GamesActionThe Last Guardian12 years on, this PS Vita-exclusive action adventure game still one of the very bestWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesActionThe Last Guardian12 years on, this PS Vita-exclusive action adventure game still one of the very bestWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Sony)
The PS Vita wasn’t awash with big exclusives, and early efforts such as compacted takes on WipEout and Uncharted didn’t assert the handheld’s unique identity. It needed games that shifted the focus – original 3D adventures with the scale of a console title that felt tailor-made for the pocket machine. Enter Gravity Rush, where shifting is everything.
You’ve been framed
(Image credit: Sony)
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(Image credit: Future, Remedy)This feature first appeared in PLAY magazine -Subscribe here to save on the cover price, get exclusive covers, and have it delivered to your door or device every month.
(Image credit: Future, Remedy)
This feature first appeared in PLAY magazine -Subscribe here to save on the cover price, get exclusive covers, and have it delivered to your door or device every month.
Drawing on the power of a magical cat named Dusty, Kat becomes a ‘shifter’ who can change gravity around her. This means she can move freely through the air in any direction, although, as Buzz Lightyear would put it, she isn’t so much flying as falling with style. Tap R1 and Kat hovers above the ground. Tap it again, and gravity shifts in the direction of wherever the camera is pointing, and suddenly you’re plummeting towards the sky or the side of a hotel. Hit a wall or a ceiling and Kat plants her feet on it as if it were the ground. Only the direction of her dangling hair and scarf – somehow still obeying normal gravity – indicate otherwise, reminding you where the real floor is in case you get disorientated.
“Whatever you do in Gravity Rush, it’s always about facing the right direction.”
“Whatever you do in Gravity Rush, it’s always about facing the right direction.”
Whatever you do in Gravity Rush, it’s always about facing the right direction. You wrestle with the right stick to keep the camera in line, then tilt your Vita to fine-tune with the gyroscope to ensure you don’t sail past the monster or building you’re aiming for. The physicality of control is especially taxing in the score attack challenges, testing everything from shifting accuracy to your snowboarding-style gravity slide. Yes, it can be a bit much for Vita’s tiny analogue sticks, but it’s a worthy sacrifice to feel that the whole world is in your hands.
Besides, some of the biggest joys of Gravity Rush are in basic maneuvers. Nothing beats the thrill of soaring around Hekseville, stopping Kat dead in the air, pointing at a faraway object, then flinging her towards it. Or free falling from a peak, hurtling towards the cobblestones, then calmly jetting off to some structure that caught your eye. Outside missions, you spend time collecting gems dotted around town in hard-to-reach places, partly because they upgrade your powers, but mostly for the fun of it. In the end, of course, Gravity Rush was ‘remastered’ and ported to PS4.
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Unlike Kat, PS Vita never truly took off – perhaps the game was too big for a handheld after all, too much of a luxury player. But what a luxury. Sure, it looks sharper and is more easily controlled on PS4, but only that small screen fully captures the rush.
This feature first appeared in PLAY magazine -Subscribe here to save on the cover price, get exclusive covers, and have it delivered to your door or device every month.
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3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
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2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
2
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3
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4
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5
Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”