As I announced in the last blog post, Retro City Rampage is coming to PS3 and PS Vita! But wait, I have even more great news…

Last week in Toronto, we held an amazing event called PlayStation <3 Canada to promote and support Canadian indie game developers. In attendance were us here at Vblank Entertainment, Drinkbox Studios (Tales From Space: About a Blob), Queasy Games (Sound Shapes), ][ Games (Dyad) and more. It was a blast! For me, the highlight was finally giving fans a chance to see and play the PS Vita version of Retro City Rampage for the first time. I’ve been going on for a while about how amazing it looks on the PS Vita, and now you can see what it looks like for yourself.

While the PS Vita version of Retro City Rampage boasts everything that its PS3 counterpart does, I had fun making a few tweaks to tailor the experience to the handheld. While the PS3 version supports tube TV simulation filters which curve the screen and add scanlines (allowing you to play on an LCD TV with the feel of an old CRT), the PS Vita version supports classic dot-matrix simulation filters giving it a heavy dose of Game Boy/Game Gear nostalgia. I absolutely love it and it’s my filter of choice when playing the game. If the LCD grid simulation alone isn’t retro enough for you, you can also change the colour mode. The colour modes let you make Retro City Rampage even more retro with options such as “Brick Handheld” (yellow-green monochrome) and “Virtual Burn” (all red), “Blurst Processor,” “SEE=64,” “PC DOS EGA” and a dozen more (also available in the PS3 version).

Those of you who are worried that the characters might be too small on the PS Vita screen needn’t be! It supports two screen modes. The standard mode designed specifically for the PS Vita scales everything up and ensures that the characters and everything else are easy to see. Alternatively, the second mode uses smaller pixels but displays the entire 16:9 widescreen image and supports the TV/arcade screen borders of the PS3 counterpart, so it’s entirely up to you.

The PS Vita’s touchscreen also adds a nice…touch. RCR is a love letter to the days of the d-pad, for core gamers who grew up with controllers and buttons – but that doesn’t mean that the touchscreen can’t be used where it makes sense. It really makes the menus, minigames and shops faster and more convenient to navigate, going hand in hand with RCR’s overall design philosophy, which is to emit nostalgia while still catering to our evolved expectations of games. This extends from the added touchscreen functionality to the game design and tutorials. For example, you won’t need to flip through a manual or call a tips hotline to figure out what to do. But if you’re an absolute purist, you can still play the game 100% with the buttons.

I’m willing to bet that if you have a PS Vita, you also have a PS3. Well, you’re going to be exceptionally excited to hear about just how good friends the PS3 and PS Vita versions are. If you’re like me, you want the best of both worlds. You want to be able to play your favourite games on your nice TV from the sofa, but still take them with you everywhere you go. With Retro City Rampage, your dreams have come true! It supports continuous play so you can play the game on your sofa, save it, and continue where you left off from your PS Vita (and vice versa).

One question you’re going to ask is “WHEN!?” I don’t have a fixed release date just yet, but it’ll be out as soon as possible. I’m fixing the final bugs and working around the clock to get it into your hands as soon as I can. Keep your eyes peeled here on the PlayStation.Blog!

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As the Chimeran virus prepares to unleash its formidable force on PlayStation Vita users later this month, Frank Simon, Senior Managing Producer at Sony Computer America – recently paid Australia a visit to talk all things Resistance: Burning Skies. He took time out of his busy schedule to speak exclusively to us on camera about an exciting new social feature using the PlayStation Vita’s social and location based service, ‘near’.

“With new hardware comes an exciting new scope of uncompromised gameplay capabilities for the first FPS on PlayStation Vita” said Frank. “Taking further advantage of the unique social connectivity of PlayStation Vita, while playing Resistance: Burning Skies in the dynamic new multiplayer mode, ‘near’ will enable players to become infected with the Chimeran virus for multiplayer bonuses – and ‘gift’ these to other PS Vita users”.

Resistance Burning Skies launches across Europe on May 30th and UK June 1st.

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Starhawk Minipack Coming Soon!

Next week we will be releasing a brand new Starhawk Minipack containing a trio of costumes from the amazing game by our friends at LightBox Interactive.

To celebrate this release we have put together a cool new wallpaper for you all to enjoy!

Eagled-eyed blog readers will have noticed that there are only two characters on this wallpaper…

So make sure you stay tuned for more news on this upcoming pack to find out just who the third character coming to LittleBigPlanet is!

Mm Picks

This week’s Mm Picks include a delve into the platforming fun that is Water Caverns, the chance for Sackboy to have an out of body experience as he becomes a spirit in Ghosting and a few awesome mini-games for you to challenge your friends against!

Watery Caverns by ThePurpleWaffle

Ghosting (1Player Only) by PacJonno

Tiles by tevlon1

Bricker by DJD2010

Colortrain NEO [1-4 Player] by DeKa1357

Community Highlight – The Weekly Planetarium

Every week the incredibly dedicated folks over on LittleBigPlanetarium.com work hard to release a newsletter updating the community on absolutely everything that has been happening on LittleBigPlanet throughout the week!

There’s not a single news post, video or quote that they miss from the week’s news and they even have time to put together their own features and articles to make this awesome newsletter truly unique.

So head on over to LittleBigPlanetarium.com to read the latest scoop on LittleBigPlanet!

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Hey everyone, I hope you’re having a good weekend so far.

