Play With Me...? (EyeToy Play + Camera (PS2))

Member Name: mary_eloise

Product:	EyeToy Play + Camera (PS2)
Date:	02/03/08 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Suitable for all

Disadvantages: Easy to cheat, not really suited for group occassions

The first installment of the EyeToy Play games, feautring a wide range of games for all different ability levels and suitable for anyone from age 3 upwards. Everything is controlled by your hands, so no need for any controllers. This is confusing to start with but don't worry it gets easier after a matter of minutes. You gently wave over the option that you want and it happens.

Game Play:

You can play on your own, or in teams of up to four (2 a side). Each person chooses a character, or takes their own photo, gives themselves a name, and you're good to go. You then choose from an extensive selection of games, including the one that made this game famous 'washing windows' in which you wave your arms around like a maniac to try and clear foam from windows. There are games for those who want to truly test their hand-eye coordination. Try mirror magic, on hard mode, the screen splits into 4 pieces all of which have either been flipped or rotated, and you have to touch all of the green buttons, whilst avoiding the red ones. It sounds easy enough, especially when you bear in mind that there are only 4 buttons in each screen, however you'll quickly get confused and move your arm the wrong way. It's great fun. There's a boxing game, a game in which you use your head to do keepy-uppys, and mirror magic without the swivelling. Alongside about 6 others.

Bonus features:

You can record videos of yourself and friends, however the quality is poor and unless you have a huge memory card, you can't save more than about 30 seconds worth of material on it. There's a game room where you get a selection of special effects such as twinkling everytime you move, snow, spiders crawling onto your face and so worth. This part is definitely aimed at children, but adults can enjoy it for around 20 seconds before the novelty wears off.

Overview:

It's painfully easy to cheat, just stand close enough to the box and in all the games which don't require anything other than well timed waves, you can easily get really high scores without doing anything.
You do however lose weight if you actually use it properly, the running about, the jumping, and the arm waving burns off a surprising amount of calories, and you will certainly feel yourself getting tired after a reasonably short amount of time.
There's a good variety of games so you don't get bored, although it's quite unsociable to stand infront of a tv and wave your arms around. Incidentally you do look absolutely ridiculous playing EyeToy, so if you're a little shy, it's probably not for you.

Also, if you're playing in a group, no-one else can move, otherwise their movements get registered and it ruins your game, because either you lose lives for moving the wrong way or you end up touching one of the characters that you shouldn't have done and so forth.

It really is the world's most unsociable game, which sounds surprising, but try it and you'll see for yourself. People are sitting around motionless waiting for others to finish their 4 minutes of mad-waving, it can get boring pretty quickly.

Summary: Try it if you want, but it's not to everyone's tastes