 |
| EyePet. YouPet. WeAllPet. |
As far as portable virtual pets go, EyePet for the PSP is a perfectly fine title with plenty of activities to keep the kids busy, and truly awe-inspiring technology backing it up. Kids will absolutely eat this stuff up. Older gamers, though, probably already know this isn't going to be their cup of tea.
While EyePet is geared towards children, even a grown-ass man (specifically this one) can appreciate just how damn cute the title is. When you boot EyePet up for the first time, the game will walk you through setting up the camera and play environment, all extremely simple and explained in a way even a child will understand.
Half of the game utilizes the included camera to augment reality, meaning that it makes it look as if your little pet and its activities are taking place wherever you have the camera aimed. The game comes with a "magic" card, which is used to help the camera recognize where everything is located in 3D space. This card is necessary for use when playing with the camera, so needing to keep that extra "equipment" handy is a bit of a nuisance, but it pays off when you realize what using that card allows the game to do.
Move the camera closer to your pet and it gets bigger in the viewfinder. Move around the pet and its eyes will follow you (pretty creepy, actually). If you are using a virtual object, like a blow dryer, the object's shadow will actually appear on the ground. The term "wow factor" comes to mind. The technology here is actually pretty fantastic. You can even get your pet to follow your hand, you can pet it and, if you lean close and blow at the mic, the pet will react and its hair will flutter.
 |
| With the magic card, you can take your EyePet pretty much anywhere |
The developers were wise, though, in splitting the activities you can do between the real world and the pet's "home," a digital space that allows you to play without needing to use the camera or the magic card.
At any point in the game you can press the square button to take a picture. These are saved to your PSP's memory card and can be put on display in a couple frames hanging on the wall in your pet's home. You can also record a calling for your pet and, using the analog stick and the R button, more easily direct your pet where to go when playing with the camera.
Other "home" activities include dressing up your pet, feeding it, cleaning it, sending it to bed, checking out your diary of accomplishments and even draw it a car or boat on real paper and, using the camera, send it into the game world to be used in some mini-games.
Outside, your pet can run around, play on a trampoline, bowl, go hunting for treasure or even go fishing. The fish you catch can be displayed in an aquarium inside your pet's home, adding a bit of a collection element to the gameplay.
Each of the main activities comes in three varieties and each of these has bronze, silver and gold awards to achieve which, in turn, unlock more outfits for your pet to wear. There's a decent amount of content available and, again, it will keep kids busy for hours. Anyone not in elementary school, though, will find little to hold their interest here.
The games are cute, but get boring rather quickly. The driving controls, too, frequently become a nightmare to deal with. And even though there's a decent sized list of activities, most of them require little input and lack much variety, meaning you won't be all that eager to return to anything after checking it out for the first time. Also, playing with the camera requires you to hold your hands up, which can get tiring after a few minutes.
 |
| The games are cute, but get old rather quickly |
As a virtual pet made for kids, the EyePet succeeds. As a proper game, though, there's too little to do and what activities are available stop being fun rather quickly. The technology is great, but that can only take the fun factor so far.
The Official Verdict: 3 out of 5
This review is based on a copy of the game provided by the publisher.
Join The Joystick Division!
Become part of the Joystick Division community by following us on Twitter and Digg and Liking us on Facebook.
