Despite Sony claiming that the entire PSOne catalogue will work on the PS Vita at E3 early last month, its more likely that the catalogue will start small, and evolve over time. A bit like what we’ve already seen with PSOne titles on the PSP.
The PS Vita is likely to have it’s own PSOne compatibility list so gamers know which games are compatible on the PS Vita. From what we know so far, the initial batch of games is likely to include Jet Moto, Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy VII, Cool Boarders 2, Wild Arms, Arc the Lad, and Twisted Metal 2. At at least that’s what everyone was told at E3 2012.
If you’ve already purchased PSOne titles in the past, Sony will let you download these again free-of-charge from the PlayStation Store. It’s not clear if existing titles already downloaded will work on the PS Vita, or if these will need to be downloaded again.
Firmware 1.8 will include PSOne compatibility when it’s released this Summer, but an exact date of release wasn’t revealed. The update will enable compatible games to be played on the Vita, with (hopefully) support for both analogue sticks (on supported games) and use of the rear touch pad to control L2/R2 and L3/R3 functionality.
The PSP lets the user select a custom button setup, as well as up-scaling and resizing the display to suit their needs. It’s unclear if the PS Vita will also let users do the same things on the portable console. Digital game manuals will be included in the PSOne games (as they were on the PSP too). These will be accessible via the LiveArea screen like other PS Vita titles and Apps.