Although we've played very little of the main game this title comes with some free "after school" eye-toy games that are actually really fun.
There are six mini-games and up to four people can play against one another (one assigned to each of the four houses). Scores are tallied at the end of each round and the order of play is changed according to the rankings. The mini-games are presented in random order. The games are pretty basic and really stretching the license, but really fun and make some pretty clever use of the eye-toy. For example during the games a ghost might appear - you then have to shout at the ghost to make it leave (using the built in microphone of the eye-toy). In one game you have to clap your hands to squish chocolate frogs. The game is actually quite at the recognition here: you really have to clap on the right point on the screen (it needs both the motion of the squishing and the sound of the clap to work). Another game combines this. You have to sweep your hand across "dung bombs" but clap open random presents and candies to perform area effects. There's a simple, but addictive matching game where you have to swipe the matching card from a field of six and a frantic "cleaning" game where you have to wipe the tarnish off of trophies and such as they fly about. This last one in particular is fun just because each round only lasts 15 seconds and the order of play is random. So you do a lot of running around to get into and out of position. There's also the obligatory Quidditch game were you have to grab the snitch. The game is actually quite good at determining if you've just move near the snitch or made an actual grab at it. Lastly there's a little "garden gnome" game where you have to fling gnomes from your garden. None of this is ground breaking, but it does use the eye-toy very well and is the first game (I believe) that use the mic. My son is six and, at least at "normal" difficultly we're evenly matched - try as I might he still beats me about half the time. ;^) I can honestly say that I feel like I've had a real workout after only a short time playing. (Okay - to be really honest I've never had a complete workout... which is probably why I'm winded by 30 minutes of arm waving and clapping.) The actual game seems okay for a license, but we've only played it for a very short while - but we've played the extra eye-toy games every night since we got it. They may not be worth the price of the game alone, but they're definitely worth a rental even if you've no intention of playing the actual game. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:142670 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
