Help me decide which free PS+ games to play on PS4 and PSVita

Games
1

Hi folks, I noticed that my PS+ finally expires on May 27th. So now is my last chance to finally try some of these rented PS+ games I’ve been accumulated, before they all go away in a puff of clouds on May 27th.

Here’s the PS4 games on my list. I’ve bolded the ones I haven’t tried yet.

Hotline Miami
Contrast
Resogun <-------- Excellent. Recommended to others
Don’t Starve <----- Really good. Recommended to others
Outlast
Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition
Thomas Was Alone
Mercenary Kings
Stick it to the Man!
Trine 2: Complete Story
PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate <— I tried the original on PS3, and initially loved, but tired of quickly
Towerfall Ascension
Strider
Doki-Doki Universe
Road Not Taken
Fez <------- I played this on 360 but eventually didn’t know where I’d explored and where not
Velocity 2X <----- I tried this for a few minutes, it seemed nice.
Sportsfriends
Dust: An Elysian Tail
Spelunky
Pix The Cat
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
SteamWorld Dig
Escape Plan
Injustice: Gods Among Us
Secret Ponchos
Titan Attacks!
InFamous: First Light <------- Really Good, Recommended.
The Swapper <----------- Nice Game, Recommended to others.
Woah Dave!
Transistor
Apotheon
Rogue Legacy
OddWorld: New ‘n’ Tasty
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood
CounterSpy
Tower of Guns
Never Alone
Aaru’s Awakening
Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition
Ether One
The Unfinished Swan
Race the Sun
Hohokum
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-a-Fide Edition
Futuridium EP Deluxe
DriveClub: PS+ Edition
Rocket League
Styx: Master of Shadows
MouseCraft
Entwined
Rain
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
Limbo <--------------------- Great game, recommended to others
Sound Shapes
Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones
Grow Home <------------ So good, recommended to others
Super Time Force Ultra
Xeodrifter
Teslagrad
Super Meat Boy
Broken Age
Unmechanical Extended
The Walking Dead Season Two
Magicka 2
Dragon Fin Soup
Gauntlet: Slayer Edition
King’s Quest - Chapter 1: A Knight to Remember
Grim Fandango Remastered
Hardware: Rivals
Helldivers: Democracy Strikes Back Edition
PixelJunk: Nom Nom Galaxy
Nova-111
Broforce
Galak-Z: The Dimensional <-------------- Best Game on this list for Star Control fans HIGHLY Recommended
Dead Star
Shutshimi
Zombi
Switch Galaxy Ultra
Table Top Racing: World Tour
Tropico 5
NBA 2K16
Gone Home: Console Edition
Furi
Saints Row: Gat out of Hell
Tricky Towers
Rebel Galaxy
Ultratron
Lords of the Fallen
Journey
Badland: Game of the Year Edition
Resident Evil
Transformers: Devastation
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
The Deadly Tower of Monsters
Letter Quest Remastered
Pumped BMX+
Invisible, Inc
Stories: The Path of Destinies
Hyper Void
Tiny Troopers: Joint Ops
Color Guardians
Day of the Tentacle Remastered
This War of Mine: The Little Ones
The Swindle
Azkend 2: The World Beneath
Titan Souls
LittleBigPlanet 3
Not a Hero
Starwhal
Ninja Senki DX
TorqueL
Tearaway Unfolded
Disc Jam
Lumo

Wow, that’s a big list.

