Eye Toy Groove (No Camera)

by Sony

Product Features

• Just link your USB camera to the Playstation 2, and put your rhythm & coordination skills to the test
• Technique, style and timing all earn you points - move your arms, hips and body to the beat with onscreen prompts
• Dance to the beat of 25 licensed hit songs, from famous artists like Madonna, Jamiroquai and Fatboy Slim

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004TN9L
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches ; 2.4 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: June 15, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,842 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Game Informer Review

What has two thumbs and loves EyeToy: Play? This chick! I still pop it in when non-gaming friends come by – everyone loves it, everyone knows how to play it, and you get to see yourself on TV. While Groove still has this base amusement factor and functionality, it feels just plain dull.

There are two different comparisons to be made when talking about Groove – one to the Play minigame it expands on, and one to the other rhythm games it falls into line with. We'll start with its predecessor. I rarely play the hit-the-speaker game in Play because I just couldn't figure out how to dance while still sitting on my couch, and the generic techno tunes were limited and grating. The twenty-some odd songs in Groove should fix the track issue (and there are a couple of gems in there that I really dug, but I'm a Beatles person, so the Elvis remix wasn't one of them), but instead it feels like a short, predictable jaunt through disposable dance/pop tracks.

As for not feeling the couch-bound groove, Groove does a few great things that take advantage of the camera control. Freestyle segments (which integrate new versions of the Playroom effects found in Play) and photo-ops are plopped into the middle of songs and let you just get down to your own beat for a few seconds. From a gameplay standpoint, the game adds wide, sweeping motions into the usual hit and hold commands found in other dance titles. Large stars will highlight a series of hitspots and players sweep their arms from one to the next, forcing a "spirit fingers", Broadway flapper kind of move.

But, in comparison to other rhythm titles, Groove falls well south of average. Limited unlockables and even more restrictive graphics make me think, "I could play this for three hours a day, every day, for the next six months and this would look exactly the same." Throw a new background on there or something, man! Even new hitspots or icons would have helped.

Also, multiplayer is a standard feature in games of this ilk, and Groove is no exception. Instead of having players side to side, dancing each other into oblivion, Groove puts them in front of each other. One dancer is blue and one is red. During the battle mode, players are supposed to hit the spots of their color – but it's just too manic and out of control to be much fun.

This is truly a sad, sad day for me. I gave Play a nine, and did it with full comfort and confidence. Groove, on the other hand, is something that I would pop in only if Codemaster's American Idol game had irreparable scratches. This is not to say that American Idol is bad, only that Groove is less enjoyable than a licensed, knock-off title – and that's not good.

Concept:
Expand on the dancing/rhythm game found in EyeToy: Play

Graphics:
Well, it's you on the screen – a somewhat fuzzy you. The game interface is quirky, but doesn't change too terribly much

Sound:
The songs are either top-40 American pop or quintessentially European

Playability:
You hit the little markers with the beats of the songs. This isn't rocket science, people, but navigating the interface is still sort of a pain

Entertainment:
Fine at first, but the rewards aren't great enough to keep people groovin' for long

Replay:
Moderate

Rated: 6 out of 10
Editor: Lisa Mason
Issue: June 2004

2nd Opinion:
How the mighty have fallen. No matter how much I tried to enjoy EyeToy: Groove, I couldn't escape the fact that it is just an expansion of EyeToy: Play's Beat Freak game, with a few new features and licensed tracks. It aims to be a rhythm game along the lines of DDR, but in doing so it loses all of the variety and replayability that made its predecessor so engaging. If you got sick of Beat Freak, you could always go smack some ninjas around in Kung Foo. If you get sick of Groove (which is highly likely, since there isn't much to spice it up), you've got nowhere else to go. Play made it fun to flail around and make a fool of yourself, but Groove just makes it depressing, and I know plenty of cheaper ways to regret vigorously shaking my butt, thank you very much.

Rated: 6 out of 10
Editor: Joe Juba


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Product Description

EyeToy: Groove is an interactive dance game that doens't require a dance pad! Move your body in time to the music and see who can get the highest score!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent fun for all ages!, November 12, 2004

By 

J. Arrighi (Northern Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eye Toy Groove (No Camera) (Video Game)

If you already have an Eye Toy and your favorite game on it is Beat Freak, then you have to get Eye Toy Groove. The 28 tracks on it cover 40 years of great dance music, from Elvis to Good Charlotte. As a 46 year old woman, I got this as an alternative of boring, repetitive workout tapes, with great success - the game even has a calorie counter built in. This is also a fun game for me to play with my three kids, ages from 8 to 16. Even the preschoolers I occasionally babysit enjoy the special effects in the chill out room, and the lyrics in all the songs are suitable for family listening, which is more than I can say for Dance Dance Revolution.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good but with flaws, May 26, 2004

By 

The Fentoozler "new_jersey_hillbilly" (Howell, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eye Toy Groove (No Camera) (Video Game)

Fun once you get used to it. It's very similar to Samba de Amigo from Sega. The single player mode isn't that great(its pretty much just practice for the multiplayer mode) but the multiplayer mode is. The object of the game is to touch the moving smiley faces. Sometimes they roll down the side and u have to follow it sometimes its stationary. Instead of dancing with legs (such as in Dance Dance Revolution) you use your arms. In real life it doesn't look that much like dancing but onscreen, ur a star. Not a good song list. It's a very good game anyway. It is very addictive. If there was an arcade game of it (such as dance dance Revolution) it would probably have the same amount of people shoving $1,000 worth of quarters in it as DDR. The mode where it counts calories is good, too. If ur a girl, you'll love this game. If your a guy and you have an open mind (and not "Its a dancing game and thats too girly") then u will like it, too.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun and challenging, August 12, 2004

By 

F. Helms (Campbell, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Eye Toy Groove (No Camera) (Video Game)

My daughter got the Eye Toy for her birthday, and we recently added the Dance Groove game to the collection. She and her friends (10 yrs of age) really enjoy it, as do some of the younger kids. She says her only complaint is that the most difficult skill level is nearly impossible to master, so they improvise... which is pretty easy to do if you stand really close to the camera.