Should you pay the entrance fee to come into this carnival?
Carnival Island is your typical mini-game collection with motion controls. It’s been done to death ever since the Wii emerged, but can this game mix things up for the carnival crowd?
Alas, it doesn’t change anything when it comes to these types of games and feels all very familiar and while the games are fun, the replay value is limited and will wear off quickly.
If you’ve ever been to a carnival, you’ll have a decent idea of what to expect with games like throwing hoops over bottles and throwing balls up a ramp to go into rings worth different points. There is reasons to come back to unlock new games by completing challenges like scoring really high, which in turn lets you earn more tickets to spend in the gift shop on cuddly toys and whatnot.
The motion controls of Playstation Move haven’t always pleased me because you have to calibrate for every game, but they are very accurate and picks up the strength you put into your throws. The game ridiculously tries to put a story about the carnival island being magical and you bringing it back to life by unlocking more games and mascots, but I suppose they needed something to entice younger gamers. You can play with 4 players if you have enough controllers, which obviously extends the lifespan…but not by much. It will grow tiresome quickly due to the repetitive nature of the mini-games, don’t get me wrong…they are fun, but they get old after a few hours.
The visuals are pretty average for a PS3 game, but I’m not surprised considering it’s only a Move title and they are obviously going for the younger audience with the art style and characters. Load times are mixed, but the framerate is always consistent. Voice-acting is irritating to older gamers like myself, but will please the younger crowd.
The Verdict
Carnival Island has a good selection of mini-games to play, but you’ll breeze through it in a few hours and probably never play it again, which is a shame since the motion controls are very accurate, but there just isn’t enough content or reasons to keep playing.
