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What's up, PrizeFight fans?
I'm Brian Tong and welcome to the all new look and feel for tech's biggest throw-down showdown.
Sony and Nintendo won't be playing nice anytime soon so we are throwing them into the octagon.
It's a battle of ground and pound between the Sony PS Vita Slim and the Nintendo 3DS XL.
Our judges for this fight our senior editor Scott the bottom line Stein, editor Jeff don't back down Jeff Bakalar and yours truly.
Can't go wrong Tong.
Now we'll take all three judge's line scores and average them out to the nearest tenth each round.
The final prize fight score will be an average of all rounds using the same decimal system.
It's six rounds to the finish, Round one is design.
The PS Vita Slim gets even slimmer and 20% lighter than its predecessor with curved edges that make it the sexiest gaming handheld.
The biggest change is that it loses its five-inch OLED goodness and replaces it with an LCD screen that's capable but not as vibrant as the original.
It fits nicely in your hands, but I found the first VITA to feel more comfortable size-wise.
Now the Nintendo 3DS XL keeps a similar form factor from it's DS lineage with it's clamshell design that protects it's two screens.
It's thicker than the Vita, and it might feel a little dated, but there's still a retro charm to it.
It's 4.88 inch backlit 3D screen might have the same resolution as the 3DS.
But the bigger screen makes a big, big difference.
And it's 4.18 inch pressure sensitive screen on the bottom gives you 90 percent more screen from the 3DS total.
Now sleek and sexy does it for us, and the VITA slim gets a four, and the 3DS CL gets [APPLAUSE] 3.
Next round is controls and user interface.
The Vita Slim brings dual analogue sticks, Playstation like buttons, a capacitive touch screen and a rear touch panel.
Now some games use these features nicely and some of them are really forced.
The rear touch was a cool idea at first, but it's more of a gimmick and no game has made me say I'm glad they did this.
Now the analog sticks just aren't nearly as accurate for shooters and, I don't expect them to be perfect but it's still hard to get that tight aiming you need.
It's gyroscope can be used with some games.
And the front size touch screen compliments the VITA's icon based UI that's easy to navigate and really made for touch.
Now the 3DS XL brings an analog pad and a directional pad.
The lack of two analog sticks limits it from certain.
Type of games, but that has never dictated the quality of a game, the bottom touch screen is the second screen for more interaction experience and it's the key for navigating in the 3DS XL.
The user interface is clean but it really feels extremely dated, it doesn't come close to anything we've seen on a phone or tablet and.
It can hang, at times.
The PS Vita takes another round with a four, and the 3DS gets another three.
Stopped at two rounds, the Vita leads by a full point.
Round three is Features.
Nintendo's flagship feature is its glasses-free 3D.
As long as you're looking at the perfect sweet spot, it has moments that wow you, but that only lasts.
Until you start getting dizzy or uncomfortable after playing 15 or 20 minutes.
Most people just end up turning it off.
Now it takes some fun, low-res 3D pictures and videos.
But it's really more of a novelty.
There is a standard-sized SD card slot and this is really important.
There's wi-fi, Netflix, and Hulu Plus, but you probably aren't going to watch too much video on a screen like this.
The PS VITA brings a feature pack handheld, especially if you are a PS4 owner, that allows you to play games on your console, on your VITA when you're on the same wi-fi network.
[UNKNOWN] console versions on some games like Border Land.
Its touch screen is great and it brings, not only Netflix and Hulu, but YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and more that really make it a versatile media consumption gadget.
Now, changing over to a micro USB cable is a huge plus, but the biggest drawback is this proprietary SD card that are so overpriced.
It's laughable.
If you like 3D on Nintendo, go with 3DS, and if you're in the Playstation ecosystem, you've got to go Vita.
We're calling this a tie at four points a piece.
Next round is Game Library.
Both of these handhelds have had enough time to really develop their game library.
The PS Vita brings amazing looking games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss.
Platformers like Gravity Rush.
And unique experiences like tear away and also some NE stand outs like Guacamele.
Now the 3DS has a stable of Nintendo classics from Super Mario 3D, Zelda A link Between Worlds and Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon and really almost every one of their top tier franchises are represented on the 3DS.
This really isn't an exact science, but our sister site gamespot has handed out a review score of eight or higher to 28 3DS games compared to 20 for the PS Vita so far.
And we know exclusives ultimately dictate which way you go, but in our eyes, Nintendos overall breath of triple A titles, indian retro titles.
Best what the Vita brings.
And I'm not forgetting you Animal Crossing fans.
The 3DS gets a perfect five and the Vita gets a 3.7.
So, if you're averaging four rounds, Sony leads by just one tenth of a point.
Round five in performance.
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There is no dispute that the Vita brings the best looking graphics on any handhold, including smartphones and tablets and it's live up to it's promise of PS3 level visuals.
Now, going to an LCD screen took away just the bit of it's visual vibrancy but in return an improved battery life of roughly four to six hours depending on how you use it.
Now the 3DS XL won't blow you away with it's graphics, but it makes up for it with charm.
It also boasts an improved 3 1/2 hour to 6 1/2 hour life span with it's dual screen that edges the VITA.
We still can't ignore the VITA's graphical prowess, and the VITA gets a 4.3 and the 3DS XL get a 4.
The final round that decides it all is value.
Both of these systems retail for $199.
The PS Vita Slim comes in a Borderlands 2 package at the moment.
That includes an eight gig SD card as well.
The Nintendo 3DS XL comes with a 4 gig SD card but gets a seasonal game bundled in as well.
Now it's a great value on both sides but what kills us.
Is the price of Sony's proprietary SD cards.
Now, we know eight gigs fills up fast, when games around one to three gigs, so, consider this, a 32 gig PSVITA SD card costs around $89 bucks, where any standard 32 gig SD card costs around $18 bucks.
And as an owner, even 16 gigs wasn't enough for me and at the cost you won't think about it until it hits you.
Now expanding memory is just cheaper on the 3DS over the life of the systems, so we're giving the 3DS XL a five and the PS Vita Slim a four.
All right.
Let's average out all six rounds and in a PrizeFight that stayed incredibly close throughout, Nintendo had to make a late charge, and it was just enough to push us to a tie.
That's right.
We're tied even at four points apiece.
Now, it's the first time ever for a true tie here and really what makes this PrizeFight unique is that design and features can't really decide this for you, it always comes down to the games and the ecosystem that you want.
But, guys and gals, you know what?
I just wanna flip a coin to see who wins this.
So, we're gonna call this heads for the 3DS XL and tails for the PS VS Slim.
We're gonna leave it to chance, all right?
Here we go.
And the winner, tails.
The PS Vita Slim.
All right, guys, I'm Brian Tong.
Thanks for watching, and we'll catch you guys next time for another PrizeFight.
No, no, no, no, no!
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