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> Results: Sega Superstars
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Sony's Eye Toy camera device lets you see yourself on the game screen and senses your movement as you play games. Similar to Eye Toy Play, a collection of mini-games using the camera, Sega Superstars is a bunch of small challenges starring favorite Sega characters and games. Here's the cast:
Sonic The Hedgehog Recall the bonus stages in classic Sonic games where you run through a pipe collecting rings and Chaos Emeralds and avoiding spiky balls. That's what you do in this Eye Toy game, except you control Sonic with your hand. Wave it around in a big circle to make Sonic run around the pipe. Collect all seven Chaos Emeralds and receive a special bonus. NiGHTS NiGHTS was a fan favorite on the Sega Saturn by Sonic Team. You guided a Jester-like character around as you flew through rings and collected items. In this Eye Toy game, YOU do the flying. Remember when you were little and you would pretend to be an airplane by outstretching your arms like wings? Well that's what you do here. Steer by leaning your arms left and right as you fly through rings in the NiGHTS universe. Sounds like it should be fun, but it's very difficult to control your character.  Virtua Striker This soccer mini-game is similar to the one in Eye Toy Play, except now you have to hit the falling ball with your head to pop balloons to score points. Different colored balloons are worth more point values, so aim carefully when you ﾑbounce' the ball. Of course you could cheat and use your hands, which might prove a little useful since the hit detection on this game is so bad. The House of the Dead This one is just like the Eye Toy Play game where you have to swat at ninjas, except this time it's zombies. Just don't slap at the damsel in distress or she will slap you back! Take too many scratches from nearby zombies (or slaps from ladies) and it's game over. Samba de Amigo This was a rhythm game on the Dreamcast where you had to shake special maraca controllers in time with the music. The controllers also came with a mat that you stood on that sensed how high you shook the maracas, so you had to shake and move the maracas in time with the onscreen display. Dots would came out from the center of the screen and pass across one of six circles, and you had to shake the maraca right when the dot passed the circle. It's exactly like that in the Eye Toy version, minus the maracas and the mat. Most of the music from the original is still on here. It's a fine game, but not near as responsive as the Dreamcast classic. Space Channel 5 This one is just like the disco dance game on Eye Toy Play. Watch the aliens' dance moves, then copy them in rhythm along with silly, sassy space reporter Ulala. Wave your hand on the directional sensors for up, right, left, and down; and the two diagonal ones are for "Shoot/Chu" and "Hey" (save the hostages). Unfortunately, this game is very difficult due to the poor response of the sensors. Crazy Taxi This one is the least like the game it's based on. Hail a taxi as quickly as you can by jumping around and waving your arms and moving as much as you can. Move around more and the gauge will go up faster. When it's full, a taxi will stop for you. In higher difficulty levels you have to hail multiple taxis before the time limit expires. You can even have someone jump in and help you hail taxis by moving around since all the camera senses is your movement. It's a pretty mindless game, but if you have a house full of hyper kids with untapped energy just have them play this game for a while. Chu Chu Rocket You have to help a herd of cute little space mice with lemming tendencies get to their rocket on the other side of the path. But watch out for the greedy orange space cats! Don't let them into the rocket or you will lose some of your mice! Wave your hand over the sensors to make a bridge appear for the mice to cross. The cats can jump over gaps, so you have to trick them by making a bridge appear, then stop waving as they cross so the cats fall. In harder difficulty levels you'll have more bridges to keep track of. This game is pretty fun. Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg Billy Hatcher was a 3-D platformer on the GameCube that required you to guide a kid in a chicken suit as he rolled eggs around the landscape. You do the same thing in this Eye Toy game. Roll around a giant egg by waving your hand over the two hand-shaped outlines on the left and right sides of the screen. Wave on both outlines and you move forward. Wave on the left one and you'll veer to the right, like a tank tread. Use your egg to squish all the enemies in the level in the time limit and you win. This one would be more fun if it wasn't so hard to control your egg. You can't turn around fast enough. Super Monkey Ball This one controls similar to the NiGHTS Eye Toy game, except for some reason this one is a little more