The EyeToy play series of games reaches its third iteration and proves that the EyeToy is not just a one trick pony.
I’m sure owners of the original EyeToy will have obtained arms like Popeye from washing windows and chopping kung fu assailants. I was expecting a similar plethora of games with the latest incarnation.
I was pleasantly surprised to find they had done something new with the game this time around. Previously your image was imposed on the back of the screen and things happened in graphics that were simply overlaid. This time the player has been brought into the heart of the game by clever scaling, shearing and rotation of the camera image, which means that the rectangle of the camera image is placed on different parts of the screen according to the game. It hops, jumps and bends to match your movements within the game. The games themselves have been designed to integrate this new idea into the gameplay.
Enough tech and onto the games...
Here is a selection of the highlights:-
Boot camp
You take the role of a soldier enduring boot camp training. You must manoeuvre the obstacle course by leaping over walls (by jumping), navigating monkey bars (swinging side to side) and puddles of water (running on the spot). Your progress is displayed by your rectangle hopping and wobbling along the course. After this is a follow-the-leader type drill of salutes and order barking.
Touchdown
American rules “football”. Your objective is to avoid the oncoming tacklers by ducking left and right whilst waiting for the ball. Throw the ball, then run down the pitch like Forrest Gump to catch the same pass. Once you have the ball you must run and score a touchdown. Meanwhile avoiding tackles with a series of dodges, ducks and jumps.
The silhouette at the start of the game shows how much of your body should be onscreen. Touchdown just uses the top half of your body then cleverly adds an animated lower half to complete the image of a player. Warning: don’t play this game with small children meandering about as they are liable to receive a quick forearm smash at an inopportune moment (sorry son).
Ghost Hunt
You are at the end of a corridor in a haunted house, duck and weave the flying objects, batter the ghosties. It’s all a bit like Ghostbusters in the library.
Fashion Makeover
This is Sony’s punt at appealing to the girlies, or putting boys in touch with their feminine side. Cut hair, file nails, massage buttocks (yup)…
Join the band
Gene Simmons eat your heart out. Posh kids up and down the country can now get to batter drums and strum guitars in a rhythm action type game without the need to don a stupid-looking uniform.
Laboratory
This is trippy psychedelic stuff that the developers probably crammed in after work when over indulging on mushroom sandwiches.
There are plenty more games of similar theme crammed into this package, but just too many to describe here. The graphics follow the same high quality cartoon feel of previous EyeToy titles. But as ever it’s gameplay that shines over graphics in a game like this. The same can be said for sound; instantly forgettable tunes and sound effects that fit the game and provide the appropriate background noise.
To summarise; if you liked the previous EyeToy games, young or old, drunk or sober then you’ll undoubtedly enjoy this as well.
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