[E3 2009] Visible Aminals
Invizimals has a crazy name and even crazier gameplay. PSP + Camera + Augmented Reality, Whaaa?
Published: June 4, 2009
The PSP is making a comeback in a big, big way. The PSP go is supplying Sony with a digital distribution platform and a raft of games (that will hit both as a download and physical UMD) are breathing life into what was a slowly dying platform. No one title better illustrated the lengths Sony is going to capture a new, younger audience, however, than Invizimals, which takes some the underlying tech found in The Eye of Judgment and, astonishingly, makes it work just as impressively with the PSP's lower-res camera.
Make no mistake, this is a game aimed squarely at the Pokemon crowd, but where Nintendo's cash cow has settled into shall we say... familiar territory over the years, the augmented reality functions of what Spanish developer Novarama Technology takes the basic concept and injects it with a serious dose of far-flung tech.
The idea is simple: hidden all over your house right now are Invizimals, invisible animals discovered by Sony scientists that can only be seen with the PSP's camera (which will ship with every copy of the game). By following a pulsing beacon, you can find the critters, lay down a little cardboard trap, and then perform basic functions like tickling them or slamming them down into the trap to capture them, at which point you can then have them square off against other Invizimals owners. Like we said, it's basically next-gen Pokemon. Proper next-gen, not just new whiz-bang visuals.
Gimmick or no, the concept has been surprisingly nurtured. The PSP camera can be used for a variety of tasks, from summoning a lightning storm by creating a "rain cloud" with the shadow of your hand to calling in a meteor strike that will hit in the center of where you're aiming to blowing in the microphone on the camera to cause a snowstorm. That these critters are hidden all over the house (on, say, a red couch, but a specific shade of red) means that Novarama is really playing with the idea of "discovering" hidden pets using things like time of day and specific shapes. At one point, they showed off a huge version of a creature thanks to a massive trap laid on their office floor. It would seem the only limit to the size of the things is size of the trap, and skyscraper-tall offerings are as simple as making a big enough square to realize them on.
More than Eye ofJudgment, though, Invizimals is a full-fledged game, meaning there's a story, and the game has definite RPG elements. By battling with other critters (you can map their special attacks to the d-pad and unleash them while squaring off against other PSP owners wirelessly in Ad Hoc and Infrastructure), you'll collect experience in the form of sparks which in turn lets them level up and, eventually, evolve into more powerful forms with more oomph and different skills.
What's really cool about the technology is that it really is augmented reality, with all the gimmicky bells and whistles therein. Invizimals will react to shouts, will respond to being poked and prodded with your finger, rotate properly when they're on a trap and are turned or tilted, and honestly function exactly as you'd expect something to that was virtually "there." It's astonishingly cool tech, and something that, at least for us, feels far more interesting than playing through yet another set of Pokemon games (the 100+ creatures in this one come on just a single UMD). Oh yes, we went there -- and we'll be going straight to our PSPs to play the game if and when it makes a Stateside arrival.
That, along with the fact that the PSP go uses a completely different set of ports, are the two biggest hurdles for US players right now. The game has a full go-ahead in Europe where it's being made, but SCEA has yet to lock down a release date on this side of the pond, and Novarama is currently fiddling with some ideas behind getting the go to... uh... go with a new PSP camera to facilitate things -- not to mention selling the needed trap and the software as some kind of retail voucher/download tandem offering. You'd better believe that we'll be all over finding out more about the game as soon as we learn more. Until then, you need to check out the screens and video to see what we mean.
Make no mistake, this is a game aimed squarely at the Pokemon crowd, but where Nintendo's cash cow has settled into shall we say... familiar territory over the years, the augmented reality functions of what Spanish developer Novarama Technology takes the basic concept and injects it with a serious dose of far-flung tech.
The idea is simple: hidden all over your house right now are Invizimals, invisible animals discovered by Sony scientists that can only be seen with the PSP's camera (which will ship with every copy of the game). By following a pulsing beacon, you can find the critters, lay down a little cardboard trap, and then perform basic functions like tickling them or slamming them down into the trap to capture them, at which point you can then have them square off against other Invizimals owners. Like we said, it's basically next-gen Pokemon. Proper next-gen, not just new whiz-bang visuals.
Gimmick or no, the concept has been surprisingly nurtured. The PSP camera can be used for a variety of tasks, from summoning a lightning storm by creating a "rain cloud" with the shadow of your hand to calling in a meteor strike that will hit in the center of where you're aiming to blowing in the microphone on the camera to cause a snowstorm. That these critters are hidden all over the house (on, say, a red couch, but a specific shade of red) means that Novarama is really playing with the idea of "discovering" hidden pets using things like time of day and specific shapes. At one point, they showed off a huge version of a creature thanks to a massive trap laid on their office floor. It would seem the only limit to the size of the things is size of the trap, and skyscraper-tall offerings are as simple as making a big enough square to realize them on.
More than Eye ofJudgment, though, Invizimals is a full-fledged game, meaning there's a story, and the game has definite RPG elements. By battling with other critters (you can map their special attacks to the d-pad and unleash them while squaring off against other PSP owners wirelessly in Ad Hoc and Infrastructure), you'll collect experience in the form of sparks which in turn lets them level up and, eventually, evolve into more powerful forms with more oomph and different skills.
What's really cool about the technology is that it really is augmented reality, with all the gimmicky bells and whistles therein. Invizimals will react to shouts, will respond to being poked and prodded with your finger, rotate properly when they're on a trap and are turned or tilted, and honestly function exactly as you'd expect something to that was virtually "there." It's astonishingly cool tech, and something that, at least for us, feels far more interesting than playing through yet another set of Pokemon games (the 100+ creatures in this one come on just a single UMD). Oh yes, we went there -- and we'll be going straight to our PSPs to play the game if and when it makes a Stateside arrival.
That, along with the fact that the PSP go uses a completely different set of ports, are the two biggest hurdles for US players right now. The game has a full go-ahead in Europe where it's being made, but SCEA has yet to lock down a release date on this side of the pond, and Novarama is currently fiddling with some ideas behind getting the go to... uh... go with a new PSP camera to facilitate things -- not to mention selling the needed trap and the software as some kind of retail voucher/download tandem offering. You'd better believe that we'll be all over finding out more about the game as soon as we learn more. Until then, you need to check out the screens and video to see what we mean.
