Sly Cooper, Jak & Daxter, and Ratchet & Clank, these are all good games in their own respect. Â PlayStation Move Heroes brings all three franchises together into one collection of mini-games intended to show off Sony’s Move controller. Â Does the sum of the parts measure up to the source material? Â Unfortunately not.
I like the fact this game makes no attempts to be anything other than what it is. It’s built entirely around the Move controller and therefore sidesteps the debate of whether or not motion control actually enhances the game play. It’s simply all about the Move here. That doesn’t necessarily make it a good thing though. The motion controls are a mix of pretty fun to really crappy unfortunately.
Move Heroes brings the six main characters from the three franchises together through a very loose and corny story. There’s not a lot of substance here which is unfortunate because it doesn’t do anything to advance any of the three franchises used. Not only is it an opportunity lost but bringing these three franchises together might sound like a good idea on paper but, in my opinion, it exposes a distinct lack of creativity in the individual franchises and actually lessened my opinion of them. Sure, they’ve each got their own idiosyncrasies but how many platforming duos does a consoles need as an exclusive?
The game play centers around protecting and saving small aliens known as Whibbles. While there are a bunch of levels to play, the goal is always the same and the actual mini-games and Move controls are extremely limited. What is there is hampered by poor implementation. The games that use the whip are a perfect example. Great idea but poorly executed. The controls are a mess. You’ll be struggling to keep your aim locked on the bad guys and the grapple offers no real reward. The shooting mini-games fare better and can be pretty fun. You don’t really point the Move controller at the screen to shoot as much as you move it around to move the aiming reticle around but it’s still pretty fun. My favourite mini-games were where you guide a Frisbee around the level pointing, tilting and twisting the Move controller to steer. A similar control-scheme is employed for bowling mini-games to lesser effect. Yes, I said bowling. They’ve managed to somehow fit bowling into this game.
There simply isn’t enough here to hold my attention.  I can see this being a fun diversion for younger games but I think after the novelty of the controls wears off there won’t be much of a compelling reason to continue. There are medals awarded after each level and various hidden goodies to find in an attempt to create replayability but I fear it isn’t enough to overcome the lack of variety and poor controls in some of the mini-games.
The graphics are functional enough. That’s my nice way of saying they’re functionally average. I’m sure that bringing three different franchises together is a challenge in its own right. This is probably made easier because they are cartoony in appearance but, as I alluded to earlier, it all looks very generic.
In terms of the sound, the event announcer drives me nuts. There’s limited dialogue from the characters and the music has a very midi-like sound & feel to it. It’s a bit corny but I give it credit because it has a futuristic, sci-fi type of sound to it which fits the game well.
Hardcore fans of the Sly, Ratchet and Jak franchises and younger audiences might find enough here to warrant a purchase. There’s simply not enough meat to the game play to make it attractive to the rest of the gamer demographic. The graphics and sounds are okay but the most disappointing part of this game is the Move implementation. If you’re going to literally put the word Move in your title, you best make sure it’s implementation is fun and works well. Sadly, it doesn’t.
