Our Handheld Game of the Year 2012 is Gravity Rush by Sony’s Japan Studio. This action RPG was hotly anticipated during the PlayStation Vita’s early, slightly barren days. With a unique gameplay mechanic that played around with gravity itself, and a striking visual style, it was a breath of fresh air when it finally made its way west in June.
Gravity Rush made good use of the Vita’s peculiar control methods, with targeting possible via the tilt controls. It was directed by Keiichiro Toyama, who is best known for his work on the Silent Hill and Siren games but Gravity Rush had more of a kitsch comic-book sci-fi feel to it that matched that pseudo-cel-shaded visual style perfectly.
This category was one of our closest, with both Gravity Rush and second placed Uncharted: Golden Abyss receiving the same score of 12 in our weighted voting system. Gravity Rush won by virtue of receiving more first preference votes than Golden Abyss (3-2). MotorStorm RC, a game which cost a fraction of the price of most others in this category, was very close behind in third place.
Here’s the chart showing our top five in relation to each other.
And here’s the league table showing each game in this category which received at least one vote.
- Gravity Rush
- Uncharted: Golden Abyss
- MotorStorm RC
- LittleBigPlanet Vita
- PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
- Velocity
- Rayman: Origins
- WipEout 2048
- Assassin’s Creed: Liberation
- MGS Snake Eater 3D
- Everybody’s Golf
- Pokemon Black & White 2
- When Vikings Attack!
- New Super Mario Bros 2
- NfS: Most Wanted
KeRaSh
I really liked GR, even though I never actually finished it (not even half of it…).
It’s nice to see that a new franchise can still get such high praise. I’d rather have one new Gravity Rush than two more Uncharteds. Not because I don’t like UC, but because I really like to see more diversity in gaming.
Klart
Great to see much Vita love here, first 3DS title only at spot 10 and you can even play it on the Vita as well. I love my Vita, it really is a gamer’s handheld. It feels like I have another playstation 3.