EyePet
A Junkie Gamer Review
The cutest pet you’ll ever own.
Did you ever want to get a pet without having to give up your life for it? Well, Sony recently launched the game EyePet which hopes to fill this gap. Not so long ago the Furby and Tamagotchi were released onto the market with much fanfare and hype, creating a virtual pet craze that set the world alight. But by all accounts Sony’s latest offering blows the competition out of the water. While all three products do the same thing in essence, the EyePet has scope for so much more than just a virtual pet and will help teach and educate your children along the way.
The EyePet interacts with the player through use of the Playstation Eye Camera. The camera picks up movements and sounds from the player and imposes them onto the TV. The EyePet is then superimposed onto this scene and by no small wonder interacts with the player.
The EyePet can be styled in any way you wish, from hair length, type and colour and even their outfit. I must’ve spent a good half hour just messing around in this option alone, and to make your EyePet even more unique outfits are unlocked as a reward for passing challenges.
Once up and running the EyePet breaks down to a few different options, Pet Programme, Pet Care, Drawing and Magic Card. The real meat of the game is in the Pet Programme where you are set four tasks each day, which will challenge the player as they learn to care for their new pet. The player is thought how to look after each facet of the EyePet, their health, strength, creativity and nutrition, which isn’t so far removed from a normal pet. Differing activities will affect the attributes of the EyePet, and these are denoted by little symbols to the side of the task, the dumbbell for example is a task aimed at strengthening the EyePet.
As you’ll move through the Pet Programme, more tasks will be unlocked, but be wary of sticking to similar activities as your EyePet’s other attributes will suffer a result. Thankfully, there are some adorable visual and as well as audio clues to make you aware that something is up. The EyePet will simply go off and get a food bowl if you let them starve for long enough, followed by stomach rumbles. And go too long between showers and you’ll see your EyePet get scruffier and soon they’ll be surrounded by flies. At any point the EyePet can be given a Health Check in the Pet Care programme. Simply hold your magic card over the heart, brain, stomach and muscles to see how they are feeling.
Along your journey of experience with the EyePet, you will unlock new abilities such as drawing and singing, with the drawing one by far the most impressive. You teach your EyePet to draw over a series of lessons, with the player actually drawing on a piece of paper before holding it up to the Camera for the EyePet to get a glimpse of it, before your pet renders their interpretation of it. Before long you’ll be drawing little cars that the EyePet can magically turn into a toy that they can interact with in the game, and which you can control. It is something really special to see an image you created just moments earlier whizzing around your feet with the EyePet in hot pursuit.
The EyePet is a wonderful game for all ages, but really stands out when it comes to children. It helps with their hand eye coordination, their fine motor skills, ie drawing pictures, their gross motor skills, ie holding the magic card and the general routine of caring for your pet’s body and mind, which transfers over nicely to real life, its responsibility without the ramifications.
However, it has one niggling issue, the cameras ability to pick up sound. Often times you’ll find yourself instructed to clap or tap the ground and more often than not the EyePet will just look at you blankly. The floor in my sitting room is wooden, and i was making quite a racket, so i imagine this issue is even worse when it comes to carpeted rooms. Sony have worked on a patch, which was released earlier this week, that does clear up this issue somewhat, but you’ll still find yourself getting frustrated at times.
The EyePet is a groundbreaking game, and is ahead of its time in what it achieves and is well worth a purchase.
