Now that I’m over the first blush of excitement of the PlayStation 3′s Move controller, I thought it time to have a look at some of the games in more detail.
What I found was a surprising array of ideas, and impressive implementation. But alongside these there were also a few experiences that gave away the newness of this technology.
Sports Champions
Sports Champion Table Tennis
I am a big fan of video Table Tennis (even importing an unreleased Wii-Sports Table Tennis controller) so I had big hopes for Sports Champions and its Table Tennis game.
The key thing for me on any of these Move games is whether they couldn’t be played effectively – or indeed be as much fun – without the new Move and Navigation controllers. Sports Champions Table Tennis gets this right:
Sports Champions couldn’t exist without Move’s depth perception. Table Tennis stands tall as the reason to invest. Frisbee, Archery, Bocce and Swords may not be as revolutionary but are still solid and enjoyable motion games.
Since writing that I’ve had longer with the game and some of the novelty has worn off, but there is still no denying that in terms of a functional recreation of my favorite sport it is spot on.
Wired: Diving towards the screen for net shots.
Tired: Tricky calibration.
$39.75 from Amazon.
Tiger Woods 11 Move
Tiger Woods 11 PS3 Move
Alongside Table Tennis, my big videogame love is golf. This wasn’t the case until I played Tiger Woods 07 Wii and was hooked. Even though the Wii version has continued to improve year on year, I still miss my high definition visuals that the bigger consoles offer.
I expected Tiger Woods 11 with Move to be the culmination of those years of experience with the Wii combined with the PlayStations high fidelity visuals. Unfortunately though this turned out to be something of a mismatch:
Tiger Woods Move extends the Wii-mote motion in impressive style. But around this swing mechanic it fails to attend to a host of hard-won design decisions on the Wii version that turned a gimmick into a genuine sporting experience. There’s always next year.
The simple fact here is that unlike Tiger Woods 11 Wii, the PlayStation version wasn’t built around the motion controls from the ground up, and it shows.
Wired: Detailed swing mechanic.
Tired: Difficult navigation with the Move controller.
$57.54 from Amazon.
Tumble
Tumble PS3 Move
Tumble is the PlayStation 3′s Boom Blox. It’s an intelligent block based puzzle game that makes excellent use of the controller. Rather than throwing, pull and poking the pieces as you did on the Wii, Tumble has you working with them in three dimensional space. As a family friend said in his review:
Tumble for PlayStation 3 Move is a rare must-have launch game. It’s a huge success on both a technical and game play terms. The fact that it is also an inexpensive downloadable title should encourage you to try out this spatial puzzler.
It’s the perfect way to demonstrate how integral Move’s depth perception can be to a game. It simply wouldn’t work on any other console, not even on the Wii.
Wired: Depth based puzzles feel wonderfully physical.
Tired: Turn taking multiplayer a bit limited.
Available via PSN.