First up, a quick introduction. As you’ll no doubt have noticed, our much-loved blog manager James Gallagher has moved on to pastures new. Since a few of you wanted to know who was behind last week’s mysterious ‘Contributing Editors’ recap post, we thought we’d make things a little more personalised this week. So, I’m Katie and, along with a few colleagues here, we’re working hard to bring you the biggest stories and breaking news until James’ successor joins us.

Without further ado, here’s this week’s recap.

Have a great weekend!

• Derrick The Deathfin Swims Onto PSN This Summer – The world’s very first underwater papercraft game.
• Sack It To Me: Meet The Men In Black’s New Recruit – Agent S! – The Men in Black have a brand new member joining their elite secret agency and there’s nobody better for the job than Agent S!
• Step Into The TARDIS From May 23rd With Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock – The wait is over! Check out the trailer.
• The SingStore On 16th May: Evanescence, Rihanna And Emeli Sandé – This week’s SingStore boasts new songs from the artists above but of course, that’s not all…
• BBC Sports Application Coming To PlayStation 3! – Exciting news for lovers of all things sports!
• Outlaws Of The Lost Dynasty Fights Its Way Onto The Network – A classic fighter from the era of when beat’em-ups ruled the consoles.
• The Apocalyptic Sale Is Nigh On PlayStation Store! – Here’s some awesome games with an apocalyptic theme to get you in training for our impending doom.
• PlayStation.Blog EU Disruption Today - Process of moving the blog to a new server and our IP address changed.
• PixelJunk 4am Goes Live On PSN Around The World! – Do you have a PlayStation Move? Do you like music? Are waffles delicious?
• The Last Of Us – The Sky Has Turned Grey – Joel and Ellie won’t have an easy road ahead on their journey across the U.S.
• PlayStation Home: Crazy Carnival – The Midway 3 is a collection of crazy carnival midway games and excitement!
• ‘Heads-Up’ Game Store Update 16 May 2012 – Speeding his way back onto the scene is everyone’s favourite blue hedgehog!
• Smart As Brings Next-Gen Brain Training to PS Vita This Fall – A social brain-training experience that will put your brain to the test with 20 unique, engaging, tactile and highly interactive puzzle games.
• VIDZONE UPDATE: Exclusive Dubstep And A Whole Lotta Hip Hop – Word to your grandmother people, it’s a distinctly urban post this week.
• Explosive AR On PlayStation Vita With The Launch Of Table Top Tanks – Who doesn’t like blowing stuff up with Tanks?
• The Making Of Sorcery: Creatures – This is the final installment in our four-part series detailing the making of Sorcery.
• Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time Coming To PS Vita – Picks up the relationship where Sly 3 left off…
• Access Episode 34 – This week’s focus is on Rockstar’s long-awaited threequel Max Payne 3.
• Foosball 2012 Developer Diary #1 – PlayStation Move Controls – Check out Foosball 2012 and PlayStation Move controllers in action!
• The Weekend Debate – Would You Dine With Daxter Or Cook For Kratos – If you could invite five game characters to a dinner party who would they be?
• Superbrothers + Jim Guthrie X Sound Shapes – A message from a representative at Superbrothers, written in the midst of a spring thunderstorm in the hill country at the Quebec/Vermont border.
• Mastering Mortal Kombat For PS Vita – Tips, tricks, and unique features to master with the PS Vita.

• Weekend Essentials 126 – Wow the world in PixelJunk 4am, help Max Payne rise again and play the original Deus Ex with PlayStation this weekend.
• New Portable IDs from the PlayStation Community – Give your Portable ID a new look with these brand new themes inspired by PlayStation Vita and designed by the PlayStation Community.
• Top Tips: Reality Fighters – Become the ultimate Reality Fighter with these handy hints from the game’s producer, Mitsuo Hirakawa.
• “Trophy Cabinet: Dead Space 2″ – Escape the horrors of The Sprawl with a platinum trophy courtesy of this advice from the PlayStation Community.

• Find out if Rockstar have another hit on their hands with our Max Payne 3 PS3 review.
• Fancy a change from the usual action? Here are 10 of the best PS3 RPGs.
• Capom’s new adventure is a challenge but well worth it. Read our Dragon’s Dogma PS3 review to find out why.
• We interview Treyarch boss Mark Lamia to find out about Black Ops 2′s multiple endings.
• It’s wish list time with 25 PS2 games we want in HD. Any of your favorites in there?

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Mortal Kombat for PS Vita has come out of the gate strong after shipping on May 4th. In just two weeks, players have clashed in hundreds of thousands of online matches across the world. With the PS Vita system players can access a complete Mortal Kombat experience on the go, whether you’re on the bus, in the library, or hanging out with friends.

There are quite a few unique features with this Vita version of Mortal Kombat. While preserving the core gameplay elements, we’ve implemented a ton of new functionalities, such as touchscreen Fatalities and X-Rays, as well as an all-new Challenge Tower II that takes advantage of the diversity of features that the PS Vita system provides.

One question that we continue to see on our official @MK_MortalKombat Twitter is: “Netherrealm, I can’t beat Mission XXX in the new Challenge Tower! Can you help?” Why, yes we can! To answer, we decided to put together some Tips and Tricks videos to outline strategies for some of the more difficult missions within the Challenge Tower II (it’s not called Easy Tower!).

Check out our video below to see our design team spill some secrets on how to master new, exclusive characters and use the new PS Vita system features to their maximum potential. Once you’re done, please share your tips in the comments section below!

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