Here’s the Vita Games:

Uncharted: Golden Abyss <-------- Played it, finished it. Recommended to others
Gravity Rush <-------- Played it. Pretty good. Recommended to others
Wipeout 2048 <-------- Played it, not as addictive as I thought, not as fun on a handheld.
Hotline Miami
Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath HD
Soul Sacrifice
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed <---- Like Wipeout, surprisingly I didn’t dig it on a handheld
Urban Trial Freestyle
Don’t Starve
Worms: Battle Islands
Smart As…
Street Fighter X Tekken
ModNation Racers: Road Trip
lone Survivor: The Director’s Cut
Unit 13
Thomas Was Alone
monster Hunter: Freedom Unite
Stealth Inc: A Clone in the Dark
PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate <----------- First tower defense I didn’t enjoy, first PS3, and later on Vita
Velocity Ultra
Surge Deluxe
Limbo <---------- One of the rare games I enjoyed on the Vita. Recommended
PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
Terraria
Mutant Mudds Deluxe
Muramasa Rebirth
Doki-Doki Universe
Fez
Proteus
Metrico
Dragon’s Crown
Velocity 2X
Playstation All Stars Battle Royale
Joe Danger
TxK <----------- I remember trying this and not liking but I can’t remember what it was
Spelunky
Pix the Cat
Rainbow Moon
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
SteamWorld Dig
Luftrausers <--------- Strange game, but I recommend trying it
Escape Plan
Hungry Horde
Final Horizon
Titan Attacks!
The Swapper
Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition
Woah Dave!
Rogue Legacy
Kick & Fennick
Oddworld: New n’ Tasty
OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood
CounterSpy
Killzone Mercenary
MonsterBag
The Unfinished Swan
Race The Sun
Hohokum
Murasaki Baby
Super Exploding Zoo
Futuridium EP Deluxe
MouseCraft
Entwined
Geometry Wars 3
Sound Shapes
Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones
CastleStorm
Super Time Force Ultra
Xeodrifter
Teslagrad
La-Mulana EX
Super Meat Boy
Broken Age
KickBeat
Kung Fu Rabbit
Dragon Fin Soup
Invizimals
Freedom Wars
Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken
Grim Fandango Remastered
History Legends of War: Patton
Nihilumbra
Helldrivers
Lemmings Touch
Nova-111
flame Over
Reality Fighters
A Virus Named TOM
Shutshimi
God of War: Ghost of Sparta
Switch Galaxy Ultra
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Little Deviants
Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines
Prince of Persia: Revelations
Patapon 3
Ultratron
Badland: Game of the Year Edition
Amnesia: memories
Letter Quest Remastered
Pumped BMX+
Tiny Troopers: Joint Ops
Color guardians
VVVVVV
Day of the Tentacle Remastered
The Swindle
Azkend 2: The World Beneath
Titan Souls
Ninja Senki DX
TorqueL
Lumo
Severed

2

Play Invisible Inc. It’s wonderful.

3

PS4…
Towerfall Ascension <-- Local multiplayer only, not for single player really, but brilliant when played that way.
Strider
Rogue Legacy
OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood
Xeodrifter <-- Easily finished and really fun. Metroid!
Helldivers: Democracy Strikes Back Edition <-- Dude. This IMO is one of the best co-op games in the last five years.
Broforce
Shutshimi <-- Silly quick fun!
Zombi <-- Wii U version was better, but this game should be tried. It’s very unique.
Furi <-- Bullet hell swordsmanship
Resident Evil <-- If you’ve never played it.
Transformers: Devastation <-- Great dumb fun with excellent Platinum combo mechanics and looks and sounds like the 80’s cartoon!
Ninja Senki DX <-- Quick play side-scroller for a quick burst of Mega Man-style gaming.

Most of these are cheap on Steam often, too, but you may as well try them for free!

4

Helldivers is fun for a few hours.

5

Thomas Was Alone is worth a playthrough which will only take you 2 or so hours. But first you need to remedy the fact that you haven’t played Journey.

6

Things I tried and liked (not necessarily played on the Vita, though):

Muramasa
Dragon’s Crown
Joe Danger
Spelunky
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Rogue Legacy
Broken Age
VVVVVV

They are very different genres, though. I think both VVVVVV and Spelunky are great platformers with something new to offer. Other than that it’s a toss-up.

