PlayStation Vita vs Nintendo 3DS

So, we’ve seen both the PS Vita and 3DS in action now - the two titans of portable consoles hoping to woo gamers away from mobiles and Xbox with their charms in the years to come.

But the big question on everyone’s lips is, “which is better?”

Naturally, it’s going to be practically impossible to judge at this point in time, thanks mainly to the fact that the Vita isn’t even out yet.

That’s never stopped us in the past, though.

I’m just getting word that the warm-up bout between the Atari Lynx and the Sega Game Gear has been brought to a close after both competitors ran out of juice halfway through round one, so let’s go straight to ringside for the main event.

I still feel embarrassed about whipping out my 3DS in public.

The problem isn’t so much that it’s badly designed (although why they moved the power switch to where the start button was located, I’ll never know), but more that it looks like a children’s toy - even in the fetching blue-green colour.

The joystick nub is fine for general usage, but isn’t in the most comfortable position for hitting the shoulder buttons if you have big hands like me, which makes beat-'em-ups that bit harder to handle.

The Vita, apart from having a silly name, looks a lot sleeker - sporting that familiar PSP look with the added benefit of having a rear touchpad consisting of the iconic PlayStation symbols.

The dual analogue sticks means that there’s no longer any compromise to well-loved genres, and the larger, higher-resolution screen looks a joy to behold.

While you’re still going to feel a little more self-conscious pulling out the Vita on public transport than, say, your mobile phone, at least you won’t be holding the same device in your hands as the 12-year-old girl on the seat opposite.

Winner: Vita (1 - 0)

It’s hard to knock the upcoming lineup for the 3DS, consisting as it does of either stone-cold classics from days gone by (Ocarina of Time, Star Fox, Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater) and franchises that have never disappointed (Mario, Mario Kart).

But there’s not too many third-party releases on the horizon, especially from Western developers / publishers. Sure, there’s FIFA, but if that isn’t a cut-down version of the real thing with 3D gimmicks attached, I’ll eat my shoe. Or football boot.

On the other hand, the Vita’s lineup contains more second- and third-party releases, with almost every title an extension of an existing franchise (like the stunning-looking Uncharted: Golden Abyss and LittleBigPlanet).

The flip side is that, while it’s hard to bet against something like Uncharted: Golden Abyss being an essential purchase, Vita lacks the same quantity of universally acclaimed games as the 3DS right now.

WipEout and Super Stardust, for instance, may be beloved series to you and him, but they have just as many detractors as fans, while Call of Duty is an unknown quantity on handhelds.

Still, it’s hard to say which handheld will win out eventually in this area right now, other than we should expect to be playing some really great games on both systems in the near future.

Winner: Gamers (1 - 0)

When we heard that friends codes were making a re-appearance in the 3DS, at least two members of staff had to be restrained by the security services, such was the fury that coursed through their veins.

Thankfully the new friends codes are not quite as hateful as those on the DS, being as they are restricted to just the one-off adding of people to your friends list. They’re still not the most intuitive of systems around, mind.

Even after you’ve added someone to your friends list, there isn’t actually that much you can do, other than get constantly fooled into thinking you have low battery by the flashing notification light when they come online.

The Vita, by contrast, is set up as a proper multiplayer gaming system from the get-go.

PSN connectivity, trophies, proper friends lists, and (if you’ve forked out a bit more cash for the machine) 3G connection means that the Vita is likely to storm well ahead when it comes to multiplayer gaming.

As long as no one hacks the network again, there’s no way the 3DS can stand up to that.

Winner: Vita (2 - 0)

The 3DS’s battery life is bad - truly bad.

For a company that won so many previous generational battes by providing machines that could reliably run for days on end, seeing the 3DS choke after a few hours really is a depressing sight for this DS Lite fan.

However, it’s interesting to note that battery life is the one thing that Sony has been very keen to avoid during its reveal of the Vita.

There has been a mention from the company that it would be ‘on par’ with the PSP, which, if true, would put the Vita's battery lifespan on a par with the 3DS's.

We’ll have to see it with our own eyes before we can fully believe it, mind, and it still falls short of what we’d have liked from a portable games console.

Winner: DS Lite (pardon?)

If there’s one thing you can’t knock the 3DS for, it’s the size.

Folded away, only the tightest of skinny jeans pockets will have a problem accommodating the machine, and coat pockets almost feel specifically designed for its size.

The Vita, by comparison, is a rather large beast that can’t be reduced in size for carting around.

It’s also likely to require another of those slipcases the PSP comes in to protect the attractive screen, which will no doubt just add to the depth of the device and will likely lead to me losing it down the pub again like last Tuesday.

Winner: 3DS (2 - 1)

Two touchscreens, two joysticks, and a nice display - the Vita seems to cover all bases when it comes to ensuring gamers get an authentic console experience on the go.

