There’s a slew of Move and motion titles coming out at this time of year and one of the new ones making the switch over from Wii is Carnival Island. Advertising itself as 35 games of carnival fun, it sounds like a good deal – but when we take a closer look, things aren’t quite what they seem.
With a cute story, excellently clean and precise presentation and a general feel good factor brimming throughout, Carnival Island is really only 7 games, each with 5 variants. Of these you have basket hoops (throwing), coin toss (throwing…) and mini bowl (more throwing). In fact, all of the games require an almost identical motion with the Move controller. The problem with this is that all the games then feel the same and that notion is then spread thinner with all the variations. For example the Hoops game has standard hoops, one where they move side to side, one where they move around the room and then two where you’re the net and have to catch the balls. Some of the other games do have good variation such as guiding a frog to a lilly-pad but they are few and far between.
On a positive note, the controls are responsive and predictable to a degree although it takes a few goes to relate the quickness of your throws to the depth of field on the screen. At least everything runs smoothly and you can play two at a time side by side which although I’ve not tested is a great addition.
Positives
~Clean crisp visuals and audio
~Move controls are very well done
~Good for multi-player action
Negatives
~Just not enough variety in the games to warrant long play sessions
Conclusion
Good in short bursts, the game has already been chopped to budget price but that’s exactly what it should have been released as. High production values cannot mask extremely light and samey gameplay.