I reviewed Shakedown: Hawaii on Vita as one last pour out and send-off for the great portable

RIP OLED

I’m kind of known for my elongated eulogies for dead systems. While others are moving on (or yelling at me to move on) after a platform is discontinued, I’m usually looking for backup Wii Us so I can play Pikmin 3 well into my 60s. No game left behind.

While reviewing Shakedown: Hawaii, I had the chance to play it on PC, PS4, or Vita. I think you know which one I chose. Wildcard baby!

I just can’t say goodbye to the Vita (or hell, the PSP, which I still play) and I don’t think I ever will.

This week, Shakedown: Hawaii is poised to be one of the last physically produced Vita games after Sony canceled cart production, and it could even be one of the last major releases for the system in general. If Bloodstained‘s Vita version hadn’t been obliterated, it would have worn the crown instead. While this isn’t exactly a surprise (Vblank owner Brian Provinciano has a history of following through, and supported Retro City Rampage on the original Wii when nearly everyone refused to), it’s still sad to see, given how many great times I’ve had with the little machine.

The Vita is actually in a situation very similar to the one that the Wii U is in now. Slowly but surely the “must-play exclusives” are leaving the system and heading to new platforms. At one point the Vita was the only place to play the fantastic Gravity Rush — just as the Wii U and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze until it went to the Switch — but it eventually arrived on the PS4.

Now that’s a great thing! If your portable only pushed an estimated 16 million units, you probably want to spread the software love, if at all possible, to a platform that’s pushing nearly 100 million. But you gotta appreciate studios like Vblank, who, in the midst of Vita cancellations left and right (and up and down for that matter), keep the system alive when Sony already pronounced it dead before the insanely overpriced proprietary storage cards were even cold.

I’ll pour another one out for the Vita today (I think my 12-pack is pretty much gone for this occasion), but drink another in honor of companies like Vblank and Atlus, who have been championing the Vita both when there seemed to be very little light at the end of the tunnel and when said tunnel collapsed.

Kanpai Vita!