EyeToy: Play

Some of the games are slightly boring after a while playing for me.

Good fun such a laugh good for the family, good exercise too (some of the games) needs to have more sporty or more exercise games I believe but well recommend EyeToy: Play.

I have had Eye Toy: Play for ages and I still find it absolutely fantastic compared to some of my various other games. It's excellent when I can get all my mates along and have one big battle with them (and hopefully win). Also great when you just want to play around because it has a 'playroom' feature which enables you to use special graphics to play with bubbles, balloons, leaves, underwater, etc. A great game - absolutely worth getting!

EyeToy: Play is sooo fun and can be played with numerous people and by the end of it you end up falling around laughing. All the games are really good fun and addictive. It is brilliant tecnology and I LOVE IT!!!

EyeToy: Play has great technology and enough games and extras but gets very boring after a while, and you need to be very fit to play for a day solid but then again it is good exercise.

EyeToy was launched late in 2003 as the new gadget for the PS2. Basically, the EyeToy is a small camera type object that you sit on top of your TV... it can see you... it watches you, and reacts to your movements... it's through this gadget that you control the EyeToy games. Forget your joypad, with EyeToy you stand in front of the TV and wave your arms about (your legs, head and the rest of your body too if you like!) to control and play the game!

EyeToy: Play was the first games disc released for EyeToy and tends to be packaged along with the EyeToy itself, although it can be bought seperately. It contains 12 "crazy games, all controlled by your body movements".

Starting to Play!

********************

The menu screens on EyeToy: Play are also all controlled with your body movements - when the game first loads you'll see a variety of icons on the TV screen around your body (the EyeToy camera puts the image of you that it sees into the centre of the screen, so you find a mirror image of yourself smiling back). Waving over the icons selects them - you have to wave over the icons for a couple of seconds to select them, and as you're waving you'll see them change colour to show what it is you're selecting. This is useful as if it immediately responded to movement over the icon you'd be forever going back and forth as you accidentally selected something you didn't want!

It's useful to make yourself a profile for when you're playing - this way you can record your high scores and your progress, and you can also record some cheesy photos of yourself! Making your profile requires you to pose in front of the EyeToy with a happy face, sad face and silly face. You also allocate yourself a name, though this (in true arcade style) is limited to 3 characters, (hence angeelu's is just ANG). These pics are then used to represent your profile

As well as allowing you to make a profile, the menu screens also include the expected things such as options, difficulty level, and choosing single or multi-player modes.

The Games

********************

Once you've finished exploring through the menus you'll want to get onto the games!

Game One: Beat Freak

The idea of this game is to hit the speakers in time with the music to build up a high score. There's a selection of tracks to choose from, including Boogie Nights, each one varying slightly in difficulty. As you look at the screen you can see yourself and, in each corner of the screen is a speaker. As the music plays CD's appear in the middle of the screen and move towards a speaker - you have to move your arms to hit the CD's just as they cover the centre of the speaker - this all happens in time to the music.

This is definitely one of the more addictive games on the disc and you soon find yourself waving your arms around to various disco tunes in true Saturday Night Fever style!

Game Two: Kung Foo

In this game you have to fight off ninja bad guys. Your image is again in the centre of the screen and on each side of the screen are platforms from which cartoon style ninjas appear and jump towards you in an attempt to attack you. Your job is to hit them before they hit you! You can't help but finding yourself taking on a karate-ish stance and chopping away with your palms out flat! Bonus levels within the game see you chopping through planks of wood with your bare fists.

Again, another addictive game, turning you into a martial arts master in the middle of your living room!

Game Three: Wishi Washi

Perhaps the most window cleaning I've ever done in my life - you're a window cleaner - you have to clean as many windows as you can within two minutes. This involves frantically jumping up and down, waving your arms about to the tune of 'When I'm Cleaning Windows'. It's not just a simple case of wiping over the window either - bird poo requires some extra scrubbing y'know!

This one's not so addictive, but certainly a laugh. At the end of the day, it's virtual housework... can't see the idea catching on!

Game Four: Keep Ups

Use your body to bounce a football around the screen in true keepy-uppy style. How many keepy-uppys can you do before you drop the ball? Playing this makes you feel like a bit of a performing seal or something as you stand in front of the telly bobbing your head up and down and shrugging your shoulders etc!

Personally not one I enjoy, but probably because I'm not too good at it!

Game Five: Boxing Chump

Rather than standing face on to the TV, in this game you take a more side-on boxer stance. As you've probably guessed this is a boxing game, and the idea is to punch your opponent. Maybe it's because you take a different stance than in the other games, but I find this one is less reactive to your movements and more difficult to get the hang of.

Again, not one I really play much...

