Since its release, the Eye Toy has been one of the most underrated options for PS2 gaming, yet it’s also been one of the most entertaining for the entire family. In its quest to reach core gamers as well as more-casual ones, Sony this summer will release its second round of Eye Toy party games, and given the peripheral’s popularity, we decided to run the next set of games through its paces.
The first thing to note about the next round of Eye Toy Play games is that most of the games have even more focus on activity than their predecessors. Eye Toy Play 2 is a series of 12 new games, from a burger-flipping soup-chef game and an air-guitar title to a soccer-like mode and bubble-popping game. The two most novel and fun titles of this Play 2 pack are Knockout and Spy Camera.
In Knockout, players find themselves boxing against a virtual opponent, complete with the ability to duck, dodge, throw an uppercut and haul off with a quick jab. Blocking is essentially useless, since the collision detection on Eye Toy considers a block a successful punch, so with all the necessary bobbing and weaving, the heart rate definitely elevates, especially as you move from lightweight to middleweight to heavyweight difficulty.
It’s not all serious aerobics, though. This is the Eye Toy after all. So, when players are knocked down to the mat, successfully getting up by the standing eight count is determined by quickly brushing all the stars off of the TV screen (like wishy washy) before the referee counts to 10. In between rounds there are also speed bag and punching bag minigames, which keeps Knockout from feeling completely redundant.
The second all-star on Play 2 is a mode called Spy Toy, which isn’t even really a game at all. Instead, it’s a mode for the Eye Toy camera in which the camera is essentially placed on stand-by and rigged to display a message if someone steps in front of the camera. Teenagers will totally dig this aspect, since they can put “get out now” warnings on their televisions for younger siblings to see if they enter the room. It might also have adult applications, such as parents leaving motion-sensitive messages for kids. But it’s the snapshot spy mode that seems most novel.
In this snapshot mode, the Eye Toy remains on standby but reawakens every five seconds to take a photo. This can lead to some intriguing spying techniques, but also some interesting art. Sony’s own developers, for example, told us that they’ve had fun jumping slightly forward in the air every five seconds to give the flipbook illusion of them floating across a room when all the Webcam-like images are sewn together. It’s fun, it’s novel, and it’s not something likely to win over the hardest of the hardcore gamers.
But that’s never been what Sony’s Eye Toy is really about, and it’s a large part of what has endeared the peripheral to so many gamers and families. The first batch of games for Eye Toy party were all about partying fun, and from what we’ve played at E3, Eye Toy Play 2 is definitely following in its predecessors addicting footsteps. If you’re looking for a new family-friendly diversion, Eye Toy Play 2 is definitely worth keeping an eye on when it ships for PS2 this summer.
