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> Results: Eye Toy: Operation Spy
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There is a secret crime organization out there called The Syndicate, and they specialize in all manner of no good bad guy stuff. You are a new recruit for a secret spy organization trying to stop The Syndicate. But how will you stop them? Espionage? No. Infiltration? No. Waving your arms around like a maniac? You bet!
You have to commend Sony for continually supporting the Eye Toy camera peripheral, and not abandoning it like an unwanted Taiko drum or barrel shaped bongo. This latest Eye Toy game is a collection of spy themed mini-games. Plus, it also doubles as a toy spy camera that kids can put in their room to guard their ﾑclassified documents.' To thwart The Syndicate, you must move your arms to rotate a geometric shape with symbols on the sides and stop at the right one to decode a message. Steer yourself while skydiving to reach a top-secret destination. Wave your hands and match facial features to a picture to uncover a photo of a criminal. Unfortunately, aside from a few other mundane challenges, that's all there is to do. The mini-games are not that engaging, and lack of variety limits the gameplay.  Worse yet, the game's face recognition system to recognize who is playing doesn't work very well. It's very difficult to get the camera to take your picture, and if you have changed your hairstyle or even the expression on your face, the game may not recognize you next time you play. Whoever wrote the instruction manual was more interested in interlacing the paragraphs with spy terminology than telling you how to play and set things up. At least the spoken instructions in the game are a little bit more helpful. Operation Spy also doubles as a toy security camera so kids can guard their rooms. Set up motion sensitive targets with the Eye Toy camera and if anyone triggers the targets, a loud buzzer will go off and the Eye Toy will take several quick snapshots of the perpetrator. Then, you can even print off the ﾑincriminating evidence' with a compatible printer! You can also view things in ﾑnight vision' although it isn't true night vision. If you turn the lights off, the Eye Toy camera will not work. It just makes the picture on the TV look like night vision. Because of the boring mini-games and gimmicky toy aspect, this is an unsuccessful mission. Eye Toy fans would be better off with one of the Play games or Kinetic. 
Reading isn't required as all the instructions in the game are spoken. There isn't any depicted violence that I could find. But an older player may have to help set up the Eye Toy device correctly, as it won't work properly if the lighting in the room isn't set right. The mini-games may be too hard and/or boring to younger players, but if you have a little 007 who likes to play with spy stuff, Operation Spy may keep them entertained for a short while.
This review edited by Dave Long Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "Eye Toy" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Eye Toy: Operation Spy |
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