Start the Party

Dear reader, you are about to read a review that has one of the lowest scores I have ever handed out. But before we deal with the game, I must stress that this isn't a simple case of me being a hardcore gamer who has zero interest in a family oriented party game, neither do I have an issue with Playstation Move - in fact I like it a lot (as evident in my Sports Champions review).

I love casual games, and I have sung my heart out with Singstar, and spent countless hours with games like Buzz, Scene It, Wii Let's Party, Wii Sports and many other. But Start the Party is simply so bad and poorly designed, that it's a challenge to know where to start complaining.

The first time I turn on Start the Party I'm greeted with a colourful introduction, and my Move controller is quickly represented by a giant hand on screen. "Oh, lots of great things to choose between", I think to myself (my mistake). And I start the first one.

The objective is to cut hair as fast as possible. Imagine a round ball, where you direct your Move controller along the top and use the trigger to "cut" the hair off. That's it. No more, no less. The movements you have to perform appear more like something directing traffic than a hairdresser. It's very repetitive, and there is no chance of anything surprising or interesting happening at any point.

The next mini game I try tasks me with pop balloons. You and the room make up a grainy background image, so it's hard to make out the "needle", and the controls are also a bit unintuitive. The next game let's me be an artist, or rather I follow a line and press the trigger to paint.

Then you've got the falling parachute men, who need to be blown onto rafts with your Move controller that has now been turned into a giant fan. If your parachute troopers hit the water they will be eaten by rather dull looking cartoon shark. It's hard to save them all, unless you have a lot of room to move around on.

This far into the game not one single smile could be traced on my face or the faces of the friends I invited to try Start the Party. And it's not helped on by the overenthusiastic voice of the speaker, that qualifies as the most annoying one ever heard in a video game. If you felt the announcer in Buzz was a bit much at times, and then remove any trace of charm or clever dialogue, you get the voice of Start the Party.

The concept with a party game that is made up of simple and easy to grasp gameplay mechanics is something that I approve of and in the right setting it can be thoroughly entertaining. But Start the Party looks generic, and sounds horrible. It's as if the developers feel that casual gamers are a bunch of half-sleeping idiots with way too much cash in their wallets.

Start the Party may be able to enjoy a bit of success as one of the first titles available for Playstation Move. Don't let yourself get fooled into getting it. If you have a pre-school child in your household they may be entertained for a while by it, but other than that Start the Party is just a scary example of casual gaming gone wrong.

It's evening now, and I end my experiment with casual gaming by snapping a photo of my for the photo album. The only thing that's clearly visible is my Move controller, and the rest is just jumbled up pixels, green and purple. And perhaps it's for the best, as the expression on my face tells the story of my experience with Start the Party.

Playstation Move may very well be a part of the future of gaming, but Start the Party sure isn't. You're better off picking up Sports Champions with your new Move controller.