The big deal about EyePet & Friends is the social aspect. Instead of hatching one EyePet at a time, you get two that can be hatched. This takes care of any future family fights that kids might have, and possible confusion that it might cause the poor EyePet. Each gamer/EyePet owner goes through a series of steps that start with naming the pet and then progress to hatching the pet. The beginning of the game seemed to work well, as my oldest daughter (she is 9) and I went through the warming and then egg tapping process to make the animal appear. Once it appeared, there was a great ‘Awwww’ moment.
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That moment soon passed.
The idea of the EyePet is brilliant, but the technology is so darn difficult to set up that, if done wrong, there might be plenty of frustration to be had. For example, once we hatched the EyePets, we were given multiple instructions to interact with it. We were also given different options to play with the EyePets, such as squirting it with water, playing on a trampoline (that was dangerous to it), moving a red laser dot around for it to chase and drawing with the Move. All of these worked well, but there wasn’t much substance to the process. My daughter was bored in a matter of 15 minutes and demanded LittleBigPlanet 2 (okay, she didn’t demand it, but she did request it). Being a good parent, I told her to hang on and wait for the other features to kick in.
While waiting, we experienced several frustrations with the two EyePets. While we were properly put in front of the camera, there really wasn’t enough room to fully interact with the animals. When we were asked to pet them we did our best to do so, but the camera had a difficult time recognizing our hand motions. The EyePets reacted to us about 60% of the time then quickly became detached to our motions. Again, the room size and the distance were fine, but the camera just couldn’t pick up on the motions for whatever reason. I actually toggled with the controls and the camera a few times, changed the distance, changed the angles and still not even close to perfection. I love the idea, but I still think the execution could have been a bit more tweaked.
Anyway, despite losing my fellow EyePet owner halfway through the game, and despite the technological frustrations with the game, I still explored the new additions and found some good stuff.
The addition of a plethora of customization options is vital for this title’s survival, and EyePet & Friends owned this like boss. One of the more significant features of Club Penguin, Webkinz, and Disney Universe is the inclusion of customizable options. Kids eat that up like Lucky Charms on a Saturday morning. My kids could sit in front of a computer and customize their penguins until they have to go to school the next morning. It’s important for kids to make and create their own flavor in games, as the above mentioned games don’t do anything special in regards to their game design, but they excel in customizable options. EyePet & Friends allows the gamer to customize the animal’s fur (stripes are always nice), clothes (again, huge!) and what they play with. You can include as many games as you want, but if you allow for a kid to create their own EyePet in their own style then you have them hooked; EyePet & Friends has this going for it, which might make up for the technology issues the game has.
Where this game really turns up the heat in terms of social and customizable interaction is with the Pet World option. If you can get beyond the technical issues of the title, and hook the kids with the local customization of the EyePet, then they’re all clear to get completely hooked with this option. You have the ability to share your clothes, toys and other EyePet designs with the world. If you can imagine how LittleBigPlanet works with sharing user created levels then you know how this works, only on a smaller less technical scale. It’s the option that puts the cherry on top of the dessert. It’s a big reason why kids will love this game.
Anyway, customizing and creating material, and sharing it, is just pure gold for EyePet & Friends.
Having said all this, the game is only priced at $39.99, which is probably a good value for it. If you have kids and you own a Playstation Move then this might be the perfect addition, especially if you’re trying to convince your other half that the Move can serve a family purpose (no seriously, I had to do this with my wife). In all seriousness, with the social and customization options, and the two-player ability, EyePet & Friends just increased in terms of value. On top of this, you get 12 new game challenges, which are simple and fun, and you get to see kids working together and connecting a bit more with the EyePet, which is what SCE London Studios probably wants.
I’m happy that SCEA is still publishing this game and I hope in the future, once the technological quirkiness gets resolved, that they will create the perfect EyePet experience. It’s a great idea, but it still needs a bit more work in terms of execution.