Demo Review: Gravity Rush for the PS Vita

So, short story, I had to get the tires replaced on my car and got stuck in the Wal-Mart for over an hour. After wandering around the entire store with the 3DS in my pocket, I wander back to the video games and, after wishing I could play the Skyward Sword demo they set up without thinking about Wii Motion Plus in-capabilities, I gave my inquisitive mind to the Vita.

First thing I want to say about the demo set up is I find the large speaker from behind the display very deceptive. Of course it has better sound than the tiny, excuse me, it's rather giant, handheld console. Anyways, I was poking, literally, around on it and saw an app for the Gravity Rush Demo. I thought "Gravity RUSH! That's an AWESOME name for a game. So I clicked it and started and immediately had to restart it because the touch controls on it were a bit janky.


So it kicks off and you're this girl who doesn't remember so much, but you know this night-sky colored cat has the answers and it quickly reminds you of your gravity controlling powers. Not so much controlling all gravity, just which direction gravity has on you, allowing you to fall from the ground to the side of a building or even stop and change your trajectory of falling. It's actually a brilliant and fun concept. Soon you fight some monsters, which were wildly reminiscent of the Twili, and then we start getting some problems. Apparently, evasion controls are touch screen, which is inconvenient considering I have both thumbs occupied with control sticks AND the screen is rather far away, but that might just be how I hold the system comfortably. Furthermore, while I was playing, she evaded attacks or nothing seemingly at random, but it could be because I was using the played-by-hundreds-of-dumb-asses demo system, I don't know, but if it janks up that badly for real, it will not bode well in the game, or the Vita's, future. Personally, I'd have liked evade to be a button, I mean, L would be an awesome evade button, or even the side arrows. I don't know what the game had in store for those buttons, but swiping the touch screen is extremely inefficient. Anyways, there was a mini-boss where I had to deliver flying gravity kicks, which was only hard because I kept evading in the middle of my attacks for no reason and then the demo was over.

The visuals are pretty dang cool, too.

 Gravity Rush looks really awesome. Concept-wise it gets an A++ from me because it has a fun new game play mechanic that does control well, despite what I say about the evade mechanic, and story-wise, it does imply to have a well thought out origin and goal for the protagonist. I think I'd be all over Gravity Rush if I were a Vita man, since it's a rather hush-hush title that shows inner shades of brilliance.

BUT WHO KNOWS?! MAYBE IT GAVE ME ALL THE GOOD STUFF IN THE DEMO, since you know, that's the POINT OF A DEMO! But I really liked where it was going. In the demo.