Move’s first party game is prettier and more responsive than its competitors, but has little else to differentiate itself from the pack
Format: PS3 Dev: Supermassive Games Pub: Sony Out: 17/09/10 Players: 1-4
For all those who cringe at the thought of the Wii’s bargain bin party games, I’ve got news for you: PlayStation Move could well be the herald of a similar fate for PS3. When compared to some of those party games, with their copycat mini-games and subpar gameplay, Start the Party! is a fun division.
What Start the Party! demonstrates particularly well is how PlayStation Move allows players to interact more effectively with augmented reality. The moment your glowing track ball becomes an oversized novelty hand, hilarity ensues as you wave it around. EyeToy was first to put us inside the game in such a way, and last year EyePet invited us to get closer still to virtual reality. The collection of mini-games here, which all use one Move controller, are another step forward.
In one of its most accomplished games you must thwack bugs with a tennis rack being careful not to hit the explosive ones. Move response accurately to your swipes and the angle of your wrist becomes important for completing many of the games. Others, such as a zapping robots and ghosts, twist you’re perception by shrouding the screen and turning it upside-down. Wild flailing can still get you through some activities, but why be a party-pooper?
If you do choose to play Start the Party! alone you’ll find it a shallow experience. There are just nine mini-games in total. When playing with others, these are broken into rounds, with the odd bonus game thrown in. Solo, the misleadingly ‘survival’ mode randomly picks one of the games for you to play just the once. The free play menu gives you access to all of them anyway. The option to choose separate difficulties means experienced players can up their challenge when playing with younger players, but that doesn’t ease the fact that the party soon runs dry.
There’s a scarcity of content here which comes from the noticeable fact that this is generation one software built for new hardware. Of course, we’ve had five years of motion control party games already, so more than a little disappointing to see the bare minimum attempted. Start the Party! will make you smile, but ultimately it doesn’t significantly separate itself from it competitors.
Aaron Lee
Tags: casual, family, playstation move, sony, start the party
