Gravity Crash Ultra review for PS Vita

I feel kind of sorry for Gravity Crash Ultra. It’s got a name reminiscent of one of one of the Vita’s highest profile titles. Its gameplay isn’t that far off from Pixeljunk Shooter or Velocity 2X. It’s come out around the same time as Velocity 2X, which, indie game or not, is getting quite a bit of attention and publicity (for very good reason, of course).

Is it better or more deserving of attention than any of those games? Well…no, not really. But those are all among the very best games the PS Vita has to offer; saying that Gravity Crash Ultra doesn’t measure up to them doesn’t tell you a whole lot, since the vast majority of games on the system don’t either.

Indeed, even if this isn’t one of the best titles on Sony’s handheld, it’s not that far off from that level, either. It’s a well-made, stylish space shooter, and there’s ample reason to pick it up.

First and foremost among these is the simple fact that it plays really well. This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, of course; the game’s predecessor, the PSP’s Gravity Crash Portable, was widely praised, with the main knock against it being that it lacked the “twin-stick” part of “twin-stick shooter”. That’s obviously not a problem here, and you can see the improvement, as navigating around tight corners and small spaces is significantly easier.

The gameplay is also enhanced by some very pretty graphics. While the neon palette may not do much to differentiate it from, say, Velocity, it still looks gorgeous. Absent the rumbling feedback you get on a console, there are few better ways I can think of to vanquish your enemies than to see them explode in a cloud of neon stardust. It just looks undeniably cool.

The game’s not without its drawbacks, of course. It isn’t the kind of game that you can sit around and play for hours on end, unless you have an appetite for some highly repetitive gameplay. Also…umm…

Actually, that’s it. That’s the downside to the game: Gravity Crash Ultra is designed for short, quick play sessions, which, all things considered, isn’t exactly a bad thing. It’s a handheld game, and sometimes you just want to whip your Vita out during a short commute or between classes. For those times, this will do perfectly.