Eye Toy Kinetic Combat
Format: PS2
Exercise the Bruce Lee way.
Gamers seem to get bad press for apparently being sofa moulding sloths. In the public eye the traditional misconception of us is a weedy, spotty, unfit teenage waster which although may be true in the rarest of cases is normally far from the truth - with the average age of a gamer being in the late twenties, most are normal, healthy, hard working people with a penchant for virtual escapism. Combat is needed by the former but aimed at the latter.
As one of those vague titles that exists on the periphery of what constitutes a ‘game’, Combat is actually a piece of interactive fitness software. The fact that it’s on the PS2, uses the Eye Toy and includes some minigames is just about reason enough to call it a game. That and it’s a lot of fun to play with.
Made with the express purpose of getting you fit by teaching you the basic principles of Kung Fu, Combat’s main training programme is set over a 16 week period (tied into the PS2’s internal clock) and constitutes a regime of steady exercise for an hour every couple of days. Whether you’ll be kick-ass enough to beat a crowd of ninjas at the end remains to be seen but you’ll certainly have shed a few pounds and possibly destroyed a vase or two.
After the initial introduction you stumble upon Combat’s major flaw - to fully appreciate it you need space. Lots of space. If you haven’t got a generous sized, well lit room, some of the exercises will prove difficult and the software will have trouble responding to you. Along with the fact that although the wide vision lens supplied helps, you also need to be a fair distance from the TV for it to properly work - great if you live in a big loft conversion, not so great if you live in a pokey two bed terraced house.
Beyond this initial hitch, Combat proves fun enough for you to want to come back for more with mini games and quick play challenges for when you just feel like punching the air and an exercise regime that’s a damn sight more entertaining than sit-ups every day.
7/10