EyePet Review

Sony’s EyePet is more or less a direct descendent of all those Catz and Dogz games (or should that be gamez?) that surfaced in the mid nineties. Both series were massively popular with gamers who were either unable or unwilling to deal with the expense, responsibility or omnipresent faeces that accompanies real-world pet ownership. In essence, the player used their mouse to interact with a cartoon mutt or feline as they pranced around their computer screen. You fed the animal, groomed it, and teased it with toys. As an overall experience it was somewhat lacking in gameplay, but this had little impact on the kids who flocked to stores in their millions.

Now, some fifteen years later, SCE London Studios has returned to the formula, but this time using “augmented reality” – a term that may mean nothing to you if you’re not one of the cool kids (kidz?). In a nutshell, you set up a web cam in front of your TV so that you’re watching a live feed of your living room floor – but when you look at the screen, you’ll suddenly find you’ve got a new visitor charging about the room: The EyePet. He’s a furry little four-legged creature, a sort of monkey-cat hybrid with the playfulness of a puppy. It’s almost as if a market research group isolated all the cutest aspects of normal pets and then used them to design the ultimate lovable furball.

Rather than being a fully-fledged game, the EyePet is really an AI-driven toy that you play with via your television. You clear a large space in front of your TV, sit on the floor and then start to fool about with your new friend: you can lean over and “stroke” him, wiggle your fingers to get his attention, or call him over by tapping the ground. You might feel a bit daft at first, running your fingers through thin air, but before long everything feels totally natural. You learn to watch the screen and not your empty room, and soon you’ll be totally absorbed in whatever your Pet is up to. The technology behind this project is hugely impressive: the creature’s movements are detailed and extremely well-animated, and whatever he’s doing it always looks as if he’s actually moving across your floor. As a result, it’s easy to believe that there’s actually something there – a crucial achievement that guarantees the product’s overall success.

If you’re reading this review there’s a good chance that you’re considering buying the EyePet for a child. If this is the case, it’s important to note that it takes a bit of setting up. The game walks you through everything you need to do with a clear step-by-step guide, but younger kids may still need adult supervision with setting up the camera and clearing enough room to play. In the long term children should be able to run most of the EyePet’s activities themselves, but at the start a bit of supervision will be required while they’re learning what to do. Almost all of the game’s actions are governed using simple motion controls, but there are a few things that require the use of a joypad – notably the options for customising your Pet’s look. If the child in question is already a PS3 user they’ll be fine, but if not they’ll definitely need a hand with this.

On the plus side, the EyePet is so much fun that most adults will probably want to play along anyway. Sony has made a massive effort with the presentation, using comical videos to lead the player at every step. All these instructions are relayed by The Professor – the friendly boffin who runs the EyePet centre. He’s got a big white lab coat, silly glasses and crazy hair – and he’s played by a very decent character actor. On the whole, the videos are extremely well done, and you certainly won’t mind sitting through them.

This winning charm extends to almost every area of the game. The motion controls are usually pretty responsive, but it’s the accompanying plethora of nice ideas that really make them work. For example, when you’re starting out for the first time you’ll have to help your new pet to hatch out of his egg. First you rock the egg from side to side to wake him up, then when he starts to tap at the shell’s insides you’ll get to play a brief little pattern matching game. It’s a minor touch, a little diversion before the game properly begins, but it’s endearing all the same.

After you’ve mastered the basics, there’s a whole range of japes to enjoy with your pet. There are a total of 60 challenges to play through, most of them involving a special plastic card that comes bundled with the game. When you hold this token up to the camera, it’ll turn into some form of tool or toy, depending on the challenge at hand. If you’re washing your animal, it can be used as a showerhead, a shampoo bottle or a hairdryer; if you’re doing a spot of gardening, it turns into a watering can. There are loads of things to do with your Pet, from 10 pin bowling to play fights to games of Snap, and at any given moment you can take pics or videos of your high jinks using the in-built camera tool. Each challenge has three goals to meet, and you’ll unlock new prizes for your pet as you meet them – my Pet Speshulbrew is currently wearing a leather jacket and flying goggles. As you work through the tasks you’ll unlock new ones, but Sony has wisely stuck a limit on how many you can open up in the course of a day – so it’ll take players some time to see everything the game has to offer.

If I were going to be critical, I could point out that quite a few of the games are simply variations on stuff that you’ve already done. Some of the challenges can be a little fiddly to work, too: while the EyePet’s technology works brilliantly for the majority of the time, it does stumble a bit from time to time – particularly on the occasions when the game asks you to sing at your pet. Then again, I’m a lousy singer – so perhaps this wasn’t the game’s fault after all. In any case, the drawing-based mini-games have a far greater wow-factor: here the player doodles on an A4 pad with a felt tip pen and then holds their creation up to the camera. The EyePet then grabs a pen of its own and sets about re-creating your sketch in surprising detail. On top of this, there’s also the option to draw vehicles for your Pet – cars, planes and spacecraft – which then magically pop out of the paper to become drivable 3D objects. You could easily spend a couple of hours just messing around with these options, and if you have a crude mind the entire system is ripe for abuse – but since this is a family-focused review, I’ll refrain from mentioning VideoGamer’s ruder creations.

To an extent, the EyePet still has the same problem that the Petz series had, in that its longevity is reliant entirely upon your compassion for an animal that doesn’t really exist. It’s a doll, not a game, and if you get bored of the doll there’s no real reason to stick around. However, it’s easy to see that the EyePet is the best virtual pet that anyone has ever created. It’s cute, it can do lots of neat tricks, and it puts motion controls to great use. The EyePet is probably going to sell like hotcakes this Christmas, and its success will be richly deserved.

EyePet will be available from October 23 priced £19.99. The game will also be offered in a bundle with a PlayStation Eye camera for around £34.99.