7

Games I’ve tried that I recommend on the Vita:

TxK. Of course. Play it again, and love it, dammit!
Severed. Very slick game with stylish visuals from the Guacamelee folks. Think Dungeon Master 3D grid movement + Ninja Fruit.
Ultratron and/or Geometry Wars 3. Both excellent twin-stick shooters.
Sound Shape for something you won’t find on other platforms. Just try it out.
Final Horizon is a mini-console-RTS defense tower thing. Try a quick game or 5 to see.

Now on the PS4:

Invisible Inc.
Transistor
Strider is a very nice Metroidvania. It’s like that other 360 game everyone loves…what’s its name again…?

8

I would start with NBA 2K16. 2K17 has already been out for months, but you need to play the earlier one so you understand the story.

9

Here’s Vita stuff you can cross off.

Azkend 2 - Not bad, but there’s tons of options if you wanted to play one of these.
Flame Over - Vita version is much more difficult than others, not fun.
Lemmings Touch - More of the same if you’ve played one.
Kung Fu Rabbit - Meat Boy is better.
ModNation Racers - Sonic was better, and you didn’t like it.
Prince of Persia Revelations - I think you mentioned playing Warrior Within, same thing-ish.
Reality Fighters - Other fighters are better.
Street Fighter x Tekken - Other fighters are better.
Urban Trial Freestyle - Not as good as the Trials games.
Worms Battle Islands - More of the same if you’ve played one.

Grinds. Some are good, but you’re probably better off playing other games with limited time:
Freedom Wars
Letter Quest
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite
Oreshika
Rainbow Moon
Rogue Legacy
Soul Sacrifice

10

I’ll keep my recommendations short, and in order:

Gone Home - one of my favourite games of the last few years. Loved it, and it’s super short too.
Proteus - It’s not for everyone but I find it so calming, intriguing and evocative. The shift from season to season is just sublime. This is another of my favourites and, again, very short. About an hour.
VVVVVV - my favourite platformer next to Rayman Origins (with Legends coming in third). I adore this game.
Invisible Inc. - such an effortlessly cool, tense and slick strategy game. I dare say it’s perfect.
Sportsfriends - a great party game if you’re partial to some local multiplayer shenanigans. Barabariball (Smash Bros. meets volley ball) is my jam.
Helldivers - I concur with @DaveLong: it’s fantastic co-op. From the developers of Magicka, and it shows.
Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken - I enjoyed this far more than I expected to. It’s like Flashback and Abe’s Oddysee but, uh… with chickens and tyrannical penguin dictators… and catchy music video-like cutscenes… and, erm, rocket-boosted dogbirdfights alongside massive zeppelins. Yeah.
Flame Over - great name aside, this is a cool and fiendishly difficult firefighting roguelike with a particularly jaunty theme tune. @Gigglemoo is it really more difficult on the Vita? I’ve got to admit, I die horribly at the chemical labs, every. Damn. Time.
Journey - I didn’t like it but everyone and their mother does so, y’know.

11

Driveclub is pretty great if you turn assists off and use the “Hardcore” handling model.

12

TOP 5

  1. Invisible, Inc.
  2. Invisible, Inc.
  3. Invisible, Inc.
  4. Invisible, Inc.
  5. Grim Fandango Remastered
13

A lot of good stuff on that list, but I would call out Hohokum as a unique and essential PlayStation game you can’t play anywhere else.

14

Based upon advice of this thread, last night I started with Invisible Inc. I was tentative since I didn’t enjoy watching Tom play this game on his stream. But it turns out that this kind of game requires controlling it yourself to get joy out of. The tutorial is what I finished yesterday, and I was very impressed.

Then I tried Transistor. And boy, this game is just weird. The moves are not fun to do in real time, but pausing and doing them doesn’t feel great either. Before quitting for the night, I had to fight the same boss twice, and in the second fight I finally got too impatient but instead of dying I started losing my moves. So yeah, I’m not sure I’ll stick with this one. I do love the art style from the people that did Bastion of course, but the gameplay just doesn’t have any fun elements in it yet.

15

Just noticed Journey on the list. Definitely give that a go before it’s kaput.

