Super Rub-a-Dub?!
Killa didn't quite believe me when I told him that there was a "rubber-duck-based" game on PSN for download and that I had grabbed the demo. "No," he said, "You're confused. That's the PS3 tech demo; it's not a game."
"It's a game, yo!" I eloquently insisted. A little research turned up an interesting back story: At E3 in 2000, Sony used the "ducks demo" to display the awesome power of the PS2, specifically it's capacity for rendering water and the physics of the single rubber duck that interacted realistically with said water. In 2005, a new ducks demo was shown for the PS3 that featured, among other things, many rubber ducks in the tub to demonstrate the PS3's ability to handle the advanced physics of so many objects interacting. Apparently, someone realized that Sony was missing out on a golden money-making opportunity and subsequently turned the demo into a game (available on PSN for $6.99), and then produced a demo of the game (available for free on PSN).
The game makes use of the sixaxis's tilt function so that play requires no button-pressing at all. You start with a rubber duckie in a bathtub. Tilting the controller tilts the tub, causing the duck to move around. The goal is to (A) Collect smaller rubber ducks from around the tub (which then paddle along behind the main duck in a chain); and (B) get the baby duckies safely to the exit, without (I) jumping out of the tub; or (II) being eaten by deadly, deadly bathtub sharks. Bonus points are awarded for beating a goal time and for getting the longest string of ducklings to the goal at the same time (e.g., picking up ten ducklings and dropping them off at the exit will result in more points than picking up five, dropping them off, and then collecting the other five).After your performance on a particular tub (level) is scored, the game will either praise you (e.g., "You Quacked It!") or chastize you (e.g., "Featherbrain!") based on your score. The demo includes five different tubs that can be played solo; the full version includes sixty tubs, supports up to four players, and features online leaderboards with viewable replays of the most skillful rub-a-dubbing. Killa and I played through the five demo tubs several times, learning new tricks and trying to beat our best scores. Here's a tip: "Popping" the tub (rapidly jerking the sixasis upward to make your duck "jump") can flip sharks onto their backs, rendering them temporarily harmless---but it can send your ducklings flying out of the tub, too, if you're not careful!
The controls are intuitive, the graphics are colorful and friendly, and the cute duckies have a broad appeal. I had some difficulty getting into the tilt controls of previous PSN darling flOw, but I had no such problems with Super Rub-a-Dub. This is the game that I'm going to have my non-gamer friends play when they come over to visit. I imagine that this cuddly bathtime adventure could bring a whole lot of hesitant would-be gamers over to the dark side.
2 comments:
Gee, fun game, intuitive motion sensing controls, I think I've heard of a system that does this before...
Props for Sony finally getting a clue and all, and for $7, too. Too bad most people won't hear about this game though.
Billiant!
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