By
Michael Palisano
Sony's innovative EyeToy peripheral
is the recipient of two solid titles this month with the release of
EyeToy: Kinetic and Operation Spy. Kinetic attempts to meld physical
fitness with gaming, thanks to collaboration with Nike, and features four
separate modes. Operation Spy, on the other hand, offers a more
traditional experience with players attempting to infiltrate buildings,
unlock codes, and set up surveillance cameras, in addition to some cool
action sequences such as sky-diving into a city. While the EyeToy hasn't
gotten the recognition it deserves, these high-quality titles definitely
show Sony hasn't left owners in the lurch. Read our review and find out
why both of these games show off more of the camera's motion-capture
abilities in different, yet intriguing ways.
EyeToy: Kinetic
This innovative exercise program
developed by Sony's London studios offers the promise of a healthier
lifestyle thanks to several different workout regimens included. Kinetic's
offerings include standard routines along with a few arcade style
mini-games to help players stay active. Instead of passively memorizing
dance patterns, this sophisticated program tracks the player as they
perform the moves, acting as a personal trainer, keeping track of their
performance in real time to give them a realistic sense of their progress.
The mini-games in Kinetic follow four basic disciplines: cardio,
mind/body, and strength. Each of these is represented by one of four
unique zones: Cardio Zone, which includes high impact aerobic exercises to
increase your overall fitness and heart rate. Kinetic also includes a
Combat Zone, which is based on Tai-Chi and Karate, allows you to fight
defensively to work on your skills. The game also includes a Mind and Body
Zone where you need can exercise your deep breathing and relaxation skills
in a dream-like environment to enhance your overall health and finally you
can enter the Toning Zone. where you can focus your exercises on specific
muscle groups including the upper and lower abs, or upper and lower body.
These different modes offer a varied set of exercise regiments, and give
EyeToy Kinetic a good range of programs that should allow you to set off
on an exercise program without getting bored by doing the same types of
exercises again and again.
You
can set your skill level in each of these modes to your level, allowing
everyone from beginners to experts to start an effective workout on their
PS2. Kinetic also allows players to measure the force and directions of
their movements, to better track and understand their movements. The game
allows you to choose from 2 different trainers and allows you to create an
in-depth 12 week workout schedule or target specific areas for
improvement. This versatility along with the programs advanced motion
capture technology allows the player to scale and change the program to
create the best training cycle for themselves. While many exercise
programs seem to fall short of their promise, EyeToy Kinetic seems to live
up to its potential thanks to its flexible structure, ease of use and
setup. Kinetic also features support for the new extended Full View camera
lens extender, which allows you to lay on the floor and move around the
room more freely, this also seems to be a bit more responsive, which is
important in any exercise program. While some of the basic training
exercise programs seemed a little easy, the later areas are much more
challenging and can be quite strenuous, making them harder to complete
without breaking into a sweat. As you'd expect, the game features the
clean minimalist style that the EyeToy games have become famous for, with
easy to navigate and understand menus making the program easy to use for
all types of players. Overall, Kinetic seems to live up to its billing and
creates what seems to be an effective regimen that should benefit anyone
who uses it.
EyeToy: Operation Spy
Operation Spy is a decent game that
succeeds in taking a more conventional approach to the Eye Toy technology.
The game allows players to take one of two paths: Gameplay and
Surveillance. In the standard game mode, you're recruited into a
top-secret agency known as the SIA, or Spy Intelligence Agency, where you
take on various missions in order to increase your espionage skills. In
this section, you are tasked with taking down a global spy network in a
number of tasks. These include code-breaking, sky diving, disabling spy
devices such as bombs, profiling criminals plus others like Photo Fit,
World Map, Geosphere and Nanobot to name a few. There are eight unique
mini-games included in all, which gives the game plenty of variety. During
these games, you can also save your progress and show replays to
friends.You also need to master several high-tech gadgets including
super-powered cameras that allow you to zoom in on specific locations from
high in the sky. These mini-games are all exceptionally well-done and make
up a strong storyline that keeps you interested throughout. Their varied
tasks keep you on your toes, which allows you to fight the underworld
gangs without becoming bored. Operation Spy stronger narrative makes it
the most cohesive group of games yet, with an underlying theme that gives
you a strong motivation to keep playing.
The
other half of the game is called Surveilliance mode and allows you to
perform some really cool tasks with the camera itself. As in the last
EyeToy game, you can set uo you camera to keep track and record any
movements in your own room and can play these back when you feel like it
to catch anyone who's entered your room on the sly. You can also use the
camera to play a pre-recorded message that will alert any intruders that
they're being watched, or can zoom in to protect predefined areas as well.
In addition, the camera uses face recognition technology that players can
use to create a unique code or make copies of these recordings and store
them onto their memory cards if they want to trade evidence with other
gamers. The recording technology is quite flexible as well, allowing
player to capture events in Night Vision, Time Lapse or even with still
images. After you;ve captured your images, you can even use a USB printer
to make hard-copies of the photos. While Operation Spy isn't as deep or
complex as some of the more traditional PS2 games, there are enough cool
features in the game that make it worth playing.
