10 Rarest (And Most Valuable) Playstation Vita Games

By: VitaGuy

Many "Rarest Vita titles" lists have been made over the years, but many of them miss key games in the system's English playable library by excluding the Asian or European exclusives (Vita is region free after all). Other lists are clogged with expensive collectors editions that have much cheaper standard release alternatives. Our Vita list is the top 10 most difficult to attain English language, physical cartridge, Vita games. Some of the rarest titles might surprise you, but they will all cost an arm and a leg to purchase.

What Vita games are included?

1. Only standard releases are included. No collectors editions that have a regular release
2. If a game was only released as a collectors edition package, it will be treated as a standard release
3. No unreleased games. Only games that were purchasable at a retail store location, or as a limited print on a company's website
4. Only English language games from any region

10. History: Legends of War [PAL] (See Current Prices)

When you see History: Legends of War (known as History Legends of War: Patton in NTSC region), you would expect it to be a generic first-person shooter attempting to emulate the early Medal of Honor and Call of Duty games. In reality, this History Channel licenced game is a top-down strategy RPG more akin to Final Fantasy Tactics, or Valkyria Chronicles. It was only given a retail physical release in small quantities in European territories, and has a reputation for being relatively difficult to track down. The small developer who was tasked with the project, Slitherine Software, only releasing a single print run of the game, then continued to work on other strategy RPGs for digital platforms such as Steam and mobile. When History comes up on secondhand platforms it is not incredibly expensive just yet, but it is very rare.

9. Best of Arcade Games [PAL] (See Current Prices)

Best of Arcade Games is a shockingly difficult to find game, especially considering it looks like just another bargain-bin shovelware title. The secret to this title is that it was printed in very small quantities and only released in France and Germany, with some copies making the jump across the sea to England in even smaller quantities. The very small area of release, combined with the overall apathy to the Vita platform in Europe upon its release has made this a hard title to come by. There are two cover variants of this title, the French PEGI print without the gaudy German rating being the desirable one to full-set collectors.

8. Breach and Clear [PAL] (See Current Prices)

Breach & Clear is only 9th place? That’s right people, it’s not as rare as some people will lead you to believe, and that is due in part to its branding as a Limited Run Games. B&C was the first ever Vita title released by LRG, and was given a run of only 1,500 units, so you would expect it to be incredibly difficult to find and expensive based on that prestige. In reality, even though it still makes it in the top 10 most desirable games for collectors of full English sets, it is readily available on secondhand platforms like eBay.

This is due to many collectors who believed they would go for a "Full LRG set" becoming disenfranchised by the aggressive output of the company in recent times. LRG used to release about a game a week, now they release 2 to 3 games, collectors editions of those games, and distribute non-LRG games. Previously, spending $50 every few weeks could get you a full set, now to attain the same completeness will cost you hundreds of dollars a week, some weeks clocking in at $1000+ depending on how many collectors editions and variants they release that day. This has turned B&C into more a malleable commodity that is regularly bought and sold rather than hoarded and kept on a shelf, and often you’ll be able to find 4 to 6 copies at a time on eBay. It will still cost you a large markup from its original $24.99 MSRP, but is at least buyable on most days.

7. Rose in the Twilight [NTSC] (See Current Prices)

Published by Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) and developed by the same people who worked on the Yomawari series and the 2018 sleeper hit "The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince". Rose in the Twilight's ESRB version was only released in a collectors edition box through NIS America's official website in a limited print run. The game came bundled with a squeeze-ball and a key chain, and was only given a single print run, making it very difficult to obtain once it was sold out for its original $39.99 MSRP. The puzzle platformer genre of game play seemingly never goes out of style, so it’s doubtful demand for this title will drop off when considering its quality and rarity.

6. Oddworld: New N' Tasty [NTSC] (See Current Prices)

Oddworld has always been a well known and endearing franchise ever since the days of the Playstation 1, and New N’ Tasty got a small physical print run on the PS4 and Vita in the very early days of Limited Runs existence. At 2,500 units, it has a larger run than many other Vita releases from the company, but the demand for Abe’s games outpaces many smaller runs, making this game the most desirable LRG release out of the 101 Vita tiles they have unleashed.