responsive. Guide your monkey-in-a-ball around the checkerboard levels collecting bananas for points and reaching the goal in time. Don't fall off the edge! You get three tries to make it past a series of levels. Tilt your arms to tilt the ball, and raise and lower your arms to speed up and slow down. Virtua Fighter Just like the boxing game in Eye Toy Play, except you're sparring against Akira, Sarah Bryant and more from the Virtua Fighter games. You stand on one side of the screen as you fight your opponent on the other end. Red markers will flash on the opposing character, that's your cue to punch and kick them. When a blue marker flashes on your side, you must block an upcoming attack by your opponent. But don't punch the markers with an X on them! If you do, the other fighter will counterattack and deplete a chunk of your energy! This game is easy early on, but gets difficult very quickly in the harder settings.  Puyo Pop Fever I saved the best for last. This is a very creative use of the Eye Toy. Colored Puyo blobs from the puzzle game will fall from the top of the screen. You have to let them roll down your shoulders and arms so they go into the appropriately colored bins. Don't let any falling bombs get in the bins, though! You'll be leaning and tilting your head around as you guide those blobs that are rolling down your body. Very fun. Best of all, if you beat all three difficulty levels (which isn't too hard), you can unlock a ﾑfree' mode where you can just play with falling Puyo blobs. Juggle them, catch them with your shirt, throw them to a friend, or just let them sit on your head and shoulders. YOU CAN BE ONE WITH THE PUYO! Chao Garden In the more recent Sonic games you can raise cute little creatures called Chao, and this little activity lets you do that, too, to a certain extent. Rub your hand on the egg and a Chao will eventually hatch. You can wave your hand on the Chao to ﾑpet' it, and rings you earn by playing the other mini games can be spent on food and toys for your Chao. That's it. It's more of an activity than a game, like the playroom area in Eye Toy Play. Each game has three difficulties of play, with tougher times, new levels, and meaner characters to beat. Just like Play, when you get a high score you can have your picture taken, except here you can get your picture in the passenger seat of a Crazy Taxi or amidst a stack of Puyo puzzle blobs. Sega did a great job with the graphics and music. Each mini-game looks and sounds like its full game counterpart. You'll hear the exact same songs from Samba de Amigo and Space Channel 5, and see the brightly colored graphics from Billy Hatcher and Monkey Ball. The familiar Sega characters are way cooler than the bland and uninspired cast in Eye Toy Play. Unfortunately, the control problems caused by the quirks of the Eye Toy keep this game from reaching "Superstar" status. Many games require you to fiddle with the camera sensitivity in the options screen, so you may find yourself spending more time in ﾑoptions' than playing the game yourself. Other games, like NiGHTS and Puyo Pop Fever, make you calibrate the camera's sensitivity every time you play, and they won't let you play the game if the camera's sensitivity is set too much or too little. Furthermore, even the graphics can get in the way. On the Eye Toy Play game, you can see yourself clearly in every game, and that gives you a reference as to where to move your hands. Some games on Sega Superstars don't show your picture very well, or they only show your picture in a tiny portion on the top of the screen (NiGHTS and Super Monkey Ball do this), so it's hard to tell sometimes where to put your hands. I gave Sega Superstars a low score because even though the games are more creative than in Play and the characters are better, the fun is sapped away because you can't control the games properly. 
About the only thing that might frighten young children in this game are the zombies in the House of the Dead game, but everything else is kid friendly. Well, some parents may not like Ulala's outfit. But kids will recognize and enjoy playing with their favorite Sega characters like Sonic the Hedgehog, Billy Hatcher, and Super Monkey Ball. It's a great way to get a little exercise, too. But the control problems brought on by the game and the quirks of the Eye Toy may frustrate young gamers. Also, the Eye Toy camera itself is a pretty persnickety device. In order for it to work properly, you'll need to clear the gaming area of all other moving things like pets and ceiling fans. You'll also need a lot of space to play, so you'll have to move couches and coffee tables around every time you want to get up and wiggle. Things like windows can even be a hindrance, so keep all that in mind when purchasing an Eye Toy. But if you absolutely HAVE to get an Eye Toy for your kids, you may be better off with one of the more forgiving titles like Play or Nicktoons Movin'.
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