At a recent Sony event, we had a chance to, for the first time, get our hands on the PlayStation Move and play a few minutes of one of the first full titles that is going to use the peripheral. Move Party, at a glance, looks like a game that would have been possible on the PlayStation 2 with the EyeToy. Early screenshots showed images of players completing silly motions, knocking objects into baskets and drawing on the screen. After playing a few rounds of an early build of the game, it became fairly obvious that it was more akin to WarioWare or Mario Party than anything to come out that used the EyeToy in the past. In fact, it all feels pretty fresh.

That's not to say it feels wholly unique, just different than we expected. Before playing anything, however, we each had to stare into the PlayStation Eye and say our names, as the camera recorded our voices and snapped pictures for our avatars. Each character was essentially a picture frame with arms and legs, featuring the smiling faces of the players. On the player's turn, he'd say his own name. Gimmicky? Sure, though that's hardly a mark against it, since it's better than simply being assigned a color.



After creating characters the game began. In the first event, holding down the Move's trigger turned on a fan, giving the controller a small rumble that really, truly made the controller feel like what it represented. On the screen, video feed showed an augmented reality version of the player, who was now physically holding a fan and standing amongst falling chickens and moving baskets. The name of the game was to blow said chickens into said baskets, which was accomplished with tilts of the controller. It wasn't the most innovative concept and, truth be told, could likely have been accomplished with the SixAxis, but it was fairly fun in its own right. In the next game, bugs moved across the screen and the Move controller turned into a swatter, with swings squishing the bugs. It hardly took advantage of what the Move has to offer (in fact, the best method of play seemed to be flailing wildly, which became more apparent as the rounds completed), though it offered a good amount of enjoyment based on the competitive action.

Lastly, outlines of different shapes were displayed on the screen. With the Move controller, now a paintbrush, it was our job to fill them in. For as silly as this game was, it might have given the best representation of what the Move can do that the SixAxis (and the WiiMote) could not. Pointing at the screen and holding down a button painted, but it was much more seamless than similar actions would be on the Wii. It felt entirely natural, and while it was still a rudimentary implementation of the Move, it worked well. At the end of the event, the shapes turned into an object, which animated itself across the screen. Seeing the perfect (or monstrous) creations come to life was entertaining, and made it more apparent who had done the best job. Afterwords, points were rewarded to the player who won, and in Mario Party fashion, there were some variables thrown in, like "all or nothing" events, that made the game feel like less of a tech demo and more of a traditional party game.

The best thing Move Party can strive to be is Sony's Wii Sports. As of now, it doesn't feel like it's going to pull that off. It doesn't really offer too much in terms of originality, and none of us walked away overly impressed with the software itself. What we were impressed with, however, was how the augmented reality view of the world and rumble made whatever the Move was supposed to be really feel like what it was, which was something Move Party demonstrated very well. When it was supposed to feel like a paintbrush, the lollypop looking controller honestly felt like a paintbrush. The same can be said for the fan and net, all feeling more like the object than the Wiimote ever has. While the game itself, so far, was mostly a flail-fest, it demonstrated the promise of the Move, and it's a promise we all hope it keeps.

Move Party is due out later this year for the PlayStation 3.