Developer: Sony London Studio
Publisher: SCEE
Release Date: Out Now
Players: The whole family
Words By:
When the EyeToy debuted on the PS2 some 6 years ago I thought it was probably a bit of a gimmick, and one that would die out in quick time once the limitations had been found and the novelty had worn off. Now several of the biggest players in the games industry have plans for similar systems, some even planning to give the gamer the option of doing away with traditional interfaces and controllers altogether. EyePet is the latest offering for the updated PlayStation 3 Eye camera, and to be honest, I was expecting a tricky-to-set up and disappointing experience, and I simply wouldn’t have believed the EyePet could work as well as the demonstration videos suggested.
Well how wrong I was. For a start, the PS3 Eye camera seems to be a lot more sensitive than the old PS2 one, and needs less light to operate effectively (some EyeToy games required the room to be extremely well lit in order to work properly), and the sheer cuteness and lifelike AI of the EyePet will charm the pants off of even the most cynical games reviewer (like our beloved sub-editor). Virtual pets have of course, been around for donkey’s years, most memorably in the form of Little Computer Person (LCP) on Commodore 64/128, and the Tamagotchi and Pokemon crazes.
The game comes with a strange-looking magic card (that looks a bit like a picture frame), and this acts as a base for gizmos and becomes things like a shower head, hairdryer, food scoop, bowling aimer, jump ramp etc. etc. It’s the thing that the Eye Camera recognises whenever you want to do something, so look after it. The first thing you have to do is hatch your new baby from an egg, gently rolling it from side to side and warming it until it pops out. Once it’s born you’ll appreciate just how lifelike the EyePet is – “lifelike”, that is, if there were such a species as a highly-intelligent monkey-kitten-puppy-gremlin type thing that lives in a magic hole in your living room floor. The EyePet looks like it’s really there on your carpet, mainly because it scales realistically in and out of the screen and just like all other visually convincing action games it has a realistic shadow that plants it firmly on the ground. The collision detection is also first-class, so the EyePet responds to you stroking it or even dropping food on its head.
When thinking of names for our new family member (each gamer profile can have up to 4 different ones, so everyone can have their own to avoid arguments) E-Furr and Furr-E were my favourites, we settled on E-Furr (why? because E is for EyePet, duh).
Ah yes, the magic swirling hole in the floor, this is where all the gizmos and toys are tidied up into, and where the EyePet reappears from when you switch it back on. I’d really like one of these for myself please, Mr Sony, as it’d make tidying up our house an altogether more achievable task.
The main part of the game is the EyePet training programme, which consists of 15 days with four tests in each. The tests vary from allsorts; making the pet run around or getting a photo of it in a certain situation, or by playing one of the many mini games with it. Each test can be passed at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels so there’s plenty of replay value. One of the first things that we taught E-Furr to do was draw. Your EyePet learns to draw by you drawing something and then holding it up to the Eye Camera for him to have a look at. This requires the drawing to be clear, not too complicated and away from the edges of the paper. At first he sucked badly, but it’s amazing how good he is now. Some of his copies have been startlingly good, others less so, results seem to depend on the quality of the light more than the quality of the drawing. You can even put one of your designs onto a T-shirt for your EyePet to wear. Later on drawings magically become 3-D toys like cars, planes and robots, made out of a choice of materials like coloured plastic, wood, cardboard or paper. Kids will surely love this feature of the game in particular, and as several of the tests involve drawing it would probably be a good idea to invest in a ream of plain A4 paper and a thick black felt pen so you can draw all the things your EyePet will require. Once you have created a 3-D toy, you can drive your EyePet around on the car you drew or fly it around on its own little plane!
There’s a selection of other magic toys too, including a trampoline, a bowling set, bubble monkey (blows bubbles), a tennis set, a treadmill, a snap cards game and the singing set (which again, are all used in many of the tests). There are even a couple of “outdoor” activities Gardening (EyePet digs holes on your command and you sow seeds and water them to grow flowers) and Fishing (you use a net to catch fish from a pond to put in your pet’s aquarium).
Your pet needs to be played with and exercised but also requires feeding and cleaning. E-Furr seems to get dirty quite quickly and in a little over 2 hours of exercise and play he needed 3 showers and 3 feeds. A dirty EyePet is easy to spot, it starts to look miserable and gets a swarm of midges buzzing around it - its face and paws even start to look grubby. The EyePet will also tell you if it’s hungry, by making little whining noises and eventually by dragging its food bowl into view! Once fed and cleaned your EyePet will look much happier, with bouncy shiny fur that wouldn’t look out of place in a Pantene advert.
In the Petcare section you have Styling. From here you can radically change the look of your pet. There are preset fur styles (Lion, Poodle, Gibbon, Pony, Mohican or just plain short), you can change the colour of its fur, the fur pattern (tiger, giraffe, cow, leopard spots, zig-zags, stripes, spider web and others). You can choose the length of its fur (short looks like a lamb, long looks like a fluffy kitten), and even decide what sort of fur it has from; straight, loops, spiky, ribbons, feathers, curly or dreadlocks! Then, if you wish, you can even put clothes on the thing, headwear and outfits of various kinds (many more are unlocked as you progress through the challenges) some look daft but some undeniably look extremely cute. There’s already a premium Wild West-themed set on the EyePet store.
Use the magic card as a scannerand it will show your pet’s cardiac health, muscle tone, brain happiness and tummy hunger, so once you’ve exercised, showered and fed the little bugger you can then send a nice happy health report in to the EyePet center and will receive messages and rewards in return.
EyePet has some relaxing accompanying background music, it’s of the type that starts to drive you mental after a while and will have you looking for the audio options, but then you find yourself humming it a few days later.
As a product we think EyePet borders on genius. It’s a remarkably slick and well-executed product. It uses HD graphics and the PS3 Eye camera’s microphone well, it’s easy to set up and works better than any of the previous EyeToy games as it doesn’t require a huge expanse of uncluttered, plain coloured wall or Premier League standard floodlighting to work properly. However, while we appreciate most gamers will have a decent sized TV, it’s questionable how well it might work on a smaller set - we reviewed EyePet on a 42inch Samsung, which makes you appear life-size, so everything looks convincing. It almost certainly also has more lastability than the old EyeToy games, and is a great idea for parents who live in places where the kids can’t keep a real pet, or for parents who like to get their kids a pet but aren’t sure how they’d treat it. If your EyePet gets neglected for a few days it doesn’t care, it comes back every time, smiling and demanding your love and attention. EyePet is highly recommended for gamers of all ages, but particularly for gaming families. At an RRP of only £34.99 (complete with the Eye camera, it’s only £19.99 solus) I’d be staggered if this wasn’t the Christmas number one most-wanted toy, and so might be hard to get hold of nearer Christmas.
Best Bits
- Cute and clever - Great use of the PS3 Eyecam - Doesn’t poo on the carpet - Or need walking when it’s cold out - Or expensive vet bills
Worst Bits
- You can’t actually pick the little bugger up and cuddle it
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