Sony London

As polished and colourful as Phase is, playing Beats on PSP afterwards feels like being sat next to a giant subwoofer in the trendiest, spaciest club in town. This is very much rhythm action seen through a Tetsuya Mizuguchi kaleidoscope.

Contrary to what other lazy reviewers (and I suppose I mean that literally) have said, the fitness aspect is really now a fringe benefit rather than the focus. Sony's London Studio should be applauded for testing themselves with such a peculiar and unprecedented goal as teaching a specific martial art, but sadly Kinetic Combat is not the inspirational software it could have been.

 

Game Description: Eye Toy: Kinetic Combat is an exceptional interactive fitness product that adds a new dimension to home fitness. EyeToy: Kinetic redefined the home fitness market by transforming PlayStation 2 into an interactive fitness system bringing personal fitness trainers and workout tools into the home. To ensure an unparalleled home fitness experience, the team at London Studio have applied their knowledge and skills gained from EyeToy: Kinetic to produce an even more sophisticated and refined fitness product.

Like Play and SingStar before it, Kinetic offers us a fresh and, crucially, fun new way to play with our PS2s. It's another casual revolution in game design that's destined to fly under the radar of dyed-in-the-wool gamers as they pore over shots of the next gen consoles' shiny plastic casings.

Game Description: Get in shape with an engaging and challenging workout all in the comfort of your own home. EyeToy: Kinetic, exclusive to the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, is a unique and innovative fitness product that acts as an in-home personal trainer to create authentic customized exercise routines with real-time performance evaluations for more effective workouts. Utilizing the revolutionary EyeToy technology, EyeToy: Kinetic offers players an all-in-one fitness program of cardio, mind and body, and strength exercises inspired by Aerobics, Capoeira, Kick Boxing, Yoga, Modern Dance and Tai Chi. Choose between two unique personal trainers each of whom provide guidance and assess players' performances as they engage in 12-week training programs or select individual routines to tone specific areas of the body.

There's a crucial choice that every game based on real-world sports has to make. That choice is whether the game will aspire to simulating the real-world sport as closely as possible or whether to create an entertaining gameplay system that calls to mind a sport without really hewing close to the reality of it.

Game Description: World Tour Soccer 2006 delivers incredible gameplay for fans of the world's most popular sport. With 935 international and club teams from around the globe, you'll have the enormous size and passion of soccer fandom right at your fingertips. Enhanced presentation with new animations, passionate celebrations, in-game commentary, enhanced lighting effects and new cutscenes Choose your language—add international flair to your games with announcers who speak English, French, Italian, and Spanish.