Tpa & cta - the perfect marriage for the ps vita

[RetroBlast]

I picked up the CTA PS Vita Hand Grips for 13 bucks on Amazon and I am really glad I did.

My orginal thought when picking up the CTA hand grips was that they would work great for 1st Person shooters such as the Two Medal of Honor games for the PSP that I play on my Vita but the fact is, they work great for any game on the Vita and they are a perfect marriage for TPA.

 

[Jeff Strong]

First I've seen of them. They look pretty cool.

Btw, I can move this thread to the vita section if you'd prefer it there?

 

[RetroBlast]

You know I posted this thread and then could not figure out how to delete it and move it to the vita section ... moving it would be great.

 

[Jeff Strong]

There ya go

 

[Crush3d_Turtle]

Do you still have access to the original triggers? I have played on a Vita that has what I think is the official Sony grip with some strange trigger mechanism on the back. It makes them unresponsive and mushy which is something that is simply not acceptable in a pinball game.

 

[RetroBlast]

OK, here is my full review I pulled from what I wrote on Amazon ...

4 1/2 out of 5 STARS

Considering the great price for this item, I was not sure what to expect and having read other reviews which said the power button and the volume buttons were difficult to access, I was not expecting too much from the product but wanted a pair of hand grips for my PS Vita and was not interested in the Trigger Grips (another type of grips offered) because the nubs at the bottom of them looked like they did not provide any grip at all. One other thing that concerned me was that to me, it looked like the locking mechanism for these hand grips worked in such a way that plastic was inserted into the charger port of the Vita and I was not sure if I really wanted that in fear it might hurt the port.

Let me say that after receiving the product I was pleasantly surprised with them and they exceeded my expectations. The quality of the plastic is excellent and although it is hard plastic, you get the sensation that it feels like it has a thin layer of silicon or rubber over it, but it does not. Its a smooth yet gripping feeling at the same time - almost like velvet frosty glass. Hard to explain but needless to say, it feels great. To address the fears I had before purchasing the product, I can say that I was wrong about both of them ... the power button and volume buttons are easy to access and the locking mechanism does not insert any plastic into the charging port. Here is how the locking mechanism works. On the upper portion of the grips is a lip in the top center, on the bottom of the grips is a sliding lip that locks into place. You open the locking mechanism, slide it down, insert the Vita top first into the upper lip, slide the bottom locking mechanism up so its lip meets the bottom of the Vita, then click a switch to lock it in place. Inserting / removing the Vita from the grips is so easy and this method, with the sliding locking mechanism, means you are not trying to wedge / squeeze the vita into the grips which means zero opportunity for scratching the Vita, and I like that. The Vita is held in securely and I experienced no rattling or shifting of the unit during game play.

It should be noted that the grips do block the charger port, game slot, and data port, sim card (3G model) and memory card. Some may look at this as a negative, but because I usually only keep one game cart with me, the one in the Vita, and the rest of the games are digital downloads, I am not one to keep switching game carts often. But even if I did, these grips only take one or two seconds to put on and take off. I do not even know what the data port on the top of the vita is used for so that it does not bother me at all that it is blocked. I could care less that the memory and sim card slots are blocked. I would say one drawback is that you can not charge the Vita while using the grips, but I never change the Vita while I am playing anyway so that is not a big deal either.

Now for the positive aspects of the grips ... The grips feel great, providing your fingers places to rest while using them. Your pointing finger and 2nd finger rest nicely on the grips and your other three fingers rest on the handles perfectly. They also position your thumbs in a great position to access all the front controls and the rear touch pad is not only easily accessible, but the grips allow your fingers to rest just outside the rear touch pad, so you only need to move your fingers onto the touch pad when you actually want to make an input and not by accident. Using the L and R buttons (Vita's acutal L & R buttons are exposed) on the top of the vita feels great and much better than without the grips when playing a 1st person shooter like Medal of Honor (for PSP but runs on Vita). The headphone jack and both front and rear cameras are readily available and exposed and unlike most hand grips for the Vita, you still have access to the two strap holders at the bottom right and left of the Vita ... and playing with a hand strap on is is not a problem at all. The only drawback I see is that the edges of the grips themselves have an edge, in other words the hand grips are not rounded. This did not cause a problem for me but it may have the potential to do so for others depending on the size and shape of their hands.

For a product I thought I would have to give a 3 out of 5 star rating for, I am happy to say after receiving it and using it, I give it a 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. I will save that last 1/2 of a star for any grips that come out in the future that manage to out do this awesome product. Looking for hand grips for your Vita, these are best ones out there so far.

..... I wrote this the day I received the Grips, may I say that now, I can't see wanting to play any game without them on the Vita. The only time I remove my Vita from them is when I am charging it or when my vita is sitting in its cradle and I am watching Netflix on it at home, but If I am on the go watching Netflix, the grips are on!

.... oh and thanks for moving this post Jeff !!!

 

[Metalzoic]

Glad you like them, but what's funny is that Pinball Arcade is what made me stop using my PDP trigger grips.

I think the game plays far better turned vertical asnd the grips made it uncomfortable to play that way so I removed them and haven't put them back on since. In fact I'm not even sure where they are now...


However I might pick up the new grip + battery pack that Nyko just released. Looks just like the one you bought except with an extra 2800 battery in it. We'll see...

 

[RetroBlast]

At first, I thought someone super-imposed the NYKO brand name on the CTA hand grips, but after checking the NYKO site, you are correct - it appears NYKO either completely copied the design or bought the rights to it. If you do an image search for NYKO POWER GRIPS you will find a much different looking set of grips with a power indicator on them and nubby handles. If NYKO did acquire the rights for the mold of the CTA grips and are adding batteries to them for extended play, I'M IN.