10 Best Looking PS Vita Games

Rayman Origins is the fourth main game in the Rayman series and the first since Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc in 2003. It looks like a moving cartoon, and its artists only had to pose a model and edit its outline while the software handled the stretching. Critics praised its graphical style and its sense of humor. Sales were sluggish at the start, but it sold well in the end. The Vita version is mostly the same game, with Relics added.

Players who pick it usually pick both Rayman games together. They say it still looks great years later, because a painted cartoon has nothing to lose to time. It is the older of the two, and it gets ranked like the younger sibling.

Gravity Rush started on the PlayStation 3 in 2008 under the title Gravité, and then it moved to the Vita. Director Keiichiro Toyama had the idea before he made Silent Hill and the Siren games. Its world and art style came from Japanese and Western comics, including the work of the French artist Jean Giraud. You play Kat, and you tilt the Vita to take gravity into your own hands. Critics praised the art style and Kat, but not the controls.

Players call it gorgeous, and several name it in the same breath as Tearaway when they want a Sony game that shows off the screen. It is a floating city seen from every angle, often while you fall through it sideways.

Persona 4 first came out on the PlayStation 2 in Japan in July 2008. The expanded Golden version came to the Vita in 2012. You move to the small town of Inaba for a year and help investigate a series of murders linked to a world inside television sets. Golden adds new story content with a new character called Marie, plus extra voice acting and more animated cutscenes. Its music is by series composer Shoji Meguro.

Players pick it for its colours, which they say look best on the first model's OLED screen. They also bring up its opening sequence, which still gets people excited years later.

Golden Abyss is a prequel set before Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Sony asked Bend Studio to make it in 2007. The Vita's specs kept changing, so much of the early work was done on PS3 hardware. The team wanted the look of the PS3 games with fewer polygons, so it mixed 3D models with painted backgrounds. Critics praised its graphics and its voice acting.

Players still call its jungles beautiful. They are just as quick to say the frame rate drops in the busy parts, which is why it sits this low. For a game that had to be ready on day one, that is a fair trade.

George Kamitani first planned Dragon's Crown as a Dreamcast sequel to Princess Crown, a 1997 Saturn game he directed. Over the next decade he pitched it to several publishers, and he was always turned down. Atlus took it on after the first publisher, UTV Ignition, left the games business. It is a beat 'em up for up to four players, and Vanillaware hand-paints every detail, down to a blade of grass.

Players call it stunning, and they love that it is all hand-drawn 2D. It had sold over a million copies by 2017, so the long wait paid off.

Legends is the fifth main Rayman game and the direct sequel to Rayman Origins. On the Vita you control Murfy in some stages with the touchscreen, a feature only the Wii U version shares. It has more than 120 levels, including 40 remastered ones from Origins. It runs on an improved version of the Ubi Art Framework engine from Origins. Critics praised its visuals and its soundtrack.

When players split their picks into technical and artistic, Legends is one of the first names on the artistic side. They expect it to keep looking good long after the realistic games have aged.

Tearaway comes from the people behind LittleBigPlanet. You play Iota or Atoi, a papercraft messenger with a message to deliver to you. You draw designs on virtual paper, cut them out and stick them on your character. In one part you draw a paper crown for a character with your finger on the touchscreen. Early in development it was called Sandpit. An expanded remake, Tearaway Unfolded, came to the PS4 in September 2015.

Players call it gorgeous, and they say it looks so sharp because it runs at the screen's native resolution. Its colours are bright enough to make the OLED screen shine.

Wipeout 2048 is a prequel to the first Wipeout from 1995, and it is set in 2048, 2049 and 2050. It was the last game Studio Liverpool made before the studio closed, and the last main Wipeout. The team said the Vita's smaller screen made it easier to develop for. Critics said its visuals showed off the power of the new Vita, but they did not like the long loading times.

Players say it still looks stunning, and some rank it above every other Vita game. The tracks really pop on the OLED screen, especially in Zone mode. Few racers make a crash look this good.

Muramasa Rebirth is the Vita version of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, a 2D action RPG set in Japan during the Edo period. George Kamitani based the story on kabuki theatre, with Japanese folklore and Buddhist theology mixed in. You play the princess Momohime or the ninja Kisuke, and you collect 108 blades along the way. Rebirth has a redone translation. Its Genroku Legends add-ons are four more stories based on Japanese folklore. Critics praised its art and music, and they called the fighting fun but shallow.

Players call it gorgeous, and some say it is the best looking game on the Vita. It finished just behind the top spot, which is a lot for a game with no polygons to show off.

Mercenary is the second handheld game in the Killzone series. It is also the first Killzone not made by Guerrilla Games. You play Arran Danner, a mercenary hired by the ISA. For the first time in a Killzone campaign you also fight alongside the Helghast, and you choose your own tactics and loadouts. Critics praised its controls and visuals but not its story or campaign length. IGN called it "the best portable shooter ever made".

Players rank it first by a long way, and most call it the best technical showcase on the Vita. They point to its lighting, and they say it beats Uncharted by a mile. It is the closest the Vita came to a PS3 in your pocket.