Yet while these additions are very welcome, they’re not overly innovative: the DS was bringing touchscreen gaming to the masses in the last generation, and we doubt a second stick will produce anything more than just riffs on established genres.

The 3DS, on the other hand, has both the innovative local wireless StreetPass functionality and is the first ever 3D-without-glasses console.

Yes, it looks nigh on identical to the last generation of DS consoles from the outside, and its tech isn’t exactly cutting edge inside either, but there is literally no other games console out there that does what the 3DS can do.

Whether or not the 3D effect is welcome is a moot point for this category. In terms of innovation, you can’t get much more innovative than that.

Winner: 3DS (2 - 2)

Vita wins this one. What do you mean, "you can’t just write that?"

Alright, fine. Vita wins because it’s packing in a quad-core processor with a powerful mobile GPU that can render graphics in 940 x 544 in a level of detail the 3DS could only imagine.

Meanwhile, we’ve already started to see games run at half speed on the 3DS when the 3D effects (one of the platform’s unique selling points) are switched on, which doesn’t bode well for much advancement in graphical fidelity further down the line.

Yes, yes, “graphics aren’t everything”, “the most important part for games is whether or not they’re fun to play”, and all that.

But this section isn’t called ‘fun’, it’s called ‘power’, so stop moaning.

Winner: Vita, obviously. (3 - 2)

When Nintendo announced that retailers would be setting the price of the 3DS during its Amsterdam presentation, the world of gaming collectively shook their heads in disappointment.

Surely, if retailers had the final say on the price point, all that would lead to is fixing it high for Maximum Profit, leaving us gamers with a very sore wallet in the process.

How wrong were we? In one of those rare instances of capitalism in action, retailers fought tooth and nail to get the best price, with the console already available for over £50 less than it initially retailed for (£179 from Amazon).

Sony isn’t taking as many chances with its own machine and has already stated the prices - the wi-fi model roughly comes in at the initial price of a 3DS (£229.99) and the 3G version a whopping £50 more expensive (£279.99).

Logically speaking, the fact that the Vita is more expensive than the 3DS means it should lose this section by default, but then you have to factor in the far more powerful specs.

Indeed, given the relative power difference, it seems like a decent price to us. So, rather than go with our heads, we’re going with our hearts with this one and declaring the winner of this section as...

Winner: Gamers (3 - 2)

Anyone who’s used the 3DS for longer than a few minutes will know of the excellent StreetPass and AR capabilities of the device.

StreetPass in particular led to half the Pocket Gamer office engaging in competition against each other, while the prospects of games like Animal Crossing or Pokemon utilising the system gives us all goosebumps just thinking about it.

And, of course, there’s also the 3D-without-glasses display and 3D camera. The latter may be merely a distraction, but we get the feeling the former still has some way to go before people can truly write it off as a gimmick.

The Vita doesn’t have something that can rival those features, but it does have a number of tricks up its own sleeve that have us stroking our beards in thought.

Primarily, this is down to the revamped controls, which sees both dual analogue joysticks and dual touchscreens working in tandem.

Even if the touchscreen controls end up being a gimmick, dual sticks open up a heck of a lot of established genres - like first-person shooters - that the PSP just couldn’t manage very well.

Then there’s the mysterious Near and Party Room, which were first unveiled at E3 and look to add a nice range of online social functionality to the machine that the 3DS sorely lacks.

Overall, it’s hard to pick a winner here. We do love StreetPass, but we also like playing our favourite genres without hobbled controls.

Winner: Both (4 - 3 - 2 -1)

So there we have it! The PS Vita has won out against the 3DS with four points to three, with surprise contender DS Lite managing to pick up one of the judges votes along the way despite it not even taking part in the fight.

I guess all that’s left is for me to say goodnight and thank you for joining us for what sporting historians will likely call in the future, the bes-. What’s this?

It seems like there’s one more round to go - why wasn’t I informed about this? I don’t have my autocue set up!

Fine! We’ll do it live! We’ll do it live!

Back when the DS and PSP first launched, critics wrote off the strangely backward touchscreen design from Nintendo as dead in the water, thanks to the sleeker design of the PSP and vastly superior power.

Yet it was the under-powered device that won the day eventually, becoming the most popular handheld console ever created over its lifespan, and continuing to sell well today.

The lines appear to have been drawn this time in a similar manner - the lightweight Nintendo machine up against a Sony powerhouse. It would take a very blinkered gamer to rule out the 3DS just yet.

But then the current climate is very different from when the PSP and DS were released.

Cheap smartphone gaming has exploded in the interim, and a recession has left people with less cash to throw around on full-price portable games than before.

How will this affect the sales and adoption of these two new machines? Only time will tell.

In any case, we have two new portable machines that look to offer a tangibly different gaming experience.

I’d say that was a win-win for pocket gamers.