5. Epic Mickey 2 [NTSC] (See Current Prices)

The rest of this list veers deep into the "Wait, THATS rare?!?" category, and Epic Mickey 2 is shocking on first glance unless you know the background of this release. A game that was mass-produced for almost every other console, the NTSC version of Epic Mickey 2 on the Vita was only released in Mexico as a pack-in title with a single run of Vita consoles. No solid numbers are known, but it is estimated that less than 2,000 units exist in the wild. Very few copies are available at any given time online, and the price has increased exponentially in the last several years, so if you see this for a good price snag it while you can.

4. Handball 16 [PAL] (See Current Prices)

Strangely enough, the rarest PAL title for the Vita is Handball 16. It's a European exclusive sports game that got a few alternate covers in various countries. The UK variant with full-English text and a lack of the German rating on the cover is the most desirable.

3. Ar Nosurge Plus: Ode to an Unborn Star [NTSC] (See Current Prices)

Ar Nosurge Plus was hit by a confluence of factors that created one of the most desirable titles on the Vita. Released exclusively as a Limited Edition boxset only through the NIS America website with a small print run, this updated port of the well-received PS3 RPG is the definitive way to play the game. It was only released on the Vita. The same team that works on the Atelier franchise also developed this title, and it’s seen as a kind of hidden gem by many RPG fanatics. All of these factors together have made this the most valuable and desirable NTSC retail Vita title on the market.

2. MLB: The Show 15 [Asia]

The blame for the absurd rarity of physical copies of MLB The Show 15 can be placed squarely on the shoulders of Sony and how they chose to release this title on the Vita. After not being released in European territories due to a lack of interest in the sport, Sony perplexingly chose to release MLB 15 as a Code-In-A-Box rather than a full cartridge release in America. At almost the exact same time three separate incredibly small physical prints were released in South Korea, Malaysia, and Taiwan.

You would think, if three variants were released, MLB 15 would be easy to find? Wrong. All three variants are equally difficult to obtain. Only 2 to 3 listings pop up every 6 months on eBay, and all for much more than you would expect a simple sports game to cost. For the truly dedicated collector, who wants all three cover variants, it will take you time, patience, contacts in Asia, and a bit of luck. Even hardcore Vita collectors have reported insane difficulty finding all three, some even taking years of searching to obtain them all.

1. A.W.: Phoenix Festa [Asia] (See Current Prices)

The rarest of all Playstation Vita games is A.W. Phoenix Festa. An arena beat-em-up that was a tie-in to the Asterisk War anime that ran from 2015 to 2016. It received a very small print in English only in the South Asian/Malaysian region. It has been elusive to import for at least the last 3 years, and copies are scattered all across the world in the hands of various collectors, making finding one increasingly more difficult as people learn how rare the English variant is.

In 2019, the digital version of the game was delisted on all platforms, meaning that Bandai did not re-sign a licencing contract with the rights holders of the original property. This guarantees there will never be a second print of any kind even if demand is present. Copies appear on platforms like eBay on rare occasions, but often sell almost instantly. Obtaining my personal copy required me to send emails directly to a store in Malaysia and set up a PayPal translation via Facebook Messenger. At that time no copies had been listed on eBay in over 6 months.

Though not known by every Vita collector, Phoenix Festa is the absolute crown jewel of the English full set, and will be the bottleneck for completionists for years to come.

Think we missed a rare PS Vita game? Let us know the missing game in the comments section below.

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Did Nicalis Create the Next Stadium Events?

By: VitaGuy

You may know of Nicalis from its many publishing partnerships with highly-acclaimed indie developers, helping to bring games such as The Binding Of Isaac, Cave Story, or The End is Nigh to digital platforms and in physical forms.

You may know Nicalis for their connections to some well-known studio titles such as Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap and the Ikaruga Switch port. Equally possible, you may know of them due to the controversy surrounding a scathing Kotaku article released in early 2019, which had strong allegations of poor relationship handling with developers, shady contract and rights disputes, and a much weaker, more callout-culture allegation of “racism” on the part of the companies president Tyrone Rodriguez based on leaked private conversations.

