Flower looks set for Vita release

Flower is to be released on Vita, according to a list of titles set to be shown at this year’s E3 IndieCade showcase, Joystiq reports. First released on PSN for PS3 in 2009, thatgamecompany’s Flower was the second title in a three-game partnership the studio had with Sony. The first was 2007’s Flow and the third was last year’s Journey.

Sony has yet to respond to our request for comment regarding Flower’s release on Vita, but IndieCade’s description of the portable version reads: “Playing as the wind, the player guides and grows a swarm of petals by interacting with other flowers and the surrounding environment. The goals and journey in each level vary, but all involve flight, exploration and interaction with the level. Using simple touch or motion controls, the player guides the lead petal and accumulates a swarm of flower petals as he moves at his own pace within the environment, causing the on-screen world to change.”

We said in our Flower review: “Flower is likely to inspire the sort of purple prose that always appears whenever games skirt the periphery of ‘art’; but to bury the game under a load of pretentious hyperbole is to do it a disservice… This is a beautiful, immediately enjoyable experience in its own right and you shouldn’t let the seeming pretension of the concept put you off… It may barely qualify as a game in the traditional sense but Flower’s evocative world deserves to be experienced by all.”

Speaking last week as Sony confirmed a June 18 US release date for the Vita version of Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, Don Mesa, director of product planning and platform software innovation at Sony Computer Entertainment America, said the company is “continually searching for the best games - whether brand new titles or ones existing already on PS3 - to bring to PS Vita gamers everywhere”.

Earlier this month, the platform holder also announced that SCE Japan Studio is developing a new Vita exclusive action game called Freedom Wars. And yesterday the company confirmed that it has made the inclusion of Vita Remote Play a necessary requirement for all PS4 games barring those that support specific hardware like PS4 Eye.