Playstation Move: First Impressions

As Playstation Move hits UK shores, there are already a lot of demos and updates to be had without paying another penny. We look at a range of Move stuff having picked it up the moment it was released.

Controller
I bought two motion controllers at midnight in Asda. Left them charging overnight and the demos downloading. Controller itself is a nice weight with a good trigger and the buttons feel nice. Start and select are a little out of the way though. When switched on it gives brief instructions on XMB control via Move which works well but I wouldn’t use it instead of a joypad. Handy if you’re holding a Move at the time though.

Echochrome II Demo
Really good and controls well. Not a long demo but it keeps developing concepts as it goes. Great stuff so far but can they keep the interest and variety up through a whole game? I’m not convinced they can but if so then this will be a winner. Overall, very nice but slightly sceptical about a whole game of it.

TV Superstars Demo
A tad exhausting, although the upside is that nether this, nor any other Move title I played required me to stand up. Worked well and the scanning of facial expressions and recording of catchphrases is fun. My catchphrase was “You’re all a bunch of fooqtards”. Good fun but clearly a “party game” rather than anything of depth.

Heavy Rain Demo
Awful. I couldn’t get good calibration and even the opening menu was totally unusable. I’ll give it another go sometime but so far this one is a turkey.

Kung Fu Rider Demo
I was looking forward to this! Awful. Controls are terrible. Unplayable. Again, I’ll try again another time in case I did something wrong. Can it really be this bad? Surely not!

Beat Sketcher Demo
Interesting. The control system here tracks the ball alone and not any angle or speed. This works great for this type of drawing game though and the prescision was immaculate. It also shows how different games use the controller differently as no other used this kind of tracking and it took a while to get used to but was great once I realised how it worked. Clear handwriting was easily achieved. Apart from the technical side though, this game was a total loss. Boring sketchy thing. There were other modes but these aren’t in the demo so from what I’ve seen, avoid unless it’s cheap. Works ok though.

Tumble (Full Game)
Precision control, challenging game play, this is the best of the bunch! Absolutely spot on puzzling action! I love this game but it won’t appeal to those who lack patience. Tricky stuff but oh, so precise and the controls are instinctive once mastered. Unless you really hate slow paced puzzlers then this will appeal to all.

Start the Party Demo
Right. This is EyeToy all over again. Only two events in the demo too. Fun but just silly party stuff. If you want lighthearted group play then this is ideal. If you hoped for anything more, forget it.

Racket Sports Demo
Good controls with nice accuracy. Feels odd not moving my character though (there is a nod to this, but not full control). The graphics are competent but not amazing. The gameplay is surprisingly engrossing despite the lack of movement control, you just pick the shots mainly but it does let you make runs on the net and you angle the controller to complement the movement direction so that they move faster. Shot control is spot on though, with spins, lobs, slices, “risky shots”, variable speed… the lot.

Overall, I liked it. It’s not ground breaking but controls very well and is a good solid little game.

Sports Champions Demo
Slick. Lovely graphics and solid control. It told me to stand up but with the correct camera angle it just assumed I was Toulouse-Lautrec and let me play sitting down. Hurrah! Due to the nature of the games, you don’t always get the much vaunted 1:1 control as that would look silly, defying weight and momentum. What you do get is a game that controls as it should though. It’s a sports collection but it does what it’s meant to and is at least less exhausting than TV Superstars.

The Shoot Demo
Oh my! This one came out of nowhere. I didn’t expect to like it but it was really good fun. It’s a lightgun game but has enough gimmics to keep your interest. Lots and lots of fun! It’s not quite as good as Tumble in my view but some may like it even more depending on the type of games you prefer. I expected little but loved what I got. Nice demo and I may well buy this.

Flight Control HD
Controls perfectly unless too close to the screen. Anything over about 5 feet away is fine.

The game is great fun with some interesting trophies, but couldn’t they have added some kind of over-arching structure? Pick a map, play, get score. If it weren’t for the trophies then there would be no long term goals at all. A career mode or campaign or something would have been nice here. Still, it plays well and is good fun in small doses.

Overall, a great start for Move but not without some let downs.