying around a tonne of tiny cartridges. My Vita is the first one I’ve had where I’m content because I can go completely digital (and PS+ keeps me occupied), and cross-play is fantastic.
3ds because of games library and because it shows that great graphics (even though are pleasing to the eye) don’t make a good game. . .
Both since day one. I enjoy my time with the Vita more. Come at me Kotaku :p
I have both.
Got the Vita for cheap from my best mate & got a limited edition Pokemon Y 3DS last year.
Was going to wait on the 3DS until it got a better battery but the range or excellent games for it was too compelling to wait any longer.
As for the Vita, got it for Persona 4 Golden (my review of it here: http://andthegeekshall.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/game-review-persona-4-golden/) & then transferred my PS1 classics to it. don’t play it all that much because of lack of interested games released in Oz as well as the cost of them (with Vita version of FFX/X-2 being more expensive than the Ps3 version).
The cost of x/x2 hd remaster really confused me too, considering you only get one game and a download code for the other where as the bluray copy has both games on one disc. I bit the bullet and purchased it anyway and so far am loving it, It’s kind of a good thing have one physical and one digital as you can have both on the system at the same time, where as if it were cartridge it would have to be split onto 2 cards.
On the subject of confusing, I don’t get why the MGS collection on Vita only included MGS 2 & 3 and not Peace Walker which was included on the PS3 / 360 versions. I mean… it was a PSP game. The Vita is backwards compatible with PSP. Surely it would have been little to no effort required to include that?
Yeah, that was a huge let down. Another thing that confuses me about the collection is that it’s on sale now for $14 while each game separately Is $25
I have both the Japanese and Australian versions of the game and I must say prefer having both games on physical media.
More expensive for one game on physical media and the other available as digital-only.
Both were day 1 purchases, but recently sold my 3ds which most people would be staggered with but I just felt like I had outgrown it. Vita I still have and love the PS+ content that keeps rolling around.
Vita… I find myself buying games mainly for this device now, than anything else and by the time the Vita is at end of life (hopefully not anytime soon), I will no doubt have more games for the console than any previous console.
Certainly do not care that it is turning into an Indie / Classics PortStation, in fact that is another bonus for me (seeing as I don’t PC game).
As much as I love Pokemon, Mario Kart and Zelda, the Vita is my choice. Because, not to sound all Kanye, but Little Big Planet is THE GREATEST PORTABLE GAME OF ALL TIME.
Vita.
3DS feels like going back in time every time I turn it on, the hardware is just completely outclassed. Doesn’t feel good in the hands. Battery life is terrible. I don’t generally enjoy most Nintendo games (didn’t grow up with them so no nostalgia) and while I have a decent library for it, I don’t really feel like playing much on it.
Also Nintendo’s shithouse back-end makes me very wary about anything digital on the system, because they clearly don’t know what the hell they’re doing. Meanwhile Sony are doing just about everything right with their systems – cross play, Plus and so on. You’ve bought into one consistent and solid ecosystem rather than cobbled-together parts that don’t quite fit with each other the way Nintendo’s done it with the 3DS and the Wii U.
But the biggest reason the Vita is better than the 3DS is the lack of a region lockout. If I can get a game cheaper overseas, I can just import it. If there’s a game that’s not available in my region that I want to play, I can import it. The only way to do this with 3DS is owning multiple systems, which I did and I think it contributed a lot toward my dislike of the platform.
Region locking and Nintendo’s lack of a proper, unified account system are just mind boggling. Everyone else can manage it, and has been doing it for 10 years. Not sure why Nintendo is finding it so hard.
Plus region locking in this age of digital titles, and effortless importing is just cringeworthy.
I completely agree and thought the exact same thing after getting my Vita. Going back to the 3DS feels like going back to the regular DS or GBA compared to the 3DS… It feels like I’m going back in time. The Vita is sleeker, prettier, higher resolution, better sound quality, better interface and online interactions, etc.
The only thing that keeps the 3DS so popular is the game library. There are a lot of great titles for it – such as Zelda, Pokemon, Mario, etc. The Vita really lacks good, NEW games. However, I have 7 games for my 3DS and 22 for my Vita, because the Vita gives you access to PS1 Classics, PSP games and even some PS3 games. If you include those, it has a vastly superior selection of games, it’s just that most of them are not unique to the system.
Vita for me. I own both consoles but so far my vita has gotten much more use, the games are cheaper, I get free games every month the with ps+ and there’s a lot more you can do than just play games. Although I do enjoy my 3ds paying $70 for a 3ds games vs $50 for vita really pushes me towards buying the latter. I really wish there would be some more exclusives for the vita but it does have some really great ports and the small amount of exclusives are great. Soul sacrifice and Killzone mercenary are simply amazing and tearaway tales the cake for any 3ds exclusive.
