The Rest
I downloaded just about every Move demo available for the PS3 and thought I’d give a few final impressions.
EyePet is a game that brings a virutal Furbee like creature into your living room. You can then set this up and interact with it using the camera and Motion controller. I tried getting my 18 month old daughter to play with it, but she was more enthralled by the fact she was on screen than the furry creature. One problem I had with it was having enough space to place because the camera needs to see a line of floor and horizon to know where to place the little guy. There's a few mini-games to play like drawing an airplane for the EyePet to ride - but more or less this is a glorified technology demo.
Heavy Rain came out last year on the PS3 to great acclaim and the game has gotten a patch to play the entire thing with the Move. The demo available can be played with either controller option. I found the Move prompts to be a bit confusing, and I wasn’t quite sure what the game wanted me to do at certain points. I’m sure after a certain amount of time with the product you can get the hang of it - but I was turned off. That being said - I never though raising my hand up to knock on a door would seem so cool.
Kung-Fu Rider is a weird game reminded me a bit of Crazy Taxi in terms of style, but it was anything but. Basically you ride an office chair or other rollable object down a steep hill avoiding the Chinese Mafia. You earn style points for ducking under objects, jumping over objects, kicking bad guys, and squeezing through tight spaces. The move is used to lean back or jump up as well as steer. It was a fun game for the bit I played - and if it comes out at $10 or so I might have to pick it up.
Final Thoughts
As someone who has a Wii still packed in his clothes closet - I’m not the biggest proponent of motion controlled games. That being said - while I didn’t find myself wanting to spend a ton of time with these titles - it’s a nice distraction in a lot of cases. Whether the Move will truly catch on is yet to be seen - but surprisingly - I like the fact it’s an OPTIONAL accessory. The controller technology itself is incredibly impressive and the accuracy it creates motion is exactly as one would expect.
If I have one quarrel with it, it's a bit expensive and the glowing ball is a bit distracting in a dark room. I could easily see it reflecting off my TV while playing.
As of now there’s no killer app for the Move - there’s no reason to absolutely have to go out and buy it. There’s a few big titles coming down the pipe like SOCOM 4, Killzone 3, Sorcery and others that look to cater to a core audience, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
Score: 4 out of 5