Game Six: UFO Juggler

The aim of this is to get UFO's into orbit by helping to spin them fast enough to achieve flight, but not so fast that they explode! You make them spin by waving your hand across them - the more frantically you wave the faster they spin - as they spin they take off... they need to reach the top of the screen to get into orbit, but if they lose speed they'll stop spinning and start to fall towards the ground again. It's your job to ensure that you don't let them crash to earth and that you get them all into orbit.

This one is more addictive the more you play it. Once you get the hang of it's really playable.

Game Seven: Slap Stream

In this game you have to save two EyeToy characters (Yumi and QT) from the evil ratmen. The screen is scattered with clouds with you stood behind them. Ratmen, Yumi and QT pop up randomly on different clouds - this game tests your reflexes in that you have to slap the ratmen off the clouds, but ensure you don't hit Yumi or QT. As the game goes on it gets more difficult as the characters pop up more and more quickly.

Another quite addictive game which is really playable. It's not that it's a particularly imaginative game, but it's the sort of game where you find yourself trying to beat your high scores.

Game Eight: Plate Spinner

Just as you'd expect - you're spinning plates. You have to keep them spinning at high speeds to score the highest points. Spinning them is similar in method to spinning the UFOs. You wave your hand repeatedly over the plate to make it spin faster, though you need to take care to do this fairly accurately to avoid making them spin wobbly and falling off.

Not a particularly addictive game, though it'll give you a laugh when you do play it. Amusing to watch other people play this one.

Game Nine: Boogie Down

A memory game mixed with a dancing type game. A character stands in the middle of the screen and performs a few dance movements with her arms that basically involve pointing towards certain lights surrounding the stage. This is done in time to music. The idea is that you watch her do the moves, remember them, and then, when she tells you it's your turn you copy what you've just seen.

This is another of those games that you find yourself trying to beat your previous scores, it's surprising how long you can spend playing it and pointing disco-diva style in time to the tunes.

Game Ten: Ghost Catcher

Set in a graveyard, it's your mission to stop the ghosts escaping from the graveyard. You do this by kind of blowing them up! Once you spot a ghost you wave your hand over it to fill it with air - once it's full up it pops! Using both hands gives you extra efficiency (and also makes you look sillier!)

This isn't a bad game, however I find that I lose interest after a while as the levels are all very much the same other than the frequency and speed of ghost appearances.

Game Eleven: Mirror Time

If this doesn't frustrate you, nothing will! Your image takes main place in the centre of the screen. Four bubbles are around the edge of the screen - some of them will contain an image of Kieu (a girl you're meant to save) and some will contain Big Robo Bro (steer clear of him). The idea is to touch the bubbles containing Kieu. Sounds easy? It's not.

The screen starts off normally, so it's like you're looking in the mirror - you wave your right hand, and your mirror image copies you as though you're looking in a normal mirror. Then Big Robo Bro pulls a lever and the orientation of the mirror changes - it might turn the whole image up side down, it might flip it horizontally or vertically. As the game goes on the mirror also splits, so the left hand side of the screen may have been turned upside down and the right hand flipped horizontally. Trying to work out which way to move your hand to touch the right bubbles gets really confusing!

This game keeps you playing through the fact it's so frustrating when you get it wrong!

Game Twelve: Rocket Rumble

Aaaaahhh! Ooooooh! It's a fireworks display. Various coloured rockets are fired into the air - it's your job to detonate them, but you can only detonate rockets of the same colour at the same time. So, if a red rocket and a blue rocket are fired up at the same time, you can grab the red rocket to select it then bash the plunger to fire that one, then select the blue one and bash the plunger again to set that one off. The more fireworks that go off, the more the audience are interested and the more points you get, so if three green rockets go up and one blue one you're better off waving over the three green ones first and detonating them then getting the single blue one if you've got time before it falls back to the ground or goes off the screen.

Another one that keeps you playing for longer than you'd imagine - it becomes a bit of a mission to set of as many rockets as you can!

So Is EyeToy: Play Worth Getting?

********************

The games can all be played in multi-player mode giving you the chance to challenge friends to beat your scores. Each time you get a high score that tops the score table for each particular game EyeToy takes your photo to keep against the score making your hard work waving about last for eternity so you can show off by pointing out your photo takes pride of place in the score tables at a later date!

The games on this disc aren't the best you'll ever have seen on the PS2, but they do demonstrate the use of the EyeToy and are more novelty value than serious ground-breaking games.

If you're even remotely shy, then this is definitely a game best played with the curtains shut - you can get very strange looks if people happen to walk past your house and see you standing in the room on your own waving your arms about and smiling like a madman! Think of the benefits though - you can't be accused of being a couch potato playing console games if you're jumping around... it's got to be more healthy surely?!

Other than 'Play' there's only one other EyeToy game available at the moment (EyeToy Groove). Play is certainly worth buying for the novelty value of the EyeToy. You can buy EyeToy: Play, including the EyeToy camera for £29.99 in many places.

Worthy of eight stars for the fun factor alone! * * * * * * * *