As Nintendo often prove, not all mini-games collections are terrible. In the case of Little Deviants (the now defunct) Bigbig studios have created a fun-packed compilation which shows off almost all of the Vita’s unique features.
Little Deviants was one of the first Vita games to be revealed, back when the system was known as NGP. A year ago when we were eager to learn every little thing about Sony’s Next Generation Portable, Little Deviants was a perfect showpiece and thus the game received a lot of attention from both fans and critics alike. However now that the Vita has been released and we know almost everything there is to know about the system, Little Deviant has lost much of appeal but is still a joy to play.
Don’t let the game’s Story mode fool you, there’s not much story to be found here. The game’s intro shows the Little Deviants (a group of quirky, limbless aliens) being chased through space by Botz before they’re shot down to a strange, mini-game infested planet. The Botz then wreak havoc upon the planet by attacking the Deviants and raising the dead, placing all inhabitants in danger. As per videogame logic, in order for the Deviants to repair their spacecraft and emerge triumphant against the Botz they must complete a series of 30 mini-games.
Unfortunately the ‘story’ is more of a ‘plot’ as it only has a beginning and an end. Each mini-game opens with a brief in-engine cutscene but these don’t exactly push the story forward. Instead players simply participate in each mini-game trying to accumulate enough points to earn medals. Once the point requirement is reached and the medal is earned, a new mini-game unlocks and the cycle repeats.
As with most mini-game collection, the level of quality is all over the place. Some games are great, others are ok and there’s a few which you won’t want to play more than once. In other words, tapping the screen and rear panel to push Botz through windows is a lot of fun. Being forced to sing in to the Vita’s microphone at different pitches to smash bottles, not so much!
The number of mini-games which the game touts is also a little misleading. Although there technically are 30 in total, a few of them are repeats of previous games albeit with slight variations. It’s not too much of a problem because a majority of the games are fun and worth revisiting but it just strikes me as a little disingenuous.
This review was based on a retail download copy of the game for the PlayStation Vita provided by Sony.
