EyePet & Friends and Start the Party! Save the World

It’s just over a year since the launch of the PlayStation Move, and, in the last few weeks, a new wave of titles has been released for the motion controller. Two of these games are EyePet & Friends and Start the Party! Save the World, both of which are sequels to previous Move-enabled games.

So, how do they play?

EyePet & Friends

EyePet was originally released two years ago, and was later patched with full Move functionality in September 2010. EyePet & Friends also features support for Move, but unlike its predecessor, it was built from the ground up to utilise Sony’s motion controller.

The game opens with an impossibly charming video explaining where EyePets come from; it turns out the furry little guys are bred in the insanely colourful Pet Centre, before shipping out to their new owners. In fact, ‘impossibly charming’ pretty much sums up the whole game.

For example, you’re guided through everything by a narrator who has the same intonation as a Blue Peter presenter; adults will no doubt find the unflinching happiness of the game too much to bear, but children will most likely love it.

Much of the game’s content is unchanged from the first EyePet, but thankfully there are also plenty of additions. For a start, there are a plethora of new activities and many more customisation options, including the ability to create your own toys and costumes for your EyePet.

For the first time in the series, you can even have two EyePets on-screen at the same time, which is where the ‘& Friends’ part of the title comes in. You can also upload any photos, videos and other items to Pet World, the game’s dedicated online community.

Not much content is available from the start though, so you’ll have to unlock various activities by spending Pet Tokens, which are in turn earned by completing various challenges and other minigames. It’s a nice feature, and will no doubt add to the game’s lifespan.

For the most part, the game works well, and the way the EyePet interacts with real-world objects is very impressive. However, problems arise when you play the game in the evening, especially when you (attempt to) interact with your EyePet with your hand.

You see, the PlayStation Eye requires a lot of light to work properly, so the camera will often be unable to recognise your movements and you’ll find it almost impossible to progress. Even when it does work, the grainy picture quality is very ugly.

EyePet & Friends can be brilliantly entertaining when it works, but it is seriously let down by the ageing PlayStation Eye. As a children’s game, it needs to work 100% of the time, but that just isn’t the case, so unfortunately it can sometimes end up being more frustrating than fun.