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Tokyo Jungle Mobile – A portable version of the classic cult console game. Choose an animal and try to survive in a grid-based, post-apocalyptic Tokyo by fighting and foraging. (Promotion, $5.99)
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Pixel life – A simple platformer with graphics and gameplay that evolve as you progress through eight different eras of classic game consoles, from the ZX81 and Atari 2600 to the Commodore 64 and NES. (Promotion, $1.99)
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Console saga – Take control of a small Game Boy on a tough run-and-gun quest, with plenty of jumping challenges and a well-executed grappling hook mechanic. (Promotion, $0.49)
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From the mind – A surreal exploratory platformer with an interesting skill progression system and some deliberately clunky controls that add to the challenge. (Promotion, $0.49)
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Quiet please! – A cute little pixelated game aimed at a little girl just trying to find some peace and quiet. It packs a lot of complicated old fashioned adventure game puzzles into a short and sweet package. (Adventure, $0.49)
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Super Crate Box – Single screen run-and-gun arcade action with a twist: You get points for constantly switching weapons, not for killing enemies instantly. (Arcade, $3.49)
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Aqualibrium – Arrange blocks, press switches and destroy obstacles to direct a stream of water to a central funnel and not the floor. Simple concepts used to create some well designed puzzles. (Arcade, Free)
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Sixty Second Shooter Deluxe – A responsive dual-stick shooter in the style of Geometry Wars, with a strict time limit that forces you to ramp up the difficulty as quickly as possible. (Arcade, $2.79)
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Net survivor – Extremely simple survival-based 2D shooter notable for a well-executed “slow-motion” mechanic for fast turning and navigating screens full of advancing bad guys. (Arcade, $0.49)
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Cumixx – A 3D version of the arcade cult classic Qix, Cumixx asks players to use a laser cutter to chisel out areas on a cube’s surface, while avoiding floating enemies and a deadly spark that eats your tail. (Arcade, $2.99)
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Ten by eight – Slide the colorful blocks into matching groups, then link those groups together using star blocks to create the biggest score-building chain combination you can. Easy to learn, but hard to master. (Puzzle, $2.99)
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Gunhouse – Combine blocks into large chunks, use those chunks to load weapons and special abilities, then use those weapons and special abilities to fend off waves of bad guys attacking your base. (Puzzle, $0.49)
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picbox – A decent version of the popular nonogram puzzles, also known as Picross. Use logic and skill to clear the correct squares on a grid in this ‘crossword puzzle’. (Puzzle, free with in-app purchases)
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Chimpact – Pull back the tendrils and release to swing your monkey protagonist over gaps and around enemies while collecting bananas and gems. Like Super Mario Bros. meets Evil birds. (Puzzle $3.99)
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O deer! Alpha – Embark on drift-heavy racing straight from Sega’s arcade classic Avoid, then add rows of deer to run over and splatter all over the screen in bloody chunks. (Racing, $0.49)
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1 Chicken 2 Bullets – As it says on the can, you are a chicken with only two bullets. Use them to fend off advancing robots and pick them up so you can defend yourself again. Surprisingly difficult. (Shooter $0.49)
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Rymd capsule – Minimalist real-time strategy game where you manage resources and units in an extremely stylized space station. (Strategy, $3.99)
PlayStation Mobile was Sony’s attempt to open up the closed PlayStation Vita game store to a more open selection of independent games in the style of Google Play or the iOS App Store. Instead of going through the restrictive approval process to get to the main PSN page, any developer can easily become a Vita developer by publishing their game on PlayStation Mobile (where it can also be played on certain Sony-approved mobile devices).
That experiment comes to an end today. As Sony announced in March, July 15 is the last day Vita owners can purchase games from the service. In-app purchases and re-downloads will work until September 10, but after that these games can only be played on systems that previously downloaded them, waiting for the day when bit rot and hardware failures finally make them extinct (some promising titles that premiered on PlayStation Mobile, such as Alien Breed, Aqua Kitty, Surge, Switch Galaxyand Lemming’s Touch—will live on through fuller releases on the main PSN storefront, and others have been ported to other platforms).
I haven’t played all the dozens and dozens of titles available on PlayStation Mobile, but I’ve dug into quite a few over the past few days, driven by word of mouth and online critics to find the diamonds in the rough before they’re buried for good. The above gallery highlights a few PlayStation Mobile games worth investing a few bucks in before they disappear forever. Buying them all will still cost you less than a single AAA game and complete your Vita library with a good dose of indie ingenuity.
To get these games, go to the PlayStation Mobile section of the PlayStation Store on your Vita and browse the genre section indicated in the caption. Annoyingly, you can’t buy these games through a web browser, nor can you just search directly for the title of the game. Also, make sure to activate your device for PlayStation Mobile in the Vita’s system settings menu following the instructions outlined here. It’s not clear exactly when Sony will be shutting down the PlayStation Mobile servers (“after July 15, 2015” is a bit vague), so hurry and get them while you still can.
PlayStation Mobile fans feel free to leave your favorites in the comments.