How PSP Games Will Get a Second Lease of Life On the Vita

By Luke Plunkett Published September 19, 2011 |

A big problem with PSP games like the Grand Theft Auto titles was the fact the old handheld only had one thumbstick. Now that the Vita has two, and can play old PSP games, Sony is looking at a backwards fix for that.

“Downloadable PSP games will play on the Vita”, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Game Informer at last week’s Tokyo Game Show. “We are going through the process of testing that, so we can’t say there will be 100 percent compatibility, but we are looking at a very high compatibility percentage for downloadable versions of PSP games on PS Vita.”

Great, but we knew that already. What’s interesting is how he goes into detail on just how these old PSP games will have their controls improved on the Vita.

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“In addition, because PS Vita has a much larger, nicer-looking screen, and the existence of dual analog sticks, we will provide from a system level that some games benefit using the right analog stick. Like FPS or third-person action-adventure games. We will provide options to remap the control from either face buttons or the action buttons to right analog stick. So the control would be much better on PS Vita.”

And just like that, a ton of old PSP games that were a pain in the ass to control get their second wind.

Sony’s Shu Yoshida Talks Vita, PSP Lessons, And Nintendo [Game Informer]

You can contact Luke Plunkett, the author of this post, at [email protected]. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.