EyePet & Friends is the latest title from London Studio and is the direct sequel to one of the biggest PlayStation Move titles ever made, EyePet. EyePet & Friends uses the same augmented reality features as the original that puts the player on the TV alongside their EyePet. This time around, players can greet and play with two EyePets at the same time or two players can interact with separate EyePets at the simultaneously. However, will two EyePets double the fun or turn out to be a double disaster?
Let’s find out and kick off the HOTs and NOTs.
HOTs
Presentation
EyePet has a colourful and bright graphical style which is both fitting to the fun manner plus it’s pleasing to the eye. The game also uses warm sounds greatly to its advantage, with playful noises mixed in with the different mini-game sounds, which goes a great way to extending the good-natured and light-hearted nature of the game. All in all, the presentation does its job perfectly by not trying anything over the top and truly lending itself to the target audience.
Concept
EyePet & Friends takes the concept of the original, augmenting reality in the form of putting the player in the game alongside their EyePet but now allows two players to enjoy the experience at the same time. Other features have been added but the overarching change is the addition of the second player. While the basis is little more than the Tamagotchi craze: EyePet lets players take care of a virtual furry animal. Luckily EyePet is more advanced when it comes to what players have to do to keep their EyePet healthy. A few button presses won’t do anything here.
Using the PS3 camera to put you alongside your new pet, EyePet and Friends uses the PlayStation Move controller as the main tool to play and create with your EyePet; as well as feeding and cleaning it.
Customization
London Studio has gone all out this time around to bring us a whole new level of customisation to the EyePet series. Players use the PlayStation Move for everything which makes the creation intuitive for all players. From selecting and placing objects when creating playgrounds to stencilling stickers and customising the EyePets’ appearances, players will find all of this is straightforward and easy to accomplish. One of the most intriguing parts which I’m sure many players will enjoy is the create-a-toy section. No longer will the EyePets have to put up with just the pre-made toys.
Co-op
While the addition of a second player does unfortunately require a second move controller, the game has clearly been built around the idea of multiple players. Before, players would have had to take turns looking after a EyePet but now with two players, this means two EyePets! The games for single player do offer a decent amount of fun but the game excels when it comes to the fun and friendly competitive multiplayer mini games.
Enjoyable Content
Personally, I had most fun in the Creativity Center as you are allowed to customise plenty of different elements through-out the game as well as making completely new things for your EyePet to do such as brand new playgrounds. Naturally, many players will also enjoy the soft toy area, where they just get to spend time playing with their EyePet rather than the training; nevertheless the creation section offered a way to expand the game past what was available on the disk, personalising my experience even more.
The mini games for two players offers much more replayability than those for just a single player, as the competitive nature made them offer something slightly different. That being said, the single player mini games are all still worth a play: especially for their unique themes such as playing basketball in a digger or dodging asteroids in a rocket.
NOTs
Clunky Controls
While using the PlayStation Move to control everything in game does allow a wider variety of people to play EyePet and Friends, they can sometimes be rather clunky particularly when the PlayStation Eye or TV is at slight angles to the player. As the EyePets are always supposed to be on the floor or a flat surface it often made it hard to get the alignment perfect for mini games. This doesn’t present too much of an overall issue, as it was rare for the controls to cause a problem but it may put some players off or irritate others. An example of the worst case scenario caused by the controls has to be players being unable to find the exact angle to squirt their EyePet with water and this is hardly game ruining.
Loading Times
EyePet and Friends suffers from frequent overly long loading screens. While it is acceptable for a game to load up each mini-game individually, the time it takes to change between mini games is almost the same as the time spent playing one of the games. They go a great distance to break up the flow of the game and with only a few different loading screen animations the wait is often a boring one.
VERDICT
EyePet and Friends takes what fans of the original loved and practically times the entertainment by two. While the game is undoubtedly aimed at a younger age demographic, parents will still be able to enjoy the game with their children as the controls are easy to pick up; despite occasionally being frustrating. With the customisation options offering plenty of additional unique content, players will find the game will last as long as they want it to. The only worry is unlike a real pet, an EyePet can be forgotten about. If the player doesn’t immediately fall in love with the game as soon as something else is out the game might not be played again.
[Editor’s Note: EyePet and Friends was reviewed on the PlayStation 3 hardware. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