16

Would recommend a try:

Stick it to the Man! - an odd, Burton/Schafer-esque 2D platform game about reading minds. You listen to people’s thoughts by holding the controller speaker up to your ear.

Dust: An Elysian Tail - a hand-drawn athropomorphic metroid/brawler hybrid. Perhaps a bit cutesy but really well tuned gameplay.

CounterSpy - Unique, 2D screen-by-screen stealth & low-challenge platforming in (IIRC) procedurally generated levels with 3D breakouts for shooting stuff. Neat Cold War art & theme and interesting mission framing where both sides are played off of each other.

Hohokum - you are a wandering eye-sperm in a world of bizarre art. Kind of entrancing, but after a while, don’t be surprised if you hit a wall.

SteamWorld Dig - neat style and exploration gameplay. Possible to put yourself in an inescapable fail-state if you aren’t careful.

The Swapper - 2D platform puzzler. Interesting body-swapping mechanic.

Geometry Wars 3 - Same old GW gameplay with a level progression system. Fun if you are in the mood for twin-stick action.

Haven’t made my mind up:

Xeodrifter - Balls-hard Metroid II-style multi-planet gameplay. Almost no guidance to the player as to what the hell to do.

Tearaway Unfolded - ever-so-twee, but I heard it was good despite this. I can’t seem to get further than the intro due to my aversion to cutesy for its own sake.

Mutant Mudds Deluxe - a Super Mario homage with some interesting ideas.

Joe Danger - run stunt courses for score. I feel like it would click with me in the right mood.

Hungry Horde - run around a nighborhood gathering a mob and doing mayhem, kind of fun but not quite compelling.

CastleStorm - an oddly complicated 2D side-scrolling strategy game from the Zen Pinball people. I had a hard time juggling archers and melee combat demands.

Flame Over - twin-stick firefighting, a novel idea.

Would not recommend:

Titan Attacks! - remember old Atari 2600 games that had different “modes” with minor variations on the same basic gameplay? That’s what this basically is, endless tweaks of Space Invaders. I kept playing thinking there might be something deeper there, but nope.

MouseCraft - low-challenge puzzler that looks like it was made from stock art.

Dragon Fin Soup - Some people get off on being inexplicably killed 30 seconds into a game. I don’t.

PixelJunk: Nom Nom Galaxy - a factory-builder that’s more difficult than it needs to be thanks to confusing maps and oddly fiddly asset placement rules. Should have been more streamlined in favor of playability.

Shutshimi - an arcade side-to-side shooter heavy on short repetetion, WTF art, and changing rule tweaks. Not my style of game.

Badland: Game of the Year Edition - very obviously an iPad port, it’s a one-button 2D platformer all about aiming your character vertically while moving forward quickly. Repetitive and pointless.

Surge Deluxe - a generic puzzler

Pix the Cat - a generic maze runner

Teslagrad - a generic 2D platformer

A Virus Named TOM - a generic puzzler

17

The PS+ game I found surprisingly good is Ether One. Decided to try it out one day and ended up finishing it. It’s only around 7-10 hours long. Not everyone’s cup of tea, I admit. I like these type of offbeat adventure-style games (ie, Vanishing of Ethen Carter).

18

Infamous first light and eveybodys gone to the rapture.

19

Update: I tried Invisible Inc and Transistor, and didn’t really connect with either right now. Invisible Inc I can get into when I’m in the mood for it, no doubt, but just not feeling it right now, what with the turn based sneaking around. Transistor is just… weird. I can’t believe this is from the team that did Bastion. Combat is…not fun in this for me at all. I’m glad I tried it I guess, just to see how different it is from any other game I’ve ever played. I always appreciate that trait just on its own, even if I don’t like a game.

Going to try this out this weekend.

I’m going to erase the games on my Vita’s memory card that I never play and install these over this weekend.

20

Oh, perhaps my favourite experience on Vita so far has been Steamworld Heist. Definitely check that out Rock8man if possible.