The Vita Ladder

I've owned a PS Vita for a few months now, and I couldn't be happier with it. While there may not be that one "killer app" for the system, the number and variety of high quality games has been a pleasant surprise. To keep track of the awesomeness, I'm going to make a ladder of games I'm playing these days starting with the most enjoyable.

Underlined games are those I have completed and have decided to put into my permanent Vita Hall of Fame.

1. Dragon's Crown: A gorgeous 2D action RPG that's built to be replayed over and over. For me, this is the game that exemplifies the best in hi-tech mobile gaming.
2. Killzone Mercenaries: Almost a current-gen console quality shooter that controls well, keeps up a great action-packed pace, and has light RPG elements through weapon upgrades. Mindless fun!
3. PixelJunk Monsters: A really gratifying tower defense game that really pushes replay and retrial. 
4. LittleBigPlanet: The main campaign is smile-inducing and wonderful. The community levels are a rabbit-hole of weirdness with some amazing stuff to find.
5. Guacamelee!: The only reason this isn't higher is because it's a short game and I finished it within a couple weeks. It has the best art/style of any game I can think of on any platform and has great exploration and fighting mechanics.
6. Uncharted: It's an Uncharted game on a handheld. Unfortunately, much of the game isn't really a game at all (the climbing sequences in particular feel totally pointless after a while). But the music is great, the exploration elements are pretty solid, and the shootouts are often fun.  
7. Gravity Rush: The story is presented in a jawdropping 2D/3D comic-book style and the open-world gravity flying gameplay is unique in gaming.
8. Rayman Origins: The definition of a polished 2D platformer. Lush art and a near-perfect difficulty curve make this a crowd-pleaser.
9. Velocity Ultra: An indie vertical-scrolling space shooter with plenty of game-play twists (teleportation, directional bombs, special weapons, etc.). Plus it has minesweeper for some reason!
10. Lumines: The PSP Hall of Famer has a Vita version which is... almost exactly the same. Hard to complain.

Top games I haven't played but will get to: Persona 4 Golden, Walking Dead