You should really include a ‘both’ option sweety 😉
For me its the vita. I picked one up around December 2012 so I could play Persona 4 Golden. I initially thought the vita was stupid before owning one. If it wasn’t for receiving free ps+ games and my favorite RPG series persona I would never have considered getting one. I eventually got a 3DS XL Link between world edition and it seemed like a step backwards. Region locked, Overpriced titles, No real account system and pretty bad graphics. I’m having a blast playing Fire Emblem and thoroughly enjoyed Zelda and Pokemon but I cant say I like this system more then my vita. Besides the obvious SD card slot. The Vita was doomed from the start because of those over priced memory cards.
I have a 3DSXL. My wife used it for Mario Kart for like a week before I stole it to play Animal Crossing every day on the train. Now there’s nothing I want to play (after getting bored with ACNL) and she for some reason no longer feels like the 3DS is “hers” so she feels put off of using it.
So, as far as I’m concerned, neither. I was going to get Pokemon X or Y but never got around to it. Now I can’t be bothered.
I hear the Vita is great, but I think I will get even less use out of it.
The PSP and Vita have always felt like something I could skip. I think that’s due to an early push on the PSP to make it clear it could play all the big name titles. Rather than making me think ‘wow, the PSP has all the same great series the PS2 does’ it just made me think ‘ok, I can play the crap version on PSP or the real version on PS2’. It made a few bad impressions with games that struggled to do what the PS2 could which made them feel like cheap knockoffs.
The DS on the other hand impressed me early on with games that provided an experience entirely separate from consoles. It had me playing my DS games at home. My consoles had to compete with the DS for my attention. There were plenty of games that could be easily ported to consoles, but it always felt like they were built from the ground up for handheld gaming.
I look at the situation now and I know none of it applies anymore, and a lot of it only barely applied to begin with, but it’s one of those first impression things where it just sticks with you. Vita still sicks in my mind as trying to bring a watered down console experience to my pocket while I think of the DS as something I can pull out and play at home or on the go.
3DS, I just love the catalog of games it has (I mainly bought it for Bravely Default and Phoenix Wright games). Its a bonus that a new Persona game is coming out for it as well.
I will be picking up a Vita for P4G though.
i own both and LOVE my Vita
for rpgs, indi games, ps1, ps2 remote play, videos
it is fantastic
if only the memory cards werent so stupidly expensive.
that said i really like my 3ds too.
it has a fantastic game library but i find it uncomfortable to hold and the screen is crap (compared to Vita)
plus i like having digital copies of all my games and the 3ds store just doesnt have the same level of sales and benefits that the psn does
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+1 for vita. I’m personally over some of Nintendos anti-consumer policies. and I like how well the vita ties in with Sonys home consoles. I know some people are saying all the multiplatform games are a minus, but I like the flexibility, especially with cross buy, and at least the vita is capable of running multiplatform games *cough*rayman*cough*.
If a game coming out in both Vita and 3DS, I will pick Vita version over 3DS for the beautiful OLED vibrant colour and higher resolution.
I love both my Vita and 3DS but I’m sure everyone knows Vita is lacking games. 3DS is getting tons of exclusives and AAA at that making it triumph over Vita by a leap mile. Vita is slowly catching on now and I believe they will compete nicely in the future, if Sony make it smart and let us use SD memory card 😛
Both are equally amazing. Both have amazing titles to play on the go 🙂 and with all the love that the 3DS is getting you don’t need to waste money on a Wii U.
plus the 3DS has the advantage of a huge back catalog of DS titles.
Vita has gorgeous resolution and screen. Way more awesome JRPG. and better media functionality but both are amazing!
As far as online goes the Vita wins hands down. with the cheap PS+ sub you get free games every month and amazing sales on cool titles.
NDS online store is pretty lackluster (but has AAA tittles at cheaper than retail for once!)
Really enjoying my Vita; even if it is an indie/port machine, there’s so many games that I’ve missed out on that I adore on the Vita. Hotline Miami comes to mind, a perfect port, and I’m just about to start playing MGS2/3 on Vita, neither of which I’ve played before, in addition to the PS3 versions because it was cheap to buy both with the Easter sale.
I have both and I play both regularly, but the Vita wins because it allows task switching (to a certain extent), has party chat, a proper friend system and I have friends I regularly play games with. It also has two analogue sticks. Despite what the trolls say, I have enough games for it that I regularly have to shuffle games to and from my PS3.
3DS had a nice head start for me (and it’s still my handheld of choice when I go to conventions… DAMN YOU NINTENDO AND THOSE ADDICTIVE MII GAMES!) but Vita has started to overtake as of late…. mainly because of the very many games available for import on Vita. Meanwhile I have to pray for an AU release on 3DS thanks to the joys of region locking.
Vita. I had a 3DS first, bought a Vita and I love it. The store has all these cool little tidbits and indies, UI is cool and it’s just got all these little nice things.
One reason the ps vita is failing over the 3ds is the games. The 3ds has games like SSB 3ds and super mario 3d land which are games not found on the wii u. The ps vita games just seem to be ports from other systems like the ps3. That means the 3ds has exclusive games for it. And the games are diverse. Not just mostly RPGS and indies like the ps vita. There are fighting , platform, adventure, life simulation, and mystery games on the 3ds and most are First Party.