Maybe you know Nicalis for the eternally missing Super 90s GP, a kickstarted project meant to create a spiritual successor to games such as Daytona USA or similar arcade racers. After the rights were purchased by Nicalis, Super GP simply languished in vaporware.

Hiding just under the surface of all the praise and controversy is another story, one that should be watched very closely by rare game collectors, fans of portable consoles, or Sony aficionados. The story of 1001 Spikes and VVVVVV, the mysterious Vita physical ports that may become the rarest NTSC collectibles available for the platform, if not one of the rarest releases on any console.

The story begins on January the 27th, 2019, when Twitter user @MaddasaHater tweeted to the official Nicalis Twitter account the following pictures, showing a yet to be announced and unreleased physical copy of 1001 Spikes for the Playstation Vita having been sold on eBay. The exact listing time and sale date of the game is unknown, but it would be assumed based on the responses others sent to the tweet that it had sold very quickly, other Vita collectors lamenting that they had missed out on the purchase by mere hours. 

A similar listing was also found from the same seller for a copy of VVVVVV, also on the Vita.

Discussion brewed on Twitter and Reddit, and speculation abounded if this had any connection to the teasing of a physical Binding Of Isaac port that Nicalis had teased on their twitter several months prior, but no response was garnered from Nicalis about the legitimacy of the physical ports for over 3 months. Several more copies of each began popping up on eBay in the interim. Selling for anywhere between $60 and $150 each.

Then, out of the blue on April 11th, 2019, Nicalis posted a Tweet thread confirming the legitimacy of the games, and making some very strange claims about them: 

Just as many questions spawned from this statement as did answers, as well as some of the background being filled in by other publishers in the ensuing tweet replies. The breakdown of what we can glean from the initial announcement is as follows:

1. The games are all legitimate
2. They are promotional copies, signified by the hole-punched barcodes underneath the shrink wrap
3. Promotional copies are meant to be given out to Sony employees as gifts, but these ones are being “illegally” sold
4. The runs will be allegedly “Unlimited” when they are released officially
5. They will have bonus items in the final product, which the test prints do not contain
6. They will be sold exclusively on the Nicalis webstore, a platform that at the time had not yet launched

There are several issues presented in this statement, but first lets go over the supplemental information provided by other people in the community. First, statements made by the official Hard Copy Games Twitter and similar grievances brought up by Josh Farhurst, co-founder of Limited Run Games:

As shown, Hard Copy Games confirms this has also happened to them, with unreleased titles being sold ahead of time on eBay through various resellers, who are guaranteed to have some kind of connection directly to Sony in one way or another.

Josh also chimes in and confirms that Limited Run Games (LRG) has been having this issue since 2015, and they even know one individual's name, but nothing has been done about it directly at Sony when this grievance was brought up with Sony staff. There are also some VERY interesting statements in the same reply thread by Nicalis company president Tyrone Rodriguez, but we will cover that later.

Now, let’s look over the inconsistencies in this statement, specifically the parts about the print run size, and the legality of the sales.

On May the 16th, 2018, Sony of America very expressly stated that NTSC cart production for the Vita had a cutoff date of “the end of the fiscal year”. Further confirmation of specific date was made by Josh Fairhurst in the same tweet thread:

Elsewhere in the thread, he again refuted the claims of the possibility of an “unlimited run” of any Vita product at that time:

Nicalis is making the claim that their run will be unlimited in April, when according to other publishers, and Sony themselves, the final cutoff date for orders was two months prior in February. This puzzling inconsistency can't be resolved based on the fact. Either, Nicalis intentionally lied or they did not understand the limitations that had been put on game developers for Vita releases.

Further proof of the difficulty of producing Vita cartridges in NTSC territory at the time can be seen in other statements made by Limited Run and its representatives in their battle to get the last few slated games on their docket published:

A smaller issue in Nicalis's tweet was the statements about the alleged illegality of the sales of the game. Though selling an unreleased game could and should be considered a fireable offense by Sony, there are more than likely no criminal laws against the practice. This inconsistency with reality gives more credence to the idea that the person in charge of the Nicalis twitter account is ignorant to the reality of the situation, and further brings their statements about the print size and release into scrutiny.

