The missions in the game themselves are fairly unique and usually enjoyable. These challenges all have leaderboards associated with them so you can compare your results with friends, which is a nice touch as always. Completing side-missions also unlock optional challenge missions that have Kat racing around the area, or eliminating a number of Nevi as quickly as possible. Some of these crystals can also be donated to fix parts of the city, which in turn, opens up more chances to collect crystals and progress through the story. Almost every aspect of her abilities, from simply hovering, to performing flying kicks, to pulling off super attacks, can be upgraded by collecting crystals scattered about the city, or earned by completing missions. Kat starts out not being quite accustomed to her abilities, and that is reflected in the game’s controls.

Gravity Rush is somewhat more linear than you might expect, and it’s totally possible to just go from story mission to story mission and ignore the rest. With all the gravity shifting going on in the game, thankfully there are almost always arrows and icons pointing you in the right direction, including enemy locations and weak spots, way points and other important points of interest. Open up the map, tap a conversation, mission or story point, and follow the arrow to your destination. The city of Hekseville is not incredibly large, and the missions you can partake in are very clearly defined on a map with nav points, so you’ll never spend time wandering around the environment. Gravity Rush is an open world game, sort of. It makes for some pretty amusing moments and honestly never seems to get old. If you happen to gravity shift while other people are around, they’ll get caught up in your aura and will float along with you screaming with fear until they too come crashing down to earth. The meter only takes seconds to refill, so there won’t be much down time, so to speak. A lot of the game will be spent shifted, although you only have a limited time to do so before draining your upgradeable gravity meter and (harmlessly) crashing to the ground. It’s all a little mind-bending at first, but thanks to the way in which the city is designed, it’s not often that you’ll become totally discombobulated. Your view and perspective changes appropriately of course, and sometimes the only way to determine which direction Kat is falling in is by looking at her hair and clothing, which just so happens to follow the regular laws of gravity and point downwards. In other words, she can run on walls and the ceiling, just as easily as the ground. She can just fly around or land on and navigate along any surface in the floating city, all while maintaining her ability to run, jump, attack, etc. When in shift mode, Kat can hover and “fall” in any direction in the world.

Kat is controlled primarily with the analog stick and buttons, for basic movements and attacks, but once she enables her shifting powers, the additional functionality comes into play. The PlayStation Vita hardware is used to great effect in Gravity Rush, with the Sixaxis motion controls and touch screen used rather extensively. After becoming accustomed to her new “shifter” powers and finding a place to live, Kat decides to chip in and see what she can do to help out.

Even worse, some shadowy enemies known as the Nevi are causing chaos among the city and generally harassing the population still living there. The floating city that she finds herself in is in turmoil, with vast chunks of it and its citizens, missing thanks to severe gravity storms raging underneath. In Gravity Rush, you play as Kat, a girl who, for whatever reason, loses her memory and gains gravity controlling power thanks to a mysterious black cat she befriends. It doesn’t hurt that the story is well crafted and the characters are actually interesting as well. Gravity Rush successfully mashes up open world gameplay, unique motion and touch controls and an incredibly attractive manga/graphic novel art style that plays and looks great on the PlayStation Vita. Is it a great game, and more importantly, a totally original title for the PS Vita worth your attention? Definitely. From the first time we were given a glimpse of Gravity Rush for the PlayStation Vita, it was pretty obvious that it was going to be something special for future Vita owners.

Gravity rush vita