EyeToy Play: Astro Zoo

I think I’m about 18 years too old for this game. Had it come out 18 years ago, I might have been all over it. Unfortunately for my younger self, Sony didn’t get around to making Astro Zoo until now, and so I can only wonder what might have been. As it stands, Astro Zoo is the kind of game that’ll entertain the young ones for a while, and also – importantly – get them moving around, so if you have a young son or daughter, it could be worth looking into this one.

The premise is pretty simple, while at the same time being pretty darn crazy: comets have caused haywire with the Astro Zoo, a floating series of hubs that house a collection of animals (who all wear space helmets for some reason, despite being inside a space station). You have to venture into each hub and sort out various problems. Rabbits might be frozen in ice cubes; squirrels might have lost their food; and polar bears might, er, want you to copy their dance moves. Needless to say, the situation is tense.

If you’ve played an EyeToy game before, you’ll be completely familiar with the gameplay here. If not, here’s a crash course: you stand in front of you TV with the camera pointing at you. Your image is replicated on screen, and your movements are detected so you can interact with various items the game throws at your projection. Astro Zoo is set up as a series of mini-games that you must complete in order to help free the animals. One game might have you hitting ice cubes as they fall down the screen, while another will have you tickling a sad walrus or pulling carrots out of the ground. There’s a pleasant amount of variety to the mini-games, but a number of them do end up feeling pretty similar – waving your arms around wildly tends to get you through a fair number of them.

But still, even that’s okay, because at least you’re moving around! If you really get into the game, it’s possible to work up quite a sweat. So if you can’t tear your kid away from the PlayStation to run around for a bit, at least you might be able to compromise with this.

The graphics are pretty much what you’d expect from this sort of title: they’re bright, colourful, and cel-shaded, giving them a polished cartoon look that’s pretty easy on the eye, although after a while all the cuteness might get a bit nauseating. The sound effects do their job well, providing some satisfying aural feedback. Overall, the presentation is pretty slick, although it would have been nice if they could have sped up the non-gameplay parts of the game. As it stands, you might feel like there’s a lot of waiting before getting to play a mini-game.

Handily, the game lets you play with either one or two players, so either two kids can play together, or an adult can help out if need be. In all, Astro Zoo is a competent title that’ll appeal to a very young demographic, so if you know someone who isn’t all that long in years, give this one a whirl!