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Let's face it, unless you want to go the Kim Kardashian route, chances are pretty good that you'll never get to star in a movie. Well, that was the case, but now there's another option: Yoostar 2 for the PS3 and Xbox 360. The game lets you act out a scene from a famous movie and then replaces the original actor (or actress) with your award-winning performance. Brett Bates and I were able to spend some hands-on time with the game the other day, and we found it to be an interesting experience, though not without some significant caveats.
Yoostar 2 is best described as “karaoke with movies.” The game includes some eighty scenes from classic (and not-so-classic) movies and television shows like 300, Along Came Polly, The Terminator, The Godfather, Kick-Ass, Tropic Thunder, The Wizard of Oz, Mad Men, Zoolander, Forrest Gump, and more. The clips are generally (but not always) some of the more-memorable scenes from the movie, and are typically around a minute long.
There are options to read the script or ad-lib; you can usually pick from two actors from any given scene; or if you just feel like screwing around, there are a number of moving and static backdrops that you can perform in front of. But you probably don't care about that stuff right now, so let's get to the “making you a star” part of the game.
With the Microsoft Kinect you simply stand in front of the camera and get your Matt Damon on. On the PlayStation 3 you must take a picture of the room without you in it before you start your scene. Other than the different ways in which they get you started, both games are essentially identical.
Once the scene starts your lines are displayed onscreen with a karaoke-style meter that lets you know when it's your turn to speak. Your job is to read the lines on time with enthusiasm, while occasionally moving a bit or reacting to what your onscreen partner says or does. It sounds simple, but trust me, it takes quite a bit of practice to get your performances up to the “as good as a porn star” level.
Once your scene is over, it's simultaneously played back and judged by the computer. If you'd like to share your cringe-worthy performance with the world, you can upload the video, which will then be moderated and posted live on the Yoostar site. Playing the game couldn't be easier, and the rapid pacing is ideal for parties.
It all sounds great…in theory. Unfortunately, the preview build has two significant issues: one technical and the other content related. Yoostar 2 requires a very specific lighting arrangement to accurately capture your movement. I spent two hours trying to get the setup just right, but no matter what I did the game was unable to properly separate me from the background. The results were so bad that I elected not to post any clips in this story out of respect to the developer and the fact that this is a work-in-progress.
Now, it's entirely possible that I'm just dumb and can't get it right, but even under what I presume to be optimal conditions of the demo hosted by the developer, the game wasn't able to track performers very well. In particular, the Xbox 360 had an extremely difficult time discerning a person's hair, and it ended up flickering in and out during the scenes. We were told that it “helps to have blond hair,” (just like a real actor/actress, I guess), but dying their hair isn't something most people are willing to do for a game. Keep in mind, this is still a work-in-progress so there's a chance that this problem could be a non-issue by the game's March release date.*
The game's other significant issue (in my eyes) is its limited library of clips. 80 scenes might seem like a lot at first, but when they're only about a minute long, it's much less impressive. Even more problematic is that many of the scenes from the available movies either aren't much fun to reenact, or simply aren't the best scenes from the movie. The clip from Mad Men has no context, is completely unmemorable, and doesn't even feature Don Draper. The scene from Forrest Gump isn't Bubba talking about shrimp, Forrest running, Forrest talking about Jenny, Forrest on TV, Gump with the drill sergeant, or Forrest talking about life and chocolates – it's just him sitting on a bench telling a couple that he owns Bubba Gump shrimp. The best part of a movie is certainly open to conjecture, but both Brett and I felt that some of the choices were somewhat lacking. This issue is seemingly rectified by the game's online store, which will have somewhere between 100-200 scenes at launch, but you have to pay for those, so you're looking at a significant expenditure to get the clips you want.
I find Yoostar 2 to be a fascinating bit of technology, but as of now, it has a way to go before it reaches its potential. Those of you who have groups of friends that can endlessly quote movies might want to keep an eye on this game, though, because the developers seem to be keen to deliver a lot of content and create a bustling community of wannabe stars.
* I will contact the developer and endeavor to get these technical problems ironed out. If I'm able to do so, I will post some Oscar-worthy examples of my acting. Stay tuned.