Here’s some scattered first impressions.

• First of all, the handheld itself is great. The triggers feel less stiff than on the PSP, the analog sticks are comfortable, the buttons may be a bit small but still feel responsive, and it fit in my hands comfortably.
• You can’t really appreciate how good this game looks until you’re holding the unit yourself. Screenshots only do it so much justice. YouTube videos don’t do it justice. The best way is to just watch the race intros and see just how detailed everything is on a handheld. 10 years ago I would have been pleased that the GBA could pump out SNES-level visuals!
• I’m bummed that the game runs at 30 FPS, but it’s a fluid 30 FPS at least. And it’s mostly a hardware limitation anyway.
• I don’t know why “Racer” is the default control setting, but thankfully I could change it back to the traditional controls in the demo.
• The touch-screen menu is actually pretty nice. The Vita’s front touch screen itself responds well, much better than my phone’s touch controls at times. That said, the option to navigate with the buttons could have been nice for those who prefer it.
• The load times allowed me to tweet that I was playing Wipeout 2048 on my phone, with plenty of time to spare before it loaded. Obviously not good, but if the new patch cuts down load times significantly, this won’t be an issue when I finally get to play the full version - which was already available for purchase at Gamestop.
• There’s only one race available, 3 laps around Empire Climb in a FEISAR (Agility) on C Class. It became a cakewalk halfway into the thing. Then again, I’m a 15th year veteran pilot, not to toot my own horn.
• The FEISAR handles very responsively, but it has a tendency to oversteer. Just like every other FEISAR in every Wipeout game ever made ever. The trick is to be smooth.
• Turbo being classified as a “defensive” weapon is still baffling to me, with the split of weapons into offensive/defensive categories, they probably should have went with a Wipeout 3 Hyperthrust system instead.
• Empire Climb is pretty boring at C-Class speeds even with the skillcut. That will hopefully change once the speeds ramp up. It’s also a very long lap, and that part I like - Wipeout circuits these days seem too short in my opinion. I liked when Altima VII took 50 seconds a lap on Rapier class, dammit!

So there’s my impressions. I was going to buy it immediately before I got to play the demo and this experience only reinforced that.