I Like to Move It, Move It

Originally published on 09/15/2010 at YouGotGa.me

A few weeks back I opened my inbox to find that I'd been picked to host a PlayStation Move party from HouseParty. Even though I don't currently have a PS3, I was really interested in trying out Move since I didn't have the chance to see it at E3 this year. So, once the package with my PlayStation Eye and Wiimote...er, Move controller, arrived I hightailed it over to the nearest PS3 to give it a go.

Color me impressed!

I'd been dismissive of the Move when it was first announced, thinking it was just going to be a more enhanced version of the Wii controller. Turns out I was right, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. While the motion sensing tech inside the two controllers is quite similar, adding the camera tracking to the Move allowed for a higher degree of precision than I would have expected. Rather than try to cover all the demos that came with the Move at once, I'm going to focus on the two that really seemed to convey the potential of Move.

The demo disc that came with the Move package contained a half-dozen or so demos of varying quality. While titles like The Shoot and Kung-Fu Rider were fun for a few minutes, they didn't really bring anything new to the field as far as motion-controlled games go. The two titles the stood out for me were Sports Champions and Start the Party. I felt that these two showed off the potential for Move moreso than any of the other demos that came in the box.

The first title most people are going to come in contact with is Sports Champions, the full version of which will be a pack-in title with the Move bundle. Despite treading ground that Nintendo has already walked with the Wii Sports line, Sports Champions managed to have a different feel than the Wii Sports games while maintaining the fun. The two sports available in the demo are Frisbee Golf and Table Tennis. Having played countless hours of table tennis at my old job, this was the first minigame I hopped into. After a short, painless set-up process where you allow the PlayStation Eye take pictures of you holding the Move controller in different positions in order to more accurately track your movements, you're able to start the game.

I was instantly struck by how responsive the Move controller was once I started the round. Having found myself wishing for more accuracy when playing table tennis in Wii Sports Resort, I was pleasantly surprised with Sports Champions. Not only were basic movements such as serving or returning the ball flawless in being represented by your on-screen character, but even precision moves like adding spin to the ball were picked up by the Move controller. I quickly learned that seemingly every move you could make in a real round of table tennis could be performed on the Move, which led to a bit of a heated match with the friend I was playing with, who is also a big table tennis player. While not revolutionary from a gameplay perspective, it definitely serves to showcase the tracking capability of Move. The controls were just as accurate in the Frisbee Golf minigame included in the demo, which made me realize I suck at virtual frisbee almost as much as I suck at throwing a real frisbee! This definitely seems like a game that, much like Wii Sports, could draw in people who might otherwise never pick up a controller.

While Sports Champions served as a good showcase for the technical side of the Move and its motion gameplay, Start The Party seemed like the system seller out of the bunch. In addition to having genuinely enjoyable gameplay, using the PlayStation Eye as part of the game itself lets Sony differentiate itself from Wii more so than in many other Move titles that have been shown off. Start The Party is, as its name would imply, a party game consisting of 20 various mini-games, only a few of which were available in the demo. 

Despite the limited number of mini-games available in the demo version, I had more fun with Start The Party than any of the other demos I tried on Move. What made the games so enjoyable is that, by using the Playstation Eye to display footage of you on the screen with an augmented reality overlay, you really get a sense of being "in the game" that very few titles are able to pull off. Seeing the controller in your hand replaced by an oversized tennis racket, whack-a-mole hammer, or bug-chomping lizard is way more amusing than it has any right to be, and slicing flying fruit in half with a pirate sword is enough to bring a chuckle to almost anyone.

The mini-games normally last between 30 seconds and a minute, which keeps any one game from getting boring and gives the game a sometimes-frantic pace. Out of all my friends who I've shown the Move to, this is the one game that everyone got the most excited for. When you see a tatted-up metalhead grinning like a little kid as he swats at virtual bugs on screen, you know Sony is onto something. As for the graphics, the game features a very exaggerated and cartoony style which works well for the gameplay style and is actually very funny at times, such as when you have to make a goofy-looking lizard perched on top of your hand eat as many flies as he can before time runs out. Like I said earlier, Start The Party strikes me as the type of game that is going to get people to give Move a chance and help sell the hardware to a skeptical gaming public.

All in all, I walked away from my time with Move much more impressed than I initially would have thought. While there are still criticisms regarding Sony taking a page from Nintendo's playbook, it looks like Sony is trying to get a variety of titles out for the Move that show it's not just Wii+ as many have claimed. While the tracking on the Move is remarkably impressive, I feel that it's going to be titles that use the PlayStation Eye to make the spaces around us part of the game world that really push innovation on Move and make it stand out among an increasingly crowded field of competitors.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some flies to catch...