Title: The Quiet Collection
Developer: Nostatic Software
Game Type: PlayStation Vita
Download: 101 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

Many gamers think that PlayStation Mobile died when the PSM Store closed down.  For all intents and purposes, the PSM Service did close down that day.  However, the software of PSM did not die at all.  It continues to live on as rumors as well as games that have released outside of PSM on the Vita.  Aqua Kitty DX was originally a PS Mobile game and it’s on PS4 and PS Vita.  Some other PSM games have also been confirmed to be in development as native Vita games.

Past rumors and development, though, there is one set of gems that PSM fans may want to look into that’s already out on the Vita.  If you remember the “Quiet, Please” games, they were some very unique puzzle-solving games that had a really light-hearted and casual feel, yet still maintained some mind-bending puzzles.  Nostatic Software has ported them to the PS Vita and PlayStation TV in one release.  Here is my official review of The Quiet Collection!

 

Story

Since The Quiet Collection contains four different games, they each have different stories.  They all have one central theme, though.  You are starring a young girl preparing for various events.  Whether it’s going to bed, getting ready for Christmas, or setting up a nice spot on the beach, you’re collecting items and doing what you need to create the perfect atmosphere for your goals.  She is quite the organized young girl and you follow four of her adventures with her family.

The stories aren’t very deep as this is mostly a puzzle game.  But there is enough dialogue bits and pieces thrown in for you to really feel for her situations and get a laugh or two out of what’s thrown into each game.

Gameplay

The Quiet games are 2D side-scrolling puzzle games.  This is mostly the same for all of them, though one of them throws some endless running and arcade elements to the mix, which will be outlined later.  All in all, you’ll be going through 2D environments and solving puzzles by gathering items and using them at specific places to accomplish objectives.  This could be as simple as using a yarn ball to put kittens to bed or as complex as finding a door prop and wind-up mouse to lure a cat and book shop owner out of their store to grab the book you want.

As I said before, this is a collection.  There are four different games to play here: Quiet, Please.  Quiet Christmas.  Vacation Vexation, and Candy Please!  If you recall, I’ve already reviewed two of these when they were on the PSM platform, but this was the first time I’ve played the other two.  Just like an HD Collection, you can choose whichever game you want to play and do them in any order you like, though in the list order is recommended as that’s the chronological order of the series.

When you play the game, you’ll be moving through a 2D environment with set goals.  In Quiet, Please, your goal is to put everyone in your family to bed for the night so you can go to sleep without any noise.  To accomplish this goal, you must find out how to put everyone to bed, from cutting power to the TV that your Dad is watching to washing your little brother’s pajamas.  The concept is the same for the other games, but different types of goals in each one to make it unique.

The concept is pretty simple, but each game does something to expand on it.  Quiet Christmas added more areas to use ladders and different objectives, from cooking to throwing snowballs outside.  Vacation Vexation added much larger environments and an arcade room with playable parodies of Crane Machines, Frogger, and Space Invaders.  Finally, Candy Please added a costume-building mechanic so you can create and “equip” Halloween costumes from items you find in the house.

The nice thing about this collection is I noticed a bit of content in the original game that wasn’t in its original release.  It’s not a lot, but I saw a bit of a playable epilogue of sorts that takes place after the main game.  The addition of content as well as trophies to this release is a nice little enhancement for the PS Vita release.

There’s only one downer I’m going to mention in this review.  When you’re in the middle of a game and want to quit, there is a “Save and Exit” option in the menu.  No matter how many times I used this option, it did not save my progress.  If I saved and exited a game and tried to go back in, it would automatically make me start over from the beginning every time.  In other words, the save function doesn’t work.  At least not the way you think.

As I said in previous reviews, each of these games isn’t terribly long.  If you know what you’re doing, most of them can be solved in about 20 minutes, though probably more like 30-40 minutes if it’s your first time and without a guide.  The exception if Vacation Vexation.  That game is considerably longer.  I’d been playing the game for nearly 2 hours by the time I finally finished it.  Without guides, I’d wager you’ll be spending at least 3-4 hours on the game.  Not bad for the $4.99 price tag.

Controls

The controls are simple and all of them transitioned well from PSM to Vita Native.  The touch controls are intact, but so are the button controls.  I played through the entire collection on my PlayStation TV and had a very comfortable time using the button controls.

Moving your character around can be done with the D-Pad or the left analog stick.  Interacting with people and objects is done with the X and Square buttons.  Also, you can use circle to exit the arcade mini-games.  Start pulls up the menu and that’s all there is to it!  Very simple controls that are explained well.

Presentation

Visually, the game looks just as crisp and flawless as it did on PS Mobile.  It has a pixel-friendly visual style, but all of the models look absolutely perfect around every edge.  Even on the PlayStation TV, the visuals look really well done.  It’s one of the best retro-looking games the Vita has to offer in terms of sprite quality.

The rest of things are good as well.  Load times are very short and there’s never any lag or crashing to be seen.  Just like the PSM release, the game plays really well on both the Vita and PSTV.