Platform: Playstation 2
Genre: Dance / Rhythm
Publisher: SCEA
Developer: SCEE
ESRB: E (Everyone)
Released: Q4 2004

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Pros:

- Innovative and intuitive controls

- Sharp, attractive graphics

- Great level design

Cons:

- Too few levels

- Detection of hand motion is occasionally wonky

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Review: EyeToy Groove (PS2)

Review: EyeToy (PS2)

"...a triumph for Eyetoy gaming and a great tease for the future."

Eyetoy:Antigrav is the first non-party game released for the EyeToy USB Camera.  Unlike the previous releases, Antigrav feels like a full arcade game with truly innovative controls, but, compared to  EyeToy: Play, Antigrav isn't as addictive.  Regardless, Antigrav fulfills some of the promise of the EyeToy device and leaves players salivating at what might come in the future.

Antigrav is a hoverboard game built along the same lines as the popular extreme sports titles like SSX and Tony Hawk Pro Skater.  The game allows for grinding, jumps, spins, tricks, elaborate combos, and most of the perks players have come to expect from extreme sports titles.  The trick here is that all of the action on screen is controlled through the player's body movements without a control pad in sight. 

The movement of the character on screen is dictated by the movement of the player's head as detected by the EyeToy camera.  This works incredibly well.  Lean right, and the character glides right.  Lean left, and the character glides the other direction.  Return to a

straight-up position, and the character glides straight ahead.  Jumps are done by actually jumping off the ground. Speed is controlled by crouching for increased speed and standing straight for decreased speed.  It is all very intuitive and works perfectly.

Players can also acquire power-ups by reaching out with their hands and grabbing them during the game.  This is one part of Antigrav that works poorly.  The power-ups are on one of three designated lines (high, medium, and low) and sometimes either the Eyetoy or the software has a hard time distinguishing where the player's hands are.  There 

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were times that I reached down and outward from a low crouch and had the on-screen character reach upward for a high power-up.  It, at times, got a bit frustrating, though, to be fair, the power-ups aren't really that important and getting all of them is more of a personal goal than a game requirement.

Perhaps a bigger problem is the length of the game.  All of the levels are good looking and well-designed, but there are only five of them.  This has seemingly forced the developers to try to add the illusion of depth by making it impossible to move on to the next level without first place finishes in the heats.  While this does make the game more difficult, it feels cheap and frustrating, especially when you finish second my a matter of inches in a final round.

Even with the low number of courses, as compared to other games in the genre especially, Antigrav has a good deal of replay value.  There are alternate paths in each level.  Getting higher scores is always there as a challenge, and the final level, once opened is simply a blast to skate around.

In the end, Antigrav is both a triumph for Eyetoy gaming and a great tease for the future.  Just getting past using the EyeToy to put the player on-screen is a marvelous innovation.  As an input device, the EyeToy can deliver some awesome, arcade-like gaming experiences and Antigrav is the first game to really attempt this.

- Tolen Dante

(February 21, 2005)

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