It’s no secret that the Playstation Vita was an indie darling: long after Playstation gave up on its little handheld that could, indie developers and publishers continued bringing games to this wonderful little machine. Today, getting a Vita is a bit of an expensive proposition, and many of our consoles are in need or repair, or simply too precious for us to play daily. So I wanted to give a shoutout to 3 indie publishers who rocked the Vita, that are super active on the Switch as well.
Ratalaika Games
Ratalaika games are responsible for a lot of cool stuff on the Playstation Vita, including a whole bunch of cross-buy (and sometimes, cross-save) games on the Vita (and PS4). Based in Spain, Ratalaika has worked very closely with another publisher on this list (Eastasiasoft, more to come later) and it was Ratalaika that kept the games coming to the Vita during the last few months of the Vita’s life.
You can find A TON of games that made it onto the Vita on the Nintendo Switch as well, with everything that made Ratalaika games great: fast loading times, a variety of genres, value for money, and usually, pretty solid, multi-language localization.
Eastasiasoft
The last bastion of physical Vita games, Eastasiasoft’s partnership with both Ratalaika Games and Playasia has given us plenty of thrills over the years. Full disclaimer: I have worked with Eastasiasoft in the past, localizing Rainbow Skies (and Sir Eatsalot, though that was directly through the developer).
Eastasiasoft’s journey on the Vita started with the shmup Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype. It was one of very few games on the Vita to have amazing graphics running at 60FPS. You can find a ton of Eastasiasoft games on the Switch. Lately, they’ve been focusing on visual novels and JRPGs, but you can find a lot of variety in their Switch catalog.
Forever Entertainment
Perhaps a bit less known on the Vita than Eastasiasoft and Ratalaika, Forever Entertainment is nonetheless a great little publishing house. I’ve been a fan of their aggressive marketing for a while, and the value-per-dollar their games offer is off-the-charts.
They also have a super-varied roster of games. The Hollow series is a personal favorite (though a lot of people didn’t necessarily like the first game due to performance issues), Aircraft Carrier Survival and Phantom Doctrine are also very, very good.
What Are Your Favorites?
Do you have any favorite Vita developers or publishers currently releasing games on the Switch? This isn’t a comprehensive list, so if you’d like more lists like this one, just let me know on social media. In the meantime, feel free to revisit some of the Vita’s classic indie titles on the Switch.
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