Level 1
I forgot to ask them if the Vita display case came with a lock and cable mechanism to secure it and still play it. One store did point me to a out-of-town GameStop that had a playable one. The second store in town had the nerve to put the price of Road Trip ten dollars more than the retail price. They had it priced for $39.99! The greedy ba$tards!
Level 3
So I picked it up and I actually don't mind it - there are 3 things that ***** me off with it and some things that I actually think are an improvement over the PS3 version:
Things that are awesome:
- Bigger more visible props - so many of the props in MNR PS3 combined with the speed you move at are waaay too small. With the Vita version I was pleasently surprised to see some of these scaled up. Was fun seeing my snowmen actually become road obstacles on Frosty Coast 
On that note as well I actually think the graphics are very good.
- One Speed Setting - I HATE that I need to test and build my tracks for the PS3 version to work with multiple speeds settings. I'd much rather have one speed class to work with... that being said the speed in the VITA version is too slow.
- Pretty Close to the PS3 version - the fact that I can play my tracks on the go and they look almost as good as the PS3 version is simply awesome
Things that suck:
- Framerate and overall speed - framerates get a bit choppy not much more to say there and the overall speed is a slower then I would like. I actually think Elite is too fast and pro is more of an ideal speed but the Vita speed choice is closer to Rookie (maybe a bit faster).
- Load Times - I expected these to be bad as I know most of the lengthy load times stem from how the tracks are stored datawise.. but yeah still horrid.
- Many of my tracks are broken! Now I need to go back and fix them all... sigh.
Level 3
As far as graphics: I'd say the Vita sits in-between the PS3 and PSP MNR games. It leans a little more towards the PS3 side but the frames and stuff are still blocky. Take Tag's kart for example. Instead of having a smooth rounded edge the kart is a bit on the pointy side. There's quite a bit of pop-up off in the distance on the SDS tracks which is a little disappointing. And a few of them seemed birthed from UFG tracks from the PS3.
Messed around with the control settings and ended up with one that made L the boost and a face button reverse. Think it was triangle. The Vita's face buttons lack that pressurized feel of the PS3 so they "click" a lot and are relatively small compared to a DS3 (dual shock 3). The shoulder buttons are wuite improved from the PSP though. The touch was responsive. I didn't have any problems what-so-ever with the touch controls. However, I have been using touch screen devices for some time now. Even my remote's touch-screen now...lol Drifting felt a bit floaty, but it took no time getting adjusted. The on screen indicator for incoming weapons is not to my liking. It puts a red targeting reticle right on your kart. That got turned off quickly. Weapons are a bit more crazier and if a lot is going on its kinda hard to tell what's ACTUALLY going on. If u shoot a weapon in the air a temporary shield comes exactly like your regular shield but the color of the item you fired and can block your line of vision on landing. So firing a weapon in the air + mine in front = blind fury lol... Load times were killer though. The were comparable to the PS3 BEFORE the patch.
As far as karts and mods the creations process has been a bit more stream-lined so u don't have to "re-learn" everything after leaving it for a while. Grouping stickers is way easier when u can position the stickers with your fingers. That said, what the PS3 community has come with so far w/o having such controls is nothing short of amazing. That goes for tracks too.
I didn't play the career so I've no idea how that works just jumped straight into racing and took a quick look at creating. Some goes for the Near features, Time trials, etc...
Level 3
abc123Y wrote:4. CONTROLS
Good God, they messed up. R isn't analog, so only one speed, L is the useless Brake. circle and X are the same (hurrah!) Triangle is to shoot weapons and Square is boost. Good luck shielding/firing while boost-drifting! Hint: it's VERY hard. Also, since there is no L3/R3 , you can't honk T_T
Conclusion: Controls are horrible so no buy, unless for some reason they integrate custom controls, a la LBP2 and it's Controllinator.
There's this thing in the start menu called "Options" where you can change the control layout. One of the schemes is very close to PS3 controls. R1-gas, L1 -boost etc...
Level 3
abc123Y wrote:Thanks for pointing that out. I only played one race. Next time I go to a Best Buy, I'll try to change the layout.
But the lack of L2-3 and R2-3 really reduces the possibilities. That's the Vita's fault, not MNR.
Your original point about the controls stands though. It's a very odd default set up and without two shoulder butttons it's really sucky. Example, you have to hit "up" on the d-pad to shoot triggers to open shorcuts and stuff which means you have to stop stearing to be able to do that. Who thought of THAT one?
I was really surprised to see alternate control schemes anyway though. The PS3 version doesn't have options.
Anyway, here's my initial demo impression. I was at Target for some other reasons and thought about impulse buying the VITA so I went to check out the demo unit. Tapped the MNR:RT demo and it went to a black screen and started to load. I waited....and waited.....and waited....and waited. It wouldn't get out of the black screen and wouldn't respond to any button pushes. The demo bricked the VITA.
I took that as a sign, no VITA purchase for me. (I was able to play the demo a few days later at BB though)
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