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EyeToy: Play review

Game: EyeToy: Play
Platform: PlayStation 2
Genre: Casual (Party)
Developer: Sony Imagesoft

Reader review by asherdeus

April 19, 2004

The other day two of my buddies and I were just sitting in my room when all the sudden these ninjas come out of no where and started attacking us. At first, we kept getting hit but eventually we were able to stop their onslaught. It was pretty freaking crazy; we didn’t even realize what was happening. Even worse, a little later we got attacked by this huge boxing robot. I don’t know what the hell that guy was thinking, but we pummeled him just like we were Muhammad Ali. Three soft jabs with the right to the stomach and then one quick left swing to the face brought that metal pile down to scrap metal.

Then things got really weird. We were suddenly in the jungle, and there were plates spinning on bamboo. And monkeys. And the monkeys were trying to knock over our plates. But then the plates started to stop spinning and we had to keep them spinning, and it made our arms really tired. And the bottom ones wouldn’t spin as well as the top ones and it was frustrating.

Welcome to the world of EyeToy.

EyeToy is an insane little camera device that Sony put out for the PlayStation 2. It sits on top of your shelf while you stand a few feet away from it waving your arms around like an idiot. As you move your arms around, the camera picks up your motions and translates them to movements in the game on the screen. It’s truly a fascinating device.

I think this is the first time this type of utility has been used in correlation to video games. I don’t remember any other game that used a camera for motion sensing. But this isn’t some silly little GameBoy camera type deal; this is a legitimate operation. The camera is included with the game, EyeToy: Play, which includes a dozen different mini-games for you to try your skill at. And while a lot of them aren’t very entertaining, the product definitely shows signs of great potential.

I don’t really feel like sitting here and reviewing the individual games included, so here’s how I’ll do this. I liked the violent games. I hated the rhythm games. It’s unfortunate that most of the package was rhythm games.

The violent games (basically, the ninja and robot games mentioned above) are a lot of fun. You feel straight playing them, because you’re beating the shit out of something. Ninja’s are going flying left and right, robots are being pummeled – now that’s exciting. I’m just not excited about the stupid rhythm games. Moving my arms to match with lights on the screen, spinning plates, that isn’t entertaining. It’s tiring and boring. I’d accomplish a lot more doing other menial tasks, like lifting boulders or raking.

Plus, you’ve always got to consider how cool you look. If you’re going to be waving your arms around like some sort of seizure victim, you’ve got to at least do it with style. If someone gives you crap about waving around your arms when you’re killing ninjas, you'll explain why you're doing it and they'll be like, “badass.” But if someone gives you crap about waving your arms around like an idiot and you explain that you’re dancing, they’ll be like, “you love men.”

EyeToy does well in the graphics department, and in that I mean the camera picks up very nicely. It took some maneuvering of the lights in my room to get it to be perfect, but the camera is pretty spot on in most of the games. Sometimes in the boxing game, the camera fails to pick up your motions because you move so far from your spot in your excitement, but besides that it’s accurate. As for the games themselves, they look decent, but don’t be expecting much other than a few colors on a static background and some sparsely animated interactive objects. And sounds…the few voices that narrate the instructions…they’re okay, but really, really campy, as is the music.

Overall, if you’re into games like DDR, I imagine you’d get a lot more out of this package than I did. The device is truly fascinating, but I don’t think it has enough violence for mainstream America. Maybe if there was more killing in it, but that’s only a maybe. But, you gotta hand it to Sony for creating such an interesting gimmick that seems to have a real future.

Rating: 6.3/10

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