The PlayStation Move bundle comes with the Move motion controller, PlayStation Eye camera, a demo disc, and a copy of Sports Champions. The Move controller feels solid, and so far, has handled being dropped, knocked around, and flung in every direction. It appears to be built from the same materials as the Dualshock 3, which is good. Only time will tell if the controller lasts but so far every indication points towards long-term durability.

What about the games you ask? Good question. As mentioned the bundle includes Sports Champions and a demo disc which contains 11 demos; Beat Sketcher, echochrome ii, EyePet, Kung Fu Rider, Sports Champions, Start the Party!, The Shoot, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, Time Crisis: Razing Storm, Tumble, and TV Superstars. Each can be installed to your internal HDD, thus allowing you to pass the disc onto a friend. Not every game is a hit, at least not for me personally, but my favorites have to be The Shoot and Time Crisis: Razing Storm. They track perfectly with the Move controller and even better with the Precision Shot 3 we have in-house from InterWorks Unlimited. All-in-all, a fine selection of games for new Move owners.

But the primary focus for new owners will undoubtedly be Sports Champions, which sports (no pun intended) six different games; Disc Golf, Gladiator Duel, Beach Volleyball, Archery, Table Tennis and Bocce Ball, each with three separate modes;

  • Champion Cup – Compete in the bronze, silver, and gold cups to unlock hundreds of prizes and become the ultimate sports champion.
  • Free Play – Jump in to play casual matches against other players or the CPU with your choice of options.
  • Challenge - Compete for the best scores in a variety of fast and frenetic challenges based on each sporting event.

My favorite game of the bunch is easily Disc Golf. This is hands-down the go-to game to show off to your friends and family what the Move can do. It’s precise, looks great, but most importantly, it’s fun as hell. The object is simple, throw the Frisbee into the goal. Sounds simple, right? But when you throw in some trees, water hazards, rocks, cliffs, elevation changes…well you get the picture. But this wouldn’t be any fun if it weren’t for the precision one can achieve with each throw. You can bend the Frisbee around corners, arc it up and make it come down. You can bounce it off the ground and into the goal (worth extra points). Or you can throw it as straight as a ruler. It is by far one of the most entertaining games on the Move.

While Disc Golf is my favorite of the six, Archery, Bocce Ball, and Gladiator Duel each hold their own as well. Offering a unique experience, each can be just as much fun due to the precision of the Move. However, that can’t be said about Volleyball and Table Tennis. Perhaps the team at Zindagi Games were rushed, or just couldn’t quite work out the technical side, but Volleyball and Table Tennis are clearly the worst of the six games. They are extremely inaccurate, which means they aren’t fun, and if they aren’t fun, want wants to play? It honestly feels like these two games just weren’t tested enough. That said, my largest compliant with Sports Champions is the lack of online multiplayer. The game is all about taking turns, so why didn’t they implement online multiplayer? Surely they could have implemented this for Bocce Ball, Archery, and Disc Golf (turn-based games). Perhaps a future patch or DLC can remedy this. Still, the fact remains that out of the box Sports Champions is a great game and definitely the right pairing for the Move bundle. There are easily 100′s of hours of fun to be had, whether it be solo or with friends and family.

Now, when Sony first announced the PlayStation Move, I was skeptical. What with the failure of the SIXAXIS motion controls, who could blame me. But then I started seeing demos, live and on-stage, and as the months passed my interest grew. Now, I don’t want to knock Nintendo’s Wii, it’s a great little machine, but after playing with the Move, I can’t go back. I haven’t touched the Wii in months as it is and playing with the Move has solidified my thoughts on the matter. But what makes the Move so great isn’t it’s near 1:1 motion-tracking, or the HD graphics, or even the bundled software, it’s the potential.

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