Well it’s about flippin’ time we dug the EyeToy out again – memories of last summer and all the frigging about during the hot weather come flooding back, and reminded us of just how crap a summer we had this year… Anyway, software giants Konami have jumped onto the EyeToy wagon and produced the second best EyeToy game (behind the original EyeToy: Play) so far…
Initially there seems to be rather an overabundance of football/juggling-type games but on closer inspection UMS supplies a surprisingly interesting variation in games.
Perfect Goalie - you’re in goal and have to save the shots, simple as that.
Ball Tossing Aliens - Volleyball with an alien, very tricky to play.
Yellow Card - Wave your hands at the referee to stop him from giving you a… (you guessed it)
Dribbling - Dribble the football slalom-style through the cones.
Short Pass Training - It’s piggy in the middle, with aliens.
Heading Adventures - Juggle the ball and avoid the obstacles all the way to school.
Space Breakout - One of my favourites, it’s just like the classic game of Breakout and you have to keep the ball bouncing and break down the wall in order to er… breakout – it’s breakout..
Trapping Practice - Hit balls at the targets, closer to the bullseye the more points you score, don’t hit the bombs. This game seems broken, and I couldn’t get the hang of it at all.
Sling Shot - It’s soccer pinball basically. It has a clever 4-screen interface (you’re the flippers) but is very difficult to control.
Corner Kick - Score against the gorilla goalie from corners taken by a monkey team mate.
Rugby Clash - Tackle the charging rugby ball-carrying bulls so that they pass the ball
Sweep Sweep Curling - Possibly both the best and the most difficult game on the disk, it’s ice curling that will have you waving your arms until they drop off in order to get the stone to keep sliding and reach the target zone – an excellent game.
Horse Racing Jockey - Slap your horse’s arse to make it go faster, or at the head end to slow down, and like all the other horse racing games it’s a balancing act between keeping the pace up and not running out of energy, and it’s very difficult to master.
Hole In One Golf - Disappointing “golf” game that is in fact no more than a sweeping game. Your ball scrolls up the screen and you simply have to clear all the hazards out of it’s path in order to reach the hole.
Baseball Batting Frenzy - Simply hit the pitches to score, three strikes and you’re out.
UMS has three difficulty settings (although who the heck is going to play and win on “Advanced” heaven only knows) and allows for up to four players to play individually or as teams. As with EyeToy Play you can have your own profile and take a picture to go with any high scores.
An extras section called ‘Art Studio’ includes some basic mess-around on-screen visual effects and games that didn’t quite make it into the game proper. Lawn Mower is one of the best and controls well – don’t know why they didn’t put a scoring system in and make it a full game. Picture Frame lets you roll a cube containing you around, Kaleidoscope, Action Replay (time lag multi-screen) and Blurred Slow Motion, Sand (pixellated image) and De-Frosty (a bit like Wishi Washy), are all the sort of things that you’ll have one go at and then never play again. Whack a Mole is unsurprisingly a mole-whacking game and actually keeps score, and as there’s no lives system you appear to be able to play it for ever, so I guess you could use it for exercise. Bouncing Baby is another ball-bouncing game but there’s no scoring and the ball can’t drop off the screen or go off the top, so it’s perfect for younger EyeToyers to have a go at. Party Time has a character that moves and music that plays – your movement is the trigger. Sliding Puzzle is possibly the best of this additional bunch (if you like sliding puzzles, that is), and just like the plastic things we all had as kids, could drive you mental as you get all the pieces but one in the correct place, and can’t for the life of you figure out how to get the last one where it should be without messing all the others up…
All in all, U-Move Supersports is a fun, much-needed addition to the EyeToy’s stable, but maybe should have been a budget game.
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
