I played several Move games at E3 and in this article I will be discussing two of them: Kung Fu Rider and echochrome II.
So Kung Fu Rider is a full blown Sony of Japan Studios game that will be available in September on Blu-ray. It features 9-12 hours of gameplay and is all about leading a private detective, or his secretary (your choice), away from a gang by riding down hilly streets in downtown Hong Kong. Players will ride on all sorts of objects from various carts to tricycles as they try to grab up as many collectibles as they can while they race against the clock and the steady stream of gang members trying to slow you down.
The game starts with the player selecting which character they want, the difficulty, and what map they want to race. By shaking the Move, players can start to pick up speed. You can jump by popping the Move upwards with a flick of the wrist, useful for hopping over objects or grinding on a handrail. As you race your way down hilly streets, you’ll encounter lots of turns and objects to jump over, duck under, knock over, and avoid, as well as gang members running out to knock you over. You can do a spin kick attack from your vehicle by pressing the Move button to knock down the enemy or objects. The idea is to simply get down the hill and into a safety vehicle as quickly as possible, collecting as many points as you can.
I think with some more practice on my part and perhaps some tweaking on the developers side this could be a decent game but right now I’m not wholly impressed.
echochrome II is badass. I’ve always been a fan of the echochrome games and this one will be no exception. The core idea is the same — players need to find a way to get their echo to the exit. This time though, instead of shifting the camera around, you are using the Move as a light source. The shadow of the map against the wall is your canvas, and you must move the controller in such a way as to make a safe path for your echo to get to his exit. Of course, it’s never that simple until it is that simple — in other words, it sounds easy, but it rarely is — until you figure out how to do it and then it always seems so simple. That’s part of what I love about this game.
The light and shadow mechanic works well and introduces some new clever mechanics to how you play the game. Sometimes, you have to combine a sphere with a rectangle to create the exit. Other times you have to create an elevator by placing the Move in such a way as to cast shadows of two doors. The combinations are great and if you manage to complete the 100 maps the game will ship with, there will be user created content available as well.
The Move should have several great titles available when it comes out this September; check back with us for more coverage and lots of reviews later this year.
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