Sony Vita vs. Nintendo Wii U: Which is More Impressive?

E3 doesn’t end until Thursday, but it can be assumed that all of the “big” announcements have already been made, since it’s rare for any company to make a late-week announcement after the initial excitement begins to die down. On day one, Sony announced its PSP successor, the Vita, and on day two, Nintendo took the veil off of its Wii U. While both are different in overall goal and design, they’ve become embroiled in a Internet-wide versus battle. Which is better?

First up is the Vita, a portable device similar in size to the original PSP (or DS for that matter), allowing people to game wherever they are, and even engage in some multi-player action either via WiFi or 3G. It features a nice big OLED touchscreen, has all of the buttons we’d hope it to have, and looks great. Best of all? The games look great, too. Though I haven’t seen proof of it, it’s also been said that the Vita can act as a controller for some PS3 games – kind of neat.

Hardware-wise, the Vita will include a 5″ OLED screen running a beefy resolution of 960 × 544. In addition, it will include a quad-core ARM processor for huge performance potential, has a read touchpad, front and rear cameras, six-axis motion-sensing, full wireless capabilities (including 3G on the bigger model) and other cool features. The goal? To become the ultimate mobile gaming machine, delivering experiences a cell phone cannot.

And then we have Nintendo’s Wii U, with the current focal-point being its controller (hence the comparisons people are making). This controller features a large screen (6″, vs 5″) and can be used like a mobile gaming device, such as the Vita. It cannot however be powered by itself, as it requires the Wii U to stream the content. Thus, it’s not as though you can purchase the controller without a Wii U, while on the Sony side, you can use a Vita without a PS3.

Where the Wii U shines is that it can stream Wii and Wii U content to this controller without having to use the TV. Someone can boot you off the TV to watch a Colts vs. Pats game, for example, and you won’t be left without gaming. Like the Vita, the controller here also features a touchscreen and has other applications available, like video chat, drawing and the like. No one says you couldn’t do similar things with the Vita, however.

What the Wii U controller can do that the Vita can’t is interact with games that are designed for two screens. In baseball, if a ball is coming right at you, you can hold the Wii U’s controller in the air and move it around to catch the ball. In golf, you could lay the controller on the ground and tee off with your Wii Remote. While the Vita could also share this same kind of functionality due to its rear camera, it’s not likely to, partly because the screen is too small.

I believe these two devices are far different from one another, so I think the “versus” idea is a little strange. Unless of course, we’re talking about which release is the more interesting of the two, in which case, there will be no “right” answer due to personal tastes. Of course, that leads to the important question that must be begged… which one of these are you more excited about?