At the time of publishing, it has been over a year since Nicalis or its associates made any statements about the unreleased Vita titles. 

The webstore was launched in May of 2019, with no sign of the games, or even a "Vita" tab under the products page. 

Tyrone Rodriguez has been asked for comment via email, Twitter, and even attempted phone calls, but no response has ever been given. Nicalis employees have been asked for comment, with no information gleaned. For over a year, the Nicalis press email and Twitter have not responded to any requests for clarification from many different people.

There is one more smoking gun statement from Nicalis's President buried in the twitter thread:

This statement implies that a test print was paid for by Nicalis, before the printing of the full run. Combining this with the information we gleaned about the timetable of full-order cutoff in February, the confused nature of Nicalis' statement, the information about their poor communication learned from the Kotaku article, and other broken promises such as the Super 90s GP release, the most likely timeline for VVVVVV and 1001 Spikes is as follows:

1. Nicalis does a very small test print of the two Vita releases
2. They miss the timetable window to order a full run
3. Not knowing this, and after the leaks occur, they make a twitter announcement claiming a number of impossibilities about the games' release
4. Realizing their massive mistake months later when they go to place the order they are told "No" by Sony, or maybe due to a loss of licencing rights in some way, Nicalis decides to ignore the problem and act like it never happened, refusing all requests for comment

All of this information leads to the thesis statement of this article.

Did Nicalis create the next Stadium Events? In terms of a game released in very limited quantities that is sought after by collectors. The answer is Yes.

But how many copies of 1001 Spikes and VVVVVV are out in the wild? This is where the real guesswork comes in, and it is mostly speculation.

Assuming there is never a release of a full run, these are the two smallest runs of any Vita games ever made. The lowest possible print run for any game on the Vita is 1000, and this has been confirmed by multiple publishers from LRG, to PlayAsia, to Red Art Games. It is unknown how many test copies must be printed in an order, but, based on the number of listings that have been seen on eBay over the last year and a half, a rough estimate would be 50. Around 20 listings of each game have come up in this timespan, but it is unknown how many of those listings were resold from other eBay vendors and just the same copy appearing multiple times.

Even if we assume that there are a full 50 copies of each game somewhere in the world, this is an insanely small print in comparison to many other limited collectable games. There would be more copies of Stadium Events, Nintendo World Championships, Starfox Super Weekend, or NFR Zelda: Majoras Mask in existence than these two indie platformers!

It’s entirely possible that Nicalis is simply doing the longest slowroll in the history of gaming and they do have boxes and boxes of these games with the barcodes intact sitting in their closets, and they will suddenly go on sale on the Nicalis website any day now. The further from the initial statement we get, the harder that is to believe. Based on production end dates, that would mean that Nicalis has been sitting on several thousand Vita cartridges for almost a year at the least. For a business that wants to stay profitable, that doesn't make much sense.

How much would it cost you to get a hold of these games? At the time of writing, the last copy of 1001 Spikes sold for over $571.89, while the last sold VVVVVV ended at $455. There are currently no available copies of 1001 Spikes anywhere online, and the only available VVVVVV is currently listed for $999.95.

The sky really is the limit on perceived value for both of these games. They will probably be thought of in the same category as Stadium Events on the NES, or NBA Elite 11 for the Playstation 3. Two games that were released in such a limited fashion that some consider them not part of a full set, while others consider them a holy grail that is a bottleneck to a true 100% complete collection.

If we never see a full release, the nearly $500 current prices seem fair. Considering how rare they are, maybe current prices will be considered low in the not too distant future. Only time will tell.

UPDATE (6/29/2020: A tweet was discovered after publishing this article, showing the official Nicalis Twitter wishing the creator of VVVVVV, Terry Cavanagh, a happy 10 year anniversary for his game, and reasserted that the game was still going to be released physically on the Vita, as well as implying it was also being released on other platforms. 

This could simply be empty promises, or maybe they did in fact complete the NTSC print run, or were partnered with a company that has access to the dwindling asian-english cartridge supply.  Project Sense: A Ghost Story's developer, or Arcade Distillery developer Luc Bernard, both missed the cutoff for NTSC production and were forced to produce in R3 region.

1001 Spikes was not mentioned in any way.

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