Tokyo Game Show 2013: PS Vita TV hands-on reaction

Lots of gaming outlets got their hands on the new PS Vita TV that's due to be released in Japan on November 14th. While there's no currently scheduled release in North America, plenty of journalists from these neck of the woods were impressed with the tiny device. Many of them believe it would find a good audience here.

First off, the PS Vita TV an incredibly small device, kind of like a Roku or Apple TV device, that connects right to your TV through an HDMI output. Also included is a USB port, Ethernet cable port, and a PS Vita game card slot.

That's right, almost all of the games that can be played on PS Vita can be played on this tiny device. Obviously, games that require touch screen would be eliminated, but that's a very small portion of its library.

Basically, it's a PS Vita that uses a TV as a monitor and a DualShock 3 as its controller, and it comes at the price of just $99.

Sam Byford from The Verge talks about the user interface of the PS Vita TV, and it doesn't change much from it's handheld brethren.

The Vita TV's heritage is most apparent in the interface, which is lifted directly from the portable. The cartoonish bubbles weren't the most attractive thing in the world when the Vita launched almost two years ago, and a large TV doesn't make for any more flattering a canvas. Still, as a basic launcher it works well enough, providing basic access to the Vita TV's other functions.

But that's not all! There's another feature that it can do just like the handheld version -- remote play for the PlayStation 4.

Toshi Nakamura from Kotaku gives a quick review of the feature.

I also got a chance to check out remote play for the PS4. Granted, it was in a controlled environment, so there was no detectible [sic] lag. However, I was informed that while they are still in testing, things like network setup and distance will potentially affect lag times.
Knack ran smooth as butter in HD, but who knows if it'll be able to perform like in [the "A Day with PlayStation"] ad.

Dale North from Destructoid had a varying opinion on the image quality of remote play.

With streaming play, gone is that high end gloss the PS4's graphical muscle provides. The meat and potatoes of the images are still there, but you can see compression easily, and colors and details suffer. The resolution was certainly lower than the original. It certainly doesn't look bad. Remote play of PS4 games looks just like watching a nice HD stream of gameplay on the internet.

North points out that it doesn't make the device bad, as it's a tremendous deal for $100 to play PS4 games in a different room without having to move the console anywhere. 

Along with similar features that are packed in a Roku, there would definitely be a market in North America for the PS Vita TV. Sony may have found a way to save their portable system with this cheaper alternative, and plenty of gamers will be happy that if games ever did force touch control, none of that will be happening if this device succeeds.

[Image credit: Flickr]