Using PlayStation Vita's dual analog sticks, players control a starship orbiting a planet, and the orbit itself is the playfield, filled with asteroids & enemies. The ship has several different weapons, smart bombs, a temporary shield, and a speed boost system. The ship has two projectile weapons of opposite polarities (Ice and Fire) that can be switched between on-the-fly. While one is effective against a certain type of enemy, it can be almost useless against another so players must quickly adapt to situations, constantly choosing which weapon to use against what.
Each weapon can be powered-up over the course of the game by collecting tokens (dropped onto orbit from destroyed enemy craft/asteroids). The ship is also able to collect and deploy smart bombs, which usually clear most of the playfield. When deploying a smart bomb players can choose the desired effect - Black Hole, Missile Strike, or EMP bomb. Playstation Vita's touchscreen controls Missile Strike, rear touch opens Black Hole, and motion control (shaking) deploys the EMP Bomb.
Other unique features to the Playstation Vita's Super Stardust Delta - the view can be tilted to see round the planet, and the ship's speed boost system has a slo-mo feature that enables players to navigate the ship with more precision while boosting.
Super Stardust Delta also has more game modes than any of the preceding titles in the series - 11 unique modes all in all, each with its own unique challenges and scenarios. The different game modes are "Arcade", "Planets", "Endless", "Bomber", "Impact", "Twin-Gun", "Crush!", "Disc Slide", "Orbit Bomber", "Rock & Roll", and "Trucker". The main game modes have three difficulty levels to choose from; "Casual", "Normal", or "Hardcore".
Even more, many of the game modes let players choose whether to play the game with the "Delta" or "Pure" control configuration. "Delta" configuration features all the bells and whistles, with players using the touchscreen, motion controls, as well as button controls to play the game, enabling the Black Hole and Missile Strike smart bombs, as well as the speed boost getting the slo-mo feature. "Pure" configuration features simple button controls only, doing away with the Black Hole, Missile Strike and the speed boost's slo-mo feature.
Super Stardust Delta boasts global leaderboards via PlayStation Network.
Source: Wikipedia, "Super Stardust Delta", available under the CC-BY-SA License.