Three New Apps Headed to the PSVita

Hello Everyone,

It is a well known fact that the Playstation Vita has been lacking on the application front. We have yet to receive support for Playstation Classic games, a fully integrated Playstation Store, or even Skype. Sony aims to start bringing the Vita into the world of apps with what we all have wanted from the beginning: Paint Park, Treasure Park, and Wake Up Club </sarcasm>. Although not really on the top of anyones list for the Playstation Vita, the three apps are going to make their way onto the Vita for free over the coming weeks, with Paint Park launching today.

Paint Park aims to turn your Vita screen into your own personal canvas. Upon launching Paint Park, I was asked if I wanted to either "Paint Alone" or "Paint With Friends". Unfortunately, the "Paint With Friends" option is only for Ad-Hoc mode. Once again it is disappointing that Sony's next generation portable is unable to work in online multiplayer.

Once I selected "Paint Alone", I was greeted with a blank canvas along with all my tools. There seems to be plenty of tools available: different tipped markers, an ability to import screenshots along with taking live photos, an eraser (white), and thankfully an undo tool. The one thing I was not impressed with was the color selection. Only two shades of black, orange, yellow, red, green, and blue were available. I expected an entire color wheel to be made available and am extremely disappointed. Another frustrating feature is that while tapping away the menu, I often drew lines on the screen that led me to reopening the menu to undo the previous action. A few times I got stuck in a endless circle of mistaken lines.

Paint Park controls wondrously on the Playstation Vita's ginormous screen. It is a refreshing change of pace from drawing games on my iPod Touch. While drawing, there is an option for a small magnifying glass to appear on the corner of the screen that highlights your finger's path. This tool becomes very helpful when approaching detailed sections of your drawing, but don't expect to create your next piece of art.

Paint Park Star Wars Propaganda

Paint Park is a welcome addition to the Playstation Vita's application library but not something necessarily needed. Paint Park is not an application you will tend to revisit unless you want to entertain a small child or just looking for a quick time waster.


The other two applications, Treasure Park and Wake Up Club, will be heading to the Vita in the coming weeks. Treasure Park looks to have players share quick user created puzzles to challenge their friends. Wake Up Club will be a simple alarm clock with the bonus function of calculating statistics based upon your average wake-up time and giving you a personal score. You will also be able to sync your alarm to other Vitas in your area.

Although cute, it would have been nice if Sony focused on getting our promised applications on the Vita before moving on to silly time wasters like Paint Park.

What do you all think? Are you njoying Paint Park and looking forward to the other cute apps or are you waiting for the big apps like me?


Cheers,
Jon