There’s a lot to keep track of on offense with three face buttons assigned to different types of passes and the final one reserved for shooting; all four of which generate a meter that determines the amount of force you’ll use. The triggers and bumpers serve as modifiers, allowing you to sprint, stop (for some fancy footwork), flick the ball up to start juggling and add a little pizzazz to your passes/shots.
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It’s impressive that the Vita version offers such an array of options with all of the traditional hitting and pitching setups available along with both newcomers — pulse pitching and zone analog hitting. As you’d expect, it’s not nearly as easy to hit or pitch a baseball on such a small screen, and as such the game doesn’t feel as responsive as its counterpart. Personally, I found meter pitching and zone-based hitting (sans analog sticks) to deliver the best portable experience. There are also some rudimentary touch controls implemented, though they feel on the clunky side.
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So what’s new in Hayabusa’s grab bag of pain? Word on the street is that he’s still a ninja with a sweet list of moves to slice and dice enemies with. Most of the techniques and controls from the previous two installments are present here with a fair share of tweaking. You still have a light and heavy attack along with the jump and shuriken on the face buttons. Blocking and dodging are done with the left trigger, and this time, the bow can be pulled out by holding the left bumper while using the right trigger to shoot your arrows. And as before, when the move list unlocks as the game progresses so does the game’s potential to kick some serious ass.
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Fortunately, you’re not stuck with this setup. A simple menu change from 3D to 2D controls quickly fixes it, and movement is based on camera perspective rather than the orientation of your character. However, this does cause some problems as the camera can get tight in cramped quarters, which leads to constant camera angle flips that could literally leave you running in circles. If you’re trying to run from weird mutant things in a hazy fog, this tends to be problematic.
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In contrast, the music is dour but not stark. It’s fitting but not particularly memorable in any way; it could be cut-and-pasted into the loading menu of any gritty sci-fi game. It might have been interesting if the developers went with the Survival Horror method of silence to accompany the game.
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Give Sony San Diego credit; it just keeps offering new ways for you to play the game. The most notable addition this year is pulse pitching, which has you place a pulsating circle where you want your pitch to go and then try to release when the circle is at its smallest (the smaller the circle the more accurate the pitch). It works fairly well, varying in speed and size based on a number of factors, and makes it more difficult to locate pitches with precision. It’s more realistic in that regard than the traditional meter that practically lets you live on the black, though it does lack the option to determine velocity.
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The surefire way to drop an enemy is to engage them in a “hard lock.” When close enough, pressing “X” latches focus on them, automatically steering your ship while you concentrate on aiming. Keeping your reticule trained on the bad guys long enough gets the hard lock, and launching a heat-seeking missile finishes the job. If you miss the hard lock, you’ll be prompted to engage in some fancy maneuvers in the form of a quick-time event. Pull them off and you’ll get another shot at the hard lock. Fudge it and you’ll be the one trying to escape.
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