It’s just under two years since Sony released its Eyetoy camera for Playstation 2. While the games available for the unit were somewhat underwhelming the technology behind it and the fun aspect were what caught people’s attentions at the time.
Since then, Sony has moved on and adapted the camera for different games, one notable example being the ability to graft a photo of your face onto a player in the latest This Is Football.
Creative’s GameStar pack comes bundled with five Eyegames and several programs that show off the camera’s capabilities. As one would expect with any Creative hardware or accessories the camera itself is quite a handy piece of kit.
The resolution is very reasonable and it doubles as a pretty decent webcam, although it does look like a missing part from a Star Wars droid.
While the camera is as impressive as one might expect from Creative, the software seems to be something of an afterthought. Three of the five games are minor variations on a similar theme (two are basketball, one volleyball) that employ almost identical gameplay.
While the “Ghost Wars” game is innovative in concept (the player must conjure up balls of lightening before hurling them at the onrushing ghosts), it won’t entertain far beyond a couple of minutes for most.
After that there’s a kung-fu game where the player must punch and kick to defeat the onscreen enemies, sadly this game requires more space than is in the immediate vicinity of the average PC.
This is where the package falls down as a whole. While Sony’s Eyetoy was promoted as a family toy of sorts, Creative will find it difficult to tap into that market. Setting up a PS2 in the living-room is no big deal but trying to get Granny into the home office to practice her roundhouse kicks might be a different story entirely.
The fact that most people’s PCs aren’t set up in their living room coupled with the fact that all the games are controlled by flailing limbs means that many people simply wouldn’t have the space to play Gamestar at a party, where the Eyetoy proved to be so successful.
That said, younger children will enjoy the games for what they are and will certainly have fun with the additional programmes in the package, slightly odd as they are. “Fish Music” lets the user play tunes using the row of fish hanging from the top of the screen while “Funny Face” takes pictures of the user and superimposes them onto other pictures in humorous circumstances.
VERDICT 7/10
Whether the trend of games using cameras as key accessories is simply a passing fad or a key part of gaming’s future remains to be seen. What is certain is that if Creative will have to have something of a rethink if it plans on establishing itself within that corner of the market.
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