Little Deviants PS Vita review

A deviant: one who breaks the barriers of social norms. Not the only thing you’ll want to break once you’re a few levels into this misnamed lemon created to showcase Vita’s control system. Bigbig Studios has ignored the opportunities offered by a pair of dual analogue sticks and decided to focus instead on a series of repetitive tasks that mean coating your shiny new Vita in a layer of smudgy desperation.

The squishy Deviants – big-eyed cartoony blobs – have crash-landed on a square planet of robots, and their spaceship is smashed across 30 levels. You need to delve into each section and reclaim the pieces by achieving a ‘bronze’ score. The Deviants themselves are gradually unlocked as you progress through the game. They range from Goopher, an unremarkable orange ball, to Pyrus, an unremarkable fiery ball.

Vita has beautifully responsive touch interfaces that, although frequently used by Little Deviants, are turned into fiddly control systems. Of the six puzzles rinsed and repeated, the most ill-judged has you rolling your Deviant by touching the rear pad to create instant hills.

Between the travel sickness, the lurid colours and the nightmare-inducing soundtrack, one level is the playable equivalent of food poisoning. Another over-used puzzle has you rolling around collecting stars as time ticks away in a manner horribly reminiscent of a smartphone app that would cost around £17 less.

Yet among the filler, there is fun to be had with the technology. Standout puzzles include an enjoyable augmented-reality game with robots being shot out of the air. It makes satisfying use of the front touchscreen to squeakily wipe off green goo that’s being fired to distract you from the action.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Wipeout 2048 are experimenting with touch controls and the accelerometer in interesting ways, while Little Deviants too often neglects the fact that the console has to be held – cramp sets in as you try positions worthy of world-class shadow puppeteers to keep the console in your hands. Keep a grip on your Vita and your cash.

Our Score