PS3 Games Review

TV Superstars is an exploration of the world of the manufactured star, where catchphrases, affectations, and empty theatrics serve that sticky philosophy--even you can be a star! Yes, you!--found in so many reality TV shows. This game could almost be a telling satire of the modern predicament, but sadly there is no irony behind the controller as you learn to correctly apply makeup, mix paint, stir ingredients, and shoot paintball guns in a series of reality TV-style showdowns. When it works properly, the gameplay is fun and engaging, but this enjoyment is often interrupted by the game's one-dimensional context and features that don't work as they should.

Though the context of TV reality shows makes good fodder for some entertaining minigames, the overall premise is a little too friendly with the perils and pitfalls of fame. The feeble attempt at a linear story is nothing more than a series of slow-loading vignettes that show your progression from fame-seeking desperado to catty socialite. Situations where you must record a commercial by performing a series of consecutive moves with the controller (move left and right, look up and down, swing around!) to match your avatar's onscreen movement and endorse a particular product offer an interesting change of scene, but the wanton abandonment with which you associate your face with toilet bowl cleaner feels mildly cynical. This underscores the will-do-anything-for-fame attitude that pervades the game. The fashion reality show also revels in the same shallow endeavors of that field: putting on make-up, walking down the catwalk and swinging the Move controller in time with your hips, and stripping off to your underwear for numerous clothing changes. Again, the minigames can provide some lighthearted entertainment, but the celebration of vanity here is slightly offputting, particularly during the make-up minigames, which suffer from the aforementioned accuracy issues when required to paint colours within small areas on the screen, and often result in your avatar looking more like The Joker in The Dark Knight than a model.

It's only when playing with a friend (or three in this case, if you like) that these shortcomings become easier to ignore, at least for a while. You can play the game from the start with other players, taking turns to complete the minigame challenges and receiving individual fame points and celebrity status. Apart from being more fun, multiplayer also shifts the focus from trying to beat your own score all the time to a more social experience, where the sense of competition is real. You can also pause the game at any time and return to the green room to add more players.

TV Superstars is best enjoyed with a dose of perspective. Its attempt to capture the zeitgeist is, for the most part, done well. If the game had a less overbearing agenda, and worked properly where it was supposed to, it would be possible to completely overlook its cursory context and concentrate on the gameplay, which is reasonably enjoyable thanks to the variety of minigames designed to stretch the Move's capabiliti