The Playstation Move starter pack has everything you need to get motion control on your Playstation 3. That would include a Playstation Move controller (with the big silly colored ball on top), a PS Eye, a wrist strap and demo disc with demos of nine games - Beat Sketcher, Echochrome ii, Eyepet, Sports Champions, Start the Party, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, The Shoot, Tumble and TV Superstars. The demos have to be installed on the hard drive to play, and you have to install each one separately, there’s no install all option. Talk about a time investment just in installing demos and then having to clean them all up at a later date. Then some of the demos are extremely limited in what you can do.

Beat Sketcher - Not so much a game as it is a multimedia program. Wave the Move controller around to draw on the screen and to influence the music playing. Each brush stroke can be totally unique and bring a unique sound to the music.

echochrome ii - Use light to form shadow and get your person to the goal. Find some shadow art along the way. It’s not so easy with the move controller and I think this is another game that might be better off if it also allows standard controller usage.

Eyepet - It’s a virtual pet that you can interact with using the PS Eye and the Move controller. It’s definitely aimed at children and seems very low impact and entertaining. Heck, even I had fun getting my little dude on a plane to pop some balloons. It’s like one part virtual pet and one part party game.

Sports Champions - See my full review of this game (it’s great)

Start the Party - It’s a party game with various motion-based mini-games that really aren’t all that exciting for adults.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 - Realistic motion control in the latest Tiger game. So they say. I lost interest even in the demo.

The Shoot - You’re an actor in some action films and you have to, you guessed it, shoot your way to stardom, pilgrim. you only get 2 levels of campaign and 2 levels of score attack in the demo and it’s sometimes rather difficult to know exactly where you’re aiming even with the reticle which seems to lag a bit behind in movement. Other than that it looks like a decent game and could be fun. Still, no sensitivity controls really will hamper things in general I think

tumble - Build towers of blocks by stacking them using the Move controller. It’s harder than it sounds and is pretty interesting. It looks like it might be a very good game if they manage to keep the Move controller from getting in the way of the gameplay.

I got tired of installing the demos to check them out and so decided that enough was enough. Having to install each separately is really a poor decision on their part. Not being able to play from the disc itself means you waste time and energy just to play the demos.

The PS Move wand (because it looks like something you’d see in Harry Potter with its big silly colored ball on top) is a one-piece unit with a built in rechargeable battery pack. Plugging it into the PS3 charges it. It’s light-weight and while some might comment on its design, does the job fairly well. It’s not the most ergonomic controller to hold as it’s got the standard smooth hard plastic shell and it’s round. So there’s little to grip onto. I foresee a whole line of add-on silicon accessories that will afford a better grip. I also foresee a whole line of accessories that will be of little value, much like many of the sports packs for the Wiimote. They have just released a gun-controller where you drop the Move wand into it and so you can better play shooting games. I suspect that probably helps in the aiming department and makes the game more than the old Duck Hunt where you were sort of guessing at times. At least this one has an on-screen reticle.

Overall, PS Move shows a lot of promise. There are some really great games already like Sports Champions, which we play every couple weeks with friends in the GDN Office here. There are other games that are far less than they could be. The controls also seem to have some problems in various lighting conditions and while, generally, they function fairly well, I think they certainly could have used some sensitivity controls. The only thing that it does for calibration is determine your height roughly.