Preview by: Toni Schwartz

The PlayStation Move device is Sony’s ‘answer’ to the Wii. But how does it really compare to Nintendo’s well-known motion controller?

The PSMove does indeed look like a uh, massager, consisting of a slender, smooth handle with a large rubbery ball on top. Keeping in line with the PS3’s color scheme, the PSMove has an all black body with the exception of the ball, the colors of which you can customize. When I first picked up the PSMove I noticed immediately how much lighter it is compared with a Wiimote. That’s because it has a built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery similar to the DualShock 3 controller, unlike the Wiimote which uses AAA batteries.

Although the controller has inertial sensors to detect motion, the rubbery ball adds more accuracy to its tracking. The ball on the PSMove works similarly to motion capture suits covered in balls that are worn by actors who portray CGI characters in films in that it uses the PS Eye to track the ball.

The game I demoed is a party game with the unimaginative (and thankfully tentative) title Move Party. First we had our pictures taken and voices recorded by the PS Eye, both of which were transplanted onto our avatars. Then the fun began. We competed in various mini-games that included rescuing baby birds, painting shapes as quickly and accurately as possible, killing bugs, and popping colored blowfish.

The first thing I noticed when I stepped in front of the TV was that the Eye acted as a video camera, filming anyone standing in front of it and projecting it onscreen. Interestingly enough the image is reversed, which at first made me wonder if that would confuse people, but actually it’s no different than if you were to look in a mirror.

In Move Party, the PSMove took on different appearances onscreen depending on the game. For example, in the bug swatting game it was a tennis racket and for the shapes game it was a paintbrush. One thing I noticed was that there was no jitteriness, which I always found annoying on various Wii games. This means that it would be great for FPSes and other games that require precise movements and steady hands. Indeed, SOCOM 4 will be PSMove-friendly when it’s released.

The mini-games in Move Party were silly and cute, just the right amount of difficulty for first-time PSMove buyers. However, in spite of Sony proclaiming that the PSMove is extremely accurate, I did encounter a little bit of lag, though I may attribute it to the game and the PSMove’s still early builds (especially the game, which was still in Alpha). Hopefully we’ll see improvements at E3.