12 years on, this PS Vita-exclusive action adventure game still one of the very best

The PS Vita wasn’t awash with big exclusives, and early efforts such as compacted takes on WipEout and Uncharted didn’t assert the handheld’s unique identity. It needed games that shifted the focus – original 3D adventures with the scale of a console title that felt tailor-made for the pocket machine. Enter Gravity Rush, where shifting is everything. 

Gravity Rush was initially planned for PS3, in fact, but Sony Japan Studio reworked it to fit Vita, finding smart ways to cope with the hardware limitations. The visual style, inspired by the work of French graphic artist Jean Giraud (aka Moebius), does a lot of heavy lifting in open-world steampunk city Hekseville. Detail in your immediate surroundings contrasts with cel-shaded townsfolk and block-shaded backgrounds to resemble scenes from a graphic novel, supported by a story told through comic panels.

You've been framed 

As for that story, well, it certainly goes places – often to an alternative dimension, from which you’ll retrieve whole chunks of the city that were sucked into black holes – but rarely intrudes. Mostly it’s a means of giving you different things to do, from grabbing escaped balloons to tracking a master thief and battling interdimensional dragons. It also elevates these activities by presenting them through the eyes of protagonist Kat. She can’t remember who she is or what’s going on, but equally she’s a brave sort who throws herself into things without much worry. And that’s important, because you have to throw her into things a lot. 

Drawing on the power of a magical cat named Dusty, Kat becomes a ‘shifter’ who can change gravity around her. This means she can move freely through the air in any direction, although, as Buzz Lightyear would put it, she isn’t so much flying as falling with style. Tap R1 and Kat hovers above the ground. Tap it again, and gravity shifts in the direction of wherever the camera is pointing, and suddenly you’re plummeting towards the sky or the side of a hotel. Hit a wall or a ceiling and Kat plants her feet on it as if it were the ground. Only the direction of her dangling hair and scarf – somehow still obeying normal gravity – indicate otherwise, reminding you where the real floor is in case you get disorientated. 

You will get disorientated. In no time you’re shifting at speed, stopping momentarily to alter course, then whizzing off elsewhere. Or you’re fighting shadowy enemies called Nevi – odd blobs that range in shape from crab things to bulbous-headed giraffes and flying squid. Sometimes you can burst their pustulous weak points by staying grounded and giving them a shoeing. More often you must use Kat’s plunging gravity kick that allows her to keep smashing their soft bits from above. 

Whatever you do in Gravity Rush, it’s always about facing the right direction. You wrestle with the right stick to keep the camera in line, then tilt your Vita to fine-tune with the gyroscope to ensure you don’t sail past the monster or building you’re aiming for. The physicality of control is especially taxing in the score attack challenges, testing everything from shifting accuracy to your snowboarding-style gravity slide. Yes, it can be a bit much for Vita’s tiny analogue sticks, but it’s a worthy sacrifice to feel that the whole world is in your hands. 

Besides, some of the biggest joys of Gravity Rush are in basic maneuvers. Nothing beats the thrill of soaring around Hekseville, stopping Kat dead in the air, pointing at a faraway object, then flinging her towards it. Or free falling from a peak, hurtling towards the cobblestones, then calmly jetting off to some structure that caught your eye. Outside missions, you spend time collecting gems dotted around town in hard-to-reach places, partly because they upgrade your powers, but mostly for the fun of it. In the end, of course, Gravity Rush was ‘remastered’ and ported to PS4. 

Unlike Kat, PS Vita never truly took off – perhaps the game was too big for a handheld after all, too much of a luxury player. But what a luxury. Sure, it looks sharper and is more easily controlled on PS4, but only that small screen fully captures the rush.

This feature first appeared in PLAY magazine - Subscribe here to save on the cover price, get exclusive covers, and have it delivered to your door or device every month.