You may not have any idea what Yoostar is. I know I didn’t initially, because of my general apathy towards Kinect games. Yoostar 2 debuted last year with an interesting conceit for social, casual gaming. The concept is that using Kinect players can act out myriad famous movie scenes on a virtual green screen. From there, Yoostar inserts your voice, face, and body into the scene. When the scene plays back the game scores you on your mimicry of the actor or actress you are replicating. This moment is also where the ‘magic’ of Kinect games happens. Yoostar is meant to be played with a group of friends, and naturally while your scene is being played back, you are the target of all your friends mockery. This was replicated in my demo of Yoostar on MTV to hilarious effect.
The game was introduced to me by Yoostar’s Director of Product Development Shawn Rosen. His enthusiasm from the product was evident. He launched into a spot on Marlon Brando during our demo, channeling his inner Italian while delivering the classic “Make him an offer he can’t refuse” line from The Godfather. The scene played back and there was Shawn’s face and form hazily painted over the place Don Corleone should have occupied. It was hard to stifle a laugh as Shawn’s form filled out the spot of a legend.
From there we moved on to the upcoming Yoostar on MTV. I was considerably less excited about this, as I never watch MTV and never have been interested in their properties. The idea is the same as in Yoostar in the Movies, but instead of Don Corleone you supplant Snooki and the rest of the Jersey Shore crew. Included are addition MTV hits like Laguna Beach and others about whose existence I was clueless up to this point. It’s clear that I may not be part of the target audience for Yoostar on MTV, but it is just as obvious that this game is pouring on the fan service for the folks who would be interested in the content.
Reservations about MTV aside I tried out a scene from Jersey Shore. Now let me paint you a picture. My skin color is what I would favorably call Irish Pink (Crayola hit me up,) I’m slightly overweight, and I talk like I graduated from middle school. That is to say, I’d fit in with the Jersey Shore crew like Jason Statham in a romantic comedy. I had literally no experience with the franchise before my Yoostar demo and I botched my lines pretty badly. But you know what? It was fun. I laughed, I smiled, and I’m as hardcore a gamer as they come.
Now that we’ve established that the game has a solid concept and is fun to play, a larger question loomed. Could I see myself buying it? The answer to that is no, but I would love to play it in a large group setting. For a casual or hardcore gamer with that usage scenario (or perhaps a whole family), is Yoostar on MTV a solid bet? Yes, because let’s be honest, you would laugh your ass off at your Dad’s rendition of Pauly D. Yoostar’s whole design is built around social play, and zeroes in on the one thing that makes games like Dance Central and Guitar Hero so much fun. It gives you the avenue to make fun of your friends and involve your family or significant other in your favorite hobby. So as much as we dismiss casual games we still end up playing them, we occasionally end up buying, and more often than not we end up having fun with them.
